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Pern #5
The White Dragon
Never has there been as close a bond as the one that exists between the daring and adventurous young Lord Jaxom and his extraordinary white dragon, Ruth. Pure white and incredibly agile, Ruth is a dragon of many talents, though almost everyone on Pern thinks he is a runt who will never amount to anything.
But Jaxom knows better, knows he can teach his dragon to fly and destroy the deadly silver Thread that falls from the sky. Disobeying all rules, Jaxon and Ruth train in secret. Their illicit flights seem but a minor disobedience - until they find themselves in the path of danger and in a position to prevent the biggest danger of all...
But Jaxom knows better, knows he can teach his dragon to fly and destroy the deadly silver Thread that falls from the sky. Disobeying all rules, Jaxon and Ruth train in secret. Their illicit flights seem but a minor disobedience - until they find themselves in the path of danger and in a position to prevent the biggest danger of all...
497 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1978
1452 people are currently reading
13201 people want to read
About the author
Anne McCaffrey
478 books7,767 followersAnne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969). Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,164 reviews
April 7, 2024
The White Dragon wraps up the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy quite neatly; however, pretty much everyone knows that it isn't the end for Pern. Although the series got off to a slightly rough start, it actually got much better as it went on. If you're a fan of science fiction, and you've never read anything by Anne McCaffrey, what are you waiting for? Give her books a chance!
November 29, 2024
The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
Dragonriders of Pern series #3. YA high fantasy. Best read as part of the series.
Ruth is unlike any other dragon in the history of Pern. He’s small and pure white, smart, loyal and brave. Just like young Lord Jaxon, Ruth is mocked by his peers. Lord Jaxon has always dreamed of being a dragonrider and taking his turn in defending Pern, but he’s refused and dismissed.
Ruth and Jaxon team up and prove they are just as able as any other pairing and maybe even better. Though small, Ruth has strength enough fly more than just Jaxon. They become targets and will need to face a challenge unlike anything before.
Though published more than 60 years ago, this series of adventures is captivating. I read it for a challenge and found it compelling enough to add the rest of the series to my tbr. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.
Dragonriders of Pern series #3. YA high fantasy. Best read as part of the series.
Ruth is unlike any other dragon in the history of Pern. He’s small and pure white, smart, loyal and brave. Just like young Lord Jaxon, Ruth is mocked by his peers. Lord Jaxon has always dreamed of being a dragonrider and taking his turn in defending Pern, but he’s refused and dismissed.
Ruth and Jaxon team up and prove they are just as able as any other pairing and maybe even better. Though small, Ruth has strength enough fly more than just Jaxon. They become targets and will need to face a challenge unlike anything before.
Though published more than 60 years ago, this series of adventures is captivating. I read it for a challenge and found it compelling enough to add the rest of the series to my tbr. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.
November 8, 2018
Another great story of Pern. This one focuses on Jaxom, the Lord Holder of Ruatha and his white dragon, Ruth.
You learn a lot more of Jaxom and those he interacts with. You learn of his friendships and how he struggles with becoming Lord. His relationship with his dragon is wonderful and they make a great team. They take on some interesting endeavors that have you cheering them on. He is a great character and he interacts with other characters that I have grown to love through this series, like Menolly and Masterharper Robinton.
This is another fantastic book in this series.
You learn a lot more of Jaxom and those he interacts with. You learn of his friendships and how he struggles with becoming Lord. His relationship with his dragon is wonderful and they make a great team. They take on some interesting endeavors that have you cheering them on. He is a great character and he interacts with other characters that I have grown to love through this series, like Menolly and Masterharper Robinton.
This is another fantastic book in this series.
August 5, 2015
Sometimes the runt is more important than anyone thought.
August 6, 2016
Oh, my gosh. I read this over and over in sixth grade, giggling naughtily all the while. Good grief, Jaxom and that buxom farmer's sister!
I think I read this before any of the other Pern books, though I had read DRAGONSINGER. I loved Ruth, and the idea of a dragon who was just big enough to ride, but small enough to be kept at home.
I think I read this before any of the other Pern books, though I had read DRAGONSINGER. I loved Ruth, and the idea of a dragon who was just big enough to ride, but small enough to be kept at home.
August 9, 2010
This is basically a review of the three books that make up the trilogy. There actually was a book between books two and three that I'm not counting, but which do introduce several characters in this book, but I'm not counting it as one of the main books because that book was originally published as YA and it wasn't available at my local library.
I prefer to review the books as they exist, and not the book I'd wished someone had written. I also think that if a book is part of a series that is more than 40 years old, expecting it to follow conventions of the 21st Century is silly.
I've just finished re-reading all three books. I gave all three of them four stars because even with some reservations about the books, I was pulled into reading them one after another and right now! That bit of magic still exists, and it isn't just that this was a favorite series way back when.
One thing that any SF book of that era required was levels of world building that most series don't currently have. I'm pretty sure McCaffrey could have answered questions as to WHY any bit of Pern's culture existed, and in fact there are stories about most of those answers. And the series is SF and not Fantasy because there are stories about how Pern was settled, why Pern was abandoned by it technological parents, and even how the dragons got to be the size they needed to be to fight Thread. Back when these books were written the difference between SF and Fantasy was the ability to explain how things that looked like a fantasy were arrived at.
My biggest reservation always was that her villains are just too one dementionable. They exist only so the hero or heroine can fight against them. Personally I prefer that my hero fight against people and things that are more real.
Outside of that it was a fun read and I do recommend all three books.
I prefer to review the books as they exist, and not the book I'd wished someone had written. I also think that if a book is part of a series that is more than 40 years old, expecting it to follow conventions of the 21st Century is silly.
I've just finished re-reading all three books. I gave all three of them four stars because even with some reservations about the books, I was pulled into reading them one after another and right now! That bit of magic still exists, and it isn't just that this was a favorite series way back when.
One thing that any SF book of that era required was levels of world building that most series don't currently have. I'm pretty sure McCaffrey could have answered questions as to WHY any bit of Pern's culture existed, and in fact there are stories about most of those answers. And the series is SF and not Fantasy because there are stories about how Pern was settled, why Pern was abandoned by it technological parents, and even how the dragons got to be the size they needed to be to fight Thread. Back when these books were written the difference between SF and Fantasy was the ability to explain how things that looked like a fantasy were arrived at.
My biggest reservation always was that her villains are just too one dementionable. They exist only so the hero or heroine can fight against them. Personally I prefer that my hero fight against people and things that are more real.
Outside of that it was a fun read and I do recommend all three books.
November 29, 2020
OKAY. In 2013, I stated that Jaxom gets worse and worse with each passing year. I recant. I recant, I say!! Jaxom actually gets EXPONENTIALLY worse with each passing year. Rereading the Pern series in 2020 is both (1) exceptionally fun and (2) extremely surprising. The series has such imaginative sweep and narrative power, but that's paired with some of the most unlikeable characters I've ever read in fiction, along with very uncomfortable sexual politics. It took me almost two weeks to muddle through the reread of this book because I simply did not want to spend any more time with Jaxom. I have spent the last few days thinking about my major issues with Jaxom, and they all boil down to this: Jaxom is an entitled frat boy who has absolutely every single advantage in life, and we're somehow supposed to root for him! It's worse than Harry Potter turning out to be a hot jock cop! At least Harry Potter didn't spend the majority of his time trying to use game theory to determine which girls to bang!
Jaxom's narrative arc through this book:
Other thoughts:
- I think the worst thing about this book is that Jaxom, who receives every single other character's unfettered goodwill, is pretty nasty about the other main characters who show up. Piemur has a bad showing in Cove Hold because he won't stop talking about how hard it is to walk all over the Southern Continent. I'm not sure if Jaxom remembers, but Piemur is only a quasi-Harper with no family who has spent months tramping through the wilderness alone, so of course he reacts this way to the southern intrusion.
- Mirrim's character is assassinated for absolutely no reason at all. Everyone finds her annoying. Guess what! Mirrim is an orphan and the first woman to ride a green dragon in decades or whatever. Incredible that everyone prioritizes Jaxom's feelings over Mirrim.
- The Menolly and Robinton scene on the boat going south !
- F'lar's main function in any Pern book is a climactic knife fight, and I'm not mad about it ... though you would think that, at this point, Fandarel would outfit him with some kind of super-weapon.
The Harper Hall trilogy is the best part of the Pern series, no question. The White Dragon is where things start to go haywire. I am moving on to All the Weyrs of Pern simply so I can summarize the plot to Matt over dinner.
Jaxom's narrative arc through this book:
Other thoughts:
- I think the worst thing about this book is that Jaxom, who receives every single other character's unfettered goodwill, is pretty nasty about the other main characters who show up. Piemur has a bad showing in Cove Hold because he won't stop talking about how hard it is to walk all over the Southern Continent. I'm not sure if Jaxom remembers, but Piemur is only a quasi-Harper with no family who has spent months tramping through the wilderness alone, so of course he reacts this way to the southern intrusion.
