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Book review: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon
Though I'm not sure this will be much of a review. There's also a bit of Dragonsdawn and Moreta mixed in there.
1. Dragonflight.
It's very obvious that she was still world-building while writing this, and also that she has a thing for "women are down-trodden, and no one cares". As in, the writer herself doesn't care, and thinks it's awesome for, say, her heroine to be beaten, raped and shaken by her hero (sex is only acceptable for women if they don't want it. At least until the hero has made them love them.).
However. HOWEVER. According to our hero it's the lack of a 'good' Weyrwoman that has destroyed the Weyr. So.
Women have no power. But it's their fault the world sucks.
You know what's sad? There are still dudes today who totally believe this fallacy.
Being shaken is apparently a sign of true love. Being raped? Awesome. F'lar actually thinks to himself at one point that continuing to have sex with Lessa is almost like rape. ALMOST? ALMOST?! McCaffrey apparently thinks women who want and/or like sex are evil evil evil harlots who must be shamed for their vaginas liking orgasms. The only acceptable heroine is one who is raped.
However, there's about as much sex in these books as in a PG movie. (which is embarrassing when one remembers thinking there was wildly explicit stuff going on. When one was eleven.)
You can always tell who the baddie will be in a Pern novel. She will like sex, and seduce every man in sight. And probably like kinky shit like pain or submission. She will also be thoughtless, selfish, and give no shits about anything but herself. Lesser female baddies will be fat and lazy.
If the baddie is a dude, he will have good reason for it: he will have lost his son. Or perhaps have grown shell-shocked/tired of fighting thread. Or perhaps have been unable to reconcile not being treated like a God.
If the baddie's a dude, you can guarantee people will feel sorry for him, and still want to help him. He'll probably get to survive, too (until he goes berserk and tries to murder F'lar).
Women are, of course, only ever derided for being ambitious and liking sex. And they die (or are driven into catatonia).
Lessa can't be ambitious on her own--she always gets it wrong. It only ever works for her if she's backing up F'lar. (the only time that isn't true is the ten years she spent wrecking the shit out of Ruatha, and even that ended with F'lar fucking her over and making her renounce her claim there)
(apparently, Lessa also feels less of a woman because she's only had one kid? This makes a little sense when you realize there's a) no birth control and b) having babies is the constant mandate handed down through the centuries--if only Laura Roslin had settled the colonial fleet on Pern... However, it does provide one of the few times I liked F'lar: he reassured her that he didn't give a shit and she was still his one and only)
Then there's F'lar. He's everything I dislike in male characters: sure of his superiority, autocratic, disinclined to explain himself, thinks making Lessa jealous is ~awesome~ and manly of himself, thinks women are the root of all evil, rarely takes responsi--ok, I can't write that, as it's not entirely true. F'lar does tend to own his own stupidities. Just not all of them. In Dragonflight? Half the novel would be removed if F'lar would simply treat Lessa like an adult instead of a child who's useless except as a figurehead for him gaining power. Dragonquest has some of the same issues.
It's frustrating, as there's an ok guy in there, somewhere. He's just stuck in a specific "This is what men are" mold from the fifties. (always right, always superior, always in charge)
(seriously, though, if you removed him treating Lessa like a child/shaking her/blaming everything on women? I'd really like him. I'd even be ok with his superiority if he just stopped treating women like second-class tools)
2. Dragonquest (because it's really involved already, and if I don't put it in here I'll roll right over it to White Dragon).
F'lar of course is not the only male who gets annoying. F'nor managed it (when I finally realized what was bugging me) when he didn't want Brekke to re-Impress because OMG SHE MIGHT HAVE SEX WITH SOMEONE ELSE. fu, F'nor. (he also had to 'force' Brekke to have sex with him--she resisted his advances after all, BUT HE KNEW BEST)
Which brings me to the confusing bit about the women of Pern. Weyrwomen (ie, women living in the Weyrs) are promiscuous, and that's ok. Holder and Crafter women are purity itself and don't believe in taking multiple lovers (apparently). However. Holder men can have any women they want, and the women have no say in the matter.
Also, masturbation is apparently unheard of on Pern. Jaxom needs some release? He runs off and has violent sex with his lover (there's some dubcon in there, since she can't refuse him given that he could get her tossed off her land). Oldtimer dragonriders need sexual release? They steal an egg or get a new crop of female dragons to chase... But no one just whacks off and calls it a day.
Dragonflight is really four novellas collected into one novel. Dragonquest works quite well as a single novel in itself...
3. The White Dragon, otoh... Is confusing. There are bits of it that make no sense if you haven't read the Harper Hall trilogy (especially Dragondrums). And even if you have, there's still the fact the book comes to this abrupt end that leaves you going "...but we were excavating..."
