The Renegades of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

The Renegades of Pern made me realize that, unless there are very large deviations from the original text, I don’t enjoy reading of events that have already happened. Or at least, not in McCaffrey’s style. Because I’ve been reading in chronological order, there’s several instances in The Renegades of Pern where the story is re-tread. There was a retelling of Piemur’s arrival in Southern via Sharra, Thella’s version of Aramina’s recuse by Heth, and a good chunk of The White Dragon through Piemur’s eyes. It was alright, but I just read all that elsewhere.

That said, the rest of The Renegades of Pern was alright. I was honestly bored with the second half of Jayge and Aramina’s story, but did enjoy the ultimate ending. Thella was slightly compelling, until she went full-on revenge-girl. Like, I enjoyed that she was willing to strike out on her own and that she managed to mostly do it successfully… but then it was all “they have seen me, they must die” and that was just less fun.

Most of Piemur and Toric’s bits were re-treads of what happened during The White Dragon. That changed during the last few chapters, where more exploring of the Southern Continent happened. That part was interesting. I won’t go into specifics on that, but it was a continuation of Pern’s story that’s looking like a lot of fun.

Symphony for a Deadly Throne by E.J. Mellow

I quite enjoyed Symphony for a Deadly Throne. It was a very nice mix of adventure and romance, though most of it was in the romance category. There was a lot of back and forth between Zimri and Arabessa, though not exactly frustratingly so.

I say that, but I did spend a lot of time being incredibly angry with Zimri. Sir, you live in a kingdom where you know “Silent Oaths” and “Secret Stealers” are a thing and you feel the need to keep pressing Arabessa for hers. She kept TELLING YOU she needed time and basically couldn’t tell you anything else and you just had to keep pushing. Much “UGH!” about that whole mess.

I would like to know why Kativa’s parents under this time-crunch to get her married? Shouldn’t the betrothal be enough within the time frame they imposed? Especially given how things worked out… Just all seemed weird and very much a plot-contrivance.

Arabessa’s feelings about being the eldest child were incredibly realistic and relatable. Lord knows I’ve felt that same kind of pressure more than once. My sisters and I might not be Mousai, but having to care for them at various points in our lives was definitely a thing.

Symphony for a Deadly Throne was also a fitting ending to this trilogy. I’m satisfied with it.

Favorite Lines

"Perfection is a made-up construct. It is much like time: it cannot be held, and only fools would waste sands falling in an attempt to try." - Zimri/The Collector

“No one said anything about knives being allowed,” he protested. 

     “Knives are always allowed.” - Zimri/The Collector & Arabessa Bassette

Dragon's Code by Gigi McCaffrey

Really just not a fan of this at all. The stakes just aren’t there for me, especially after reading The White Dragon, which Dragon’s Code takes place during. I don’t think I’ve ever been that big a fan of Piemur’s, so having him as the POV character most of the time is just whatever. Dragon’s Code just isn’t inspiring me to pick it up half the time, so… DNFing.

A Gift of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey

My review is broken into pieces following each individual story in the order I read them in.

“Ever the Twain”: Interesting little story. I like Nian, but Neru was just kind of a blip of a character for me.

“Runner of Pern”: Actually really neat to get a look at an aspect of life on Pern that is vaguely mentioned but otherwise untouched by the overall narrative. I quite like Tenna. Her little romance with Haligon was rather obviously going go happen, but it was sweet.

“The Smallest Dragonboy”: I first read this story in sixth grade, I believe. It appeared in an English textbook. Pretty sure it was my introduction to Pern.
I’m honestly tired of the bully stories, especially ones where grievous bodily harm comes to the victim. This is one of those. And of course Keevan overcomes his injuries to Impress a bronze. Because of course he does.

“The Girl Who Heard Dragons”: Quite the little adventure. Nice to get a little more K’van.

Tom Kidd's artwork in this book is sketchy and completely in sepia tone. It works fairly well for the portraits, but a few of the landscapes just turned out muddy. Unfortunately the worst of these is the one of Heth running through the forest in "The Girl Who Heard Dragons."

The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

2018 First Read

This book is a ridiculous mix of absolutely nothing happening followed by spurts of ALL THE THINGS happening followed by more of nothing. The pace is ridiculous and it’s hard to get a good reading rhythm going. Not as good as Dragonflight and Dragonquest, which it’s lumped in with, but the boring parts are definitely worth pushing through to get to the more exciting bits.

2025 Reread

So, the thing about The White Dragon is: the pacing is all over the place. On this reread, I’m remembering why I DNF’d The White Dragon in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, the story is good and rewards reading, it’s just that it goes from an adventure to lots of talking to some more adventure to more talking to… you get the idea. And it’s not really until the last 100-or-so pages that the big, Pern-changing discoveries are made… but that would be telling. 🤫

Anyway… by far, the star of The White Dragon is the White Dragon himself: Ruth. Ruth really distinguishes himself over the course of the story, honestly showing more intelligence than even his parents. Ruth is also quite funny, at times. He’s indispensable as a fire lizard interpreter, too. There’s a constant worry about his sexuality, weirdly enough, that I found, well, really just weird. I guess for more sexual beings than myself, worrying about whether or not the “runt” dragon was ever going to mate is worthwhile, but… yeah. Felt weird to me.

I quite like Jaxom and “watching” him grow up. He and Sharra make a nice couple. I like her, too. She’s, I think, what I would have liked Mirrim to turn out like… which was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Mirrim’s descent into, basically a shrew personality-wise, wasn’t great. But hey, it takes all types to make a world.

