Anne_McCaffrey – Page 2

Dragonsinger

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 8, 2009
Post category:Book

This book is interesting because its 200 or so pages only cover a seven day period. Its a coming of age story that continues directly on from Dragonsong, and overlaps somewhat with The White Dragon (if only peripherally). This book has parallels with Pawn of Prophecy in my mind, mostly because they're both about young children being taken under someone's wing and given the time they need to develop their talents. I liked this book, which gives me hope for the rest of the series. [isbn: 0553258540]

Dragonsong

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 1, 2009
Post category:Book

Dragonsong sits between Dragonquest and The White Dragon, although there is some overlap with The White Dragon and it doesn't matter what order you read those two in. Some friends and I were joking the other day that all McCaffrey books seem to involve a pained teenager coming to age. That's true with this book, although the story isn't as drawn out as The White Dragon, and I didn't find it quite as annoying to read. I think that's because McCaffrey didn't dwell on how terrible it was to be a teenager as much in this one. I really enjoyed this one, and thought it was better than The White Dragon, and on par with Dragonflight, although I do feel that The White Dragon opens up more interesting possibilities for the universe than this book did. [isbn: 0553258524]

The White Dragon

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This book took me ages to finish, and I'm not sure if that was because of distractions in real life (moving into a new house), or if it was because I just wasn't all that into it. The first half of the book is the growing pains of Jaxom, the rider of white dragon Ruth. It was interesting in parts, but other parts seemed to drag on with endless character development. On the other hand, the plot of the last third of the book was really good, and I enjoyed it greatly. I don't think this book was as good as the two previous Pern books however. [isbn: 0345341678]

Dragonquest

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 18, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the sequel to Dragonflight. To be honest, I think Dragonflight is a better book, although this one is by no means bad. I suspect part of my problem with this book is that I found Kylara insanely annoying (which I was meant to). Every time her character popped up it made the book hard to read until she went away again. This is a good interesting book, and I'm looking forward to the later books in the series when you find out more about the settlement of Pern. [isbn: 0345284259] [award: nominee hugo 1972]

Dragonflight

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 13, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the first book in the Dragons of Pern series, which I read a small part of as a child. Given that they're still being written, its not surprising that I'm pretty out of date on this series. This book is excellent for a few reasons -- the idea is unique and well implemented; its an amazing mix of fantasy with science fiction style justifications for the way things are; and its well written. The underlying premise is that a planet named Pern as a nearly neighbor on an eccentric orbit. When that neighbor comes near to Pern, spores from the other planet try to land on Pern. These spores breed by eating organic life, so they need to be neutralized or life on Pern will cease. There are however a few patches I had to re-read to make full sense of. I really liked this book. [isbn: 0345335465] [award: winner nebula 1968; nominee nebula 1967]