The Dragonriders of Pern
When I was in junior high (wow, twenty years ago now...) I discovered Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and devoured everything she had written concerning dragons. After reading and re-reading and daydreaming about dragons nonstop for a few years, I moved on to other books, and eventually sold most of my copies of her work.
I didn't think much about them again until a couple weeks ago, when I found my falling-apart copy of Dragonflight, the first in the series, buried in the back of a bookshelf, and decided to read them all again. I'll admit to being afraid that they wouldn't be much fun now, since I'm no longer twelve, but on the other hand I'm still happily reading a lot of genre fiction. So, starting at the beginning, here goes!
The first thing that struck me about Dragonflight is the casual violence against women. Sure, Fax is supposed to be a Bad Guy, and if he beats his wife, well, he's a Bad Guy. But the heroes, F'lar and F'nor, are described as nobly restraining themselves from striking women. Lessa, the heroine, is manhandled by her lover F'lar more than once; he grabs her and drags or shakes her on more than one occasion. She and the other characters accept this as normal. Lessa's first sexual experience, while she is psychically emmeshed with her dragon in heat, is described as "violent," and treads disturbingly close to rape. (You could argue that she consented at the time, but you could also argue that she had no idea what was going on; I don't want to go further with that argument, but it was disturbing either way.)
Lessa is a strong, heroic female protagonist, who throughout the book pushes the boundaries of what women are supposed to do, or are capable of. She takes revenge on her family's murderer, flies her dragon in defiance of custom, and undertakes immense risk to save her people. But domestic violence wasn't considered an issue in 1968, when Dragonflight was published. I wasn't alive at the time, and I wonder how much of its portrayal here comes from societal attitudes regarding domestic violence, and how much of it from the author's personal experience. Viewed through modern eyes, Lessa and F'lar's relationship isn't particularly healthy, and I don't find it to be a satisfying romance.
All of that said, I still think it's healthier than the romance in Twilight, so maybe our attitudes as a society haven't come that far in 45 years after all.
And there's still a great adventure story here. The dragons don't have a lot in the way of individual personality, but they are distinctly animals, and not people. The worldbuilding is solid, and the threat of the impersonal, alien Threads is ominous enough to drive the plot.
My verdict: Surprisingly readable, despite its flaws. Next up: Dragonquest, book two in the series.
I didn't think much about them again until a couple weeks ago, when I found my falling-apart copy of Dragonflight, the first in the series, buried in the back of a bookshelf, and decided to read them all again. I'll admit to being afraid that they wouldn't be much fun now, since I'm no longer twelve, but on the other hand I'm still happily reading a lot of genre fiction. So, starting at the beginning, here goes!
The first thing that struck me about Dragonflight is the casual violence against women. Sure, Fax is supposed to be a Bad Guy, and if he beats his wife, well, he's a Bad Guy. But the heroes, F'lar and F'nor, are described as nobly restraining themselves from striking women. Lessa, the heroine, is manhandled by her lover F'lar more than once; he grabs her and drags or shakes her on more than one occasion. She and the other characters accept this as normal. Lessa's first sexual experience, while she is psychically emmeshed with her dragon in heat, is described as "violent," and treads disturbingly close to rape. (You could argue that she consented at the time, but you could also argue that she had no idea what was going on; I don't want to go further with that argument, but it was disturbing either way.)
Lessa is a strong, heroic female protagonist, who throughout the book pushes the boundaries of what women are supposed to do, or are capable of. She takes revenge on her family's murderer, flies her dragon in defiance of custom, and undertakes immense risk to save her people. But domestic violence wasn't considered an issue in 1968, when Dragonflight was published. I wasn't alive at the time, and I wonder how much of its portrayal here comes from societal attitudes regarding domestic violence, and how much of it from the author's personal experience. Viewed through modern eyes, Lessa and F'lar's relationship isn't particularly healthy, and I don't find it to be a satisfying romance.
All of that said, I still think it's healthier than the romance in Twilight, so maybe our attitudes as a society haven't come that far in 45 years after all.
And there's still a great adventure story here. The dragons don't have a lot in the way of individual personality, but they are distinctly animals, and not people. The worldbuilding is solid, and the threat of the impersonal, alien Threads is ominous enough to drive the plot.
My verdict: Surprisingly readable, despite its flaws. Next up: Dragonquest, book two in the series.