So, yeah, The White Dragon is definitely worth the read, even if it admittedly took me a few tries to actually get through it. I will add that doing the reread was also a lot of waiting for things to happen. Just soldiering through the more boring parts to get to the fun or interesting parts. But definitely worth it. 

Random Continuity Error

So there's this whole part where people talk about Robinton not being able to sail... except that in The Masterharper of Pern, he does sail. Manages to keep him and his unmentioned wife afloat for the entirety of their sickness and the storm or whatever... but yeah, not mentioned in The White Dragon at all. Yay for publication retcons.

The Bone Ship's Wake by R.J. Barker

A spoiler-free review in three parts, just like the book itself.

Part I

Started out very cinematically. Really loved the first couple chapters. I liked seeing Tide Child from an outside perspective. “Liked” Meas’ chapter… ya know, as much as one can “like” descriptions of torture or whatever. It was fun seeing how much Joron has changed over all three books. He’s truly come into his own here.

Honestly, a good chunk of this dragged. The whole chase sequence was yawn inducing. I’ve been reading this at work and it took me days to get through this section. Probably how the crew of the Tide Child felt.

Part II

I’m not sure how I feel about this part. Meas is finally rescued. The greater plot pieces fall into place. Well-loved characters are lost. And I think Joron’s finally accepted the whole “Caller” thing.

There’s a lot of dealing with trauma, which I appreciate. It’s a lot.

Part III

Okay, the reveal of the keyshan flags got me. Teared/choked up some. Same with the final battle… or moments in it.

This last part is, again, a lot of waiting and planning and more waiting. The realities of life on a ship, where travel is relatively slow, actually, really, really set in here.

The final battle was interesting enough. The main magic of the series finally completely released to do what was foretold… alright, if somewhat vague as to what was actually happening. Made sense, as Joron rarely knew exactly what was happening, even with his own gift. Anyway, I’m satisfied with how this ended.

Favorite Lines

"...if you think you can dilute your pain in blood you are wrong. Blood will only feed it." - Garriya

"Terrible acts, Joron, they are often unthinking. We learn, and we get better. It is those who do not learn, or simply embrace and become inured to the terrible things we do that must be feared, and must be stopped." - Meas Gilbryn

In Other News

I've finished another OviPets project! This one is the first of my "Cafe Digi" line: Hot Cocoa.

The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern by Jody Lynn Nye

For any nerd who loves Pern and wants to know more about it in detail, The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern is the book for you. Do be warned, if you haven’t read through the series, there are spoilers for pretty much all of it in these pages. It also does read mostly like a text-book, so be aware of that.

I vaguely remember a bunch of info from this book, so I must have read it, or one of the other text-book-like Pern books when I was in college (that’s when I last tried to read a bunch of Pern books). I really liked a good number of the illustrations, especially those of specifically Pernese origin.

The main reason I’m reading this book ( ya know, other than loving Pern) is to review the short story, “Impression.” So here’s that:

A very sweet story. Really hammers home how Impression feels. F’lessan and Golanth are adorable. I kind of liked the little detail about the Candidates being barefoot during the Hatching. Little weird, but a bit of world-building I’d never even thought about. I also appreciate the description of Golanth’s hide.

My notes:

• The ships look quite interesting, based on the drawing of the Yokohama. Not at all what I ever pictured.
• Crawlers give me distinct alien vibes, though I cannot for the life of me remember the particular alien I’m remembering.
• Wherries remind me of gryphons.
• The grubs honestly look very silly… and not like any grubs I imagined. Too furry.
• This Wher illustration honestly looks like a very muscly man in a suit.
• I found the “Training and Fighting Dragons” chapter really neat. Todd Johnson/McCaffrey’s writing style is really on show here.
• Robinton’s retconned wife is not mentioned in the blurb about him… or rather, it’s said he never married.
• Harper sand-tables are neat!
• Well that’s a lovely little paragraph… “The Healercraft doesn’t have the technology to sustain defective humans. After twenty-five centuries on Pern, the race has been bred clean of most defects.” Uhm… gross.
• I like the little biographies/stories we get about rando Pernese people throughout this book. Makes the world feel more complete and lived-in.
• Wow, let’s pretty much word-for-word repeat how the buildings at Landing looked not even a whole page later…
• If you are ever interested in just how much information authors have about their worlds that will probably never make it into the books, I beg you to take a look at the list of Dragons and their Riders contained in this book. It’s a lot.

Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

So, here's the thing... the last few days have been... mind-boggling, to say the very least. For reference, I'm writing this on February 4th, 2025. Trump is president again and Elon Musk has taken over the Treasury Department illegally and these things have taken up a lot of my brain-space. Dragondrums was a little distraction between all the insanity and cat-pictures via social media. It was alright, overall.

I had the thought, upon finishing Dragondrums, that Piemur reminded me of Mags and Skif from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. All three are precocious, knowledge soaking, semi-spy trainees. Piemur less so, than Mags or Skif, but the way Robinton uses Piemur's skills is much the same.

My edition of Dragondrums included an introduction by Brandon Sanderson that had me thinking Piemur was going to spend a lot more time in the Southern jungle/forest than he did... so that was a little bit of a let-down. I think I spent more time wondering when that particular adventure was going to happen than I did actually paying loads of attention to the story.

But yeah, that's pretty much where my thoughts on Dragondrums end. It was entertaining enough, but not super thought-provoking. A nice combo of school-story and adventure novel.