- Mirrim's character is assassinated for absolutely no reason at all. Everyone finds her annoying. Guess what! Mirrim is an orphan and the first woman to ride a green dragon in decades or whatever. Incredible that everyone prioritizes Jaxom's feelings over Mirrim.
- The Menolly and Robinton scene on the boat going south !
- F'lar's main function in any Pern book is a climactic knife fight, and I'm not mad about it ... though you would think that, at this point, Fandarel would outfit him with some kind of super-weapon.
The Harper Hall trilogy is the best part of the Pern series, no question. The White Dragon is where things start to go haywire. I am moving on to All the Weyrs of Pern simply so I can summarize the plot to Matt over dinner.
January 31, 2009
Okay, wow, I had forgotten how unpleasant I find Jaxom about half the time. He's a sympathetic character in that he gets to do all this cool stuff, but the internal monologue and motivations McCaffrey gives him are kind of tool-y. His distress over having no one real place where he fits is deeply appealing, but the way he whines about it is not.
Also, hi dodgy gender issues, how I didn't miss you! They're prevalent enough in the Lessa books and the Menolly books, almost negligible in Piemur's book, but here, where you're deeply wedged into Jaxom's brain, they're even worse. His treatment of Corana, the holder girl he first takes up with in order to have a cover for training Ruth to chew firestone, is abysmal. First he almost-forces her when he's caught up in the mating tensions of the green at Fort (which is brushed away when Ruth says but she liked it), then Jaxom is glad to have his attachment to Sharra as an acceptable excuse for ditching her, except for when Sharra doesn't immediately succumb to his charms(?), he considers seeking out Corana "for a little relief", if only in idle contemplation. I suppose that's some of the class wonkiness in these books coming out, too (Sharra is not for 'relief' because she's Toric's sister, but Corana's father is beholden to Jaxom, so that's okay!), but the whole thing is deeply unpleasant.
And don't even get me started on the whole Jaxom-Menolly thing, or Jaxom and Piemur snitting over Sharra, or poor freakin' Mirrim, who has a careless tongue but has had just as rough a deal as Jaxom but is comstantly slagged on in all these books.
Still, though. Still. Like with all these books, above and beyond some of the crappy characters and weird class structure and hopefully-outdated views on women, they are so bloody compelling. Like Pern, like Valdemar, I suppose. There remains something inherently attractive about a magical being choosing you and you alone to be their special friend.
I do love the mixing and merging of Craft and Hold and Weyr in this book, as the culmination of the whole trilogy. Or, really, what I consider the six original Pern books - the Dragonrider and Dragonsinger trilogies. I'm glad there's All the Weyrs of Pern that comes after it, but really this is the close of the heart of Pernese canon for me.
Also, hi dodgy gender issues, how I didn't miss you! They're prevalent enough in the Lessa books and the Menolly books, almost negligible in Piemur's book, but here, where you're deeply wedged into Jaxom's brain, they're even worse. His treatment of Corana, the holder girl he first takes up with in order to have a cover for training Ruth to chew firestone, is abysmal. First he almost-forces her when he's caught up in the mating tensions of the green at Fort (which is brushed away when Ruth says but she liked it), then Jaxom is glad to have his attachment to Sharra as an acceptable excuse for ditching her, except for when Sharra doesn't immediately succumb to his charms(?), he considers seeking out Corana "for a little relief", if only in idle contemplation. I suppose that's some of the class wonkiness in these books coming out, too (Sharra is not for 'relief' because she's Toric's sister, but Corana's father is beholden to Jaxom, so that's okay!), but the whole thing is deeply unpleasant.
And don't even get me started on the whole Jaxom-Menolly thing, or Jaxom and Piemur snitting over Sharra, or poor freakin' Mirrim, who has a careless tongue but has had just as rough a deal as Jaxom but is comstantly slagged on in all these books.
Still, though. Still. Like with all these books, above and beyond some of the crappy characters and weird class structure and hopefully-outdated views on women, they are so bloody compelling. Like Pern, like Valdemar, I suppose. There remains something inherently attractive about a magical being choosing you and you alone to be their special friend.
I do love the mixing and merging of Craft and Hold and Weyr in this book, as the culmination of the whole trilogy. Or, really, what I consider the six original Pern books - the Dragonrider and Dragonsinger trilogies. I'm glad there's All the Weyrs of Pern that comes after it, but really this is the close of the heart of Pernese canon for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2021
I dalje mislim da je druga knjiga najbolja, isto tako i prekretnica u ovom serijalu.
Izvela ga je na dobar smer i dala mu novu dimenziju i dubinu.
Ova treca knjiga sa uspehom nastavlja da nam prikazuje vrtoglave, slobodno mogu reci politicke obrte i novonastale situacije u kojima se Pern kao kontinent nalazi. Toj vrsti zapleta se kao glavni obrazac ove knjige prikljucuju i dobro opisani istrazuvacki odnosno avanturisticki delovi koji su i srz poslednje knjige Zmajeva Jahaca Perna.
Zamerke na ovo delo su nedostatak tenzije, stvarnog problema ili krize. Ova treca knjiga je serijal okrenula u smeru mladjih citalaca i svakako bih ovu trilogiju preporucio svima koji tek ulaze u vode fantastike. Ni u jednom trenutku nije previse jednostavan ili isprazan a sa druge strane nije ni otisao u smeru nekih puno ozbiljnijihh serijala zanra,
Sve u svemu jedna velka 4 (cetvorka) za Zmajeve Jahace Perna.
Izvela ga je na dobar smer i dala mu novu dimenziju i dubinu.
Ova treca knjiga sa uspehom nastavlja da nam prikazuje vrtoglave, slobodno mogu reci politicke obrte i novonastale situacije u kojima se Pern kao kontinent nalazi. Toj vrsti zapleta se kao glavni obrazac ove knjige prikljucuju i dobro opisani istrazuvacki odnosno avanturisticki delovi koji su i srz poslednje knjige Zmajeva Jahaca Perna.
Zamerke na ovo delo su nedostatak tenzije, stvarnog problema ili krize. Ova treca knjiga je serijal okrenula u smeru mladjih citalaca i svakako bih ovu trilogiju preporucio svima koji tek ulaze u vode fantastike. Ni u jednom trenutku nije previse jednostavan ili isprazan a sa druge strane nije ni otisao u smeru nekih puno ozbiljnijihh serijala zanra,
Sve u svemu jedna velka 4 (cetvorka) za Zmajeve Jahace Perna.
November 17, 2024
Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011) was one of the best-known American SF writers of the second half of the last century, winning both the Hugo and Nebula Awards (and the first woman to win either). Her best-known fictional corpus is her Pern series, of which this novel is actually the third book in the original trilogy, The Dragonriders of Pern. It is, however, the first one Barb and I read, neither of us having heard of the series or the author before. Barb stumbled on the book at a yard sale and was attracted by the cover. Through our reading, she fell in love with Ruth, the runt white dragon pictured there (who, oddly given his name, is a male). So we went on to eventually read no less than 15 of the Pern books, starting with the rest of the first trilogy (which she still periodically rereads to herself), and a few other books by the author. Since I probably won't review any other Pern books, this review can cover the whole series.
The setting here is a far-future one, in which humans have begun to colonize the galaxy. Pern is a distant planet, settled centuries ago by emigrants from Earth. But at that time, neither they nor the original surveyors of the planet were aware that it has a rogue planet neighbor, the "Red Star," the erratic orbit of which brings it relatively close to Pern for a few years every couple of centuries. While the Red Star is mostly uninhabitable, it is home to one life form: a carnivorous fungus species called "Thread," gray filaments whose acidic gastric juices externally digest any organic matter they touch (except other Thread, apparently) so the filaments can absorb it. Thread filaments have no brain and aren't sentient, but when the planet is "near" Pern (though we're talking tens or even hundreds of thousand miles away!) they somehow sense organic matter and launch themselves off their planet, escape its gravity and travel purposefully, powered by nothing, across the absolute-zero cold void of space to Pern, where they drop out of its sky and feed on any living flesh they touch. This is not simply "soft" SF; it's so "soft" it's colloidal, and likely to drip off of the page. :-)
However, Pern is home to an unusual species of its own, small flying reptiles called "fire lizards" that resemble miniature dragons, which (besides possessing telepathic and teleporting powers) can chew and swallow a phosphorescent native rock --though they can't digest and pass it-- which enables them to belch flames that sear and destroy Thread before it reaches the ground. (It's only dangerous on land; filaments that fall into the sea drown and die.) Although this knowledge was forgotten in Ruth's time (it's rediscovered in the course of the series, and detailed in a prequel volume Dragonsdawn), faced with the shock of their first Threadfall, the original colonists used genetic engineering to breed some of the fire lizard stock into full-sized dragons, who on hatching bond telepathically with a human dragonrider, and partner with him/her to fight Thread. But even with the dragons, the carnage of Threadfall destroyed Pernese high technology, cut off contact with the rest of the galaxy, and caused the settlers to regress to a feudal social organization and essentially medieval level of technology.
