Dragonsblood (Pern)

Dragon's Kin was tolerable, I will say. I enjoyed the fleshing out of watch-whers even if some of it didn't agree with previous lore. The writing style was very noticeably different, and I often forgot I was reading a Pern novel, as it felt more like a standalone work of fiction than part of the Pern universe.

I got a few chapters into this one, and had to put it down. He has forgotten or ignored so many little details that it makes me cringe, and I find myself too distracted by the numerous mistakes to invest myself in the story.

When you screw up something as simple as Wind Blossom being Kit Ping's granddaughter, NOT daughter, it doesn't bode well at all. The story is choppy and jumps around, the characters aren't particularly likable, and his complete rewrite of the history of watch-whers was ridiculous and unbelievable. You don't just go and throw out novels full of back story because you feel like writing your own version. And if you do, you should at least try to make it SOMEWHAT believable.

I am not sure I will pick up this book again. It doesn't feel native to the series, and I am extremely disappointed that Anne McCaffrey let her son work with her books. Supporting your aspiring author of a child is one thing, letting them experiment with and change a well known and well beloved world is another.

*** SPOILERS ***

It is not possible to believe you can teach a bunch of uneducated people biomedical engineering and genetics in a few weeks. I just can't buy that.

And Tullea - her behavior is ultimately blamed on timing. Since she is completely neurotic in the "present" time, how in the world would she manage to survive 3 years in the past? And why wouldn't everyone else who went with her end up deranged too?
And then there was D'gan and his riders. I'm willing to buy the fact that his dragon was so ill that it went between to die. But the rest of the fighting dragons are lost too? We've had far too many instances in which people are still thinking and sane while between. And no one from that group was healthy enough to give good coordinates to the dragons? It had to take Lorana to do it who wasn't even there?

And then there was Lorana. I wanted to like her. But she was also unbelievable. Anyone who has experienced that kind of emotional pain - which kept recurring with the death of each dragon, isn't likely to be the person who can concentrate enough to learn biomedical engineering.

On the whole, the book was terribly painful with all the death and had far too many confusing and non-sensical parts. I wanted to like it. But it was depressing and just just too far fetched.

Why did I give it 3 stars? I guess because there were parts of it that filled in some of the gaps in Pern history and in the development of dragons, watch whers and their relationship to fire lizards. And I love the Pern world. But I didn't love this story.

Over the years I've read and reread Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. So I was a bit wary of the idea of anybody else taking up the reigns. I didn't have great expectations for this book, but was pleasantly surprised.
First of all, it's very readable, good pacing, plenty of suspense etc to keep you interested. And as an added bonus it continues some plot lines from Dragonsdawn which is my favorite book of the series. Many mysteries left from that book are touched on in this one, which I felt was very well done.

My one complaint is Lorana and Aryth. Lorana impresses a dragon; anyone who's read any Pern books knows how huge a deal that is. Yet there is hardly anything about their relationship. It is very much glossed over as nothing more than impetus towards finding a cure.

While it may seem repetitious to have Lorana hear every dragon, I thought it was intriguing how Todd made a slight shift towards not necessarily hearing every dragon, but feeling every dragon.

Some very interesting ideas for Pern are created in Dragonsblood. Whether they are true to the canon, I don't know, but overall an enjoyable continuation to the series.

It may not seem a good thing, when speaking of a Dragonriders of Pern book, but in many ways this was light reading. And as others have said it does lean in the direction of fanfiction. But every now and then I like a light read. While there are issues, there are also some nuggets of great information.

This is another book in the long-running Dragonriders of Pern series, first started by Anne McCaffrey. Todd McCaffrey (author's son) has co-written one book with her before, but this is his first solo effort. In a nutshell, it is very bad.

The problems with this book are numerous, and have all been well documented in the previous (bad) reviews. I will therefore make this brief.

To begin with, the plot is incredibly complex and switches back and forth between two timeperiods 500 years apart. It was very difficult to keep the characters and events straight between the two. Also, there are way too many secondary characters that serve no real purpose. Perhaps the most annoying thing though, was that there are many characters that all have very similar names. Do we really need a D'gin, D'gan, and D'vin? It's ok to use more than 4 letters to make a name.

The plot itself was pretty dry and uninteresting. The planetary plague plotline has been done and better than this. I understand that in such a long series you are going to have repeats and recycled ideas, but it needs to be done better.

The thing that bothered me most was the writing itself. The prose is clumsy and I had a lot of trouble following the ideas the characters were trying to get across. The author seems to be fond of having the characters realize something without feeling to need to tell the reader what it is exactly. I spent a large part of my time wondering what the heck Wind Blossom was talking about.

All in all, the diehard fans of the series will read it no matter what. If you can avoid this one do so. It does not improve the series and really adds nothing to it at all.

I was so thrilled that Todd McCaffrey wrote yet again another wonderful story of Pern. I thoroughly enjoyed his previous effort Dragon Harper that continued the story of Kinden. Todd is a worthy torch bearer for his mother's wonderful planet of Pern and it's beloved Dragon's. This particular installment in the Pern story was wonderful. I often wondered what had happened to Wind Blossom after Kitti Ping's death. I know Wing Blossom became vilified as the creator of the stunted watch wheres. This breed was no where near the graceful counterparts of the dragons. I had always wondered how thread was fought at night. It couldn't only fall during the day but, we were never told of any treacherous falls at night. These watch whers became more useful as fighers and not just as the family hold's "watch dog". This was a wonderful story and well worth the addition to the stories of our beloved series. Keep up the fabulous work Todd. I feel you have become a worthy bearer of your mother's torch in carrying on Pern's story. There are still other stories of this marvelous planet and it's dragons to tell us. I look forward to each and every consequently written book from Todd. Thank you for many hours of absolutely wonderful reads. I have all your mother's Pern novels in print and in electric form and as many in audible form as I can find. They are a favored series in our house. My husband does not like to read but, he read this series with alacrity which was totally unusual and only told of the superb writing of the books. Long may Pern and her dragons reign!

I sit here wondering exactly how to describe this trainwreck and I'm totally at a loss. I have been a fan of McCaffrey's work (well, Mom's) since the mid 70s and this... its like finding out the Mona Lisa really is a man and the full version of the painting has him wearing pantaloons. I am not done with this book yet because I just...can't... force myself.

