Dragon's Fire: Dragonriders of Pern

McCaffrey's work is consistently excellent, and this novel is no exception. She manages to build suspense, then carry her reader through to an ending both satisfying and unexpected in its twists and turns. I'm reading the whole series this winter. I heartily recommend it!

This was a wonderful book. Todd has really captured the essence of Pern. It was very interesting to hear more about the whers. They were largely ignored in the original series, except for their use as night guardians.

"The Red Star grows larger and Thread will return." This quote, taken from Lord Fenner of Crom Hold, nicely sums up the situation in Anne and Todd McCaffrey's latest Pern collaboration, "Dragon's Fire". In only eighteen more years (or, rather, "Turns"), the world's ancient nemesis will return, a rogue planet called "The Red Star". It will tow in its wake hordes of deadly space spores; these will rain down relentlessly upon the planet for almost a lifetime. In contact with Pern's moist, warm atmosphere, the spores become Threads, organisms which voraciously consume all organic material. Only three things can stop Threads: water, solid rock, and the fire of the great, genetically engineered dragons of Pern.

By the time of "Dragon's Fire", the settlers have been on Pern for almost 500 Turns. Memories of Old Earth are fading, and Pern has fully developed the feudalistic society familiar to all long-time fans of the Dragonrider novels. Inevitably, as the Pernese prepare for the return of their ancient enemy at the start of the Third Pass, they meet up with a slew of challenges requiring the most urgent attention.

In "Dragon's Kin", the previous book of this storyline, we were introduced to the coal miners living in Camp Natalon, located in the hills near Crom. Of special import were the following characters: Masterharper Zist; Kindan, an orphaned miner boy; a blind girl named Nuella; a seemingly deranged villain named Tarik, himself a miner; Tarik's troubled young son, Cristov. We learned that coal has been getting harder to find close to the surface, and we learned new and important details about the watch-whers, ungainly creatures closely related to dragons, but comfortable only in dark places like mines.

So, has the figurative coal seam of Pern's early history been played out? Hardly! There are many new veins to be discovered and quarried.

While "Dragon's Fire" is technically a sequel to "Dragon's Kin", it actually consists internally of two books; I will treat them here as two separate entities.

The events of the first book, called "Pellar", run mostly parallel to those in "Dragon's Kin". We learn of the great personal tragedy which leads to Master Zist going to Camp Natalon, a rather unlikely place for a Masterharper to be. We are also introduced to his adopted son Pellar, a mute boy with a great talent for hunting, tracking and other woodcraft, also healing. These two characters have a good reason to be in Camp Natalon: they are investigating the steady pilferage of coal. They have their suspects, but need proof.

I actually liked "Pellar" much more than "Dragon's Kin". Although the latter was an enjoyable read, it suffered from two significant flaws. First, Todd's literary voice did not blend well with his mother's. Second, the behavior of miner Tarik, and to a lesser extent Masterharper Zist, just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. They just didn't have the right kinds of motivations -- especially Tarik. But "Pellar" provides a wealth of much-needed background information and clarification. Also, the authors' writing styles are much more harmonious now. No doubt, this is because Anne and Todd have had more practice in working together; also, Todd has matured as a writer in his own right.

"Pellar" introduces us to a few more important characters. There is the Shunned girl Halla. There is the journeyman harper Moran. We learn early on that he was supposed to be on a clandestine mission to learn more about the Shunned, but mysteriously vanished. What has he been up to? And then there's a ruthless new villain, Tenim.

To understand a little about the Shunned, just think of the Holdless of Ninth Pass Pern, two thousand Turns in the future. These people are depicted in "The Renegades of Pern", but "Dragon's Fire" introduces enough of a twist to the concept to avoid being overly repetitious. What will happen to them when Thread starts falling? Does anyone care?

The second part of "Dragon's Fire" shares the name of the whole volume, and takes place in the Turns after "Dragon's Kin". A new problem is arising for Pern: firestone. This is the combustible rock which dragons must chew to produce flame, vital in searing Thread from the skies. The problem is that firestone is TOO combustible. The mines have an unfortunate tendency to explode. Dragons hate the stuff, but nobly chew it anyway for the good of all Pern. Experienced, non-crispy miners are in desperately short supply, and there are few volunteers. How has Pern managed to put up with this mess for so long?

There is another brewing crisis involving the watch-whers, but I won't give any details away.

In corresponding with Todd himself, I learned that "Dragon's Kin" was really meant to be a "Young Adult" novel, but because of its being part of the Pern series, it was published under the standard Del Rey label instead. I would rate "Dragon's Fire" the same way, given how most of the protagonists are children, and the story is told mainly from their viewpoint. They face challenges familiar to many of the young people on Pern: learning who they are, and coping with the often heartbreaking fact that life frequently isn't very fair.

"Young Adult" or not, there is plenty here for us older readers to enjoy. Don't let it deter you.

