Dragonriders of Pern

Anne McCaffrey's ongoing Dragonriders of Pern series consists of two chronicles and nineteen related books. McCaffrey began the series in 1968 with a short story which became Dragonflight. In 2006 she published Dragon's Fire. 

According to the publisher, the books can be read individually or as a series. I've reviewed the first two books below.

The titles in recommended reading order: 

Dragonflight | Dragonquest | The White Dragon (Dragonrider Trilogy)

Dragonsong | Dragonsinger | Dragondrums (Harper Hall Trilogy)

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern | Nerilka's Story | Dragonsdawn |Renegades of Pern | All the Weyrs of Pern | The Chronicles of Pern | The Dolphins of Pern | The Girl Who Heard Dragons | Second Chronicles of Pern | Masterharper of Pern | The Skies of Pern | A Gift of Dragons | Dragon's Kin | Dragon's Blood | Dragon's Fire 

Dragonflight

Dragonflight is available from Amazon.com

Spoilers for Dragonflight

There are some minor spoilers for the ending of Dragonflight in the review of Dragonquest.

Dragonquest

Dragonquest takes place seven "turns" of the planet Pern after Lessa flew back in time and returned with hundreds of dragons and their riders - redundant in their time, but eager to fly forward to the future and fight Thread again. Now, however, these Oldtimers are dissatisfied and anxious about the subtle changes that four hundred turns has wrought on Pern.

Just as unsatisfied are the Holders of Pern who govern their respective Holds, each of which is bound to one of the Dragonweyrs and responsible for providing food and supplies to the dragonriders who, engaged in defending Pern from Thread, have no time or land to provide for themselves. 

The Holders were reluctant enough to take turns providing occasional supplies to one Dragonweyr in Pern; now they have to deal with the sudden appearance of seven Weyrs headed by demanding Oldtimer Weyrleaders used to respect and subservience.

Against this socio-political backdrop, McCaffrey tells the story of Brekke, partner to the second queen dragon of a Weyr, and F’nor, partner to a brown dragon. As with Lessa’s story in Dragonflight, this subplot is far more fascinating than the main story, and McCaffrey frustrates with long pages of annoying and petty politics between glimpses of a real story. She doesn’t do her cause any favours, either, with her unpronounceable character names, and scores of pointless minor characters. 

The hero and heroine of Dragonflight take a backseat in this story, and yet McCaffrey is determined that they drive the plot, using them as point-of-view characters when they do almost nothing plot-wise for the entire book. 

Additionally, Anne McCaffrey seems afraid to write the emotions of her characters. She introduces one tragedy and two close calls, but then skips ahead to a time when her characters can believably be expected to be, at least partially, recovered from the experiences. 

Again, as with Dragonflight, I was extremely disappointed with the dominant male/subservient female tone of this book. After Lessa’s slightly rebellious actions at the end of Dragonflight, I wondered whether McCaffrey would start introducing a shift to the misogynistic culture in Dragonquest, to no avail. I should have guessed when Lessa returned expecting F’lar (essentially her spouse) to punish her for her actions, and being relieved that he merely rebuked her. There is a romanticised rape in both books, where both times the woman is expected to accept the action as normal. 

Despite the dragon species’ matriarchal system, with the queen at the head of the Weyr, the humans of Pern don’t accept the queen’s human (female) partner as the leader of the Weyr. Instead, the male partner of whichever dragon mates with the queen becomes the Weyrleader, with the queen’s partner subservient to him as his Weyrwoman. If a different dragon catches and mates the queen, the leadership of the Weyr changes accordingly. Male dragonriders are even awarded an honorific (the apostrophication of their name) on becoming a dragon’s partner, but none of the female riders gain the name change, not even those who partner with a queen. 

This duality is bizarre and contradictory given that the humans live in sync with the dragons, telepathically and physically. At first I thought Anne McCaffrey might be attempting to make a statement about gender issues, but if so, she’s mumbling. 

McCaffrey also seems to have conflicting ideas about sexuality. Pern, in the dragonweyrs in particular, is an openly sexual culture. When the dragons mate, the human partners of the dragons also engage in sex. Yet McCaffrey has her characters condemn one woman who is overtly promiscuous within this norm. Despite the fact that some of the male dragonriders have numerous casual sexual partners, Kylara’s actions are considered "adulterous" when her desires contribute to an accident. 

However, McCaffrey still has an interesting twist on the traditional science fiction and fantasy genres. The people of Pern have lived as rustic craftspeople and farmers for generations, passing down their skills by word of mouth. Now they are gradually discovering the science and ingenuity of their ancestors that brought those first colonists across space from Earth. This premise makes the series almost worth reading.