This series has legions of fans; Barb likes it much better than I do (and instructed me to note that her rating for this book is five stars!), though it would be fair to say that's mostly because of the appeal of Ruth. But it has its detractors as well; ratings in my friend circle range from five stars to one. My assessment is closer to the lower end, and I'll try here to indicate why. (Some of my specific criticisms have been noted by other readers and critics as well, on and off of Goodreads.)
I don't care if a science-fictional premise isn't actually grounded in extrapolation from known science, so appreciate soft SF as such (and often like it better than the "hard" variety). But I do want any such premise to be consistent with, or at least not wildly contradict, basic reality. So while I can accept that, for instance, FTL space travel, ESP, or time travel "exist" in a fictional story even though we don't know how they operate, I can't suspend disbelief in an obviously impossible premise like Thread. Considered as sociological SF, the world building of Pern's society leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, it's an atheist society devoid of any form of religion, in which it's never occurred to a single person to question that naive materialism explains all of reality (and McCaffrey confirms in the nonfiction series companion The People of Pern that this was intentional). That gratifies the author's wishful thinking and animus against religious belief, but it's not credible in terms of how individual and social psychology operates. Moreover, it's a thoroughly unequal and stratified society, and a deeply sexist one. Land ownership is concentrated in the relatively few hands of the hereditary Lord Holders, who run feudal fiefdoms from their Holds, dug into solid rock to protect them from Thread; the rest of the agricultural population are their retainers/tenants or house servants (“drudges,” who are just part of the furniture). Dragonriders live in the various scattered Weyrs,and levy support from the rest of the population; the Weyrleaders are all male, and the dragonriders are almost all male. Other non-agricultural trades are organized into male-dominated craft guilds, each with a guild Master. The most important of these is the Harper Hall; the Harpers are minstrels, but their songs are also the educational curriculum of the society, preserving what they know of their history and passing on essential knowledge and socio-moral instruction to the young, as well as entertaining young and old. All of them are male except for one female character, Menolly, who becomes the planet's only woman Harper; but her break-through only affects her, not any of Pern's other females. There's no democracy, little opportunity for social mobility, enormous inequality of wealth and privilege, and (as I recall) limited literacy. In these respects, it's not an unrealistic type of society for flawed human to create. The problem I have with it in these areas isn't lack of realism, but rather the fact that the author apparently doesn't have a problem with it; there's no sense on her part of social criticism or feeling that things should be any different than they are. (And in the last series books, when high technology and past knowledge is beginning to be recovered, that development has zero effect on the planet's cultural ethos or socio-economic set-up, which actually is pretty unrealistic.)
McCaffrey's sexual attitudes, to put it mildly, are dissimilar to mine; she clearly doesn't have any problem with casual sex, and apparently has something of a fascination with non-consensual sex. The series books don't have any very explicitly described sex scenes, but it has some with limited descriptions, and more that are implied or stated. Both fire lizards and their dragon descendants have a marked numerical imbalance in the sexes, with many more males than females and very few egg-laying females, the Queens. When they bond telepathically with a human, he/she shares their mating drives; Queens bond with a woman, who (if she's bonded to a dragon rather than just to a fire lizard) becomes the Weyrwoman of that Weyr, and shares the Queen's heat periods. (Sterile females usually don't bond with any human; but by a fluke, in one of the books, one bonds with the girl Mirrim, who becomes a female dragonrider who's NOT a Weyrwoman. But again, that only affects her; she's not a trailblazer for her sex.) Male reptiles bond with human males, and when their Queen goes on a mating flight and one of the rutting males breeds her, their human partners rut along with them, and the partner of the Queen's mate mates with her human partner. (In the case of dragons, that human male becomes the Weyrleader.) This whole conceit was distasteful to me. Apart from reptile-related cycles, male sexual predation and the sexual double standard are alive and well in Pernese culture, and Lord Holders (who are apparently also sometimes polygamous) can sexually exploit their subservient female tenants, as protagonist Jaxom, the young lord who accidentally bonds with Ruth, does in this book (his dalliance serves as practice and virility-credentialing before he forms a romance with another Holder's sister). I found him an unlikable, entitled twit (and even one of the above-mentioned five star reviewers didn't care much for him, either).
Although the plotting in this and the other books held my interest, and this one succeeds as well as it does because of the endearing personality of title character Ruth, I'm not able to characterize it any more favorably than as “okay.”
The setting here is a far-future one, in which humans have begun to colonize the galaxy. Pern is a distant planet, settled centuries ago by emigrants from Earth. But at that time, neither they nor the original surveyors of the planet were aware that it has a rogue planet neighbor, the "Red Star," the erratic orbit of which brings it relatively close to Pern for a few years every couple of centuries. While the Red Star is mostly uninhabitable, it is home to one life form: a carnivorous fungus species called "Thread," gray filaments whose acidic gastric juices externally digest any organic matter they touch (except other Thread, apparently) so the filaments can absorb it. Thread filaments have no brain and aren't sentient, but when the planet is "near" Pern (though we're talking tens or even hundreds of thousand miles away!) they somehow sense organic matter and launch themselves off their planet, escape its gravity and travel purposefully, powered by nothing, across the absolute-zero cold void of space to Pern, where they drop out of its sky and feed on any living flesh they touch. This is not simply "soft" SF; it's so "soft" it's colloidal, and likely to drip off of the page. :-)
However, Pern is home to an unusual species of its own, small flying reptiles called "fire lizards" that resemble miniature dragons, which (besides possessing telepathic and teleporting powers) can chew and swallow a phosphorescent native rock --though they can't digest and pass it-- which enables them to belch flames that sear and destroy Thread before it reaches the ground. (It's only dangerous on land; filaments that fall into the sea drown and die.) Although this knowledge was forgotten in Ruth's time (it's rediscovered in the course of the series, and detailed in a prequel volume Dragonsdawn), faced with the shock of their first Threadfall, the original colonists used genetic engineering to breed some of the fire lizard stock into full-sized dragons, who on hatching bond telepathically with a human dragonrider, and partner with him/her to fight Thread. But even with the dragons, the carnage of Threadfall destroyed Pernese high technology, cut off contact with the rest of the galaxy, and caused the settlers to regress to a feudal social organization and essentially medieval level of technology.
This series has legions of fans; Barb likes it much better than I do (and instructed me to note that her rating for this book is five stars!), though it would be fair to say that's mostly because of the appeal of Ruth. But it has its detractors as well; ratings in my friend circle range from five stars to one. My assessment is closer to the lower end, and I'll try here to indicate why. (Some of my specific criticisms have been noted by other readers and critics as well, on and off of Goodreads.)
I don't care if a science-fictional premise isn't actually grounded in extrapolation from known science, so appreciate soft SF as such (and often like it better than the "hard" variety). But I do want any such premise to be consistent with, or at least not wildly contradict, basic reality. So while I can accept that, for instance, FTL space travel, ESP, or time travel "exist" in a fictional story even though we don't know how they operate, I can't suspend disbelief in an obviously impossible premise like Thread. Considered as sociological SF, the world building of Pern's society leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, it's an atheist society devoid of any form of religion, in which it's never occurred to a single person to question that naive materialism explains all of reality (and McCaffrey confirms in the nonfiction series companion The People of Pern that this was intentional). That gratifies the author's wishful thinking and animus against religious belief, but it's not credible in terms of how individual and social psychology operates. Moreover, it's a thoroughly unequal and stratified society, and a deeply sexist one. Land ownership is concentrated in the relatively few hands of the hereditary Lord Holders, who run feudal fiefdoms from their Holds, dug into solid rock to protect them from Thread; the rest of the agricultural population are their retainers/tenants or house servants (“drudges,” who are just part of the furniture). Dragonriders live in the various scattered Weyrs,and levy support from the rest of the population; the Weyrleaders are all male, and the dragonriders are almost all male. Other non-agricultural trades are organized into male-dominated craft guilds, each with a guild Master. The most important of these is the Harper Hall; the Harpers are minstrels, but their songs are also the educational curriculum of the society, preserving what they know of their history and passing on essential knowledge and socio-moral instruction to the young, as well as entertaining young and old. All of them are male except for one female character, Menolly, who becomes the planet's only woman Harper; but her break-through only affects her, not any of Pern's other females. There's no democracy, little opportunity for social mobility, enormous inequality of wealth and privilege, and (as I recall) limited literacy. In these respects, it's not an unrealistic type of society for flawed human to create. The problem I have with it in these areas isn't lack of realism, but rather the fact that the author apparently doesn't have a problem with it; there's no sense on her part of social criticism or feeling that things should be any different than they are. (And in the last series books, when high technology and past knowledge is beginning to be recovered, that development has zero effect on the planet's cultural ethos or socio-economic set-up, which actually is pretty unrealistic.)