A few miscellaneous thoughts: Todd (I'm sure it has to be Todd) adds a lot of fascinating details to Pern. Things like the colors of dragon eggs or what firestone actually looks like. There are whole chapters devoted to the Spring Games (in this era called the All-Weyr Games). This is an annual contest held by the Weyrs during an Interval to keep practicing Thread-fighting techniques.

There are a few flaws in "Dragon's Fire". I noticed one jarring contradiction, involving Pellar's rank as a harper. Again, some of the villains just don't seem to have convincing motives. Maybe they're just deranged. Hopefully a future sequel will explain things better.

Given how I got only an hour and a half of sleep last night, being totally drawn into this story, I definitely give it two thumbs up. If you're a major fan of Pern, by all means get this book in hardcover.

I'm looking forward to chewing on the next installment. Bring it on!

I began reading the original Anne McCaffrey Pern novels as a teenager many years ago. I have since read many of the sequels. This is among the weaker installments and seems intended for a YA audience.

To be fair, first the pluses - the theme of the Shunned - every society has its outcasts (depicted somewhat better in The Renegades of Pern). The fate of exiles, especially as a planetary threat draws near, is worth exploring. Examining other social categories, miners and to a lesser extent traders, also adds texture to the world of Pern. Making firestone mining and use more dramatic and potentially more dangerous, while also offering an eventual solution, was not a bad plot twist, but a substance that volatile seems rather unbelievable. What if they had to fight Thread in the rain?

The minuses:

Too many characters and they are SO one dimensional. They are either saintly (Pellar and Halla), inexplicably evil (Tenim) or just plain pathetic (Moran). If I were Halla, I'd have taken the kids and ditched Moran. They'd have fared better on their own.

Tenim - he's just one guy with a raptor. Why does it take so long for anybody to stand up to his bullying?

Tenim and Pellar fight to the death at least three times. Pellar miraculously survives again and again. Not believable.

The Spring Games went on and on and on. And seriously, a Weyrling and his dragon die and the games and the Gather proceed as usual? No collective keening? No time out to grieve? Dragon death is not a trivial matter as Mikal's character shows. Be consistent, Todd!

The watchwher side plot, potentially interesting, is never fully developed.

D'gan is utterly unconvincing as weyrleader. He's evil to the point of being mentally unstable. You'd think there would be some means of censuring him internally within the Weyrs for his callous disdain for basic human rights. Waiting until the next mating flight seems like a cop out.

The overall tone of the book is depressing and gloomy. Anne would have thrown in a nice uplifting Impression at the end to raise the reader's spirits. The opportunity was there. Todd should have taken it.

Pern is going through some growing pains 490 years After Landing. The common punishment for lawbreaking is Shunning of the lawbreaker and his or her family leaving roving bands of lawbreakers wandering Pern. In many cases, this means roving bands of children who have committed no crime but who are in danger of starvation.

It is also a time when mining for the firestone that the dragons need when Thread falls is at a low point. Any contact with water means the firestone explodes. When the story begins there is only one working mine.

There are quite a few viewpoint characters. All of them are quite young and are all about 10 to 12 when the story begins. Pellar is a mute orphan taken in by Harpers and trained to gather information. He is a gifted tracker and has great survival skills. Halla is a child of the Shunned is is busy caring for other young orphans. Cristov is a young miner whose father has been Shunned because he was stealing from the mine for his own profit. His father's thefts and corner-cutting caused the deaths of a number of miners. Cristov is determined to make up for his father's crimes. We also see Kindan again though his role in this story is relatively minor.

This story, along with many of the rest co-authored by Todd McCaffrey, takes place around the time of the Third Pass. The characters know that Threadfall is coming but it is still a number of years away.

The main villain of this story is Tenim who was also the child of Shunned parents and who is living up to their evil. He is a thief and murderer. His major plot in this story is to gain great wealth by cornering the market on firestone. He is willing to destroy mines and kill miners to further his plans.

I enjoyed the way the various plot threads were woven together in this one. I liked that a better solution for the Shunned was finally found because it never seemed fair to me that children should be punished for crimes their parents committed. I liked that all the Weyrleaders were not the same though I do wonder how D'gan of Telgar managed to impress his dragon. D'gan makes a fine secondary villain in this story because of his mistreatment of the Shunned and his single-minded pursuit of firestone no matter what it cost in lives.

This was another great entry into the long-running Pern series. In the internal chronology of the series this is probably book five. Published in 2006, it appears 38 years after the first published Pern book.

