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.

Sky Dragons by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

Overall, Sky Dragons makes a nice change of narrative from following Fiona and Lorana for two books. It was also a lot more fun, as there wasn’t as much doom and gloom hanging over everything. As usual with these last couple (chronologically) books, there is some filling in of the overall Pern narrative through the use of time travel.

Book One: Sky Dragons

I’m actually really enjoying Xhinna, here. She faded fairly quickly into the background during the last two books, especially given her absence from Igen. But here, she seems to be flourishing. I do think it’s a little odd that saving Pern seems to be on her shoulders. I get being the first female Blue rider and apparently needing to prove herself in that regard, but I’m still not sure why saving Pern seemed to end up being Xhinna’s responsibility. Gotta theme those female main characters, apparently.

Okay, so… how’d the cats end up on the islands, exactly? Given where the islands are and that Tuberman’s cats would have been on the Southern Continent… this just doesn’t make sense. This is not explained, but the cats come in handy (no, I will not refer to them as Mrreows) so I guess we’ll just hand-wave that.

I really enjoy Jirana. She’s a lot more plucky and less wispy than a lot of other female-child-seers tend to be.

I was a little put off, late in this part of the book, by how much of the book went by in a play-by-play of the time. Just seemed like a lot of time to spend directly in the action vs how much time needed to elapse for Sky Dragons to match up with the rest of the timeline. Not that there weren’t little time-jumps, but they didn’t seem long enough.

Book Two: The Sky Dragons

Back to business as usual for the Weyrfolk, only, ya know, on an island. Not gonna lie, my eyes were glazing over again when the numbers and logistics came back into the mix. However, hearing about how D’gan dealt with coming back to Telgar was rather amusing.

In Conclusion

Sky Dragons was a nice change of pace, while still sticking to the "gotta save Pern via judicious time travelling" thing that last two-three books (depending on what order you're reading in) have had. I very much liked that this mainly stuck to the one story line, even if I had been a little worried about its length vs the length of the book itself. It was nice not to be overly bored with logistics for once, as well. They were worked in a lot better this time, in my opinion. Definitely a solid Pern entry.

Favorite Lines

"Adults are only grown-up children, after all." - Xhinna

"Girls, as you may have noticed, are dangerous." - R'ney

Dragon's Time by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

I can’t pinpoint what made Dragon’s Time so much better than Dragongirl, but pacing is a big part of this. The pacing was so, so much better. I practically flew through Dragon’s Time.

The time travel is very heavy here, but mostly well done. Lorana’s adventures through time were alright. I think the concept of a Beacon is interesting. Lorana was definitely more relatable here. I particularly liked her first little thing with Tenniz. And “seeing” her be at least somewhat in space was interesting. It was also really obvious to me that F’jian was doing a “Time Traveler’s Wife” kind of thing, which was fairly sweet. Terin’s initial reaction to it was super understandable.

There also wasn’t the dire sort of feeling that Dragongirl had about the state of the Dragons. We didn’t get, or need, up-to-the-moment updates about how many dragons were left. The worry was still there, just not nearly as oppressive this time.

I do like that we get some dragon-switching. It’s an interesting concept, especially in light of the more open attitude Fiona and Telgar Weyr have been promoting.

The last third of the book honestly had me confused. I don’t usually rely on maps, but I wish the islands were included. I guess that’s regarded as a spoiler, which is why the map didn’t appear until after the last chapter. I had a hard time visualizing where the heck Fiona and them were. I would talk more about the goings on there, but I do feel like that’s a lot more of a spoiler.

But anyway, Dragon’s Time was definitely a lot more enjoyable than Dragongirl. That’s the main feeling I’m left with. I’m also relieved, because I do want to enjoy my time reading and rereading Pern.

I've Done It Again!

I'm not re-upping my goal again this year. Just gonna see how many I get through for the rest of the year in a chill manner.

Dragongirl by Todd McCaffrey

Dragongirl falls squarely into the category of "Books I Really Should Have Just DNF'd." It is truly the most boring Pern book I have ever read. The only reason it didn't end up in the DNF Pile was because I'm waiting for the next batch of Pern books to arrive. I am so very, very over the repetitious, uninteresting style Todd McCaffrey has adopted for telling this story. Seriously, my eyes should not glaze over while reading about how the dragons of Pern are in peril... again. I should not be over that, either... and yet... so over it.

Probably the only thing I liked about Dragongirl was the Polycule of Fiona, Kindan, Lorana, and T'mar. I like that it exists. More Poly representation is good. I'm did not, however, need to know the opinion of almost every Weyrwoman on Pern on the existence of said Polycule, but Fiona just seems to keep bringing it up at every opportunity. I mean, yes, it was incredibly weird how the whole thing came about... bordering on problematic, really... but I don't see why she felt the need to discuss it with every Weyrwoman she encountered.

There were also a couple of severe character assassinations here, in my opinion. Lorana went from "Reluctant Savior of Pern" to "Pregnant and Really Worried About It" to... well... spoiler spoiler spoiler. Kindan was severely one-note here. Reluctant Weyrling Master who keeps not Impressing and is just mad about it. I also found it really, deeply weird that Kindan is/was apparently so hung-up on Fiona's long-dead sister that he mistook Fiona for her and still thinks about her... That was barely a relationship and she's been dead for at least 12 years. I'm sorry, what?