I don't understand why so many female main characters in these books can speak to every dragon (Moreta couldn't, she could only speak to Orlith and Hoth) and yet each time its discovered all the secondary characters act like its so amazingly uncommon.

We have a female character who - through a jumble of unrelated and to some extent unfinished incidents - makes her way to become Impressed by a queen dragon. All this takes place a few weeks prior to Threadfalling. Our heroine starts by being an artist, turns into a beast healer (vet?) and then Weyrwoman all in the first half of the book with the help of characters who vanish and never return to the story line.

The "first fall" story has been done several times, but never so abysmally as here. Apparently decades of training means nothing - with each Threadfall there are dozens of dragon deaths as a planet full of inept dragonriders tries to do what in every other book they were born to do: fight thread. And the weyrfolk reaction? I've seen more enthusiasm from Oakland when the Raiders lose than Benden Weyr showed when half their dragons died.

Basically, the characters are shallow. The writing & editing are poor (he makes up his own words). Instead of coming up with any plausible explanation for the things Wind Blossom hints at, he makes them all "secrets" that she is forbidden to reveal - even the fact that she had dophin assistance in retrieving objects lost in the ocean is something she had to keep secret. So many of the characters have such similar names I almost had to keep notes.

Todd is nothing more than a small child dressing up in his parent's uniform pretending to be a policeman. Please, if you're a fan of Anne's, read her writing. Stay away from his.

Frankly, I found this book very confusing. I was about two thirds of the way through before I realized that the plot was flipping back and forth between two different time periods (my fault for not reading the date stamps at the beginning of the chapters.) I ended up having to read the book a second time immediately after I finished it just to clear up all the confusion in my mind-- but unfortunately I was still left with many unanswered questions.

The plot centers around Lorana, a girl of many talents- she can draw, she can heal, she can hear every dragon. (Although I don't know why that is supposed to be such a remarkable thing as every Pern heroine seems to be able to do so. It was terrific when Lessa could do it, okay when Brekke could do it, but after that it just got to be a little ridiculous.) Lorana can also send creatures back in time 500 years to when Wind Blossom, the daughter of Kitti Ping, is still alive and is trying to carry on her mother's work even as supplies are dwindling.

Back in Lorana's time, there is a plague that is killing dragons. We have the usual stupid, hard-nosed Weyrleader, the usual "itch" Weyrwoman, and the perfect Lorana (more like a doormat) who is constantly abused by the "itch" Weyrwoman, even though she is trying to save all the dragons.

Spoiler Alert!
I guess the main problem I have is that Todd MCaffery was never able to make me believe that Lorana is tortured by the dragons' deaths or to make me believe any of these people feel anything at all. I harken back to the book where Brekke lost her dragon and can still feel Brekke's intense grief, a shadow that never leaves her. Not even when Lorana's own queen is killed (and flung back 500 years in time) do I really feel that Lorana is affected too much by it. Instead she troops off to her microscope every day to find a cure for the plague. I think I grieved more for her dragon than she did.

And after Arith dies, I really have to suspend belief-- somehow Wind Blossom and all of her cohorts figure out that there is a plague attacking dragons in the future and they devise a way to tell those in the future how to isolate the plague and devise a cure. There is the usual cryptic song, that is so disharmonious that it is nearly lost to history, that tells Lorana et al what to do if they could only understand what it's trying to tell them. For pete's sake, why do they always have to make these songs so cryptic?

Also, wouldn't it have been easier for Wind Blossom to draw the blood from Arith when the dragon fell from the sky into the past instead of burning the body immediately. Then she could have immediately identified the pathogen and left the cure for her descendants to use. But of course, that would have created a time paradox-- it makes my head ache just thnking about it!

I also have to marvel at Lorana's stupidity in mixing unknown substances from 4 different vials and injecting them into her dragon, thus causing the dragon's death. Even as she's doing it, she admits she doesn't know what she's doing. Couldn't she have waited just a little bit to figure out what the vials were? (And I'm not quite sure why Wind Blossom left the vials there to begin with.)And, of course, if Lorana hadn't injected her dragon, Arith would never have gone back in time and there's that time paradox again.

And after all of Lorana's agonizing about the vector for the spread of the plague, how did she suddenly realize that it was airborne? (Actually, why did it take any of them so long to figure that out would be a better question.)

There is constant time travel in this book, including one completely strange time travel bit at the end that is so confusing that I still haven't figured out what happened and why.

There's a lot of things I don't understand about this book, and I could go on and on about all the paradoxes and contradictions-- not to mention the extraneous characters-- Todd McCaffery seems to be determined to name every single person living on Pern in both of the time periods. He also has an annoying habit of bringing something up as though it were of supreme importance, only to completely drop it and never bring it up again.

All that being said, I will say that it was nice being back on Pern again. If this is the only way we can get new Pern novels, so be it. Hopefully Todd will learn more about the world his mother created and become more adept at writing books set on this planet.

This book was a disaster. Todd McCaffrey should not be allowed to play in his mother's world, because it's really quite sad what he's doing to it. Even putting aside the various canon violations that he gleefully writes into existence (Don't even get me started on the whers...I almost cried), he's just not a very good writer. His characters aren't very empathetic or realistic, and it's difficult to get immersed into the world. He jumps around like crazy between characters and the plot (such as it is) is very stale and stolen from various incarnations of previous books in the series.

I am 100% sure that if his mother wasn't the writer who created this wonderful world, he would have never been published. This book and all the other Pern books by Todd are nepotism at its worst. I thoroughly enjoyed all of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, but as far as I am concerned the series died as soon the moment her son attempted to take it over.

I used to love the Pern books (before I developed a sense of literary style), and when I saw this one I thought I'd give them another try.

For a while I was thinking, "This is spooky. He writes _exactly_ like his mother - with all the faults as well." (For example, using incorrect words - someone burns charcoal in a "grazier", and someone else is "dowsed" - instead of "doused" - with water.)

But actually, this isn't up to Anne McCaffrey's standard. Sure, she's no literary giant, and she has inconsistencies in her long series, but this book just becomes more and more confusing as it goes along. There are far too many minor characters to keep track of, the body count just becomes tedious, the science is bogus, the plot is unconvincing and the time travel gets twisted into incomprehensible knots.

