Today is the conclusion of the Dragonflight readalong being hosted by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings.  This has been an interesting book split really into almost two halves.  The first introduces us to Pern and it’s inhabitants and dragons.  The second half brings us something a little more unusual in terms of stepping outside of the realms of fantasy and into the realms of sci fi.  If you haven’t read this book already the following post will include spoilers.

1.  The Threads are further explored and become very much the focal point in parts 3 and 4 of Dragonflight.  What are your thoughts on the Threads in general and how do you feel these worked as an enemy vs. the traditional enemies you see in SFF novels?

They almost don’t feel like an enemy.  They’re not, after all, coming onto the planet and attacking people (as in swords and bombs, etc) – they’re just like some sort of alien plant life and maybe these threads are always shedded from the planet and if they land somewhere and grow root then all well and good – just like natural plant life, seeds from trees, spores from ferns and fungus.  In a way it all seems much more natural and not like some nasty predator with big gnashing teeth – but for all that, the threat of them is very real, just again like in nature, when trees, for example, are sometimes killed by fungus attac,  Basically the threads will turn the planet into a desert in fairly short order so it’s pretty damn important that they’re eliminated.  I’m not sure that the Red Planet has an evil or malicious plan?  It doesn’t feel like that to me at the moment.  It just feels more like nature taking it’s course even if it is destructive.  I suppose the other thing is that this is from a different planet and maybe there’s a natural predator there that keeps the threads in check?  That being said it’s still a very potent threat.  So, to cut a long story short, I like what McCaffrey has come up with here.  Like I said, ‘threads’ they sound pretty innocuous but really they’re quite deadly.  They might not be little green men with bulbous heads shouting ‘ack, ack, ack, we come in piece’ right before they dissolve you but they’re still pretty nasty!

2. The science fictional concept of time travel becomes an important device in the later half of Dragonflight, how do you feel McCaffrey did in working time travel into the plot?

I really enjoyed this aspect.  It makes my head spin if I’m going to be totally honest because I get into this whole what came first question.  Like The Terminator – if the Terminator hadn’t gone back in time to kill John Connor then the technology would not have existed to build the robots that eventually cause the nuclear disaster – so, time travel makes me all a dither and I have to pay proper attention, literally stop reading while I think about all the implications of the last chapter.  I did actually guess about the importance of the time travel – probably stupidly, I thought maybe it would involve the future.  Now, before you all jump out of your seats – I was thinking maybe Lessa coming back from the future to help them (because in the future she would know there was a problem now?? But would she have survived the problem in order to have come back?  I give up).  Having read on, of course, I realise how unrealistic this is because McCaffrey was keeping the whole time travel continuum thing in place with the not meeting your own self.  But, yes, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story.

3.  Of the new characters introduced in this second half of Dragonflight, who did you like/not like and why?  

I liked the master harper guy whose name now escapes me (was it Robinton?)- need to go back and check his name out.  Not sure if I particularly disliked anyone.  I mean, you’re probably not supposed to like some of the Lord of Manor types – they’re all a bit obnoxious and yet after all there ‘oh, there are no threads and we’re not paying you tithes’ they were pretty quick to the table to bemoan what needed to be done when the real threat became apparent.  I suppose the real person who was so horrible and hate-worthy was killed in the first few chapters.

4.  We talked about it in the first discussion and there is no way we can get away from it in Part 2: What are your feelings on the progression of the relationship between F’lar and Lessa throughout this second half of the book?

Well, I was really puzzled when there was discussion about this last week because I hadn’t read further.  Reading on this week my initial reaction was ‘what? you have to be kidding me’.  In fact when I realised the full extent of what had happened I was pretty annoyed and almost at first a bit astonished that McCaffrey was writing that as part of her storyline.  But then I got back to a bit more sideways thinking.  Thinking about the threat which is a very natural threat, the way the weyr live feels a lot more closer to nature.  It might not be our way but it is reflected quite a bit in the natural world and is clearly the way  they live and what they expected.  The top dog rules, the end.  Having said that Lessa and F’Lar have clearly now developed feelings towards each other – so what happens if his dragon is no longer victorious!!  Or maybe there’s more choice in it than we really know.  Maybe the dragons have a lot more influence over who their partner is – I don’t know what I’m talking about basically which must be very apparent!  But, yes, obviously I didn’t like what happened to Lessa but I can respect that this is a different planet, a different way of living, different rules, different expectations – just take the rounding up of the young boys who become dragonriders – you wouldn’t be best please would you if some dragon riding guy flys out of the sky and takes your son off.  And the women chosen – some of them died when the dragon queen hatched!  Different world, you could call them less civilised but basically at the end of the day it’s apples and pears.

5.  And finally, what is your overall assessment of Dragonflight?  How does it measure up against other classic science fiction you’ve read?  Would you recommend it to modern readers, why or why not?

I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend to other readers.  It’s not fantasy and its not sci fi – fusion!!  What works about this is it’s not been done in a sort of surreal way.  We don’t have this mediaeval world with dragons that is then invaded by the little green men shouting ‘ack, ack, ack’.  It feels more, not realistic, but acceptable.  Okay, and, I’m not comparing this to Feist’s Riftwar Sage in terms of story but I suppose the Magician was similar in that it quite seemlessly blended the two elements and made them work together in a way that felt reasonable.  I can’t really compare this to a lot of classic sci fi because I’m not well enough read but I enjoyed it. I must admit though that the sci-fi element feels quite minimal – and what I suppose I mean by that is it’s not all gadgets and spaceships, hyperspace and strange new creatures.

This has been a great readalong Carl – thanks for hosting.  A great choice of book with plenty of debate and discussion which was really enjoyable to take part in.