I know, I know, it's a standard technique to get people to buy another book, but there's at least a ten-year publishing gap between White Dragon and All the Weyrs of Pern (though Renegades comes in-between and fills a bit in), so it MAKES NO SENSE. (Moreta also had some of the same problem: there's an ENTIRE sub-plot that makes fuck-all sense unless you also read the follow-up Nerilka's Story)
Not to mention that the first two chapters read like short stories she had sitting around and don't really seem to connect much to the rest of the novel (which, to be fair, there are portions of the novel that don't seem to connect to other portions of the novel, so maybe it's just a Thing with her?), but were shoved in at the beginning to remind us all who Jaxom was and Set the Stage or something for the later chapters.
WD also contains the skeeviest bit ever: Master Robinton lusting after Menolly. wtf, McCaffrey, please get your id off my reading.
(I think I thought it was sweet as a small child. Now I'm just EW EW EW EW EW)
For the most part, the book isn't as offensively WOMEN SUCK AND ARE STUPID AND SECOND-CLASS, though it manages it more than a few times (Jaxom takes a lover, someone who CANNOT refuse him; Mirrim is obnoxious and officious and rude and basically used to show how ~tolerant Jaxom is and how ~sweet Menolly/Sharra/Brekke are)
Also, Mirrim Impresses a fighting dragon between books, and there's NO discussion of it in WD. It's one of the minor plot-threads in Dragonquest, and iirc occurs during Dragondrums? idek. All I know is that I was like "we get Jaxom's Impression from, like, three different books, but Mirrim rates only one?" (three might have been an exaggeration)
Ruth is possibly my favorite dragon (despite Jaxom), as he is adorable and the fire-lizards loooove him. But he is pretty smart and always knows 'when' he is.
Don't get me wrong, Jaxom's all right (if a bit stupid).
And I do love that the book ends with the people in charge of the excavations all being cranky old men. Now there's a movie I'd go see.
Add to the booklist:
Dragonquest (if it wasn't already on it)
The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey - re-read
1. Dragonflight.
It's very obvious that she was still world-building while writing this, and also that she has a thing for "women are down-trodden, and no one cares". As in, the writer herself doesn't care, and thinks it's awesome for, say, her heroine to be beaten, raped and shaken by her hero (sex is only acceptable for women if they don't want it. At least until the hero has made them love them.).
However. HOWEVER. According to our hero it's the lack of a 'good' Weyrwoman that has destroyed the Weyr. So.
Women have no power. But it's their fault the world sucks.
You know what's sad? There are still dudes today who totally believe this fallacy.
Being shaken is apparently a sign of true love. Being raped? Awesome. F'lar actually thinks to himself at one point that continuing to have sex with Lessa is almost like rape. ALMOST? ALMOST?! McCaffrey apparently thinks women who want and/or like sex are evil evil evil harlots who must be shamed for their vaginas liking orgasms. The only acceptable heroine is one who is raped.
However, there's about as much sex in these books as in a PG movie. (which is embarrassing when one remembers thinking there was wildly explicit stuff going on. When one was eleven.)
You can always tell who the baddie will be in a Pern novel. She will like sex, and seduce every man in sight. And probably like kinky shit like pain or submission. She will also be thoughtless, selfish, and give no shits about anything but herself. Lesser female baddies will be fat and lazy.
If the baddie is a dude, he will have good reason for it: he will have lost his son. Or perhaps have grown shell-shocked/tired of fighting thread. Or perhaps have been unable to reconcile not being treated like a God.
If the baddie's a dude, you can guarantee people will feel sorry for him, and still want to help him. He'll probably get to survive, too (until he goes berserk and tries to murder F'lar).
Women are, of course, only ever derided for being ambitious and liking sex. And they die (or are driven into catatonia).
Lessa can't be ambitious on her own--she always gets it wrong. It only ever works for her if she's backing up F'lar. (the only time that isn't true is the ten years she spent wrecking the shit out of Ruatha, and even that ended with F'lar fucking her over and making her renounce her claim there)
(apparently, Lessa also feels less of a woman because she's only had one kid? This makes a little sense when you realize there's a) no birth control and b) having babies is the constant mandate handed down through the centuries--if only Laura Roslin had settled the colonial fleet on Pern... However, it does provide one of the few times I liked F'lar: he reassured her that he didn't give a shit and she was still his one and only)
Then there's F'lar. He's everything I dislike in male characters: sure of his superiority, autocratic, disinclined to explain himself, thinks making Lessa jealous is ~awesome~ and manly of himself, thinks women are the root of all evil, rarely takes responsi--ok, I can't write that, as it's not entirely true. F'lar does tend to own his own stupidities. Just not all of them. In Dragonflight? Half the novel would be removed if F'lar would simply treat Lessa like an adult instead of a child who's useless except as a figurehead for him gaining power. Dragonquest has some of the same issues.
It's frustrating, as there's an ok guy in there, somewhere. He's just stuck in a specific "This is what men are" mold from the fifties. (always right, always superior, always in charge)
(seriously, though, if you removed him treating Lessa like a child/shaking her/blaming everything on women? I'd really like him. I'd even be ok with his superiority if he just stopped treating women like second-class tools)
2. Dragonquest (because it's really involved already, and if I don't put it in here I'll roll right over it to White Dragon).
