From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern, #1)

Anne McCaffrey

Start date: April 1, 2013

Finish date: May 1, 2013

Discussion: 2013 Reads

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2013 Reads

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May 23, 2009 Brad rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, sci-fantasy

Lately I have been noticing a recurring observation about the quality of first books in various series. There seems to be a growing consensus in reviews that the first book of a series, particularly if it is the first book published by an author, is inherently weak because the author is "learning their craft."

It seems to be both an excuse for what is perceived as poor quality and an excuse for going on in the series despite being underwhelmed by the opener.

I had this in mind as I began reading ...more

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Feb 13, 2012 RogueHireling rated it liked it

This was the February selection for Geek Girls Book Club and one of my all time favorite books as a teenager. This entire series had an incredible impact on me and was one of the reasons I have so much love for Sci Fi and Fantasy literature.

But that was almost twenty years ago and reading this as an adult shines a rather different light on the book. Turns out that this book is just not very good. All I can figure is that my teenage hormones clouded my memory or impaired my cognitive ability.

Oh This was the February selection for Geek Girls Book Club and one of my all time favorite books as a teenager. This entire series had an incredible impact on me and was one of the reasons I have so much love for Sci Fi and Fantasy literature.

But that was almost twenty years ago and reading this as an adult shines a rather different light on the book. Turns out that this book is just not very good. All I can figure is that my teenage hormones clouded my memory or impaired my cognitive ability.

Oh it’s not all bad. The story is quite entertaining and the world is incredibly compelling. What’s not too like about psychic dragons for companions? Guess I will always be a dragon girl.

And though the main female character is feisty and does succeed in the end, she is not treated very well. Much of her drive and fire is labeled as childish and undermined as being untrustworthy. Its not quite uncalled for, she is rather bratty, but her male counterpart does nothing to help guide her or include her in his confidences.

Then of course there is the constant violence he uses against her, as well as the rape. The author completely fails to address these issues and the emotional scarring they leave, nor does she give us a healing or rebuilding of trust. Actually very little emotional connection to characters is created throughout the book.

To top it all off, the writing is rather terrible. It is so very dated, incredibly uninviting, and stilted. The writing style actually managed to hamper my enjoyment of the story.

Despite all this evidence, I can’t bring myself to not like it. It was just too instrumental of a book in my formative years for me to throw it too the wolves. And though I question my teenage self somewhat, I found the book not terrible enough to quench the nostalgic love that I had for it.

And then it hits me. Embarassing though it may be, it rings too true to be ignored - Dragonflight was my Twilight. Oh, you young twilighters have some embarrassment to look forward too. =P

Full review here: http://www.tokenfemalegamer.com/Wordp... ...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Tapley rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy-research, magical-beasts

The Dragonriders of Pern series is the benchmark series for dragon fiction, which is why I read this. I think I would have liked it better had I read it when I was younger. As an experienced reader of science ficton and fantasy I found it to be unsophisticated. Which actually isn't surprising - this book is copyrighted 1968 - when the genre itself was unsophisticated.

I thought the characters and interpersonal relationships, specifically Lessa and F'lar were clumsily handled. Being used to epic f ...more

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