Dragonflight (1968)

It was alright. The storytelling is solid but the writing is poor and vague. Later McCaffrey is much better. ( )

Well, this was certainly enjoyable, but not without its faults. When your society is almost more sexist than Westeros, you've got some problems. As it is, I do like how some of the characters are written, particularly the Master Smith towards the end of the book (who acts exactly like an engineer).

I also have a bit of a gripe with how quickly the Dragon Riders manage to cope with four-dimensional thinking. It seems slightly absurd. ( )

I initially got this book to participate in The Dead Writers Society genre challenge for July. I unfortunately got a PDF version of this book through my library (did not realize it until it came out of hold for me) and then just bought it. Unfortunately, that all happened after the month passed for the read. I have to keep in mind when I am doing group reads that I should see if there is a version of the book available for free or for a price that is lower than $9.99.

I have never heard of this series before, it seems like a lot of readers have though. A lot of people have told me that this series gets better and that some of the books should be skipped. I think the hardest part for me was not the names of every person, or that a planet exists where dragons roam. It was the fact that the two main characters were not that likable, things got left out of the book all over the place, but referenced later (which is weird to me) and we have one of the most mind boggling things that go on towards the end of the book for the story to end the way that it does.

The book starts off with F'lar and other Dragonmen going off on a "Search". Now I can't really tell what that Search was about, it doesn't get referred to later in the book after he meets Lessa and she is back living with him and training on how to be a Werywoman.

Lessa is pig-headed and doesn't listen, though she thinks that she knows all, and even admits numerous times that she doesn't know all, but think that F'lar should just tell her things so then she won't go around getting in trouble all of the time. Sigh. I don't know. I wanted a book with a strong hero and heroine and I kind of disliked both of them.

It doesn't help that later on in the book it's told in a kind of throw away kind of way that F'lar often forces Lessa and if only she understood he would be gentle? Yeah. I get that this book was written in 1968, but come on. There was way too much of that going on.

I don't like the fact that due to Lessa becoming joined to the Queen dragon, that meant that whatever male dragon rider who mated with her Queen therefore became her mate. I think I rolled my eyes a million times. I would have liked it better if she had any say in things. It felt like she didn't. F'lar liked her being jealous, and apparently it's okay in this society for him to sleep with whomever he wants, but not her? I don't know. I refuse to go back and look up those parts in the book.

There were so many characters that I just won't name here. I actually felt the worst for a now dead woman married to the character Fax. It's shown that Lessa could have eased this woman and maybe she wouldn't have died, but she doesn't pay any repercussions for what she did not do and for her also forcing F'lar's hand in order to kill someone.

The writing was okay. I thought the dialogue a lot of the times was terrible though. I think it's because the author would introduce a new subject and the way it would be explained was that was something he/she discussed months ago and I would scratch my head and say huh. For example, I had no idea that F'lar and Lessa were even having sex or sharing the same bed quarters. We go from their dragons mating, him kissing her, to F'lar worrying about "Threads" and then a throw away line about how she's never a bed and I went huh.

The flow was not great at all. The big threat is the "Threads" and not really anyone else because this group has dragons. Why anyone would screw with them baffled me. So the whole book is waiting for the "Threads" to happen, and when they did, the author didn't really describe them or what they did or would do that was terrible. Or at least I didn't get it. Maybe I am not that smart. It just didn't make any sense to me.

The world building I had some problems with too. Who the heck would forget that a natural or whatever this thing was disaster comes every couple of years (turns) in this world. It was dumb for anyone to think it wasn't going to happen and even when it did people were still sitting around blaming each other. The time travel aspect made absolutely no sense at all. I had a lot of problems with it and just kept screeching paradoxes to myself while reading.

The ending I think was supposed to end on an uplifting note, but instead it made me think of The Sopranos when the show just abruptly faded to black. ( )

I was told to read these novels many years ago, and I have no excuse I can say why it has taken so long. I am ashamed. Why did I make assumptions? I suppose I expected overused tropes and kitschy twists, since I knew this was science fiction masquerading as fantasy, not to mention dragons, dragons, dragons... But I stand corrected. At least for this first book in a long series, I stand corrected. I do feel the draw of a very open and wide horizon, a backdrop for many wonders, and I must discover what many have already discovered before me. I will see for myself! ( )

If you like dragons this is an amazing book. It's the best way to be introduced to the Dragonriders of Pern. Lessa is mostly shown as a courageous, intelligent woman.

There might be a couple of sentences that might be bothersome in this day and age, so,
remember this book was written when it was funny or romantic when John Wayne spanked women on film, Seven Brides for Seven brothers kidnapping, or in Pillow Talks carrying a woman in her PJs down a street. ( )