Dragon's Code
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Average rating3
A new hero emerges in a divided world as one of sci-fi’s most beloved series—Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern—relaunches with this original adventure from Anne’s daughter, Gigi McCaffrey. In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dragonriders of Pern series, Gigi does her mother proud, adding to the family tradition of spinning unputdownable tales that recount the adventures of the brave inhabitants of a distant planet who battle the pitiless adversary known as Thread. The last time Thread attacked Pern, the world was unprepared for the fight—until the Oldtimers appeared. These courageous dragonriders arrived from the past, traveling four hundred years to help their descendants survive. But the collision of past and present took its toll. While most of the displaced rescuers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed. Piemur, a journeyman harper, also feels displaced, cast adrift by the loss of his spectacular boyhood voice and uncertain of his future. But when the Masterharper of Pern sees promise in the young man and sends him undercover among the exiled Oldtimers, Piemur senses the looming catastrophe that threatens the balance of power between the Weyrs and Holds of Pern. When the unthinkable happens, Piemur must rise to the challenge to avert disaster and restore honor to the dragons and dragonriders of Pern. Because now, in a world already beset by Thread, another, more insidious danger looms: For the first time in living memory, dragons may be on the verge of fighting dragons.
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I hate that this book was in Audible's Fantasy list included with the Premium Plus subscription and that just by looking over the names of books on the list I didn't see right away that this was book 24 (!!) in the series.
It was just halfway through the book that I went and looked into it's page in more detail and realized this.
That being said, the book did a great job of getting me to know and understand the world in a short time so I didn't feel as lost as I probably should have. Worldbuilding was explained very quickly but very effectively in the very beggining.
Apart from that, though, it suffered from me not being into the universe, and the reading was a bit difficult to keep up with at times.
I'm sure I would've enjoyed it better if I had read the previous 23....
I'm not putting a rating to this book because it's unfair to review a book you didn't finish. The fact I didn't complete it should speak volumes on its own.
I commend Anne McCaffrey's children's efforts in their attempt to continue her work, but it simply isn't, and never will be, the same without her.
2.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary:
Piemur, mischievous young harper boy, is growing up. His voice has broken, and he doesn't sing anymore, spending all his time mapping and spying for the Masterharper, and wondering what to do with his life.
Review:
I'm glad I went back to Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight before reading this, because Gigi McCaffrey's book takes place not long afterward, and references many of Dragonflight's key moments. It's essentially a gap-filling book in the series – filling in backstory and side characters from other books. And for those who loved Piemur in other books, here he is at the center of this one.
I know that Todd McCaffrey took the helm at Pern from his mother Anne first collaboratively, then alone. I haven't read those books – I just haven't had much luck with authorial dynasties. But I saw this on Netflix and thought I'd try it out.
I think it's probably fair to say that the younger McCaffrey uses the book in part as a cathartic way to examine her mother's death. Not to worry; it's not the focus of the book, but there's what seems to me a fairly obvious stand-in; it's one of the better parts of the book. The rest however, is fairly hum-drum, and suggests that the younger McCaffrey just isn't the writer her mother was. The prose itself is decent, but the plotting is thin – far too much turns on unlikely coincidences and other tricks that a more experienced author might pull off (or avoid), where a neophyte does not.
If you insist on owning the complete Pern, by all means pick this up; it fills in some detail. But the kind of magic that McCaffrey mere brought to bear is sadly missing.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
