Dragongirl (Pern)

This story leaves me with more questions than I should have.
Why does everyone like Fiona? Is her bed really full of pre-pubescent lesbians? Do we really need more mating flights in this one book than there are in the rest of the series? Why did Lytol bellyache about his beloved Larth every ten minutes, while everyone during this Pass treats losing a dragon like having an inconvenient toothache? Why are dragons eating sheep?! Where are the wherries? Why are people suddenly telepathic?

I haven't finished the book. It's painful to trudge through, especially with the unmemorable, indistinguishable characters. So little description has been provided that I can't even begin to picture these folks in my head.

The biggest question I have, halfway through this book - Have I read more of the Pern series than Todd?

A breathtaking adventure about the will to survive. The belief that something will happen to make things better. Dragons, Thread, time travel and outstanding People makeup the story. If you have read this series you will know what I am writing about. If you haven't, then you need to get started.

This is one of my favorite science fiction fantasy series. It's about the colonists and the dragons they create to fight thread on Pern, the new world they left Earth to live on. The stories are very detailed and the people are interesting to read about.

After reading this book, I feel dissapointed. This book should be in the porn section. It is poorly written by not following the storyline and contradicting the "facts" established in all the other Dragonrider books way back to the first one. Todd is fixated on the porn side instead of the story. I cannot recommend this book. It is a shame that children won't be able to enjoy these books.

Todd continues to keep me up all night reading, I only wish I would put these books down.There are 2 similar books, well the ones i have read so far. Dragongirl and dragon's time both written about similar times but form different perspective. If you read one it's worthwhile to read the other. This is a really good book for getting into the everyday life of the weirs, but if if you think there's not good drama to keep you reading think again. ( girls I'd even keep the tissues handy)

After reading this book, I feel dissapointed. This book should be in the porn section. It is poorly written by not following the storyline and contradicting the "facts" established in all the other Dragonrider books way back to the first one. Todd is fixated on the porn side instead of the story. I cannot recommend this book. It is a shame that children won't be able to enjoy these books.

Todd continues to keep me up all night reading, I only wish I would put these books down.There are 2 similar books, well the ones i have read so far. Dragongirl and dragon's time both written about similar times but form different perspective. If you read one it's worthwhile to read the other. This is a really good book for getting into the everyday life of the weirs, but if if you think there's not good drama to keep you reading think again. ( girls I'd even keep the tissues handy)

this story seemed to drag. would expound on crisis's and when they are solved was abrupt with little lead in. excessive character dialog that has little corrilation to the over all story. I will be happy to see anne returning to helping write the next installment other wise i dont think i would buy the next book.

It was a very enjoyable book. But certainly not of the style and rating of his mothers books. I didn't have to keep a dictionary right beside me. He need to work on personality developement , but I think he will get there. I will definitely read it again.

kaysok

Todd McCaffrey has created another excellent chapter in the life of the Dragonriders. I found myself not wanting to put the book down, even though I knew I really did have to get up for work later that morning. I was a bit surprised with some of the relationships but I didn't find that to be a stumbling block to the plot. I'm looking forward to the next chapter this spring!

Long-time nostalgic readers interested in gifting this book to pre-adults should be careful to read the book and, if not the parents, ask the parents if they are comfortable with their kids reading this kind of writing. It comes right up to the edge of soft porn and may not be suitable for some young people. To be fair, there are no explicit sex scenes but what young people are being handed is an "it's ok" guide to multi-gender multi-partner sex. It is in fact easily a third of the entire plot line.

Fiona is the usual "mary sue" character we expect and don't mind from the series. Except:
* Fiona likes to sleep with lots of kids much younger with her, apparently innocent, but to an older reader is uncomfortable similar to Michael Jackson.
* Fiona is clearly bisexual. Not itself a problem to me.
* At thirteen years old Fiona is pre-sexual with a ten year old girl and an eight year old girl.
* At thirteen Fiona is already drawn to much older men. By much older the first one closest to her in age is in his mid-twenties. The next one is fifteen years older. I'm not sure about the third, and the oldest one is roughly the same age as the author, mid-forties or older.
* At age thirteen she goes back in time with the ten year old girl - they are the only females for several years in a group of thirty-forty men of all ages. They both have male lovers.
* By age seventeen Fiona likes group sleep huddles with people of all ages. All innocent, except for one scene where there is sexual tension and she and another head off for an encounter.
* At age seventeen Fiona is having sex with a character still nearly fifteen years older and who is already paired with another woman. The other woman is ok with that as long as Fiona is only sharing, not poaching. (actual words from the book)
* Fiona by the way is not weyr-born, she is holder born. In the previous nearly fifty year history of these books we're repeatedly told holders are very conservative, even prudish. Nevertheless Fiona goes back to her father's Hold where all the older women are ok with her "big heart" that has room to sleep with multiple men and again the already mated couple. Authority figures giving permission.