For their second collaboration (the first was "Dragon's Kin") and the 17th volume in the saga of Pern, Anne and Todd McCaffrey have gone back in time to the late fourth century of the planet's settlement. In the 200-year Interval since the last Pass of the Red Star and its deadly Thread, Pernese society (perhaps because the original settlers were devoted pacifists) has evolved a system of Shunning as punishment for "murder, repeated manslaughter, repeated theft, even sheer laziness"--any act that harms the society as a whole and threatens the good order of Pern. The Shunned are outcasts, with no Hold or Weyr to protect and support them, no land, no craft. Some become wanderers, occasionally taken in by the legitimate traders, but most end up mining firestone, the phosphine-laden mineral that dragons must chew in order to emit Thread-searing flame. But firestone is volatile: it emits a gas that can kill, and if touched by water it explodes spectacularly, so many of the miners run away as soon as they can, and disasters often befall the mines, taking them out of production and reducing the supply of available stone. Moreover, many Shunned have children who had no part in whatever crime got them exiled. And now the Red Star is swinging nearer in its orbit, and the Masterharper of the planet and his friend Harper Zist have asked themselves, "When Thread returns, what will people with nothing to lose not do in order to survive?" To find out whether any are redeemable, and what can be done with them, a Harper named Moran was sent out on an undercover mission, but he has fallen out of contact. So Zist chooses another agent, young Pellar, whom he and his wife found and adopted as a toddler. Pellar can't speak, but in trailcraft and the construction of musical instruments he has few peers. Accompanied by his fire-lizard Chitter, he sets out on an epic quest that will eventually involve Halla, who will become "his voice;" Cristov, a young miner; Kindan, an apprentice Harper; Tenim, a child of the Shunned whose bitterness turns him to theft and profiteering; the missing Moran and the band of orphan children he has taken responsibility for; bronze rider D'vin and his mount Hurth, through whom Pellar discovers he can talk to dragons; D'gan, the arrogant Weyrleader of Telgar who genuinely believes that he's doing what he must for the survival of his world; and many others. Meanwhile, it suddenly occurs to Kindan to wonder why fire-lizards are called that. They've never been observed to chew firestone in recent times--but what if the firestone mined on Pern's northern continent is different from that the original settlers found on the now-abandoned southern one? What if southern stone is less volatile? Can this be the key to the problem of both firestone supply and what to do about the Shunned?

As always, the McCaffreys seed their story with bits of throwaway about Pern's culture and society (we learn, for instance, of the annual Games at which the Weyrs enact a Threadfall and vie for points and prizes, like a more serious version of the Olympics), and their exposition of their world is consistent in a way that Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover, to take one example, isn't always. Though perhaps not the best of the Pern series, this one is an interesting look back into the days when the planet's settlers were still figuring out what worked and what didn't, which makes it relevant to all human society, and even the villainous Tenim is comprehensible.

I sorely wanted to believe that Todd McCaffrey's concept of Pern would pick up Anne's McCaffrey's visionary thread, in harmony or counterpoint, and am therefore saddened to report that his handling seems so unevenly discordant to me that I may not trouble to read another of his tales.

Where Anne McCaffrey's Pern always held a note of optimism and hope through the most difficult of times, Todd McCaffrey's Pern is jarring and uncomfortable as it explores the unsavory underbelly of the culture--a Pern I never expected to see and honestly can't believe exists. The very concept of a "Shunned" subculture in the numbers posited; of Weyrleader D'gan threatening to kill an injured, albeit Shunned miner? Firestone so unstable and volatile a substance that a drop of water will explode it? ("Dragon's Fire") (Shards! Let's hope a rider doesn't sneeze while passing his dragon firestone! Or fly through a moisture-rich cloud!) Dragons dying by the dozens and an acutely sensitive Lorana, who can feel every death, not being rendered catatonic by the horror of it? Lorana continuing to function, even to the extent of learning genetic manipulation (!), after her own Queen, Arith, dies? ("Dragonsblood") Flight games continuing with little emotional impact or comment after the death, by firestone explosion, of a weyrling delivering firestone? ("Dragon's Fire") Compare that to Anne's description of the acute psychic agony suffered by Lytol years after the death of his dragon, brown Larth ("Dragonflight", "The White Dragon"), and I find myself asking, who ARE these people? They dress like Pernese, they attempt to speak like Pernese, yet they haven't the sensibilities of folks who have been reared with and lived in the company of the lofty dragons of Pern.

I've read the covers off of Anne McCaffrey's Pern sagas until the characters are as familiar to me as childhood friends, and this is not the Pern I know.

And the discomfort inflicted by Todd McCaffrey's tales is interminable--heaping disaster upon disaster and horror upon horror through chapter after chapter until I can barely stand to continue reading. If I wanted to wallow in this type of dark emotion, I could simply stay on present-day Earth, turn on the telly and absorb the news of the Middle East. In the past, I've escaped to Pern to soothe my jangled psyche by immersion in a culture more inherently honorable and magical than my own. I'm afraid that Todd McCaffrey's Pern is too realistic, if you will; too unpleasantly akin to my own world, to entice me to visit again.

Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey have collaborated a second time to write a novel of Pern's earlier days. Dragon's Fire takes place during the same time period as their first collaboration Dragon's Kin, which would be the end of the Second Interval after Landing (the settlement of Pern) before the Fall of Thread. This novel has to do with discovering new sources for firestone, the material needed by the dragons to breathe fire. Pellar, a young mute boy is apprenticed to Masterharper Zist and they work together to search for Moran, another Harper who has gone missing trying to help The Shunned. The Shunned are a segment of Pernese society which have been outcast for various crimes but also at the whim of a Lord Holder. Pellar's story intertwines with Halla, a homeless girl, and Cristov, the son of a miner. There are references to the characters of Dragon's Kin, but this serves more to place the story in a time period rather than illuminate the story here.