Uh... let's see... There were also two pretty identical scenes of M'tal fighting Thread over Keroon. Apparently the wind being messy the first time did not stick in their heads for the second time. Nuella is barely a blip here, even though she really should have been at least slightly more involved. Apparently we're still not including the Wherhold in big, Pern-wide meetings concerning Thread despite Fiona having been close with Nuella previously and knowing how important Watch-Whers are, actually. And just to bring home how really mundane and in the weeds of running a Weyr Dragongirl got... one of the last discussions of the book was Fiona and T'mar discussing moving to the other side of Telgar's bowl. Seriously. Just a discussion about moving house.

I'm really dedicated to reading the Pern series all the way through, at least once. I want to see what I missed out on the first go-through and how the timeline goes. However, if any more of the books are like this, that's going out the window. Dragongirl was just dull for most of the "run time." Again, I should probably care that the dragons are in peril again, but I was driven into not caring at all by how many times it was brought up hopelessly and in the most boring manner possible here. Oh, and Dragongirl does another thing I hate: it doesn't really end, so much a peter out into an apparent, uninteresting cliff-hanger. So.. yeah.

Dragonheart by Todd McCaffrey

Dragonheart is honestly the slowest Pern book I've read to date. The absolute minutiae of Weyr life is explored here, along with the challenges of "timing it" through three years at an otherwise abandoned Weyr. By the end, I was reading every other page and missed nothing. Just so... much... superfluous... detail... and the tantalizing stuff isn't even explained!!

So, Dragonheart does start out during the Dragon Plague. However, since everything interesting about the Dragon Plague is happening over at Benden, instead of Fort, there's nothing out of the ordinary going on. Just day-to-day Weyr stuff and Fiona getting accustomed to it. Cut to the "timing it" portion of the story and it's more of the same, only with Fiona as The Weyrwoman rather than the youngest. Fiona's not a bad character, but this storyline just goes on forever. The pacing is horrendous.

Also, the "timing it" is not at all a spoiler if you've read any of the previous Pern books in the chronology. Just the way Fiona and her fellow Weyrlings act... it's really obvious what's causing it. Especially with the length of time it affects them for. I'm honestly over "timing it" basically being the story, especially with it being as uninteresting as it was in this book.

I did enjoy parts of Dragonheart. Bright spots included the Traders and Nuella. I kind of liked getting a bit of alternate cultures being explained. A good chunk of my Pern experience has been in and around Benden Weyr, so finding out that Igen was definitely more Southern in climate and culture was nice. Kind of would have liked to see Igen Weyr at it's prime, though not under D'gan... but that's neither here nor there. Technically, the "culture" bits were centered around the food and switching up sleep schedules, so it wasn't that deep per-say... but yeah. Nuella continues to be a delight. I've enjoyed her character from the get-go.

But anyway, I'm very glad to be done with Dragonheart. It wasn't exactly bad or badly written, just tedious.

Favorite Line

"Every day is a test," Cisca replied soberly. "But we'll never learn new ways of doing things if we insist on telling everyone what they should be doing."

Dragon Harper by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

Dragon Harper feels like it probably hit harder thanks to COVID. The primary story, after getting through the teenage drama part, is about a Flu Epidemic (Pandemic?) and how that's dealt with... which is, ya know, not super great given the current level of technology the Pernese are dealing with. I kind of knew what was coming, given that part of Dragonsblood takes place after Dragon Harper, but it still hit rather harder than I was expecting once I'd made the connection.

Okay, so backing up a little bit, the teenage drama parts of Dragon Harper had me rolling my eyes some. I'm just well over the teens and their melodramatic love stories at this point in my life, I think. Also, the duel thing. Kindan gets a sevenday of training to actually do the duel and I was wondering the whole time whether the Harpers also gave Vaxoram training for it. I don't think so and that whole situation just made me kinda mad. Stinks of favoritism toward Kindan. I know everyone knows Vaxoram is a bully and the agressor, but... yeah... didn't like that whole situation. Kindan also felt very Gary-Stu-ish during that whole incident.

I also wasn't a fan of Koriana's. She just seemed rather flat as a character to me. It was very clear she was going to be Kindan's love interest from the moment she Impressed the gold fire lizard and he Impressed the bronze. Other than that... much "meh" in her direction.

Anyway, back to the "Plague," as they dubbed it. Definitely felt true to life in a time period similar to what the Pernese are dealing with. Gotta love the complete loss of technology leading to things being much worse than they could have been. I do like that masks were thought of, although too late for a lot of people, obviously. My brain still can't quite comprehend the actual death toll. The numbers are just too high.

I feel like the time-travel aspect of the dragons abilities gets used alot for something that's not really supposed to be bandied about as one of their abilities. It's not exactly a bad thing, just seems to get used in just about every book so far. I did like the way it was used here and the way the dragonriders were able to help without exposing themselves to infection.