At that point (chapter thirteen) in the book I stopped reading. It comes across to me as a middle-aged man writing out his fantasies to the traditional teen girls who read these books. The other two thirds of the book rework the traditional formula and I agree with the other reviews that state he is not writing to the standards of his mother.

Edited for misspellings.

I recognize there are all kinds of families and all kinds of parents. Just make sure you are one of those before gifting this book to young people. You may not be sending a message you really want to send. I had much the same reaction when Robert Heinlein decided to have one his best known character go back in time to sleep with his mother. Well, ok. But not something I give to a kid in her/his early teens.

I have been a dedicated reader of all Anne McCaffrey's works for seemingly decades..but that's all in the past. Todd lacks his mother's incisiveness and drama. This novel is much too "touchy-feely-snuggley-cozy" without deep-felt tension...All the dragons are exposed to a contagious fatal infection which uses "deus in machina" to suddenly miraculously cure all ailing dragons and simultaneously vaccinate all the healthy dragons....no drama there!...Fiona, who is "almost seventeen" is an unbelievable Weyrwoman whom everybody admires and follows almost unquestioningly. During subsequent Falls of Thread, coincidentally almost all of the flight leaders are the fatalities.... I felt as if I were trudging thru' thick syrup to finish this novel....Way too much time is devoted to Fiona's sleeping habits (not necessarily sex partners)....All the men existed simply to fight Thread or to sire children..Very little is devoted to the bonding of newly-hatched dragons and their choices of riders...If I didn't know better, I would have thought the author must have been a middle-aged woman sitting at her computer in her comfy bathrobe and bunny slippers, sipping on hot chocolate, petting her cat, and typing away without any deep thought as to situational development. In short, if you're a female who wants to cuddle up in bed with a light novel and feel warm and cozy, this one's for you..It is so estrogen-laden that I feared I would develop gynecomastia before I finished it...If you're a guy, or someone who wants thoughtfully planned novels with character DEVELOPMENT and tension, this one's not for you. I'm afraid this is a case where maternal protective instinct overrides author integrity.

http://www.the store.com/gp/product/B0036S4CAC/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_img

Todd McCaffrey hit his stride as a writer in this book. I have been somewhat disappointed with his earlier works, interesting though they were, because he always seemed to be playing off his mother's work, much the way guitarists get together and create semi-new music by playing off one another's riffs. In Dragonblood he made the virtually unforgivable error of making Wind Blossom Kitty Ping's daughter, when in fact she was her granddaughter; I cannot imagine how that got past both his mother and the editors. Although he introduced many new characters and plot elements into his later books, such things as discovering better sources of firestone after the original sources had been lost and dragons and humans were being killed by a dangerous substitute; discovering and naming the coal mine that would later be called cromcoal; and expanding the shunning that had been inflicted on Ted Tubberman to a degree so drastic as to create a society of untouchables all made me feel that he was playing not just his mother's game; he was also playing with her toys.

But in Dragongirl I felt that he was giving us a story of his own that did not play off his mother's work. Of course he is still working in a world he did not create, which is difficult at best, but I was very pleased with the treatment of characters he had introduced previously as well as his new characters. In a very few places he still used the wrong word, although it was always clear what word he meant, but he did far less of that than in his previous books.

I am astonished that it has been reviewed so badly by other readers. I am a writer and editor--I have been a writer for 60 years and an editor for 25 years, and had I been in charge of purchasing I would have snapped this up in a hurry. I do not find it too conversation-heavy; at no time did I have the feeling that I was reading talking heads. I thought the balance between dialog and narrative was exactly right.

To sum up, I liked this book and I expect the rest of his work to be equal to it or better than it.