McCaffrey's sexual attitudes, to put it mildly, are dissimilar to mine; she clearly doesn't have any problem with casual sex, and apparently has something of a fascination with non-consensual sex. The series books don't have any very explicitly described sex scenes, but it has some with limited descriptions, and more that are implied or stated. Both fire lizards and their dragon descendants have a marked numerical imbalance in the sexes, with many more males than females and very few egg-laying females, the Queens. When they bond telepathically with a human, he/she shares their mating drives; Queens bond with a woman, who (if she's bonded to a dragon rather than just to a fire lizard) becomes the Weyrwoman of that Weyr, and shares the Queen's heat periods. (Sterile females usually don't bond with any human; but by a fluke, in one of the books, one bonds with the girl Mirrim, who becomes a female dragonrider who's NOT a Weyrwoman. But again, that only affects her; she's not a trailblazer for her sex.) Male reptiles bond with human males, and when their Queen goes on a mating flight and one of the rutting males breeds her, their human partners rut along with them, and the partner of the Queen's mate mates with her human partner. (In the case of dragons, that human male becomes the Weyrleader.) This whole conceit was distasteful to me. Apart from reptile-related cycles, male sexual predation and the sexual double standard are alive and well in Pernese culture, and Lord Holders (who are apparently also sometimes polygamous) can sexually exploit their subservient female tenants, as protagonist Jaxom, the young lord who accidentally bonds with Ruth, does in this book (his dalliance serves as practice and virility-credentialing before he forms a romance with another Holder's sister). I found him an unlikable, entitled twit (and even one of the above-mentioned five star reviewers didn't care much for him, either).
Although the plotting in this and the other books held my interest, and this one succeeds as well as it does because of the endearing personality of title character Ruth, I'm not able to characterize it any more favorably than as “okay.”
April 29, 2015
Jesus - has McCaffrey never heard of a plot? I mean, what is she waiting for, her grand finale? Forget the characterization of Jaxom that everyone's complaining about (he's barely sketched in enough to even be called a character) and this strange fetish she has for men who force themselves on women - let's just stick to the basic level of narrative, of plot mechanics, of conflict and a focused through line. The biggest problem with this book is that, for hundreds of pages, basically NOTHING HAPPENS. There is no plot. There is no guiding thread, no overarching conflict. Some stuff happens, of no particular consequence, and then, after a few pages or chapters of needless and empty dialogue between flat and interchangeable characters, something else happens, unrelated to the first happening, and the pattern repeats. How is this a book? How is this a trilogy? It doesn't even have a story. You know the old play 6 Characters in Search of an Author? This is A Well-Realized World in Search of a Story.
McCaffrey has clearly invented a compelling idea for a world. Weyrs and Holds and Dragonriders and a mysterious continent to the South peopled by disgruntled warriors from the past...random mindless attacks from an orbiting red planet...Fire Lizards with their dreams and visions from collective species memory....strange tools and technologies left behind by the original settlers, now only being rediscovered....sounds fascinating, doesn't it? Sounds like a real epic reading experience.
But what the hell? This is the strangest damn read of my life. Never before have I seen such a surreal discrepancy between heights of imagination and depths of ineptitude in the construction of fiction. Bits and pieces of world-building are sprinkled throughout an otherwise interminable series of unconnected and unimportant events, given no shape or texture or life. The writing is incredibly mediocre, and inexplicably devoid of incident. It's just so damn talky. And the talk is petty and casual and expositional. How did this ever invite such passionate devotion from readers? How did this ever get nominated for Hugo Awards? More to the point, how did this ever get published?
I'm done with Pern. People who love this, I am willing to bet, discovered these books when they were teenagers. Fair enough. Kids love things for different reasons than adults do. But I just read them now, and I am not a teenager, and I can tell you this: skip them. I've struggled through 3 books now, and I kept telling myself there were enough hints of great things to continue, but there really weren't. Now, that is all that I am left with - hints of it. These books are sometimes involving for, like, 10 or 15 pages in a row, and you say, "Hey, it's finally coming to life!" and then it doesn't, and nothing happens, and you get disappointed like this again and again and again. That, I think, is the great tragedy of these books, and probably McCaffrey's career. She had a wonderful imagination, there is no question about that, but she had insufficient narrative skill to properly utilize it, and simply not enough ideas for STORY.
This makes me sad, because the world-building, the sketch for this place, is undeniably memorable and worthwhile. But this, unfortunately, is a story about dragons that never takes flight.
McCaffrey has clearly invented a compelling idea for a world. Weyrs and Holds and Dragonriders and a mysterious continent to the South peopled by disgruntled warriors from the past...random mindless attacks from an orbiting red planet...Fire Lizards with their dreams and visions from collective species memory....strange tools and technologies left behind by the original settlers, now only being rediscovered....sounds fascinating, doesn't it? Sounds like a real epic reading experience.
But what the hell? This is the strangest damn read of my life. Never before have I seen such a surreal discrepancy between heights of imagination and depths of ineptitude in the construction of fiction. Bits and pieces of world-building are sprinkled throughout an otherwise interminable series of unconnected and unimportant events, given no shape or texture or life. The writing is incredibly mediocre, and inexplicably devoid of incident. It's just so damn talky. And the talk is petty and casual and expositional. How did this ever invite such passionate devotion from readers? How did this ever get nominated for Hugo Awards? More to the point, how did this ever get published?
I'm done with Pern. People who love this, I am willing to bet, discovered these books when they were teenagers. Fair enough. Kids love things for different reasons than adults do. But I just read them now, and I am not a teenager, and I can tell you this: skip them. I've struggled through 3 books now, and I kept telling myself there were enough hints of great things to continue, but there really weren't. Now, that is all that I am left with - hints of it. These books are sometimes involving for, like, 10 or 15 pages in a row, and you say, "Hey, it's finally coming to life!" and then it doesn't, and nothing happens, and you get disappointed like this again and again and again. That, I think, is the great tragedy of these books, and probably McCaffrey's career. She had a wonderful imagination, there is no question about that, but she had insufficient narrative skill to properly utilize it, and simply not enough ideas for STORY.
This makes me sad, because the world-building, the sketch for this place, is undeniably memorable and worthwhile. But this, unfortunately, is a story about dragons that never takes flight.
November 5, 2020
I my memory this is my favourite Pern book, closely followed by the Haperhall books. There is a lot more going on than I remembered. Or that I thought of happening in another book of the series. This is definitely a worthwhile refresher.
We finally get to read more about my favourite dragon Ruth and about a ton of fire-lizards. Plus there is adventure, a conspiracy and plenty of exploring of the Southern continent and the past. Jaxom has to come to terms with his double role of Lord Holder and Dragonrider. Although he isn‘t allowed to be either and chafes at the restrictions put upon him. In the meantime Ruth grows and matures in unexpected ways.
F‘lar and Lessa are in the sidelines in this storyline and we get to see more of the characters from the Harperhall novels. Which makes me wonder why this book was put into a collected edition with the first two books of the series, although the three Harperhall novels are set before it chronologically. But I guess this way you come full circle with all of the issues that are raised in Dragonflight and Dragonquest and the various plotlines are tied up neatly.
McCaffrey is still not very good at writing love scenes in this and we are still dealing with antiquated gender roles. But then, this is set in a medieval, feudal society, so that actually fits. The women do all the cooking and act as servants to the men, the actual servants are faceless drudges (I always deeply disliked that term), the farmers are beholden to their lords and the droit-de-seigneur is alive and well. Jaxom‘s dealings with Corana are not stellar, but he is a product of the society he grew up in.
Is this still my favourite? I think it is neck to neck with Dragonquest, which has a more focussed and streamlined plot. The White Dragon is longer and more meandering, with several highpoints. This could have easily been several novellas, stuck together.
*+*+*
Here is the chronological order of the current timeline and the books I plan to re-read:
Dragonflight — re-read in September 2020
Dragonquest — re-read in October 2020
Dragonsong —> Harperhall, plan to read after White Dragon
Dragonsinger —> Harperhall, dito
Dragondrums —> Harperhall, dito
The Renegades of Pern — I might skip this one, it doesn‘t sound essential to the main plotline.
The White Dragon — re-read in November 2020
All The Weyrs of Pern
The Dolphins of Pern
The Skies of Pern
http://pernhome.com/pern/books/chrono...
