Dragonquest
Dragonquest is book two of The Dragonriders of Pern, and when I read it years ago I never understood the title. It makes more sense to me now: the quest is the struggle of the people of Pern to carve out a final victory against the alien destruction of Thread. Although the characters fail to vanquish it directly, they find innovative ways to combat it, strategies that might eventually render the dragons obsolete.
This isn't really a story about the battle against Thread, it's a story about progress fighting tradition. Our heroes represent progress, and generate (or rediscover) an amazing number of new inventions: flame throwers, batteries, the telegraph, paper, symbiotic grubs, fire-lizards, and the telescope. (I have to admit that the whole telegraph thing really throws me; it seems anachronistic in a society that doesn't even have the telescope. Maybe they found the plans for it in a basement somewhere? This is not explained.) The problem isn't finding the new ways to fight Thread, it's convincing the backwards traditionalists to try them.
It's a very optimistic book, in the sense that the people look forward to a future without Thread, brought to them by the wonders of new technology. A Pernese Enlightenment, of sorts. It reminds me a bit of the original Star Trek series. Maybe the similarity is from that sense that we can attain utopia from all this cool new stuff. It has a nostalgia to it somehow, in the context of our more cynical present.
Another thing that strikes me about this book is the death of the two golden dragons. Brekke and Kylara, their riders, are foils for one another, but both are fighting tradition. Brekke wants her dragon to mate with a low-status brown dragon whose rider she is in love with, while Kylara is having a violent affair with a man with whom she plots to take over the world. Both are punished for their audacity when the two dragons kill one another. Brekke falls into a deep depression, while Kylara (whose sins were greater) goes mad. I don't think that this was a deliberate theme on McCaffrey's part, but it comes across as a commentary about what happens to women who have sex with someone they're not supposed to.
The scale of this book is more epic than the first, with a larger number of characters and places. The plot is more complex, without a clear resolution, which leads into the rest of the books in the series.
My verdict: Probably better written than the last book, more tightly plotted, and I have to admit, I like some of the newer characters better. This was my least favorite of the series years ago, probably because I didn't understand the complexity and the themes as well as I do re-reading as an adult.
This isn't really a story about the battle against Thread, it's a story about progress fighting tradition. Our heroes represent progress, and generate (or rediscover) an amazing number of new inventions: flame throwers, batteries, the telegraph, paper, symbiotic grubs, fire-lizards, and the telescope. (I have to admit that the whole telegraph thing really throws me; it seems anachronistic in a society that doesn't even have the telescope. Maybe they found the plans for it in a basement somewhere? This is not explained.) The problem isn't finding the new ways to fight Thread, it's convincing the backwards traditionalists to try them.
It's a very optimistic book, in the sense that the people look forward to a future without Thread, brought to them by the wonders of new technology. A Pernese Enlightenment, of sorts. It reminds me a bit of the original Star Trek series. Maybe the similarity is from that sense that we can attain utopia from all this cool new stuff. It has a nostalgia to it somehow, in the context of our more cynical present.
Another thing that strikes me about this book is the death of the two golden dragons. Brekke and Kylara, their riders, are foils for one another, but both are fighting tradition. Brekke wants her dragon to mate with a low-status brown dragon whose rider she is in love with, while Kylara is having a violent affair with a man with whom she plots to take over the world. Both are punished for their audacity when the two dragons kill one another. Brekke falls into a deep depression, while Kylara (whose sins were greater) goes mad. I don't think that this was a deliberate theme on McCaffrey's part, but it comes across as a commentary about what happens to women who have sex with someone they're not supposed to.
The scale of this book is more epic than the first, with a larger number of characters and places. The plot is more complex, without a clear resolution, which leads into the rest of the books in the series.
My verdict: Probably better written than the last book, more tightly plotted, and I have to admit, I like some of the newer characters better. This was my least favorite of the series years ago, probably because I didn't understand the complexity and the themes as well as I do re-reading as an adult.