F'lar of course is not the only male who gets annoying. F'nor managed it (when I finally realized what was bugging me) when he didn't want Brekke to re-Impress because OMG SHE MIGHT HAVE SEX WITH SOMEONE ELSE. fu, F'nor. (he also had to 'force' Brekke to have sex with him--she resisted his advances after all, BUT HE KNEW BEST)
Which brings me to the confusing bit about the women of Pern. Weyrwomen (ie, women living in the Weyrs) are promiscuous, and that's ok. Holder and Crafter women are purity itself and don't believe in taking multiple lovers (apparently). However. Holder men can have any women they want, and the women have no say in the matter.
Also, masturbation is apparently unheard of on Pern. Jaxom needs some release? He runs off and has violent sex with his lover (there's some dubcon in there, since she can't refuse him given that he could get her tossed off her land). Oldtimer dragonriders need sexual release? They steal an egg or get a new crop of female dragons to chase... But no one just whacks off and calls it a day.
Dragonflight is really four novellas collected into one novel. Dragonquest works quite well as a single novel in itself...
3. The White Dragon, otoh... Is confusing. There are bits of it that make no sense if you haven't read the Harper Hall trilogy (especially Dragondrums). And even if you have, there's still the fact the book comes to this abrupt end that leaves you going "...but we were excavating..."
I know, I know, it's a standard technique to get people to buy another book, but there's at least a ten-year publishing gap between White Dragon and All the Weyrs of Pern (though Renegades comes in-between and fills a bit in), so it MAKES NO SENSE. (Moreta also had some of the same problem: there's an ENTIRE sub-plot that makes fuck-all sense unless you also read the follow-up Nerilka's Story)
Not to mention that the first two chapters read like short stories she had sitting around and don't really seem to connect much to the rest of the novel (which, to be fair, there are portions of the novel that don't seem to connect to other portions of the novel, so maybe it's just a Thing with her?), but were shoved in at the beginning to remind us all who Jaxom was and Set the Stage or something for the later chapters.
WD also contains the skeeviest bit ever: Master Robinton lusting after Menolly. wtf, McCaffrey, please get your id off my reading.
(I think I thought it was sweet as a small child. Now I'm just EW EW EW EW EW)
For the most part, the book isn't as offensively WOMEN SUCK AND ARE STUPID AND SECOND-CLASS, though it manages it more than a few times (Jaxom takes a lover, someone who CANNOT refuse him; Mirrim is obnoxious and officious and rude and basically used to show how ~tolerant Jaxom is and how ~sweet Menolly/Sharra/Brekke are)
Also, Mirrim Impresses a fighting dragon between books, and there's NO discussion of it in WD. It's one of the minor plot-threads in Dragonquest, and iirc occurs during Dragondrums? idek. All I know is that I was like "we get Jaxom's Impression from, like, three different books, but Mirrim rates only one?" (three might have been an exaggeration)
Ruth is possibly my favorite dragon (despite Jaxom), as he is adorable and the fire-lizards loooove him. But he is pretty smart and always knows 'when' he is.
Don't get me wrong, Jaxom's all right (if a bit stupid).
And I do love that the book ends with the people in charge of the excavations all being cranky old men. Now there's a movie I'd go see.
Add to the booklist:
Dragonquest (if it wasn't already on it)
The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey - re-read
no subject
I think it's a bit weird, and possibly telling, that I never forget Lessa's name, but even when I was originally reading the books, I always get F'lar and F'nor confused. It used to bother my so much when I was first reading the books that it was Lessa and L'sa too. Why don't the girls get cool dragonrider names?
There's a short story somewhere of Mirrim's Impression. I've read it and it involves the poor baby dragon crawling into the stands to find her if I remember correctly.
For years I thought I was mis-remembering Moreta until I finally figured out that I just remembered Nerilka and Moreta as the same book. I think I read them back to back and they became the same book in my head.
Is it just me or did McCaffery have a thing where she'd write a trilogy that was really two books that could be part of the same book plus a completely different book? I mean Dragonflight, Dragonquest, White Dragon and Dragonsong, Drangonsinger, and Dragondrums both follow that pattern.
no subject
It's hard not to confuse the two brothers, though. They treat Lessa the same--like a child (the real difference is that F'lar keeps going "I've got a plan!" but like the cylons, it's never really there)
Yeah, I remember reading Mirrim's Impression, I just--I don't remember where it is. Heh.
Now I need to track down the Nerilka book, though, as I feel like it's missing, which is annoying.
You're right about her trilogies (the Crystal Singer one falls into that, as well--the third book has a completely different tone to the first two. I think there was a long time between the publication of Killashandra and Crystal Line, though, so that makes some sense of it)
no subject
If I remember correctly F'lar's plan was essentially:
1. Get new Gold rider.
2. Mate with new Gold rider.
3. ???
4. Save Pern!
It was lacking in the details.
Mirrim's Impression is in The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern. At least that's what I found with some Googleing.
I never read the Crystal Singer books, but I think the original Tower and the Hive trilogy followed that pattern as well.