I never before realized that the Harperhall books are aimed at a different age group, aka YA. None of those books released in the years 2000+ are part of my planned read above. I‘ll decide after reading those, if I will pick up the newer offerings, co-written with Todd McCaffrey (set before Dragonflight).
+*+*+
What I wrote in 2013:
My all-time-favourite Pern novel. The ultimate underdogs of Pern. The rider should never have become a rider and the little dragon was a discard from the get-go. So they stick it to all of them and show the finger to those snobby other riders, dragons and assorted nobility...
We finally get to read more about my favourite dragon Ruth and about a ton of fire-lizards. Plus there is adventure, a conspiracy and plenty of exploring of the Southern continent and the past. Jaxom has to come to terms with his double role of Lord Holder and Dragonrider. Although he isn‘t allowed to be either and chafes at the restrictions put upon him. In the meantime Ruth grows and matures in unexpected ways.
F‘lar and Lessa are in the sidelines in this storyline and we get to see more of the characters from the Harperhall novels. Which makes me wonder why this book was put into a collected edition with the first two books of the series, although the three Harperhall novels are set before it chronologically. But I guess this way you come full circle with all of the issues that are raised in Dragonflight and Dragonquest and the various plotlines are tied up neatly.
McCaffrey is still not very good at writing love scenes in this and we are still dealing with antiquated gender roles. But then, this is set in a medieval, feudal society, so that actually fits. The women do all the cooking and act as servants to the men, the actual servants are faceless drudges (I always deeply disliked that term), the farmers are beholden to their lords and the droit-de-seigneur is alive and well. Jaxom‘s dealings with Corana are not stellar, but he is a product of the society he grew up in.
Is this still my favourite? I think it is neck to neck with Dragonquest, which has a more focussed and streamlined plot. The White Dragon is longer and more meandering, with several highpoints. This could have easily been several novellas, stuck together.
*+*+*
Here is the chronological order of the current timeline and the books I plan to re-read:
Dragonflight — re-read in September 2020
Dragonquest — re-read in October 2020
Dragonsong —> Harperhall, plan to read after White Dragon
Dragonsinger —> Harperhall, dito
Dragondrums —> Harperhall, dito
The Renegades of Pern — I might skip this one, it doesn‘t sound essential to the main plotline.
The White Dragon — re-read in November 2020
All The Weyrs of Pern
The Dolphins of Pern
The Skies of Pern
http://pernhome.com/pern/books/chrono...
I never before realized that the Harperhall books are aimed at a different age group, aka YA. None of those books released in the years 2000+ are part of my planned read above. I‘ll decide after reading those, if I will pick up the newer offerings, co-written with Todd McCaffrey (set before Dragonflight).
+*+*+
What I wrote in 2013:
My all-time-favourite Pern novel. The ultimate underdogs of Pern. The rider should never have become a rider and the little dragon was a discard from the get-go. So they stick it to all of them and show the finger to those snobby other riders, dragons and assorted nobility...
March 19, 2025
I think The White Dragon is my favorite of The Dragonriders of Pern trilogy. In this story. Jaxom, Lord Holder of Ruatha, has impressed Ruth, the only white dragon in existence. Ruth is smaller than a typical dragon, but demonstrates special abilities and more intelligence than a normal dragon.
In The White Dragon, more is discovered about the original colonists of Pern. And I'm off to continue my binge re-read of the Pern books! I do this every time!
In The White Dragon, more is discovered about the original colonists of Pern. And I'm off to continue my binge re-read of the Pern books! I do this every time!
January 13, 2013
I have said this before and I still think it's true, there are some books that are meant to be read at certain times. And if you miss that particular time, then they just won't do it for you the way they might have. I suspect that The White Dragon is just such a book. I have found, and it seems to be more often the case with science fiction/fantasy novels, that I seem to have missed the (space) boat with McCaffrey's novel. Back in the 80s, when I was in the midst of my science fiction binge, my best friend got me Dragonflight, the first in the Pern series, and I loved it. I immediately grabbed up the next Pern book I could find (this one) and put it on the shelf....and got distracted and never read it--till now.
Which leads me to my first question. If I read Dragonflight now, would I discover that it too has no real storyline? Because as far as I can tell, The White Dragon doesn't. We have young Lord Jaxom, last of the Ruatha Hold bloodline, who whines and carries on about how nobody treats him like a Lord and yet he's not allowed to be a real dragonrider even though he's got a dragon--albeit an unusual, under-sized one. And he goes off and teaches his dragon to fly and destroy the deadly Threads in secret. And he has sex along the way. And, oh---this is a good one, his dragon participates in the sex too (No, NOT physically, but he loves right along with Jaxom and his lady-friends....say what? A dragon peeping tom.). And he flits here and he flits there and he saves a dragon egg and finds where the ancient men used to be and....well, it's all this major jumble. And there's no real struggle, no real plot points, and no real resolution. It all just kind of rambles to a close.
Granted, I didn't read every word on every page--mainly because I was not interested and also because when I did I couldn't see that it mattered a whole heaping bunch. And maybe you've noticed that my review style has changed here and my writing isn't exactly full of coherent thoughts? Yeah, we'll blame that on side-effects.
The best part (and what makes this a two-star book instead of a one-star book) is the relationship between Jaxom and his white dragon Ruth--with most of the points going to Ruth. Ruth has a very well-defined personality and I like the way he calms Jaxom down when he (Jaxom) gets off on his "why are they treating me this way?!" jags. I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if there had been more focus on Jaxom and Ruth.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Which leads me to my first question. If I read Dragonflight now, would I discover that it too has no real storyline? Because as far as I can tell, The White Dragon doesn't. We have young Lord Jaxom, last of the Ruatha Hold bloodline, who whines and carries on about how nobody treats him like a Lord and yet he's not allowed to be a real dragonrider even though he's got a dragon--albeit an unusual, under-sized one. And he goes off and teaches his dragon to fly and destroy the deadly Threads in secret. And he has sex along the way. And, oh---this is a good one, his dragon participates in the sex too (No, NOT physically, but he loves right along with Jaxom and his lady-friends....say what? A dragon peeping tom.). And he flits here and he flits there and he saves a dragon egg and finds where the ancient men used to be and....well, it's all this major jumble. And there's no real struggle, no real plot points, and no real resolution. It all just kind of rambles to a close.
Granted, I didn't read every word on every page--mainly because I was not interested and also because when I did I couldn't see that it mattered a whole heaping bunch. And maybe you've noticed that my review style has changed here and my writing isn't exactly full of coherent thoughts? Yeah, we'll blame that on side-effects.
The best part (and what makes this a two-star book instead of a one-star book) is the relationship between Jaxom and his white dragon Ruth--with most of the points going to Ruth. Ruth has a very well-defined personality and I like the way he calms Jaxom down when he (Jaxom) gets off on his "why are they treating me this way?!" jags. I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if there had been more focus on Jaxom and Ruth.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
October 20, 2014
10/2014 Reread. The continuing adventure with Don to rediscover Pern.
I love Ruth. I love Jaxom.
I forgot how jam-packed the Pern stories were. Ruth and Jaxom's maturation is only a small portion of what happens as the politics expand, problems inflate and then are resolved, but really the bond between the two is what drove the book for me.
The explorations of the southern continent. The discovery of the Dawn Sisters and the connection to the past is great. F'lar and the others are determined to leave the weyrs in a much better position after the Pass than they entered it. As usual, the adept statesmanship and Robinton's skills are front and center again.
I look forward the the Harper Hall trilogy and more details on Robinton and Menolly.
Favorite quote:
I love Ruth. I love Jaxom.
They are pleased to see us in the air together. Ramoth and Mnementh are very happy to see you on my back at last. I am very happy. Are you happier now?And fire lizards!
I forgot how jam-packed the Pern stories were. Ruth and Jaxom's maturation is only a small portion of what happens as the politics expand, problems inflate and then are resolved, but really the bond between the two is what drove the book for me.
The explorations of the southern continent. The discovery of the Dawn Sisters and the connection to the past is great. F'lar and the others are determined to leave the weyrs in a much better position after the Pass than they entered it. As usual, the adept statesmanship and Robinton's skills are front and center again.
I look forward the the Harper Hall trilogy and more details on Robinton and Menolly.
“I loved you first, Master.”
Favorite quote:
You can, you know, be all and more, without being disloyal to anyone, or yourself.”
November 11, 2008
As much as I loved the first two books of the Dragonriders of Pern series, The White Dragon remains my favorite. And not because of Jaxom, whom I never liked as a lead character/protagonist. Ruth was my favorite character. Ruth, the stunted runt totally unique White Dragon.