I think what I missed most, though, is Anne McCaffrey's characterization. One of the things I liked most about her books was that her female characters were strong but feminine, and her male characters gentle but masculine. (Forgetting Killashandra, who was just a bitch.) Todd McCaffrey doesn't achieve this, or anything close to it.

I just finished reading Dragonsblood last night. Having been a fan since the early 1970s, I've grown up with dragons. The series lost some of its appeal for me when the primary protagonists tended to be 10 to 15 years of age, and the main story line seemed to be how do nice kids deal with bullies while saving the world.

Dragonsblood made Pern real again for me. I could smell the dragons and feel the cold stone and warm sands of the Weyr once more. The characters' motivations were real. D'gan's megalomania was well intentioned but caused no end of trouble. Lorana's emphathy was intense but balanced. And Wind Blossom's emotional baggage and relationship with Emorra was spot on.

Don't read this book without reading Kindan's previous adventures (Dragon's Kin and Dragon Harper, especially) and keep in mind what these fictional folk have recently gone through. I don't want to give away details, but I think Todd McCaffrey does quite a credible job with Anne McCaffrey's Pern, the construction of complex characters, and a well-executed plot cluster. I look forward to his next.

Todd McCaffrey has made a worthy addition to the canon of Pern literature. This novel ties in nicely with the collaborative effort between Todd and Anne, Dragons Kin, and explores territory both new and familiar to Pern enthusiasts.

Todd has captured his mother's gift for characterisation (although perhaps there are a few too many characters mentioned), and the action, storyline and dragons are captivating - I couldn't put this down once I started it!

One major difference between Todd and Anne's writing is that Todd is not afraid to 'kill off' both characters and dragons (a major departure from Anne's work), and this adds a new dimension or edge to the story.

I found this novel to be exquisitely plotted, and, as an avid and multiple reader of all the Pern novels, I challenge anyone to pick flaws with the continuity or realism of the story - well, none that haven't already been made by Anne herself.

If I have one complaint, it is that towards the end of the novel the technojargon became quite incomprehensible in places, but I was able to skim through it to the essence of the story with no more than a faint grimace.

Well done Mr McCaffrey - you are a worthy successor.

In Dragonsblood, the story switches between past and present where Windblossom, one of the original Pern colonists is trying to create a legacy involving genetic engineering. In a time where dragons are dying from Thread, is capable of saving the dragons. In present time, Loranna is also dealing with dying dragons, and reaches back in time to Windblossom to save the dragons.

There was very little that I actually liked about the book. The writing was subpar. The storyline is both confusing and not especially interesting. The dialogue is weak. I wasn't very impressed with Anne McCaffrey as a writer, and I don't think her son is any better. This is a weak novel. Unless you're tied into the Pern series, I would skip it.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street

Overall, I enjoyed Dragonsblood by Todd McCaffrey. However, after years of reading the wonderful stories by his mother Anne McCaffrey, I have to say it definently falls short of any expectations I might have had. It was not nearly as disappointing as Dragon's Kin, but I found myself extremely frustrated by some aspects of the book. Yet, I am glad I read the book, as I did enjoy it once I was able to force myself past some of its problems.

I think the major failure in the book was the emotional disconnect. One of Anne's strengths has always been drawing you into the story and into the characters. Although Todd was able to give an exellent description of the characters involved (as many as there were), for some reason I never felt connected to any character, even Lorana.

I also had major frustrations with the discrepancies between Dragonsblood and the rest of the Pern series. Although there have been some explanations as to why this novel refers to Windblossom as Kitti Ping's daughter rather than granddaughter (as Anne's previous works did), I found it incredibly distracting from the story. Todd redundantly harps on the mother-daughter relationship between Kitti and Windblossom, and it seems completely out of context to the story, not to mention out of context with the rest of the Pern series.

I was also bothered by Dragonsblood's claims about watch whers, starting with the one that watch whers were not accidents, and that they flew and ate Thread at night. Well, to start with, watch whers were an accident NOT an intentional design by Windblossom. Windblossom tried to make a second batch of dragons after Kitti Ping died just after finishing the genetic alterations necessary for the first ones, and she was a failure and created watch whers. Secondly, how could they EAT Thread? Thread eats all carbon-based life (including dragons, fire lizzards, and anything else in its path), so it would also eat watch whers. Finally, in all of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, watch whers are described as guarding the holds being CHAINED in watch wher caves. How could hords of watch whers fly thread at night and eat it if they are chained in caves? Besides, IF Thread falls at night (which I believe it was discussed that Anne previously state that this did not happen), why don't the dragons just fight Thread at night?

Even beyond all the discrepancies, I had one major problem with Dragonsblood. *WARNING -- spoiling ahead!* Throughout all of the Pern series, Anne McCaffrey has made it very clear that there is an extraordinary bond between dragon and rider (example: L'tol later Lytol). In those cases, when a dragon or dragon and rider died, the entire planet of dragonriders were devestated. And the rider of the dragon who became a dragonless man or woman was completely destroyed. In most cases, they would commit suicide rather than bear their life alone as a "shadow of a man". In Dragonsblood, Todd seems to kill off dragons left and right, and although everyone is sad, the riders aren't "shadows" of themselves. In fact, when Lorana's dragon dies, she is commatose for a little while, but then she just shakes it off and goes back to saving the world. *spoiling over*

All in all, I think this book could have used a MUCH better editor who actually knows the Pern books, and perhaps a little something about characterization. I did enjoy reading this book, but probably only because I enjoy reading anything about Pern. I found this book forgettable and for the first time in a Pern series book (well, beside Dragon's Kin), I had NO problem putting the book down. And I did. A lot. I recommend reading this only because I always enjoy reading more about the Pern story, but keep your expectations low and just try to ignore the discrepencies.

Having read all of the Anne McCaffery-written Pern books, I took this off a shelf while staying in a friend's home. I can only agree with many of the prior reviewers who absolutely deplore the wretched inconsistencies in this tale, and add a heaping helping of criticism for the characterization in DRAGONSBLOOD.