There were a few moments that had me in tears. Like, ugly crying, had to put the book down kind of tears. I won't spoil which moments, but they were there. Definitely a pleasant step up from how I felt next to nothing for any of the characters in Dragon's Fire.

So yeah, Dragon Harper was really good. I would have finished it in a day if I hadn't had life happening. The story's good, the pacing's good, the characters are alright... I find these characters don't exactly stand out vividly to me as ones from other books (Pern or otherwise), but they're at least recognizable. Dragon Harper is my favorite of the Pern books so far (chronologically, anyway).

Dragon's Fire by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

Dragon's Fire is honestly the worst Pern book I've read so far. The antagonists are one-note, most of the characters aren't even likeable, and the story is honestly just boring. The main point, it seems, is to explain the differences in Firestone and how the safe stuff came to be mined as opposed to the more unstable version... and how they figured out the Shunned problem.

I kind of liked getting some "behind the scenes" stuff at Camp Natalon that synchs up with the events of Dragon's Kin. Knowing that Zist had some more going on than just Nuella's lessons. Honestly, Pellar's story toward the beginning of "Book One" was the most engaging part of the book.

I found the rest of the book very disjointed. Too many POVs and too many absolutely horrible characters. Horrible in their personalities, although they also didn't feel very rounded, either. I'm really not sure how D'gan ever became a dragonrider. I would have thought the dragons would be better judges of character, but I guess not. Tenim is one note as all get-out. He's just greedy and that's it. And Tarik... still a horrible human-being. Makes sense that he was Shunned. Oh, and Moran... he's really just super flawed and not fleshed out nearly at all. Like, kind of good for him, taking in strays, but he largely throws their care onto Hala so... eh. Just too much absolute nonsense, in my opinion.

I honestly feel like I could have skipped Dragon's Fire in my chronological reread and not missed anything.

Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey

The story of Kindan and Nuella. I liked it well enough and it was a quick read. I learned an awful lot about coal mining that I didn't know before. I also don't really have a lot of feelings about Dragon's Kin. It was an okay story with an obvious antagonist who didn't really end up doing that much or really participating in the story.

Dragon's Kin was very slice-of-life. Kindan's story took up the majority of the book, while sprinkling in bits of Nuella throughout. Also, due to the order in which I'm reading the Pern books, I was kind of like "well, this thing with the watch-wher doesn't last all that long and I vaguely remember Nuella having more to do with watch-whers so... let's just see where this goes." I did not remember anything from my first read, though.

It was a little surprising and heart-breaking to know that any knowledge the Pernese might have had about watch-whers was completely lost between when Wind Blossom created them and the "present" of Dragon's Kin. I know they lost a great deal of information when the computers ultimately went down, but I also feel like watch-whers and their care should have been more important than I guess they are. It also kind of hurts to know their original purpose and "see" them chained up as they often are. Just thoroughly disheartened by the loss of important information... though not completely surprised... Roman concrete and all.

Dragon's Kin is definitely a more intimate story than the last few Pern books. I don't really think that's a bad thing, just different. 

In Other News

I have hit my recent goal and updated to 125.

Dragonsblood by Todd McCaffrey

Dragonsblood is a beautiful first outing for Todd McCaffrey. It truly feels completely connected to the rest of the Pern novels. Not only that, but the triumphant ending had me in tears. The overall story line is a little complicated and there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but it really makes the world feel lived-in.

I quite like Lorana as a character. She does kind of seem like an overly-cheerful type, but that's balanced by all the suffering the poor girl went through and goes through in this book. I feel, like her multi-dragon-hearing predecessors, Lorana would, and I guess does, make a good Weyrwoman. I am glad we get to know her some before she Impresses Arith.

Wind Blossom was nice to get to know outside of the small bits in Dragonsdawn. I feel for her. Generational trauma combined with the Watch-Wher stuff could not have been easy for her. Not to mention trying to break herself of similarly traumatizing Emorra. It must have also been heart-wrenching for a healer like her to be faced with the decline in technology, as she was. I can't imagine having to go from having genetic manipulation capabilities to not even being able to synthesize antibiotics.

I honestly found the parts with D'gan extremely annoying, though they do eventually pan out plot-wise. I despise characters who are just so caught up in their own crap to the detriment of others, especially if they're supposed to be leading them. Like, sir, you're not even listening to your DRAGON when he tells you he's unwell. What. The. Fuck. Ugh. Thanks for being a despicable plot-point, though, I guess.

I'm also not going to lie, my eyes glazed over when the intricacies of Pernese DNA/PNA was discussed. That felt a little too in the weeds, but I also understand how it was necessary to explain just how different they are from the humans we're used to dealing with. Just got a little to hard Sci-Fi for my little brain to handle for a moment there. That said, the entire disease story line definitely hit different in 2024 than I imagine it did on my first read. COVID and all that. And worse, as it's the dragons affected and the human characters have little to nothing they can even do about it.

Dragonsblood is definitely a fantastic entry into the Pern lexicon.

Favorite Line

"A atarved stomach needs to learn to eat all over again." - K'tan