The archaeological discoveries on the Southern Continent at the original landing site are the most memorable and compelling parts of this installment in the saga of Pern. And Ruth's abilities to manipulate time and space are unparalleled in the evolution of the dragons.
As with most of McCaffrey's novels, I tend to skip over the romantic story lines as they bore me to tears. Rarely does she write a romantic subplot that engages me. And her attempts at jealous revenge subplots also grates on me.
But that aside, I enjoy the early Pern novels, and this one, along with Dragonsong are my favorites.
The archaeological discoveries on the Southern Continent at the original landing site are the most memorable and compelling parts of this installment in the saga of Pern. And Ruth's abilities to manipulate time and space are unparalleled in the evolution of the dragons.
As with most of McCaffrey's novels, I tend to skip over the romantic story lines as they bore me to tears. Rarely does she write a romantic subplot that engages me. And her attempts at jealous revenge subplots also grates on me.
But that aside, I enjoy the early Pern novels, and this one, along with Dragonsong are my favorites.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2019
Kakvo razočarenje! Očikivala sam toliko od Jaksoma i Rut, ali Jaksom ispade razmaženo derle koje stalno cvili i gunđa kako stvari nisu fer, dok se jedno jutro u naletu besa ne izviče na sve prisutne i oni shvate kako je on sada muškarac. Ma daj…
Rut je takodje prilično nezanimljim, jedina stvar koja ga razlikuje od drugih zmajeva je što nije zainteresovan za parenje i što ga vatreni gušteri obožavaju, a delovalo je da će biti od presudnog značaja za serijal „Dragonriders of Pern”.
Radnja je razvučena, spora i nepovezana. Jednostavno, ovo nije zadovoljavajuči kraj tiologije.
Rut je takodje prilično nezanimljim, jedina stvar koja ga razlikuje od drugih zmajeva je što nije zainteresovan za parenje i što ga vatreni gušteri obožavaju, a delovalo je da će biti od presudnog značaja za serijal „Dragonriders of Pern”.
Radnja je razvučena, spora i nepovezana. Jednostavno, ovo nije zadovoljavajuči kraj tiologije.
November 29, 2022
This is the third volume in the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. I read it as a part of the reading challenge at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group because three of the books in the series were nominated for Hugo Award.
This story starts less than two years after the ending of Dragonquest and is chiefly concerned with Jaxom, the young lord of Ruatha and his White dragon Ruth. White dragons have never before grown up to maturity, so after the hatchling chose Jaxom, he remained the lord and not taken as a rider. However, Rush is not a weak albino and while on a smaller side, he grew up fine. Moreover, “He’s…more…all dragon shades than the lack of any,” N’ton continued. He slanted one hand against the angle of Ruth’s heavily muscled shoulder, then cocked his head as he stared at the powerful hindquarters. “Beautifully proportioned, too. He may be small, Jaxom, but he’s a fine-looking fellow!”
So, while Ruth is growing up and preparing for the first ride with Jaxom, there is a conflict with old-timers, who were sent away to the Southern Continent and now facing extinction because their dragon queen is too old to lay eggs. There will be more discoveries of the tech of ancestors, more knowledge about the world as well as the return of old characters.
Overall, the story is interesting but there are too many minor characters and sometimes it is hard to follow who is who.
This story starts less than two years after the ending of Dragonquest and is chiefly concerned with Jaxom, the young lord of Ruatha and his White dragon Ruth. White dragons have never before grown up to maturity, so after the hatchling chose Jaxom, he remained the lord and not taken as a rider. However, Rush is not a weak albino and while on a smaller side, he grew up fine. Moreover, “He’s…more…all dragon shades than the lack of any,” N’ton continued. He slanted one hand against the angle of Ruth’s heavily muscled shoulder, then cocked his head as he stared at the powerful hindquarters. “Beautifully proportioned, too. He may be small, Jaxom, but he’s a fine-looking fellow!”
So, while Ruth is growing up and preparing for the first ride with Jaxom, there is a conflict with old-timers, who were sent away to the Southern Continent and now facing extinction because their dragon queen is too old to lay eggs. There will be more discoveries of the tech of ancestors, more knowledge about the world as well as the return of old characters.
Overall, the story is interesting but there are too many minor characters and sometimes it is hard to follow who is who.
August 31, 2016
After Anne Mcaffrey died late 2011 I rooted around in my bookshelves for all my old pern paperbacks from the early 80's. I was utterly obsessed with these books when I was a young teenager, and they were extremely formative in my own history as a writer. The first novel I ever wrote -- longhand, in mead spiralbound notebooks -- was a thin knockoff of Dragonflight (I seem to remember it had unicorns, but I'm so embarrassed by that book I haven't managed to actually read enough of it to check).
I reread all three books in the first Pern trilogy because I was curious to see if they held up to my very fond memories of them. Sadly the answer was no. Sometimes its best to let your fond childhood memories remain memories. :(
(I've duplicated this review across all three books).
Dragonflight: The earliest of the Pern books and the most problematic. It's a fast read and an OK story, but...ugh. My memories of the book were that it was one of the few SF books at the time that revolved around a strong female lead, one that I could identify and aspire to when I was 13. I was appalled to discover on reread that the gender politics are solidly prefeminist and really, really icky. And the writing is terrible -- terrible characters, terrible descriptions, too many similar confusing names, to many shift of POV. I was ashamed for my younger self for liking this book so much.
Dragonquest: Similar gender issues in this book to the previous, but better writing and a really compelling plot. I ripped through the book in a few hours. Not great art, but good storytelling. The best of the three.
The White Dragon: I didn't realize that the entire Harper Hall trilogy is supposed to take place in between Dragonquest and TWD, and I should have read those before starting this one. I didn't think much of this book; it felt much more leisurely than the fast-paced plotting of Dragonquest, with many more characters and threads (heh) and not a lot of narrative tensions. Jaxom as a character didn't much appeal to me, and it was just as gross to see the wierd gender politics of Pern from the male point of view. The big reveal as to the origins of Pern seems a sort of deus ex machina letdown (although the extended prologues always explained this, it was never a big part of the plot). It just didn't feel like a satisfying conclusion to me, and after reading this book I just felt all dragonned out.
Also as a side note, everyone is always striding in these books. F'lar strode in to the room! F'nor strode out of the weyr! I mentioned it to my husband about 2/3rds through TWD and then I couldn't help laughing about it every time the word showed up after that. You could make a drinking game out of it and get truly pissed indeed.
I reread all three books in the first Pern trilogy because I was curious to see if they held up to my very fond memories of them. Sadly the answer was no. Sometimes its best to let your fond childhood memories remain memories. :(
(I've duplicated this review across all three books).
Dragonflight: The earliest of the Pern books and the most problematic. It's a fast read and an OK story, but...ugh. My memories of the book were that it was one of the few SF books at the time that revolved around a strong female lead, one that I could identify and aspire to when I was 13. I was appalled to discover on reread that the gender politics are solidly prefeminist and really, really icky. And the writing is terrible -- terrible characters, terrible descriptions, too many similar confusing names, to many shift of POV. I was ashamed for my younger self for liking this book so much.
Dragonquest: Similar gender issues in this book to the previous, but better writing and a really compelling plot. I ripped through the book in a few hours. Not great art, but good storytelling. The best of the three.
The White Dragon: I didn't realize that the entire Harper Hall trilogy is supposed to take place in between Dragonquest and TWD, and I should have read those before starting this one. I didn't think much of this book; it felt much more leisurely than the fast-paced plotting of Dragonquest, with many more characters and threads (heh) and not a lot of narrative tensions. Jaxom as a character didn't much appeal to me, and it was just as gross to see the wierd gender politics of Pern from the male point of view. The big reveal as to the origins of Pern seems a sort of deus ex machina letdown (although the extended prologues always explained this, it was never a big part of the plot). It just didn't feel like a satisfying conclusion to me, and after reading this book I just felt all dragonned out.
Also as a side note, everyone is always striding in these books. F'lar strode in to the room! F'nor strode out of the weyr! I mentioned it to my husband about 2/3rds through TWD and then I couldn't help laughing about it every time the word showed up after that. You could make a drinking game out of it and get truly pissed indeed.
March 27, 2011
Hm, I don't remember Jaxom being so irritating before (haha). He whines and groans and talks a lot about how unfair things are, and yes, he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to smack him upside the head a few times. It also doesn't help that his romantic attachments bore me to death, and that there is no rhyme or reason for Sharra.
The plot meandered and it felt rather slow overall. What shined, however, is the relationship between Ruth and Jaxom and that's pretty much what gets me about the Pern series. Dragons + humans + bonding = omg yes please. No real rhyme or reason--I just like it. Still, there weren't as many just Jaxom and Ruth scenes as I would have liked, and the huge emphasis on the political plot was, well, rather boring. I don't mind political intrigue, actually, I rather like reading it, but the scenarios that McCaffrey presents are just dull for me. The ending felt rather weak and there was no excitement there, it was rather bland throughout the book.