I know that Ms. McCaffery has always been opposed to fan-fic, but the quality of fan-fic would have to better than this. Plague or not, the rapid 'recovery' from dragon deaths by riders is ridiculous in light of early canon novels. The inconsistency of how riders behave when 'timing it' is involved is inconsistent even within this book, let alone when one looks at the Southern Expedition in DRAGONSFLIGHT as an example. Passionate fans typically have a greater regard for continuity than Todd McCaffery has achieved.

Characters in this book are also poorly formed. Many subplots seem to be there because they amuse the author, not because they forward a plot point. Several seem to exist solely to flesh out characters -- characters who have very little to do with the overall point of the novel! Few of the characters have any unique qualities that promote reader interest in their fate, which probably makes the failure to wrap up so many of the plotlines less grating.

As a former Publisher's Weekly reviewer, I have no idea how this clunker got a starred review. Its greatest virtue is that it makes Eragon look like Pulizer material. The writing can only be described as terrible. I've taught high school fiction writing and frankly, my students' products were less clunky, repetitive and difficult to track than this. The quality is so poor that it repeatedly intrudes, making it difficult to engage with the plot. I have a high tolerance for unevenness in this series, but I may not be able to finish this one.

Todd McCaffrey shows promise. He has a sympathy and a knowledge of his mother's world of Pern (having grown up there, in a sense), so he knows the world and its workings intimately.

He certainly has stories to tell, but there is a LOT of room for improvement in how he does so.

As has been pointed out, there are WAY too many characters that appear, strut and fret their tiny moment upon the stage, and then disappear, leaving us none the wiser and the plot none the advanced. It is very hard to keep track of them all. This makes it difficult to become involved with the important ones for a while, until you realize that they are the ones that KEEP appearing.

Is this rather casual (to say the least) attitude towards continuity a genetic thing?

I have noticed this in a lot of Anne's books, not only in the series, (the sudden unexplained revival of the deceased Lord Oterel in "Dolphins of Pern" being the most glaring) but in the same book -i.e. the aging of characters is often a problem. For instance, most two year olds stay at that age for only one year or so... not three years (All The Weyrs of Pern). Another reviewer has pointed this out much better than I could, but addressing this could improve the stories immensely. Some of us have these nit-picky brains, and these little discrepancies just break the illusion and ruin a story which is otherwise quite enthralling.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the Pern series! I have read all of the books multiple times, but there ARE glaring inconsistencies, and they disrupt the Harper's tale.

Todd DOES rather fall into the deus ex machina plot device at the end for 'The Cure, and it is not altogether believable. The understanding of the biology and the technology that would be required to comprehend what they were doing was no longer there, even with the intensive tutoring they were supposedly getting from the Hidden Labs.

He did do a very nice job with making some of the less sympathetic characters believable though... D'gan, while inflexible, stubborn and apparently experiencing testosterone toxicity had more than two dimensions. Wind Blossom was not a Nice Person either, but sometimes a Nice Person is not what is needed to get the job done...and effective does not always imply nice. I am glad she was able to redeem herself in her own eyes at the end...she deserved to do so.

This, however is offset by his almost offhand treatment of what is going on in the Weyr. In "Dragonquest", losing one's dragon was guaranteed to cause suicidal depression at best. Here, it is treated almost as "Aw man, lost my dragon. Bummer. Oh well, life goes on..." Again, inconsistency....or maybe the bond between human and dragon has just deepened over the centuries as the dragons have evolved?

The hardest thing a writer must do is to edit his/her own work...cut out that golden prose, get rid of that dead wood. Once Todd gets the hang of that, (*and hires a good (read: obsessive) continuity person!*) I think we can look forward to more Pern novels of the early high quality.

The fantasy of Anne McCaffrey is turned around, here,
by her son who invents a three string DNA and
makes the genetics of the dragons a "possible"
if improbable world. Before this we were led
to believe that this 'just happened' at some past date.
The people in this episode of the series are as believable
as in the past, but not maybe as well done.
The result is a mixed one, but mostly on the positive side.
Before reading this book the series ranked with
demons and goblins in the fire breathing dragon phase.
I like the book better than the others written by the mother
of the dragons.

After Todd McCaffrey wrote a very spare and disappointing biography of his mother in "Dragonholder" and co-authored the weak and uninteresting Pern novel "Dragon's Kin" with his mother and Pern creator Anne McCaffrey, I was skeptical and had very limited expectations when I heard that Todd was going to write a Pern novel without his mother. Anne's last couple of Pern novels were not up to the standards of her earlier work, and Todd's debut was disappointing, so I figured that perhaps this was a series that should be laid to rest when Anne no longer wished to write another story of Pern. Anne's imagination had provided me with countless hours of entertainment reading her various books (not just the Pern novels, but especially Pern). I could accept the end of Pern. When I began "Dragonsblood" I was pleasantly surprised. This was far better than "Dragon's Kin" and at times approached some of the better works of Anne McCaffrey.

"Dragonsblood" tells two stories nearly 500 years apart in the history of Pern. Lorana is a young woman who can hear any dragon (a rare talent in Pern's history). With the second Fall ever of Thread on Pern imminent the Weyrs are understrength and there is a mysterious illness is afflicting the dragons. Lorana is also a talented healer, so she is trying to figure out how to save the dragons before it is too late. The other story focuses on a woman named Wind Blossom. Wind Blossom is the daughter (now nearing the end of her life) of the famed Kitty Ping. Kitty was the geneticist who created the dragons of Pern. So, Wind Blossom is one of the original settlers of Pern. Wind Blossom is trying to find a way to protect the dragons in the coming centuries because she fears that they may be susceptible to unknown diseases and she knows that the scientific skills necessary to save them will be lost within two generations. These two stories tie together in a way that is reminiscent of Dragonflight and Lessa's quest to bring the Weyrs forward.

Thinking back about this novel, the story is not that remarkable or original in Dragonriders of Pern series. Parts of it have been seen before in "Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern", "Dragonflight", and other novels. But Todd McCaffrey's storytelling abilities are quite a bit better than I had originally thought they were. I was completely absorbed in the story. I had always wanted more stories told about the original settlers ("Chronicles of Pern: The First Fall" is one of my favorite novels in the series) and "Dragonsblood" helps fill that void. I don't know if Todd McCaffrey is going to continue to write Pern novels, but I hope that he does. It was nice revisiting this world and some of the characters and he did a good enough job that Anne should be proud and honored by his effort.