While Dragon's Fire is, at its core, about finding a safe way to mine firestone, most of the novel focuses on the various adventures of Pellar as well as Tenim's (a villain) desire to gain power and money. Dragon's Fire does not seem to tell the story it claims to tell, and the issue with firestone is almost an afterthought except for discussions on the challenges of mining firestone because of how volatile the material is. Midway through the novel the story picks up and the McCaffreys start driving towards a conclusion, but the first half of the novel meanders around without accomplishing much. By the end Dragon's Fire is a better novel than Dragon's Kin, but it does not hold up nearly as well against Anne's classic Dragonriders of Pern novels. Interestingly enough, Todd McCaffrey's solo Pern novel, Dragonsblood, is also a stronger novel. The fact that the stakes do not feel very high or important has to do with the reasons why this novel is not as effective as other Pern stories. This is a problem in telling stories set early in a long chronology because we know that the dragons have firestone and no previous mention of the danger of firestone has been seen in prior novels, it is difficult to feel that there is a chance that the story will not end well for Pern.

Sometimes I wish that Pern would start to go the way of Darkover (Marion Zimmer Bradley) in that the lost colony will eventually become re-discovered by Earth and the culture conflicts. Anne already set this up in All the Weyrs of Pern with the discovery of working technology and the old space ships. There are stories to tell in this direction, but I fear that Todd will continue to write in the older days of Pern and do little to expand our understanding of the world.

-Joe Sherry

Todd McCaffrey's version of Pern continues to depart from the world his mother created - full of Mary Sues, Gary Stus, and political correctness. Todd's books are more like an extensive fan-fiction world, allowing for things that his mother permitted in fan fiction, but would never have allowed in her own written world.

I purchased and read three of Todd McCaffrey's books in this extended universe Pern series, but will not consider them part of canon Pern, and will not be purchasing any more of Todd's books.

I found this book very compelling. I was upset that there was more violence than in the other stories, but was satisfied by how it all worked out in the end. The final paragraph is worth the whole book!

This book has nearly quenched my desire to read any more of the dragon series. The three young male characters seem to have interchangeable personalities. The story seems to meander without any real focus. We have a much overused reuse of the arrogant wyerleader theme. The bad guy vs one of the young male characters is poorly detailed and repetitive. I've read the 9th pass books and all of the ones prior to this one except Dragoneye and so far this is the worst one I've encountered. If you're trying to read all of the series, then I guess you'll read this one, but don't expect much.

"Dragon's Fire" is the second collaboration between Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd (a published novelist in his own right). Judging from these collaborations, and from the publication of a "Pern" novel under Todd's name alone, it is clear that the torch is being passed from one generation to another.

This is not the strongest of the "Pern" stories -- nor, however, is it as bad as, say, "The Dolphins of Pern" (the point of which I still have yet to ascertain!) Set toward the end of the Interval between the Second and Third Passes, the inhabitants of Pern deal with the several challenges including:

1) Firestone problems

2) Shortage of dragonriders

3) Shortage of watchweyrs

4) What to do about "The Shunned" -- a culture of pariahs seperated from the rest of the Pern civilization.

5) An irresponsible Weyrleader (of whose appearance in the next novel I have little doubt!)

A couple of unique characters add to the charm of this novel.

Virtually no new ground is broken here -- but what is presented is pleasant and entertaining.

(I would be interested to hear if other readers caught the same parallels to "Oliver Twist" as I did. Please feel free to e-mail me.)

Since following the first serialized episodes of the Dragons of Pern trilogy in the late 1960's, I have looked forward to the Pern books (novels, short stories, etc). This one falls below the usual quality, and altho's I gave it 4 stars initially I think that it might rate 2 stars on reflection. (It has been a long interval since my last read of a book on Pern!)

The first think that I reacted to were the egregious typographical errors. Then there are the grammatical errors--missing words, scrambled sentences, additional nonsensical words...often requiring the reader to use context to make some sense of the sentence (or even, paragraph). Then there is the herky-jerky way the book is put together. This is reminiscent of the collaborations between Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon (books I have avoided like the plague) where it is painfully obvious that 2 different authors are colliding in the same book.

Next, character development is sketchy. The "personae" page lists 2 characters (Cayla and Carissa) whose parts in the book are brief and who contribute nothing more to the storyline except a brief insight into who and what Pellar is. And Pellar, who should have been a strongly developed character, is, despite his presence throughout the book, strangely 1 dimensional. The same holds for Tenim. And the denouement between Pellar and Tenim lacks any real drama or ability to engage the reader. Much the same can be said for almost all characters. Halla is the best developed, but still tends to be sketchily drawn.

Overall the book is like an ensemble TV series that tries to do too much with too many "stars"; some get their moment(s) while others come and go or just languish in the scenery until they are dismissed. To fully develop this book and its cast would have taken maybe 2 books--something that Anne McCaffrey has not been afraid to do in the past. I'll try the other books (Dragon's Kin, Dragonsblood and Dragonholder) I haven't yet read. I'll get back to you on those.