2 stars. I really wanted to give it a better score seeing how much I enjoyed these books when I was younger, but rereading them just makes me sigh now.
The plot meandered and it felt rather slow overall. What shined, however, is the relationship between Ruth and Jaxom and that's pretty much what gets me about the Pern series. Dragons + humans + bonding = omg yes please. No real rhyme or reason--I just like it. Still, there weren't as many just Jaxom and Ruth scenes as I would have liked, and the huge emphasis on the political plot was, well, rather boring. I don't mind political intrigue, actually, I rather like reading it, but the scenarios that McCaffrey presents are just dull for me. The ending felt rather weak and there was no excitement there, it was rather bland throughout the book.
2 stars. I really wanted to give it a better score seeing how much I enjoyed these books when I was younger, but rereading them just makes me sigh now.
May 22, 2014
The old saying goes, "You can't judge a book by its cover." I can still remember that summer day when I spotted the Michael Whelan cover on "The White Dragon" and how it caught my eye. I remember picking it up, reading the blurb on the back cover and deciding I wanted to read it. I was fourteen-years old and I liked that the protagonist was around my age. It was the last book of the Dragonriders of Pern series that introduced me to McCaffrey's world.
But it was the story inside that cover that absolutely transfixed me! Easily, this ranks as one of my all-time favorite reads. I read the book so many times, the cover wore out and I had to keep the book held together with cellophane tape! I greatly enjoyed McCaffrey's style of writing and the incredible world she created.
The story follows the life of young Lord Jaxom of Ruatha after impressing the white dragon, Ruth; a runt of a dragon compared to others. How he finds himself caught between two worlds: the life of a dragonrider and that of a Lord Holder, never quite fitting in with either. When a shocking crime is committed, Jaxom has to grow up quickly and face his responsibilities or the world of Pern could be plunged into war. While trying to avert dragonrider fighting against dragonrider, Jaxom uncovers a secret about the world of Pern that no one suspected…
But it was the story inside that cover that absolutely transfixed me! Easily, this ranks as one of my all-time favorite reads. I read the book so many times, the cover wore out and I had to keep the book held together with cellophane tape! I greatly enjoyed McCaffrey's style of writing and the incredible world she created.
The story follows the life of young Lord Jaxom of Ruatha after impressing the white dragon, Ruth; a runt of a dragon compared to others. How he finds himself caught between two worlds: the life of a dragonrider and that of a Lord Holder, never quite fitting in with either. When a shocking crime is committed, Jaxom has to grow up quickly and face his responsibilities or the world of Pern could be plunged into war. While trying to avert dragonrider fighting against dragonrider, Jaxom uncovers a secret about the world of Pern that no one suspected…
July 21, 2023
July 2023 re-read: I first read this book 45 years ago(!), almost to the day, and I have loved it ever since. Of all the hundreds of books I’ve read with thousands of characters, many of those characters I’ve enjoyed and admired, or that I’ve identified with, or merely thought were cool, Jaxom of Pern is the only one I’ve ever wanted to *be*. To have adventures while riding your very own dragon just causes my imagination to take flight.
And this book has it all: fighting an existential menace like the alien Thread falling from the menacing Red Star, soaring aloft on dragonback, internecine politics, some romance of the non-graphic kind, conflict between various factions, including a duel to the death, nick-of-time rescues, exploratiom, designing architecture, even archeology… it really covers a lot of ground. Plus time travel! It’s amazing how much McCaffrey packs into this story.
Not to mention that Michael Whelan painted one of the all-time great covers for this.
And this book has it all: fighting an existential menace like the alien Thread falling from the menacing Red Star, soaring aloft on dragonback, internecine politics, some romance of the non-graphic kind, conflict between various factions, including a duel to the death, nick-of-time rescues, exploratiom, designing architecture, even archeology… it really covers a lot of ground. Plus time travel! It’s amazing how much McCaffrey packs into this story.
Not to mention that Michael Whelan painted one of the all-time great covers for this.
August 26, 2015
Oh Pern!!!
August 30, 2024
This third volume of the first Pern trilogy focuses on Jaxom who, at the end of 'Dragonquest', impressed a white dragon, never before seen and not expected to live. This allows Jaxom, heir to Ruatha Hold, to retain his position while being bonded to a dragon, normally something that would result in the person becoming a dragon rider and living in a Weyr, renouncing all titles as Lessa was obliged to do in 'Dragonflight' when she gave up her claim to Ruatha. He starts off around twelve at the beginning, but matures during the book as does his dragon.
The beginning few chapters are rather uneven as they jump forward in time. I soon realised that they contained spoilers about the Harper Hall trilogy and switched to that, reading all three before returning to this volume. However, there are other things alluded to which happen off stage frustratingly. For example, it's clear from chapter two's opening that Masterharper Robinton has just returned from a dangerous visit to the southern continent where only his Journeyman Menolly's seamanship saved them. That is referred to a number of times throughout this book but the reader is never shown what happened; it's just reported off stage like a battle in a Shakespeare play.
The book is not very coherent plotwise. Firstly, there's the strand of the southern exiles, who were sent there in 'Dragonquest' after one of their leaders made a murderous attack on F'lar, Weyrleader of Benden Weyr. A queen dragon egg is stolen and Lessa, Weyrwoman of Benden and the rider of Ramoth whose egg it was, is ready to go to war. It makes her come over as unreasoning and unpleasant, though she does come round a lot before the end of the story. But the author quite often resorts to giving her female characters these negative trends. Either they are angry, or they are whiney. Mirrim is a case in point. She started off in the earlier books as a foster child of Brekke, another Benden Weyrwoman (bereft of her dragon due to events in 'Dragonquest') and seemed resourceful but in this she comes across as petty and jealous of Jaxom for no real reason. She has a green dragon herself yet never seems to ride to fight thread even though the Weyrwomen do on their queens.
Another plot thread is Jaxom's gradual acceptance as the future lord and the balancing act between that and his wish to fly Ruth against Thread. But as soon as he wins permission to do so, he seems to lose interest and finds the essential training boring. He often goes off on a tangent, doing things by himself, taking risks despite his position, but then getting away with it. On one level, he is actually a bit of a spoiled brat. He dislikes Piemur, the harper who relocated to the southern continent at the end of book three of the Harper Hall trilogy, and the author has written Piemur as quite annoying, but Jaxom's position in society is vastly privileged, compared to Piemur's itinerant existence, travelling alone apart from his fire lizard and runner beast through dangerous terrain in order to 'map' the continent for his superiors.
Another thread is Jaxom's love life and his uneven path towards marriage which has a slightly saccharine conclusion at the end of the story. His dragon Ruth, through their telepathic bond, has a voyeuristic spectator role whenever Jaxom has sex. Unfortunately, Jaxom's personality takes a turn for the worse as he grows into adulthood. By virtue of being heir to the Holder Lord title, he exercises a 'droit de seigneur' right with a farmer's daughter, which strays into the realms of assault when he resorts to her after being turned on by a green dragon's mating flight. Afterwards, he's full of remorse, though Ruth (and I did find the name odd for a male dragon) assures him she enjoyed it (something all too common in McCaffrey's fiction). It didn't endear Jaxom to me when, after his remorse, he quickly decides he should return to the farmer's daughter if he can't have sex with Sharra, the woman whom he now 'loves'.
Yet another thread is the development of Toric, southern Holder and brother of Sharra, into a low-level villain who is trying to landgrab as much of the southern continent as possible and build a powerbase through the younger sons of holders being sent to him from the north. There was no hint of this personality trait in book three of the Harper Hall trilogy where he was introduced, and it really seems to come out of nowhere.
Finally, most interestingly, there is the plot strand where various people get together, led by F'lar and Lessa, to explore the ruins on the southern continent of the original settlements of their ancestors, abandoned due to seismic activity. Jaxom manages to insert himself into this by going off on an exploratory flight and discovering the two sites of interest. This strand fizzles out by the end of the story, though maybe the author continues it in a later book.
I liked the character of Ruth, but altogether, with the rambling plot and the annoying character of Jaxom, I can only really rate this at 3 stars.
The beginning few chapters are rather uneven as they jump forward in time. I soon realised that they contained spoilers about the Harper Hall trilogy and switched to that, reading all three before returning to this volume. However, there are other things alluded to which happen off stage frustratingly. For example, it's clear from chapter two's opening that Masterharper Robinton has just returned from a dangerous visit to the southern continent where only his Journeyman Menolly's seamanship saved them. That is referred to a number of times throughout this book but the reader is never shown what happened; it's just reported off stage like a battle in a Shakespeare play.