-Joe Sherry

This book is SERIOUSLY flawed. Anne would have done better to have found an accomplished writer who was familiar with her world to continue the series. It is apparent that Todd had no practical experience writing fiction and it does not seem he is well versed in his mother's work.

The book is rampant with inconsistencies, logic errors, and science flaws and in several points appears to contradict what his mother wrote back in the 70's and 80's. It is rough to read, switching scenes seemingly at random, with some of those scenes appearing to be completely pointless. There are plot elements that are abandon, never to be brought back up again. The use of "Timing" to solve dilemmas borders on `Deus Ex Machina' and is repetitious of earlier books in the series.

I would recommend that the older fans of Pern, the fans who grew up reading the series, avoid this book.

Question: Why would anyone spend several chapters developing a character, even have a protagonist/antagonist and sympathetic hero sub plot revolve around the main character, and then have them drop from sight for the rest of the book? Answer: Lousy writing. I love the Pern books, and this one is almost good. I understood the plot line, had sympathy for the main characters and it was a new and different plotline about the dragons getting sick. Anne in her intro praises her son's abilities to carry on the Pern saga. I disagree. I will give Todd one thing though. In the nepotistic world of science fiction series, he didn't butcher Pern as badly as Brian Herbert butchered Dune.

I have read several reviews either lauding Todd McCaffrey's novel, or panning it. Having recently finished DRAGONSBLOOD, I can see why this novel has become a "love-it-or-leave-it" story.

Early on in my reading, it seemed to me that there were numerous continuity errors. According to reader-responses on Todd McCaffrey's official webpage, some of these continuity errors go all the way back to mistakes and slip-ups from Anne McCaffrey's original Pern stories. Whether this is a good reason, or a good cop-out for lackluster source reasearch, I'm not certain.

For my tastes, there were entirely too many characters and dead-end sub-plots throughout the book. Indeed, the entire section dealing with Lorana's ill-fated sea voyage had no bearing on the rest of the book. I got bored meeting so many characters that were ancillary to the storyline. On the other hand, I think there is promise for Lorana, Kindan, M'tal, Salina, Ketan and B'nik to evolve and fill the pages of future novels.

More than anything, I was disappointed that Todd McCaffrey's plot was so redundant. As has been discussed in other reviews the whole "Plague...Paradox-Song...Time-Travel...Psionic Heroine" storyline has become a too-used McCaffrey safety lever. If there are so many problems for the colonists descendents, why don't the dragonriders go back in time to the pre-Thread colony times and prepare their ancestors for what awaits them? Having been forewarned, the tech-savvy colonists could then have concentrated their not insubstantial resources on building technological and industrial centers to aid their descendents. But I digress.

Having finished the book yesterday I thought that if Anne McCaffrey had written this story, her editor would have convieniently lost the manuscript. But Anne didn't write the book, TODD did. Todd McCaffrey is a relative newcomer to the mass-market book game. And while he has several projects under his belt, he has not written for as many years as his mother. I welcome a sequel, or continuation, to DRAGONSBLOOD if only to see how Todd's writing skills will evolve and improve. Case in point, if you compare Anne McCaffrey's decently good DRAGONFLIGHT to the masterpiece that is THE WHITE DRAGON, you will see how she matured as an author and a story teller. While DRAGONSBLOOD is not a good "Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern" story, it is a decent TODD MCCAFFREY story.

Briefly... as other reviewers have covered this in much more detail...

I always enjoy checking out a new Pern novel, and I thought this one started out with promise. All too soon, however, the same old plot devices start to take shape. ANOTHER woman who can speak to all the dragons, ANOTHER plague, ANOTHER consuming search through Records. (If people were forced to search through those tedious records so often, you'd think they'd do a better job of keeping them legible... you know, in case someone in the future needs to look something up.) It seemed like this book was geared for young adults. I think Todd McCaffrey shows promise but still needs to work on certain areas, give the characters a little more depth & come up with some ORIGINAL stories. No more plagues, records, 'Question' songs, and no more acting as though 'timing it' was some big secret discovery (when it's been 'discovered' in several novels to date). Here's hoping that Todd does not give up but DOES go back and re-read the first books in the series.

I was hesitant to read Todd Mccaffrey's additions to the PERN series. Yes there a a few inconsistencies but he took beloved characters and did them justice. I was able to see old friends again in a new light. He made me grieve with each death and rejoice with each Hatching. I can not think of any higher praise to give an author. He learned well from his mother and I hope that Mr Mccaffrey knows that his mother will live on in the joy all of her books bring to PERN lovers like myself.

Talented artist and healer Lorana thinks it strange when a dragon begins to cough--dragons simply don't get sick. When her fire-lizards come down with the same symptoms, it goes beyond strange. The dragons are the first line of the planet's defense against the life-destroying threads from the red star. As disease spreads among the dragons just as the thread begins to fall, things look grim for the future of the planet.

Fortunately for Lorana and the people of Pern, the biologists and ecologists who first colonized Pern and created the dragons had contemplated the possibility of disease. When one of Lorana's fire-dragons goes back across time to these ancestors, they realize they must find some way to send a message across time to their future--to save the planet.

Author Todd McCaffrey follows in his mother's footsteps in writing of the Dragonriders of Pern. In fact, many elements of DRAGONSBLOOD are painfully familiar--the bitchy senior Queen-rider, the use of sudden 'discovery' of timing to increase effective dragon-power at key moments, the notion of a solution encrypted in an ancient Harper song. What are missing from DRAGONSBLOOD are the truly fascinating characters that Anne McCaffrey developed--and that made the original Dragonrider series so powerful.

Todd McCaffrey does attempt to address some of the mysteries and open ends of the earlier novels in the series--the origin of the dragonrider who ended up lost in stones after being caught 'between' and possibly the absence of fire-lizards from the early books in the series when they had been known earlier, for example. I do, however, have to question how the use of 'timing' could possibly have been lost if it was so widely known during the time of this story. Surely it was too important an element of the dragonrider arsenal to be simply forgotten. Also, the connection between Lorana and the ancestral scientists seemed to rely too much on coincidence.

DRAGONSBLOOD has plenty of action, conflict, and cute fire-lizards. This is far from the strongest book in the series (start with the first six which are all excellent). But fans of the Dragonriders, like myself, will be happy to see that McCaffrey's tradition is being continued across the generations.