Anne McCaffrey's Pern is a favorite retreat of mine ever since I read 'Dragonflight' back in the 1970s. Some of the books are better than others, but all have familiar characters and those marvelous dragons.

This latest in the saga of Pern nicely fills in more details about the planet and its fight with the carbon-devouring Thread, but it does not rank among those that I'll read over and over again. Lessa, F'lar, and Robinton are marvelous creations, as are Sean, Sorka, Admiral Bendon, Emily Boll, and Kit Ping. Pellar and Halla are good but don't quite rise to the levels of other Pernese.

Still, it's always a treat to be taken off to this world where humans fight against their own weaknesses and limitations as well as the strange forces on their new chosen home. With little more than natural abilities and ingenuity they succeed in making steps forward in their respective quests.

Pern has been such a rich, living tapestry that I never expected the series to get to this point. Reading Anne's books has left me with a full sense of the depth of her world and the vitality of its inhabitants. I cried at the death of Robinton, having felt that I would almost have recognised him, Menolly, Lessa, Piemur, etc., on the street.

Dragon's Fire is... nowhere near. Instead of being immersed in depth, instead of being swept along on the tide of the story, I feel like I'm wading in an ankle-deep creek. I'm skipping through the story without understanding who the characters are, where they are, or why they act as they do.

The idea of Games continuing through the violent death of a wyrling blows my mind. And since when does firestone blow up on contact to water? Have they never fought Thread during rain or heavy fog? How in the world could the firestone miners go all day without water while working, when the guy in the stocks couldn't even tolerate just sitting there without, and yet there was only one guy coming out all day?

It's just... like someone read some of Pern and decided to write a faintly related story, with no adherence to anything that didn't suit their storyline. Altogether, not a good recommendation of the continuing series at all.

Dragon's Fire was an interesting book to read. It has its moments and at times is entertaining, but it is also a mess. From the start, the book had me thinking "Can Todd McCaffrey not think of any new plots?!" The first half of the book is largely are rewrite of Dragon's Kin with a new cast. While it reveals a new depth of intrigue and purpose in the other book, I still found this somewhat troublesome. The second half, dealing with Cristov felt more genuine to me...but at the same time came out of left field. The plot and development of the story overall is very disjointed and meandering. Granted, I can understand why this may be so and how it could be used to develop characterization, but it ends up being too heavy handed.

Any fan of Pern can bemoan the fact that this is not the work of his mother, but if you can get past the book's many flaws there are some interesting ideas hidden in each of Todd McCaffrey's books. I just hope his writing improves...though after reading three of his books, I have serious doubts.

The sad fact is that Todd Johnson, who changed his name just to capitalize on Mommy's name recognition, is not a writer. Anne's books developed some problems over time which her fans attributed to her increasing age, but Todd doesn't have that excuse.

I can't speak for the story because I couldn't get past the writing long enough to finish the book. He seriously overuses dialogue tags--for every "said" he bothers to use, there are probably a dozen others: continued, told, agreed, shrieked, suggested, told, asked, called, replied... this is something I remember being warned away from in high school. Some pieces of dialogue don't even make sense in context, not to mention the fact that he plays fast and loose with the canon his mother previously established for the world of Pern.

The beginning of the book is littered with fantasy cliches... bad poetry! Disabilities that don't reduce the attractiveness or seriously interfere with the lives of the disabled! Random capitalization of important words! It lacks any compelling story to force the reader to continue. There's no reason to wonder what's going to happen next. I plowed through almost a hundred pages on the sheer strength of my adolescent love for Pern novels, but finally had to give up.

It's not worth the money, and shame on Anne, Todd, their agents and the publisher for wanting to capitalize on her fame with such a shoddy piece of work. If they want to salvage the series, I would suggest they consider employing a ghostwriter for the next book. Or, perhaps better, if Anne is unable to continue, let Pern rest in peace.

I introduced my mother to the Pern books years ago, and since then we've reduced our collection of Anne McCaffrey books, Pern-related and otherwise, to a well-loved stack of dog-eared, broken-spined, bathwater-and-chocolate-spotted wrecks. When Todd McCaffrey began writing, Mother and I were both thrilled. More Pern books! NEW Pern books!

I, for one, am now extremely disappointed. This is not the same Pern. Suddenly there are Shunned everywhere, and there is a healer who works mainly with stones; firestone is highly explosive; watchwhers (which now fly thread at night) are tremendously important but never adequately described; dragonriders lose their dragons -- a tragedy described in Dragonsfire as so much worse than the loss of a child -- and then go normally about their business in the Weyrs, pausing now and then to wince when something dragon-related reminds them of their loss. (Whither Brekke?) One-dimensional bad guys abound, being, apparently, arseholes for the sake of being arseholes. There is little in the way of motive -- and even if the motives were explored, the reader is given no particular reason to care, as the characters are rarely fleshed-out enough to inspire sympathy.