The book is not very coherent plotwise. Firstly, there's the strand of the southern exiles, who were sent there in 'Dragonquest' after one of their leaders made a murderous attack on F'lar, Weyrleader of Benden Weyr. A queen dragon egg is stolen and Lessa, Weyrwoman of Benden and the rider of Ramoth whose egg it was, is ready to go to war. It makes her come over as unreasoning and unpleasant, though she does come round a lot before the end of the story. But the author quite often resorts to giving her female characters these negative trends. Either they are angry, or they are whiney. Mirrim is a case in point. She started off in the earlier books as a foster child of Brekke, another Benden Weyrwoman (bereft of her dragon due to events in 'Dragonquest') and seemed resourceful but in this she comes across as petty and jealous of Jaxom for no real reason. She has a green dragon herself yet never seems to ride to fight thread even though the Weyrwomen do on their queens.
Another plot thread is Jaxom's gradual acceptance as the future lord and the balancing act between that and his wish to fly Ruth against Thread. But as soon as he wins permission to do so, he seems to lose interest and finds the essential training boring. He often goes off on a tangent, doing things by himself, taking risks despite his position, but then getting away with it. On one level, he is actually a bit of a spoiled brat. He dislikes Piemur, the harper who relocated to the southern continent at the end of book three of the Harper Hall trilogy, and the author has written Piemur as quite annoying, but Jaxom's position in society is vastly privileged, compared to Piemur's itinerant existence, travelling alone apart from his fire lizard and runner beast through dangerous terrain in order to 'map' the continent for his superiors.
Another thread is Jaxom's love life and his uneven path towards marriage which has a slightly saccharine conclusion at the end of the story. His dragon Ruth, through their telepathic bond, has a voyeuristic spectator role whenever Jaxom has sex. Unfortunately, Jaxom's personality takes a turn for the worse as he grows into adulthood. By virtue of being heir to the Holder Lord title, he exercises a 'droit de seigneur' right with a farmer's daughter, which strays into the realms of assault when he resorts to her after being turned on by a green dragon's mating flight. Afterwards, he's full of remorse, though Ruth (and I did find the name odd for a male dragon) assures him she enjoyed it (something all too common in McCaffrey's fiction). It didn't endear Jaxom to me when, after his remorse, he quickly decides he should return to the farmer's daughter if he can't have sex with Sharra, the woman whom he now 'loves'.
Yet another thread is the development of Toric, southern Holder and brother of Sharra, into a low-level villain who is trying to landgrab as much of the southern continent as possible and build a powerbase through the younger sons of holders being sent to him from the north. There was no hint of this personality trait in book three of the Harper Hall trilogy where he was introduced, and it really seems to come out of nowhere.
Finally, most interestingly, there is the plot strand where various people get together, led by F'lar and Lessa, to explore the ruins on the southern continent of the original settlements of their ancestors, abandoned due to seismic activity. Jaxom manages to insert himself into this by going off on an exploratory flight and discovering the two sites of interest. This strand fizzles out by the end of the story, though maybe the author continues it in a later book.
I liked the character of Ruth, but altogether, with the rambling plot and the annoying character of Jaxom, I can only really rate this at 3 stars.
August 14, 2011
Fantasy. More dragonriding with some archeology thrown in for color and the first appearance by a female green dragonrider. Except the text calls her a "dragon girl" and she doesn't get the honorific apostrophe like the men do and also no one likes her very much because she's bitchy. We also get our first female crafter, a harper, but she's the appropriate combination of bossy and nurturing and everybody loves her. If, on Pern, you are female and only bossy or only nurturing, then you're out of luck; men will not find you appealing.
Our hero this time is Jaxom, rider of the white dragon Ruth. Jaxom manages to have sex with women several times without characterizing it as rape. For this series, this is progress. However, it could be argued that Jaxom isn't a real man by the rules of his society because he's not a full dragonrider (no apostrophe, like a girl) and his dragon is immature which means he'll never be driven to have sex with another rider; several characters alluded as much, including the dragon girl no one likes. So he's not capable of rape because he's not a real man. Look, I don't make the rules! It's just what the book could be saying! It's not like it's been all that responsible about gender or sexual politics so far.
The plot in this one has a big hole after the first chapter. The second chapter's like, A YEAR LATER AFTER THE HARPER RETURNS FROM HIS DISASTROUS SEA VOYAGE THAT NO ONE TOLD YOU ABOUT BUT DON'T WORRY HE'S RECOVERED FROM THIS VAGUE REFERENCE TO AN ILLNESS. So that's dumb. Also there's a big lull in the middle where Jaxom is sick and then recuperating. The pacing's not great. At some point I lost track of what the point even was. For a while I was looking forward to learning the mystery behind the White Dragon; surely with the way the fire lizards treated him, he must be some amazing genetic throwback, but let's say I was disappointed on that front.
Three stars. I liked Ruth and Jaxom and watching them grow up, and I liked exploring the southern continent, but the pacing was just weird. I think I'm done with Pern for now, unless anyone has a favorite book from the other passes.
eBook: So much better than the previous two in this series by the same publisher. It still had errors, but not nearly as many. No cover.
Our hero this time is Jaxom, rider of the white dragon Ruth. Jaxom manages to have sex with women several times without characterizing it as rape. For this series, this is progress. However, it could be argued that Jaxom isn't a real man by the rules of his society because he's not a full dragonrider (no apostrophe, like a girl) and his dragon is immature which means he'll never be driven to have sex with another rider; several characters alluded as much, including the dragon girl no one likes. So he's not capable of rape because he's not a real man. Look, I don't make the rules! It's just what the book could be saying! It's not like it's been all that responsible about gender or sexual politics so far.
The plot in this one has a big hole after the first chapter. The second chapter's like, A YEAR LATER AFTER THE HARPER RETURNS FROM HIS DISASTROUS SEA VOYAGE THAT NO ONE TOLD YOU ABOUT BUT DON'T WORRY HE'S RECOVERED FROM THIS VAGUE REFERENCE TO AN ILLNESS. So that's dumb. Also there's a big lull in the middle where Jaxom is sick and then recuperating. The pacing's not great. At some point I lost track of what the point even was. For a while I was looking forward to learning the mystery behind the White Dragon; surely with the way the fire lizards treated him, he must be some amazing genetic throwback, but let's say I was disappointed on that front.
Three stars. I liked Ruth and Jaxom and watching them grow up, and I liked exploring the southern continent, but the pacing was just weird. I think I'm done with Pern for now, unless anyone has a favorite book from the other passes.
eBook: So much better than the previous two in this series by the same publisher. It still had errors, but not nearly as many. No cover.
December 25, 2025
This is one of my favorites of the series. Ruth and his rider are just plain nice people. Both are disabled in their own way. Ruth is the only white dragon on the planet Pern and Jaxom was born early from a mother who died at the time of his birth, and whose father died a short time later, making him the lord of Ruatha as an infant. Both will have to prove themselves to the humans of Pern. The dragons accept them as they are. This is a classic coming of age novel in that Jaxom needs to figure out who he is and what are his talents for the life he decides to pursue. Although, that part wasn't at issue. Jaxom was destined to be Lord of Ruatha from his birth and he never really questioned that, even if others did. He also, through impetuousness, entered a grouping that no one had seriously considered for him at all. How to reconcile those disparate parts of his life into a smooth whole? More of Pern's history comes to light in this book, in part, due to Jaxom and Ruth. Addendum: I've been taking a much needed break from my life by reading this trilogy, the original series that comprised this marvelous fantasy world. I guess now I'll go back to "real" pandemic life again. Sigh....
June 19, 2011
Okay this is the final book I have read in my recent Pern binge. Definetly one of the best books in the series, though it may be a bit confusing as a first read as it requires a knowledge of the personalities of the major players on Pern.
Anne McCaffrey has written some great scenes into the story. I particular love reading as Jaxom develops from a boy into a man and into his role as Lord of Ruatha.
Anne McCaffrey has written some great scenes into the story. I particular love reading as Jaxom develops from a boy into a man and into his role as Lord of Ruatha.
November 7, 2017
With this book, I have completed the original 3-book "Dragon Riders of Pern" series. This was definitely not what I thought is was going to be. I will go on and read other series someday, but what I will say is, if you like stories about dragons this is the series for you.
June 30, 2017
Summer Fantasy Fest read #25
I think many of the ya audience would find the Ruth the white dragon dynamic fitting. He's just not into it. And that's ok. He's absolutely lovely.
I think many of the ya audience would find the Ruth the white dragon dynamic fitting. He's just not into it. And that's ok. He's absolutely lovely.
February 4, 2018
This was my favorite of the first three Pern books. I loved Jaxom and Ruth, and the scene where the dragons keep Robinton from leaving always has me in tears. It was a fun way to spend the day.
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