Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern #1) by Anne McCaffery

 

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey is the first novel in the very long Dragonriders of Pern series. I have started and stopped reading this book at least a dozen times because it seems like something I should like. Fantasy? Written by a woman? A female main character? Dragons?  I mean.  Doesn't it seem like a perfect match for me?

Well.

Hmmm...

It's just that there's also time travel and I am not a fan.  It's too easy a solution.  

Synopsis: Lessa is pretending to be an ordinary kitchen servant while she's plotting to take back her ancestral keep from its current evil caretaker when she suddenly meets and bonds with a queen dragon and becomes a dragonrider.  The Threads are attacking Pern and Lessa and the very depleted dragon corps must save the world! But how will they do this?  (Hint: see previous paragraph.)

The good: Most of the time I like Lessa. She's sort of a bad ass. And she has a dragon!  F'lar can get brained in the head, though, for a taste of his own medicine.  

Non-time travel issues: This is a book in which the gender relations have not aged well. This was written in 1968 and it really shows. Lessa is pseudo-raped, hits slapped, shook, and hit by her lover/abuser, and *obviously* falls in love with him.  I find this type of romance storyline to be super hard to get through. I know that this was written *in a different time,* but that doesn't mean rape was okay in the 1960s anymore than it is okay today.  

I'm on the fence about whether or not to read any other books in the series, particularly the original trilogy. It's absolutely beloved and I want to understand the hype. On the other hand, there are plenty of other books out there that I presume I would appreciate more.  The next book is available for me to download in ebook form RIGHT NOW and I guess if I run out of books to read on my Kindle, maybe I'll give it a go, but it will not be a priority.