That leads me to another gripe. There are many characters in Todd McCaffrey's Pern books, most of whom are indistinguishable. Names are too similar, and descriptions few and far between, which leads to confusion [see D'lin, D'gan, D'vin]. I mentioned this to Mom, who said "I thought it was just me, not concentrating well enough to keep the characters and locations straight."

"Mom," I said, "think back. I bet that right now you can actually picture Robinton, or Sebell, or Piemur -- all harpers, but all very different. You can picture Ruatha Hold, Cove Hold, Paradise Hold, Benden Weyr. Now try to picture Kindan. Try to picture Camp Natalon."

"You're right," she said.

In Anne McCaffrey's books, you could generally see the room in which the characters stood, or the layout of Hold or Weyr. There was atmosphere. There was distance. The characters were individuals, with individual traits and tics -- think about F'lar's constant battle with hair in his eyes, Piemur's quick and hyperactive ways, Jancis sturdy and dimpling, Mirrim charging about like a particularly bossy bull in a china shop; simpering, puffed-up Esselin, somber Lytol, massive Fandarel and his never-ending quest for maximum efficiency. Even those who were not necessarily physically described were often recognizable through dialogue alone.

There are large mistakes in the new books. During the Games (also new), a weyrling blows up due to firestone, for no apparent plot-related reason other than to emphasize yet again the danger of firestone -- and the whole affair is quickly forgotten in the awarding of prizes. Lorana supposedly has a sort of inferiority complex due to the loss of her family during the Plague; this is pointed up now and then, in direct opposition to her assertiveness in handling dragons, dragonmen and obnoxious Weyrwoman alike. Pellar does not love Aleesa's daughter, and then he does. He sees a red-headed boy going into the mine, but though the boy and his hair color are important enough to be noticed, he isn't important enough that we are able to put a name to him. Later on, I believe a dragon actually changes color over the course of a few pages, but I can't be sure without the book here; the dragon in question was Telenth, though I could have him mixed up with Talith, which brings me back to the name problem. Even the minor name issues are an irritation - overuse of similar letter groupings (Pellar, Halla, Allera, Nuella, etc.), or first letters of names, like the slew of "K" names used in Dragonsfire. It is nearly impossible to keep everyone straight. Reading Pern books is not supposed to be work.

I'll grant that taking on a complete fictional world is an enormous task. Comparisons to that world's creator are inevitable. Complaints about any change to that world are also inevitable, and for good reason. Todd McCaffrey, if you want a different world to write about, create one, and if you aren't up to the task of taking over your mum's world, with her carefully-crafted characters and elegant descriptive passages intact, don't do it!

This seems to be a parallel book that runs alongside an earlier book. Worth reading but the characters don't seem as well developed as in other Pern stories. Very little about the dragons and their riders in this one.

Fans of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series will want to give a pass this attempt by her son to repeat her success. It is a lackluster telling of what could have been an excellent tale. Todd McCaffrey has none of his mother's talent for involving the reader in the tale or character development. The characters lack depth and the story line jumps and jerks rather than gliding from chapter to chapter.

I introduced my mother to the Pern books years ago, and since then we've reduced our collection of Anne McCaffrey books, Pern-related and otherwise, to a well-loved stack of dog-eared, broken-spined, bathwater-and-chocolate-spotted wrecks. When Todd McCaffrey began writing, Mother and I were both thrilled. More Pern books! NEW Pern books!

I, for one, am now extremely disappointed. This is not the same Pern. Suddenly there are Shunned everywhere, and there is a healer who works mainly with stones; firestone is highly explosive; watchwhers (which now fly thread at night) are tremendously important but never adequately described; dragonriders lose their dragons -- a tragedy described in Dragonsfire as so much worse than the loss of a child -- and then go normally about their business in the Weyrs, pausing now and then to wince when something dragon-related reminds them of their loss. (Whither Brekke?) One-dimensional bad guys abound, being, apparently, arseholes for the sake of being arseholes. There is little in the way of motive -- and even if the motives were explored, the reader is given no particular reason to care, as the characters are rarely fleshed-out enough to inspire sympathy.

That leads me to another gripe. There are many characters in Todd McCaffrey's Pern books, most of whom are indistinguishable. Names are too similar, and descriptions few and far between, which leads to confusion [see D'lin, D'gan, D'vin]. I mentioned this to Mom, who said "I thought it was just me, not concentrating well enough to keep the characters and locations straight."

"Mom," I said, "think back. I bet that right now you can actually picture Robinton, or Sebell, or Piemur -- all harpers, but all very different. You can picture Ruatha Hold, Cove Hold, Paradise Hold, Benden Weyr. Now try to picture Kindan. Try to picture Camp Natalon."

"You're right," she said.

In Anne McCaffrey's books, you could generally see the room in which the characters stood, or the layout of Hold or Weyr. There was atmosphere. There was distance. The characters were individuals, with individual traits and tics -- think about F'lar's constant battle with hair in his eyes, Piemur's quick and hyperactive ways, Jancis sturdy and dimpling, Mirrim charging about like a particularly bossy bull in a china shop; simpering, puffed-up Esselin, somber Lytol, massive Fandarel and his never-ending quest for maximum efficiency. Even those who were not necessarily physically described were often recognizable through dialogue alone.

