Review: Dragonflight

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Series: Dragonriders of Pern #1
Rating: ★★★★★

To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise—and take back her stolen birthright.

But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa’s world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world. . . .

I understand that this book (and series) has a lot of haters. Their complaints are valid, but I still regard this as one of the best sci-fi fantasies I’ve ever read.

I started reading this series really young, and got so caught up in the whole “OMG DRAGONS” part of it that I didn’t even realize until later that this book had sci-fi elements, namely, that we are on a different freaking planet here. It’s a mishmash of several genres that worked surprisingly well.

From the other reviews of the book I’ve read, the main complaints about the book seems to be the fact that the leading male character is kind of an asshole, of the Jericho-fucking-Barrons sort. Let me tell you that I hate Jericho-fucking-Barrons (come ON, I have a fucking shelf named after him, for Christ’s sake).

Yes, this book can be conveyed as being misogynistic, but I don’t think that’s fair to the main characters. F’lar is an asshole at times, but he needs to be tough and a leader. I’m not using that as an excuse, I’m just saying that his character was not over the top, and he is not an asshole for the sake of being an asshole, unlike Jericho-fucking-Barrons.

Keep in mind also that this book was published a long time ago (1968!). You have to make reasonable accomodations for that; and this book was pretty well advanced for its days. Lessa, the main female character, may be a bitch at times, but taking into consideration her very difficult background, her behavior is perfectly fitting with her character.

However dated it is, this book still has one of the most well-thought out setting I’ve ever read in fantasy and sci-fi. The dragons and how they came about, the societal structure, the culture, everything was well-written and believable.

No, this book is not perfect, but I adored this book and this series.