I started reading Anne McCaffery when I was 12 when I picked up The White Dragon, and fell in love. I've read and re-read the series and have never lost my enjoyment or love for what she's created. When I heard that her son had continued the series I decided to give it a go and picked up Dragonsblood. The main character is a classic Mary Sue. She has no faults, amazing powers, and what not. The deaths of the dragons are treated in an offhand manner. It bends the rules and plot lines made by Anne McCaffery, it's poorly written in my opinion with the same phrases used and reused constantly. I actually couldn't finish it, and trust me I've read a LOT of horrible things before, but I couldn't. If you love Anne McCaffery's series, then read it and reread it. Don't pick these books up, they're not only a waste of money it genuinely makes me wince when compared to his mother's works.

This was the most disappointing piece of fiction and really belittles what Anne McCaffrey created with her original series of books. After the Dragonrider and Harper series the only good book Ms. McCaffrey produced was Moreta. I've periodically read her other books and felt let down. Now I feel completely duped by her son trying to make a dollar off of her creation.

Plot? What sort of plot development was that? Lazy, is what I call it.

Characterizations? Hardly!

Never again will I purchase one of the allegedly approved by Anne McCaffrey books.

I very much enjoyed returning to Pern with this new book by "the son".
The story is complex, a lot of jumping thru time (not just for the dragons) for the reader, and some knowledge of Pern is needed to understand and fully appreciate this story. I found it a gripping read. Only at the end i got inpatient to know if every one in the story was well.
I know some of the reviewers have fallen over inconsistencies in the story, but hey..it is fiction...and it is a good read definately!

Pern's beloved dragons are coughing to death, literally. Weyrleaders and Healers have no answers as more dragons die each day. Worse, the ecological menace Thread is due to drop from the skies for the first time in two centuries. If the dragons don't rise to char Thread from the skies, Pern's fertile lands will be destroyed, condemning its people to starvation.

If humans and dragons are to survive, a cure must be found. It will take the effort of hundreds of people to battle the killer cough, with help coming from the most unexpected source. The question remains: Can the Dragons be saved before Thread destroys Pern?

This novel will be hard for a lover of Anne McCaffrey's Pern to put down. The transition to her son's writing is nearly seamless. Pern society, from Holds to Weyrs is depicted true to the established tradition, and the dragons are as magnificent as ever.

Readers new to the "Dragonriders of Pern" series may have difficulty keeping track of the many characters in the book; however, seasoned fans will find it to be consistent with the casts in previous titles. Although the story encompasses many characters, the action does center on a handful of character who are the driving force behind the search for a cure.

The plot is well developed, and the writing is up to McCaffrey standards. However, some of the sections pertaining to the genetics and science of the disease can be lengthy and involved. If the reader can get past that, they will find two engaging stories, which are nicely intertwined.

Todd McCaffrey promises to be a worthy successor to his mother's writing legacy.

-C.W.

While this is a worthwhile addition to the ever expanding line of Pern canon, it's certainly not on a par with the original trilogy. Or, indeed, with most of the later books. It is, however, the best Pern novel written solely by Todd McCaffrey to date.

Unfortunately, other than the setting, there's nothing new in this one. Even the characters are the same ones from the other books he's written. It's as if he's determined to tell us the same story over and over again, each time from someone else's point of view. And it's getting boring.

There's always, of course, the theory of an author tying off loose ends. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen in Dragonsblood. In fact, there are more loose ends created during the story than are tied off by the end. Quite a few of them, in fact. I won't list them all here, in case you want to read the book for yourself, but I'm sure you'll spot them.

I'm actually hoping for a direct sequel to this one, in the hopes that those loose ends will get resolved, and we'll finally be done with this group of characters and we can move on to something/somewhere/someone/sometime else.

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, I would give this vile waste of paper.

I will never again buy another book with Todd McCaffrey's name on it!!!!!!!

He creates great characters, but has this obsession with killing them off. and now, with his dragon plague, he kills off the whole reason for the books-the dragons. not only that, he kills off a beautiful, sweet queen dragonet!

i read the book, then hid it, where i will never see it again. i dont need the additional depression of his killing of characters i come to love. his books are not worth buying, especially if you are depressed, and reading to get away from the pain of that.

As a reader of Pern since Analog's publication of the short story, Weyr Search, in 1967, I've enjoyed the glimpses Anne McCaffrey has given us of Pern and its people. It was great to see that Anne had opened up Pern to another writer, her son, Todd.

Dragonsblood is Todd McCaffrey's first solo foray into the world of Pern.  Dragonsblood gives us new insight into the time at the very start of 3rd Pass, the third time the Red Star gets close enough to Pern for its parasitic "thread" to rain down and threaten to destroy all organic life on the planet. Once again the dragons of Pern, bio-engineered by the original colonists from the indigenous fire lizards, must flame and kill the thread before it reaches the ground.

The Weyrs are preparing for the first threadfall in hundreds of years. Though no dragon or dragonrider alive has ever actually fought thread, they have kept up the traditional drills and, baring a few problems, are as well prepared as they can be. But just before thread is due to fall, the dragons, usually quite hardy, begin to get sick and die from a bacterial infection. The level of medical knowledge available to those of 3rd Pass has so degraded that not much can be done for the dragons. It seems that dragonkind on Pern is doomed. Nevertheless, the dragonriders use all of the resources and knowledge available to them and gallantly fight thread, even though they suffer terrible losses of dragons and riders with each fall.

Woven into this story of the pandemic of the 3rd Pass is a second story line taking place 450 years earlier in Pern's history. The last of those who were children during Landing are now old and dying off. Because of various unforeseen hardships the colonists have faced since coming to the planet, it is obvious that much of the technology they brought with them will be almost entirely lost within the next few generations. But though strange circumstances, it becomes obvious that sometime in Pern's future, the dragons, bio-engineered only a generation ago, would be threatened with extinction and put into question the continued existence of the colony. Those who still have the knowledge necessary to create a solution to the problem, must find a way to teach it to their many-times great grandchildren, as well as preserve the necessary equipment and supplies.

