2006-02-12
Dragonseye
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Am I reading the culls? Is there a good reason why these three novels were published as in a discount softcover in 2003 and ended up selling for $3.99 in a warehouse outlet by 2004?
Dragonseye starts out with a good, engaging plot. The year is 257, and it's been 200 years since Thread stopped falling on Pern. Society was forever altered to accomodate this menace, and no one has forgotten it -- except for one Lord Holder Chalkin, who is more interesting in taxing his people to death. Bitra Hold is completely unprepared for the Second Pass, only moths away now, but Holders are autonomous within their land. What can be done?
If Dragonseye were the story of how the world fixed that problem, it would have been a good read. In fact, it is partly that story, and that part of it moves quickly and purposefully. The problem is that story ends about 2/3 of the way into the book. The last 1/3 of the story bides its time until the First Fall of the Second Pass. It's as if the author decided, over 30 years after she first wrote a story on this alternately idillic and cursed planet, that she should fill in a certain year of history. When she got down to it it turned out nothing that exciting happened, but she went ahead with the original plan anyway.
If the story jumped from the resolution of the strongest plotline I mentioned into the last chapter, showing the first Fall, it would have made sense. As it is, the best you can say is it's the story of the preparations for the Second Pass, which all went quite well with no serious issues. Maybe the series's established fans were interested in this bit of backhistory, but as a new reader I wasn't hooked.
Partly because I'm disappointed in Pern, but mainly because I have two trips coming up and don't want to try to read this particular volume on planes, I will read something else for a couple weeks before returning to Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern.
Am I reading the culls? Is there a good reason why these three novels were published as in a discount softcover in 2003 and ended up selling for $3.99 in a warehouse outlet by 2004?
Dragonseye starts out with a good, engaging plot. The year is 257, and it's been 200 years since Thread stopped falling on Pern. Society was forever altered to accomodate this menace, and no one has forgotten it -- except for one Lord Holder Chalkin, who is more interesting in taxing his people to death. Bitra Hold is completely unprepared for the Second Pass, only moths away now, but Holders are autonomous within their land. What can be done?
If Dragonseye were the story of how the world fixed that problem, it would have been a good read. In fact, it is partly that story, and that part of it moves quickly and purposefully. The problem is that story ends about 2/3 of the way into the book. The last 1/3 of the story bides its time until the First Fall of the Second Pass. It's as if the author decided, over 30 years after she first wrote a story on this alternately idillic and cursed planet, that she should fill in a certain year of history. When she got down to it it turned out nothing that exciting happened, but she went ahead with the original plan anyway.
If the story jumped from the resolution of the strongest plotline I mentioned into the last chapter, showing the first Fall, it would have made sense. As it is, the best you can say is it's the story of the preparations for the Second Pass, which all went quite well with no serious issues. Maybe the series's established fans were interested in this bit of backhistory, but as a new reader I wasn't hooked.
Partly because I'm disappointed in Pern, but mainly because I have two trips coming up and don't want to try to read this particular volume on planes, I will read something else for a couple weeks before returning to Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern.
