I Read What?!

So, I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to continue on with Pern for these reviews, but also branch out so as to avoid getting into a rut. I decided the best way to do this is to alternate. One review for Crystal Shard and one review for Dragonquest.

I came into these reviews with a pretty good memory for Dragonflight. I'd underestimated how aggravating F'lar was and I hadn't remembered exactly how formidable Lessa was, but I did remember the gist of the plot. That won't be the same for Dragonquest. I read Dragonquest all of once, I think. Back when I was about thirteen years old. And to be honest, I don't remember much of anything about it except for a crushing sense of disappointment.

Now I don't know if that disappointment had merit or not. I do know that as a kid, I tended to really dislike when series I read changed protagonists. I stopped reading Narnia at Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because at that point, none of the original four main characters were around anymore. So it's possible that my disappointment with Dragonquest was simply because F'lar and Lessa weren't the central leads of the story.

That might be a good thing now. I will miss Lessa terribly, but F'lar is fucking awful. We'll find out.

One thing I am very very happy about: unlike its predecessor, Dragonquest actually has fucking chapters. That will make this so much easier!



The map this time is both more useful and less. Remember when I said that the map we saw in Dragonflight made it look like a very small world? Well, I was right. This map is much bigger, showing us the Southern Continent as well as the main Continent. And holy fuck, that thing is huge. It looks like it's half again the size of the main continent, and that's just the parts that we can see. I can see now why the Dragonriders couldn't protect it.

I don't however see why the Dragonriders didn't investigate it at all in four hundred years. But well, the dragonriders suck.

The downside is that the main continent is much smaller, and the text is a lot harder to read. I can make out a few places, like Telgar and Igen Weyr, but not much beyond that.

I'm assuming that more of the action of this book will take place in the Southern Continent. But if not, I can always crack open Dragonflight for the more detailed map if I need.

The Prelude this time is much more substantial than we had in Dragonflight and lacks the anvilicious theme. It's primarily background information, a lot of which we had already: Rukbat, Sagittarian Sector, G-type star.

We get a little more information about the star system: five planets, two asteroid belts. Pern is the third world.

We're told how the colonists had cannibalized their transport ships early on and "abandoned such technological sophistication as was irrelevant to this pastoral planet" which seems a little short-sighted to me. There is a bit more detail as to how dragons were created: basically they bred an indigenous species and had people with high empathy and some telepathy trained to use them. We're told that this was the first phase against the spore incursions and that "the second" would take longer to mature.

We're told that the original colonists miscalculated. Apparently the psychological effect of seeing the Thread destroyed in mid air as well as the untenable nature of the Southern continent where the "second phase" was initiated meant that whatever they'd done there was lost.

(We're also told that the colonists first attempted to colonize the Southern Continent, which makes some sense given its size, but were forced to move to the Northern Continent so they could take refuge in the caves and mountains.)

We're given a bit of a summary as to how things developed, from Fort Hold to expanding outward into Ruatha and beyond, and how the dragons' size led them to eventually create Weyrs, in the "cave-pocked cones of extinct volcanoes".

We're given a bit of a timeline here. After the first 200 year Interval, the colonists began to forget the threat and expand outward, growing crops and planting orchards and planned for deforestry. But then Thread returned, and they faced fifty years of threat. It's around this time that the secondary measure was forgotten.

Given the emphasis on this secondary measure, I'm assuming that this is going to be rediscovered in this book. Just a guess.

So we're told that by the Third Pass, the Weyr system (ugh) had been developed, as well as the Hold structures, Crafthalls within Holds, and the Mastercrafthalls. Crafts were decreed to be independent of the Holds, so no one ruler could deny the advancements to the rest of Pern. The Mastercraftsmen then were responsible for all of their products across the whole planet.

I'm also guessing from this that we're going to see quite a bit more of the politics of Pern, which intrigues me. I hadn't quite realized how formidable Fanderal or Robinton were, but apparently they're basically in charge of the entire world's population of Smiths and Harpers respectively.

We're then given essentially a quick summary of Dragonflight, that focuses a bit too much on F'lar and not enough on Lessa for my taste. Interestingly, F'nor gets a mention, as someone who "listened to [F'lar's] arguments and found belief in them more exciting than the dull ways of the lone Weyr of Pern." We're also told that when the last golden egg was laid, "F'lar and F'nor seized this opportunity to gain control of the Weyr."

Um, really? As I recall, it was F'LAR who Searched for Lessa, and F'LAR who convinced her to accompany him. And while I hate the Mating Rituals, it was F'lar who ended up leader. F'nor was a follower. He was loyal sure, but he had all of two lines until his scene with Lessa before the Mating Flight, when he told her F'lar's sad backstory.

We're also told that the three riders, F'lar, Lessa and F'nor forced the Lord Holders and Craftsmen to recognize their immient danger and prepare the almost defenseless planet against thread.

Okay, wait just a MINUTE. Why the fuck is F'NOR getting basically equal billing as Lessa here? F'nor had no individual part in the confrontation with the Lord Holders. He helped kidnap their wives, like the rest of the dragonriders (still a supervillain move, F'lar), but the rest of that was F'lar and Lessa's show.

I know F'nor is being shilled here because he's going to be the lead character of this book. But I'm honestly surprised that Ms. McCaffrey didn't try to say that he helped Lessa discover Time Travel or something!

Oddly, the genuinely heroic and self sacrificing thing that F'nor DID do in Dragonflight, namely going ten years in the past to help start the Southern Weyr, and suffering the intense physical strain and turmoil, goes completely unmentioned.

Now, we're told, it's seven years later, and tensions have risen. The "initial gratitude of the Holds and Crafts to the rescuing Oldtime Weyrs has faded and soured." Really?

Look, I was on the Holds' side for Dragonflight when the Weyr spent four hundred years being useless parasites on them. But the "Oldtimers" (which, hello, rude) gave up lives of peace and tranquility as well as any family, friends, and so on to come FOUR HUNDRED YEARS into the future to save your asses.

Furthermore, Thread is STILL FUCKING FALLING. And will for another forty-three years.

It seems like they could be grateful a little while longer, I'm just saying.