Some story elements might be considered cliché when used by other authors; however, in Dragonsblood, Todd McCaffrey successfully twists and blends these elements in the unique way that makes it a Dragonriders of Pern story. Todd obviously has the intimate understanding of the Pern universe expected of someone who has literally grown up with it. Though mechanically it has some rough areas, Dragonsblood is a very well crafted, fun, and emotionally wrenching Pern story that both those who truly know Pern and those who are new to Pern will enjoy. (Have your tissue box ready.) 

I look forward to continue following the people of 3rd pass in Todd's next Pern novel. I also look forward to reading in the new worlds I'm hoping Todd will give us entirely of his own molding and shaping, in the near future!

(One request: Could you please include a list of characters to help keep track of the who's who in future stories, as we used to get with the earlier Pern novels? It would be much appreciated!)

It is difficult to listen to an audio book without commenting on the narrator. Dick Hill was wonderful. . . when he was not trying to give accents to the characters. Hill's natural voice is rich and wonderful, at times reminding me of Don Ameche. His accents detracted from the narration and were awful. Characters with Irish or Scottish names had no definable accent and wer definately not Celtic, a person with a French sounding name sounded like he was from Transylvania and Wind Blossom sounded Balkan. At times, Hill even forgot which of his characters previous spoke with an accent. Other time, he went over the top with stage play voices of people and dragons coughing, choking with rage and overcome by emotion. Rather than add to the story, they took away from my interest.

This was the biggest flaw of the story. It would have been much more enjoyable if Hill had used his natural voice for all the characters, with maybe just a hint of an inflection or vocal change. Think of George Guidell or Frank Mueller. These are terrific voice talents that use just the barest trace of an accent or a mild vocal change to tell the listener who is speaking. Dick Hill could be that good if he would only trust his voice and forget the corn.

I would like to thank Brilliance Audio for making the tracks so short. With 99 tracks per side, it is easy to break off at any point, transfer the disk to another player and pick up almost where you left off. I only wish more audio books were laid out like this. Thank you Brilliance Audio.

I've been a fan of Pern and McCaffery's stories for many long turns. This is the first I've heard of her son taking over the tales. Todd McCaffery does a credible job and the story is unique in that it is both a sequel and a prequel. Other than his playing with time lines, there is no development of the world of Pern. I do miss Lessa, Ramoth, F'lar and Mnementh, and sadly the new characters are not up to filling their voids.

Lorana is a composite character, drawn from several archetypes from the original Dragonrider Series. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, the new character does not really explore any new territory either. Since this is an audio book, not a written book, I can't recall the other character's names. They are all equally forgettable.

The story is mediocre at best. In Pernese terms, it was probably crafted by a Journeyman Harper who had just walked the tables. The lessons of Pern are well represented, but they do not significantly add to the overall lore of Pern. I am intrigued enough that I hope this Journeyman polishes his craft and tries again. I would like to see more new Pern stories. Hopefully in the future they will be written by a Master Harper and performed by a Master Harper as well. Dick Hill also deserves another chance.

He creates great characters, but has this obsession with killing them off. and now, with his dragon plague, he kills off the whole reason for the books-the dragons. not only that, he kills off a beautiful, sweet queen dragonet!

i read the book, then hid it, where i will never see it again. i dont need the additional depression of his killing of characters i come to love. his books are not worth buying, especially if you are depressed, and reading to get away from the pain of that.

As a reader of Pern since Analog's publication of the short story, Weyr Search, in 1967, I've enjoyed the glimpses Anne McCaffrey has given us of Pern and its people. It was great to see that Anne had opened up Pern to another writer, her son, Todd.

Dragonsblood is Todd McCaffrey's first solo foray into the world of Pern.  Dragonsblood gives us new insight into the time at the very start of 3rd Pass, the third time the Red Star gets close enough to Pern for its parasitic "thread" to rain down and threaten to destroy all organic life on the planet. Once again the dragons of Pern, bio-engineered by the original colonists from the indigenous fire lizards, must flame and kill the thread before it reaches the ground.

The Weyrs are preparing for the first threadfall in hundreds of years. Though no dragon or dragonrider alive has ever actually fought thread, they have kept up the traditional drills and, baring a few problems, are as well prepared as they can be. But just before thread is due to fall, the dragons, usually quite hardy, begin to get sick and die from a bacterial infection. The level of medical knowledge available to those of 3rd Pass has so degraded that not much can be done for the dragons. It seems that dragonkind on Pern is doomed. Nevertheless, the dragonriders use all of the resources and knowledge available to them and gallantly fight thread, even though they suffer terrible losses of dragons and riders with each fall.

Woven into this story of the pandemic of the 3rd Pass is a second story line taking place 450 years earlier in Pern's history. The last of those who were children during Landing are now old and dying off. Because of various unforeseen hardships the colonists have faced since coming to the planet, it is obvious that much of the technology they brought with them will be almost entirely lost within the next few generations. But though strange circumstances, it becomes obvious that sometime in Pern's future, the dragons, bio-engineered only a generation ago, would be threatened with extinction and put into question the continued existence of the colony. Those who still have the knowledge necessary to create a solution to the problem, must find a way to teach it to their many-times great grandchildren, as well as preserve the necessary equipment and supplies.

Some story elements might be considered cliché when used by other authors; however, in Dragonsblood, Todd McCaffrey successfully twists and blends these elements in the unique way that makes it a Dragonriders of Pern story. Todd obviously has the intimate understanding of the Pern universe expected of someone who has literally grown up with it. Though mechanically it has some rough areas, Dragonsblood is a very well crafted, fun, and emotionally wrenching Pern story that both those who truly know Pern and those who are new to Pern will enjoy. (Have your tissue box ready.) 

I look forward to continue following the people of 3rd pass in Todd's next Pern novel. I also look forward to reading in the new worlds I'm hoping Todd will give us entirely of his own molding and shaping, in the near future!

(One request: Could you please include a list of characters to help keep track of the who's who in future stories, as we used to get with the earlier Pern novels? It would be much appreciated!)

When the colonists landed on Pern, they didn't know that the red star would align with the planet every two hundred and fifty years. When that event happens, spores from the red star fall onto Pern destroying anything organic in its path. To combat this problem, geneticists changed fire lizards into telepathic dragons that bond with a human; together they unite to fight spores or thread as it is now called in 507 years after the initial landing of the spaceship.

