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DF: The Kind of thing I would Have Liked When I was Twelve
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Daran wrote: "I finished it. It was not easy. I've actively avoided reading for the past month. I really wanted to finish this though. Pern is undeniably of historic value, and I felt I should make a study o..."Thank you, Daran. Your comments summed up my feelings pretty accurately. While I have dissed Anne McCaffrey a bit in these pages, she does come up with some very cool ideas for worlds both in fantasy and science fiction.
Exactly what I thought when I was reading it! I really would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in my teenage years.I actually read one of the Pern short stories before I got interested in reading Dragonflight. I definitely liked the short story "Runner of Pern" better.
I did love it when I was twelve. It's odd to go back now, and see that all those 'adults' in this books are so young to me now...
I feel like I should have liked this book way more than I actually did. It could have been a few factors, such as the copy I was reading was so yellow and brittle I sneezed when I turned a page. It could have been the names. I really dislike when all of the characters have unique names that ALL start with the same letter and I can't keep them straight (Fax, F'Lar, etc). What I LOVED about the book was the dragonology. Seriously, when the dragons were "talking" the humor came out and I couldn't turn pages fast enough. I liked Lessa too, despite the fact that she is really devoid of personality except to piss F'lar off. And so much politics! I think this may be the real drag for me in High Fantasy. So many council meetings. Yawn. So, overall, I thought it kind of failed as a romance, failed as a riveting adventure story, succeeded in being unlike anything I've ever read before, and didn't convince me to read 19 more volumes.
After reading the other reviews, I agree that I probably would have liked this better if I were 12.
Oddly i didn't like it when i was 12. I felt at the time that it didn't hold up to more modern works. But as an adult i think i could appreciate it for what it is rather then condemning it for what it lacked.
Interesting perspective, Christopher.Personally, I have been struggling with the last hundred or so pages of the book, and cannot find much motivation to continue, and I believe I would have felt exactly the same when I was 12. The romance would not in any way have satisfied the 12 year old me, since feelings are seldom discussed, the adventure is not particularly riveting, and aside from the bond between Leesa and the watch-weir, which I utterly adored, I haven't really felt the connection we are told exists between the riders and their dragons. At 12, I think I would probably have lemmed it.
Ruth wrote: "Interesting perspective, Christopher.Personally, I have been struggling with the last hundred or so pages of the book, and cannot find much motivation to continue, and I believe I would have felt..."
What's really interesting is I did lemm it around that age. I didn't hate it nearly as much now as I did then.
I read The White Dragon when I was 12 (or so) and that one hooked me on the series. I do remember being disappointed about what were to me "prequels" given that introduction. They weren't bad, but at that point I really thought Jaxom was the hero of the series and just wanted more of his story. On some level, I think I still do think of the Pern novels in that context.I wonder what that experience would be like for an adult....
I liked it now, I know I would have liked it then-and after I finished it I gave it to my 13 year old-and he liked it also :P I did kind of take it with a grain of salt, knowing it's considered YA-I didn't expect to much depth.
Daran wrote: "I finished it. It was not easy. I've actively avoided reading for the past month. I really wanted to finish this though. Pern is undeniably of historic value, and I felt I should make a study o..."Pretty much sums up how I felt when I read it.
At the time I'd just graduated from college, had spent my high school years reading a lot of Heinlein, Asimov, and Tolkien. For me, McCaffrey's writing would have been something that I would have enjoyed during middle school...Something on the level of a Narnia.
I read this when I was about 12, so it was great and I quickly read all the others. Looking at it now, its flaws are much more obvious, but it's still entertaining, easy to read and full of life and brio.It is fair to say, though, that the later books are better.
It's been fun to read this again. I first read it as a teenager in high school, and at that age and time (the late 70s) it filled a need. It definitely reads as YA to me now, and I agree with others that the characters are a bit flat. If I remember correctly, the writing improves over the course of the series...but I don't think I'm going to try to re-live my childhood and slog through all of them again. Love the premise, love the world, but I need more depth and less drama (as in histrionics and immature behavior) in my fictional characters. It was fun to re-visit some early memories, but I think I'll move along.
I think histrionics is a good word to describe the difficulty I had with the dialog, and characters.
Very well said Daran, I feel the same way.Kwinks wrote: "I really dislike when all of the characters have unique names that ALL start with the same letter and I can't keep them straight (Fax, F'Lar, etc)..."
YES! I had the same problem. Especially F'lar and F'nor. They both begin and end with the same letter, are both dragonmen, and they shared a lot of scenes; I had trouble remembering which name belong to which character. I wasn't sure if this was because I was listening to the audio book or not. I thought that maybe if I had read the book it might have been easier to keep them straight. I find it oddly reassuring that someone who did read the book had the same issue,..at least I didn't lesson the experience by going the audio route.
Rob wrote: "Very well said Daran, I feel the same way.Kwinks wrote: "I really dislike when all of the characters have unique names that ALL start with the same letter and I can't keep them straight (Fax, F'L..."
Heh, I had early editions where, likely due to editing mistakes, some of the names changed in the middle of the story. That was hard to get used to.
My conclusion is: This is the kind of thing I would have liked when I was twelve. The world is cool. The characters are mostly uninteresting. And the pacing is such that every chapter tells you that the book is made up of novellas, that were made up of short stories.
Still, the world is very cool. When I was younger (when fantasy was younger for that matter) a cool world was of paramount importance. As long as a story gave you an novel head space it filled the bill. But as I (and fantasy for that matter) got older, I needed more character and story to draw me into the world, and this doesn't have that. I can see, though, why those who came to these stories when they were younger would like them. Who wouldn't want to have a dragon as a friend and companion?
A lot of the other threads have focused on the social issues of the novel, and honestly I don't really have a problem with them. If I can get through Lovecraft and Howard, I can breeze through this. It was the clunky prose, and uneven pacing that made reading this a challenge.
At least now I can say I've read a Pern book. And I may try something written later to see if it gets better. But this book, like The Worm Ouroboros, is getting filed under historically important, but rather dull. Though I may recommend it to my niece when she turns twelve.