Like many, I have followed the Pern series -and Anne McCaffrey- for a very long time. I have even tried to appreciate the other parts of Todd's efforts, but many things have always bothered me: If most people died of the plague and much knowledge was lost, then how could the healers during Moreta's time have still known about vaccines and had time pieces? How are there sheep and beef? The Deep Ones?!? Is he now saying they brought whales over too? There are many other questions, but this book in particular really pissed me off.
They talk a lot about being tired during the whole entire time, as if they've been timing it and living during the same time, not just going back in time ten years ago. That made for a story that might have worked, but it's never developed. They talk a lot about casualties and then brush them off like they were some Star Trek ensign that was devoured by some alien creature. And then the rest of the time is describing the complex relationship that the main characters have between each other that will only ever work in the author's mind, as if I cared.
Then there is finally something in the Epilogue about some kind of resolution to all their problems that is not only stupid, it's idiotic.
What a waste of money.

Like many other readers, I have read and reread Anne's works over the last several decades. And, as I am finding out from reading reviews for his books here on the store, Todd's writing is a far cry from Anne's. I think I could put up with lack of artistry--Anne's writing flowed so elegantly--with inaccuracies, with modifications--especially involving a cast of different characters set in a different century--but I cannot tolerate the disturbing child pornography that has now become the basic foundation of the series, nor the mind-numbing drek-ish, gossipy dialogue--pages and pages of it! Not to mention the fact that the book is a real downer throughout and right up to the unresolved ending.

And, apparently, the books to follow are no better. Glad I got this one from the library. Don't waste your money.

So, like many others, I will content myself with a periodic rereading of Anne's works--and maybe check out some of the better Pern fanfiction online, likely more true to the spirit of Anne's writing than what Todd is shoveling...

Where to begin? How about the lack of coherent story line which really seems to be a 17 year-old girl's sexual confusion revolving around her 14 year old lesbian friend who she loves (but not in that way), her desires for a much older Harper (Kindan) and all the others she is constantly thinking about mating with. Everything seems to be wrapped up in the mating flights. Oh yeah, there's an underlying story about all the dragons dying and finding a cure for them but that is constantly over-ridden by more discussion of mating flights and who is having sex with what teenage girl. The characters are very shallow and I constantly keep having to go back and forth to try and remember who is who. Where Todd's mother, Anne, developed a dozen strong, memorable characters, Todd seems to keep throwing in characters who have little to do with the plot (or lack of one). Additionally, his attempts to mimic his mother's characters is anemic at best. His characters bounce between emotional extremes like it's a ping pong match! Characters will lash out in anger without cause one second and then be loving and good natured 2 sentences later.

Anne's Pern series is wonderful...I've read and re-read it over a dozen times. She has the ability to develop the culture and characters regardless of what time period in Pern's history...there is always a congruity in her stories that is totally lacking in Todd's.

Keep practicing your writing Todd and seek some professional help to deal with your sexual fixations on teenaged girls.

I have read and enjoyed Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series to the point of rereading prior books before picking up any new release. I was delighted but cautious when I read that Anne's son, Todd, was collaborating and then writing about Pern on his own. Tood has focused on going back in time to describe the Pernese and their battles with various plagues, first among the general population and, then among the Fire Lizards and Dragons. I initially enjoyed Todd's collaborations and his initial, solo written stories. However, with Dragongirl I'm sorry to say, enough is enough! The perpetual focus on Fiona's (a teenage Wheyrwoman) (deviant?) sexuality, multiple unnamed forebodings, fatal outcomes in most Thread battles, and easy killing off his supposed main characters is enough to have me say "ADIOS." Unless Todd can stop his "downer" writing style and a boring sexual focus that does nothing to further the plot line, my inclination is to ignore any further reading of his Pern series. I certainly won't waste my money on a purchase, considering how poorly this series is devolving, so borrowing from a library will at least save me from costly frustrations.

Having been a fan of McCaffrey for many many years, and enjoying the ones she co-authored with her son, I figured I'd jump in and give one of his stand-alones a try. I'm not sure whether I should have started with the prior ones, or that would have just made it more excruciatingly painful.

I couldn't even finish this. Plot? What plot? Character development? Poorly written,underdeveloped, boring, needy, whiney characters who did a lot of mate switching. At least Anne addressed the whole weyr sleeping around thing tastefully and tactfully. I gave Anne's books without hesitation to my kids many moons ago, I would hesitate now. Take Twilight throw in a bit more bodice ripping, lots of unexplained nonsensical time travel, a big dash of this is not the Pern I know and love, plus some badly written prose and voila!

I think the whole switching dragons thing made me cringe more then the "oh who am sleeping next with plot" though. Throwing away every bond that Anne had between a rider and dragon is probably one of the worst things contributing to this train wreck of a book. Oh your dragon just died? Poor baby, now just move along, other things to see. Stop messing with Pern!