There are large mistakes in the new books. During the Games (also new), a weyrling blows up due to firestone, for no apparent plot-related reason other than to emphasize yet again the danger of firestone -- and the whole affair is quickly forgotten in the awarding of prizes. Lorana supposedly has a sort of inferiority complex due to the loss of her family during the Plague; this is pointed up now and then, in direct opposition to her assertiveness in handling dragons, dragonmen and obnoxious Weyrwoman alike. Pellar does not love Aleesa's daughter, and then he does. He sees a red-headed boy going into the mine, but though the boy and his hair color are important enough to be noticed, he isn't important enough that we are able to put a name to him. Later on, I believe a dragon actually changes color over the course of a few pages, but I can't be sure without the book here; the dragon in question was Telenth, though I could have him mixed up with Talith, which brings me back to the name problem. Even the minor name issues are an irritation - overuse of similar letter groupings (Pellar, Halla, Allera, Nuella, etc.), or first letters of names, like the slew of "K" names used in Dragonsfire. It is nearly impossible to keep everyone straight. Reading Pern books is not supposed to be work.

I'll grant that taking on a complete fictional world is an enormous task. Comparisons to that world's creator are inevitable. Complaints about any change to that world are also inevitable, and for good reason. Todd McCaffrey, if you want a different world to write about, create one, and if you aren't up to the task of taking over your mum's world, with her carefully-crafted characters and elegant descriptive passages intact, don't do it!

This seems to be a parallel book that runs alongside an earlier book. Worth reading but the characters don't seem as well developed as in other Pern stories. Very little about the dragons and their riders in this one.

Fans of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series will want to give a pass this attempt by her son to repeat her success. It is a lackluster telling of what could have been an excellent tale. Todd McCaffrey has none of his mother's talent for involving the reader in the tale or character development. The characters lack depth and the story line jumps and jerks rather than gliding from chapter to chapter.

I wanted to like this book. I was mildly disappointed by Dragon's Kin and EXTREMELY disappointed at Dragon's Blood. I am 32 years old and I have been reading Pern adventures for over 20 years. There is no feeling or heart in Todd's books. Everything is so perfunctory. I feel like I'm going through a checklist from a bad screenplay. Children die. Check. Fire lizards die. Check. People die. Check. Character development is so lacking that the reader could really care less when something "significant" occurs.

The saddest thing is that this doesn't seem like Anne's Pern at all. It's not consistent with what I know of it. Obscure, irrelevant, extreme events occur for the sake of pushing the story. Nothing about it seems natural. Nothing about it flows. If Todd had writer's block during the creation of this book, it's obvious by the stinted, stilted storying telling. Maybe he should stick to computer science.

Is Anne Mccaffrey losing her falculties that she is just aggreeing to allow her son to write these "stories"? Anne, take your meds and open your eyes, your son is destroying the Pern series. Stop agreeing with him. Stop writing with him. He is ruining your masterpiece. Everytime I see a new Pern book with todd McCafrey's name on it, I cringe. I read it in the store first. If I like half the story, then I will buy it. This story is ridiculous. A mute harper? harpers are supposed to teach through song. How does a mute harper do this, through sign language? The "Shunned" reminds me of the "others" in Lost. I miss my heros, Lessa, F'Lar, Brekke, Menoly, Robinton, F'Nor, T'gellan, etc. I miss my heros.

Long live Pern, it was great while it lasted. May it rest in peace.

This book, one of the son/mother collaborations, is just not good. Compared to the original books of the series, there is little character development, a completely simple and one dimensional story line, and a lot of cliches. I had my teenagers laughing over some of the maudlin prose. Very disappointing, with none of the rich description and depth or complexity of the older works. And speaking as a woman, it seems that it was written more by a man than a woman. Don't buy it - check it out from the library and be happy you saved the money.

I got "Dragon's Fire" at the library, looking for a good dragon read. I constantly found myself wondering, where's the plot? "Drangon's Fire" was disjointed and confusing; there were many points that contradict the original stories. It felt forced and strained. Anne McCaffrey gave me a a magical world that I've visited over and over; sometimes I fall asleep dreaming of riding my dragon with my fire-lizards flitting about me. I am so disappointed and saddened that my beloved Pern has fallen this far. I need to get busy reading "Dragonquest" to get my head back into Pern.

I have read every Pern book written, most of them several times, and I am sorry I wasted my time reading this one even once. Where was the editor? The book rambles, the plot jumps around, and the storyline is quite confusing. I liked Pellar, the main character, but most of the other characters were so minimally developed that you don't understand them or care about them. If you are new to Pern and the Dragonriders, please go read the early series, they were terrific. Don't judge by this one.