In AL 507, Lorana sends her fire lizards away when she thinks she is dying, but she is saved and brought to Bendon Weyr where she bonds with a hatchling dragonet Arith. A plague infects the dragons killing many including Arith just when thread is coming. Arith and Lorana's two fire lizards go back to 42 AL where geneticist Wind Blossom concludes that the three visitors come from Bendan Weyr in the future. She devises a plan to help her descendents battle the deadly dragon killer plague if the future people can interpret the clues she left behind to save them.

This is the first solo Pern story not written by the immortal Anne McCaffrey, but her son who obviously inherited the writing gene as readers will not be able to tell who wrote the novel without reading the cover. Two women living centuries apart work to find a cure to save the dragons and ultimately their world. There is plenty of action scenes especially when dragons and their human rider battle thread, but it is the strong characterizations especially the grieving Lorana who can communicate with any dragon while reminded of the loss of her Arith to the plague that make this a worthy entry in the long running series.

Harriet Klausner

First, a little nitpick to all you other nitpickers. In the UK edition, which both Anne and Todd McCaffrey personally state as being correct, Kitti Ping is Wind Blossom's mother, not her grandmother. Both McCaffreys say that the detail in the US editions of Dragonsdawn is an editorial error, and the UK editions should be taken more as Canon.
Second, leave the nitpicks aside, it's a good book.
There is actually some amazing character development in this book. She whom we assume is the bad guy, the thorn in our side, is a complex character worthy of our pity and sympathy.
If I have ever encountered a flaw in Anne McCaffrey's writing, it is terms of plot development. With the worthy exceptions of the Masterharper of Pern and Dragonquest, the plots tend to be predictable and samey. The plot devices emgaged in this book were superb, with the intercutting between time periods making for an interesting read. An added sense of urgency.
The reason I give this book only four stars is because of my experience of reading it. An instance which is so shocking and deeply saddening in this novel affected me so much, i could barely stand to go on except for the superb overall quality of this book and that i have never yet left a Pern novel unfinished.
Finally another note to the nitpickers. Remember that this saga is a labour of over thirty years. Things change, are added to the universe as time goes on. They are not written as one great novel like LOTR or Harry Potter (shudder), subsequently broken into bits out of necessity. They are written as stand alone novels as part of a greater universe. If they were to be rewritten in the former fashion, doubtless the errors would be corrected. Just enjoy them. And look forward to the next. If you can't do that, then just don't bother buying the next one.

I love the Pern books. Anne writes characters you care about. I have cried more than once at the death of one of them. Todd writes shallow boring characters impossible to be the least bit interested in. His plots are unintersting. I will never buy a book he has written again. I might keep reading to see if he improves, but i'll get them at the library. Don't waste your money!

Todd McCaffrey, in Dragon's Blood, makes his solo debut into his mother, Anne's, world of Pern. This novel is loosely a sequel to Dragon's Kin, a collaborative effort between mother and son. Todd does an excellent job of keeping to Anne's basic cannon. He keeps the basic tenets that Anne has set down in her numerous Pern novels. Todd's style, while darker than Anne's, is still readable and captivating. It would have been nice to see a stronger connection to Dragon's Kin as were fans received from Anne in her trilogies, but the story line is not adversely affected by this. The story line moves from the third pass to the end of the first pass connecting characters from Anne's Dragon's Dawn to new characters in Dragon's Blood. I rather enjoyed the time shifts and the interweaving of past and present. Todd is adept at delving into the psychological profiles of his many main characters. He reveals to the reader the full range of humanity through even minor characters.

This would have been a nearly perfect Pern novel, if not for one glaring error on Todd's part. The casual Pern fan will probably not notice, but for those of us who have read and reread every book Anne every gave us on Pern, this error just may drive you crazy. In Dragon's Dawn, Anne's clear states that Windblossom is Kitty Ping Yung's granddaughter, not her daughter. It was reiterated enough times by Anne to stick in the readers' minds. A large part of Todd's story line centers around Windblossom's relationship with her "mother" Kitty Ping. It makes a reader wonder if Todd has actually read all of his mother's Pern novels. In the forward to the book, Anne comments that Todd is the only person she would trust with her child-Pern. I think she might want to reevaluate his worthiness. On the other hand, if he can be bothered to take the time to read the books enough times to avoid such gross errors, than he will do really well with Pern and Pern fans all over the world will be thrilled.

In his solo writing debut, Todd McCaffrey not only hits a home run, he slams it right out of the park! McCaffrey takes his mother's world of Pern and makes it his own. He brings his own special skills and knowledge to the story, while writing with a style similar enough to Anne McCaffrey's that long-time readers can shout for joy, while new readers can use the book as their seminal portal to Pern.

McCaffrey weaves his narrative between two time periods, connected by the death of one fire lizard and the survival of another. Skillful narrative builds tension in both eras. The Dragonriders of the third pass search frantically for a cure for the mysterious illness killing off the dragons. Loss of the genetically-engineered protectors of Pern would leave no way to battle thread, which, left unchecked, would ravage the planet and destroy all life. More than four centuries in the past, Wind Blossom, the last of the original geneticists, uses technology lost to the future Dragonriders to find a cure for the future plague. How can Wind Blossom preserve the cure and the knowledge to administer it so that those who need it will find it? Does a half-remembered song hold the key to the knowledge sought by the third-pass riders?

McCaffrey spices the tale with foreshadowing of events and answers to questions raised in other Pern books. He presents a story to savor.

Well done, Masterharper.

I have always loved Anne McCaffrey's books, and her son has inherited his mother's skill with words, but perhaps he should do his own stories instead of pushing ahead with his mother's stories. He isn't as familiar with the details as his mother, obviously, or he would have remembered that Wind Blossom was the granddaughter of the woman who created the dragons. And there were other details, like the tea and honey references. I think his mother should have done a peer edit before letting him submit to his editor.

The book moves so quickly from one setting to another and with so many different characters but similar names it becomes quite confusing.
The premise of the book is good but no single character catches your imagination and leads you through the story as they do in his mother's brilliant books.

It stays within the story Anne Mccaffrey started. Todd Mccaffrey has his own style and it is a great one. I look forward to read more great stories from this young man. I predict he will carve his own acclaim in science fiction.