This book was definately not your typical "Dragonriders of Pern" style book in that It does not look to dragonriders as the main characters. Although they are important characters, McCaffrey sheds light on other aspects of Pernese life such as how firestone was mined, how people were judged and how they became holdless or Shunned, as well as the friction between holders, whers and crafts.

If you are looking for a repeat of Dragonflight, Dragonquest, or the White Dragon, You may be disappointed, but McCaffrey creates new, intriguing, and very enjoyable aspects of pern while interweaving adventure with a new brand of hero.

Well Done, Mr. and Mrs. McCaffrey!

-Stephanie Ellis

Just finished this book and must say I really enjoyed it. I was hoping for some novels about the time of Lessa and the days after the last Thread fall, but it is really nice to see some of the events that happened earlier in the history of Pern. If you love the Pern series, then get this book.

A great plot revolving around the need to mine the dangerous firestone necessary to supply the dragons of Pern, with the means to destroy the parasitic thread which threatens all life on Pern. A richly detailed world. Dragon's fire focuses on four intriguing characters : Pellar (a mute harpist), Halla (a young girl of the Shunned) and Cristov the son of a disgraced miner, and the evil Tenim ( a thief and worse)...it s about the dangers of mining Firestone and what to do with the Shunned...
I will be looking out for other Pern novels...

most of the reviews have ripped the book apart, however, i don't think the book deserved such negative reviews. yes, the story jumps around but it's a good story that pern lovers should read. i love the characters Pellar and Halla and want more stories with them involved. of course, nothing can be as good as the first 2 series(sorry Todd) but dragon's fire and dragon's kin give pern lovers another side of pern which is interesting.

This book was a terrible disappointment. I just kept slogging thru it, hoping at some point it would finally hold together. It didn't. The big "search for Maron" just fizzled. The guy was never held accountable for what he did wrong, which just doesn't jibe with the way Harpers are supposed to me.

The thing I've been noticing with the trend of these latest books in the Pern series, is that no one is ever happy. There is only misery and a lot of back-stabbing. The only happiness seems to come in the last two sentences.

I am severely displeased with Todd McCaffrey's writing. It's sappy, sugarcoated, and the stuff of Disney princess movies. The corny ending made me gag and I cannot believe Anne McCaffrey chose this moron as her prodigy for Pern. Surely there are better writers out there who can continue the legacy of Pern...anyone!? I am saddened to see how Todd McCaffrey is desecrating the world of Pern one book at a time. If there were a lower rating than one star, that is what I would give this vile waste of paper.

I have been reading (and revisting) the Dragon novels of Annie McCaffrey since the 1970's and have a nearly full set : this novel does not disappoint, in fact builds on Anne's already very high standards and lets us see a little more of Pern's history through another mind - as always the characters, and the planet come to life as soon as the book is opened, making me often wish I could be part of Benden's Weyr. Todd shows us a little of the darker side of Pern's people, in a sensitive but realistic way.

The Mccaffreys have collaborated again to create a Pern saga that revisits characters such as Master Zist and Kindan. In this volume, the reader is introduced to Pellar, the mute Harper apprentice, Cristov, a miner's son, Halla, a homeless young girl, and Moran, Harper to the Shunned. This entertaining fable includes breathtaking dragon flights and the discovery of a new source of firestone to be used in fighting the dreaded "Thread" falling on Pern. Great summer reading.

Anne McCaffrey is the quintessential writer of fantasy books pertaining to dragons. These books are always wonderful, well written, and perfectly characterized. All of her series are great but the ones that take place on Pern are the best of all.

In eighteen years, the Red Star will orbit around Pern and the parasitical spoor will rain down on the land destroying all organic matter. The fire breathing dragons are Pern's first line of defense but to burn thread out of the sky, the volatile substance firestone is needed and only one mine is operational. That mine is destroyed when the Shunned Tarik, set up by his partner Tenim, causes an explosion that destroys the facility.

Tenim, who has a grudge against Tarik's son Cristov, sets him up so that it looks like he stole something from a weyr leader. However, Cristov volunteers to open a new mine where he insists firestone waits to be dug up. The leaders of Pern have a plan to save the Shunned outcasts and the innocents who are with them. However Tenim has a countermeasure that would put all Pern in jeopardy and the only person who can stop him is a person long thought dead who doesn't have any recollection of who he is.

DRAGON'S FIRE is very different from most of the other Pern books as team McCaffrey focuses on the dark elements in the planet's society who are willing to commit crimes, some heinous in nature, if it means turning a profit. There are more villains than heroes in this exciting science fiction tale, but the protagonists who put Pern before themselves are willing to risk their own lives for future generations of Pernese. The Pern saga is generations old but its creator and her son keep coming up with new ideas and original storylines to keep readers happy.

Harriet Klausner

While several people have said bad things about this book I really enjoyed it. Todd's style isn't quite the same as his mother's and that may be the reason for some of the negative reviews. But he brings some fresh ideas and I, for one, love that.

I love how the books continue to unravel whats and hows of Pern's history.

In this book, a Harper who doesn't talk, the son of a shunned miner and an orphaned girl find a better way for dragons to produce flame to burn the thread that will be coming soon.