Customer Reviews

Dragon's Fire

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey have collaborated a second time to write a novel of Pern's earlier days. Dragon's Fire takes place during the same time period as their first collaboration Dragon's Kin, which would be the end of the Second Interval after Landing (the settlement of Pern) before the Fall of Thread. This novel has to do with discovering new sources for firestone, the material needed by the dragons to breathe fire. Pellar, a young mute boy is apprenticed to Masterharper Zist and they work together to search for Moran, another Harper who has gone missing trying to help The Shunned. The Shunned are a segment of Pernese society which have been outcast for various crimes but also at the whim of a Lord Holder. Pellar's story intertwines with Halla, a homeless girl, and Cristov, the son of a miner. There are references to the characters of Dragon's Kin, but this serves more to place the story in a time period rather than illuminate the story here.

While Dragon's Fire is, at its core, about finding a safe way to mine firestone, most of the novel focuses on the various adventures of Pellar as well as Tenim's (a villain) desire to gain power and money. Dragon's Fire does not seem to tell the story it claims to tell, and the issue with firestone is almost an afterthought except for discussions on the challenges of mining firestone because of how volatile the material is. Midway through the novel the story picks up and the McCaffreys start driving towards a conclusion, but the first half of the novel meanders around without accomplishing much. By the end Dragon's Fire is a better novel than Dragon's Kin, but it does not hold up nearly as well against Anne's classic Dragonriders of Pern novels. Interestingly enough, Todd McCaffrey's solo Pern novel, Dragonsblood, is also a stronger novel. The fact that the stakes do not feel very high or important has to do with the reasons why this novel is not as effective as other Pern stories. This is a problem in telling stories set early in a long chronology because we know that the dragons have firestone and no previous mention of the danger of firestone has been seen in prior novels, it is difficult to feel that there is a chance that the story will not end well for Pern.

Sometimes I wish that Pern would start to go the way of Darkover (Marion Zimmer Bradley) in that the lost colony will eventually become re-discovered by Earth and the culture conflicts. Anne already set this up in All the Weyrs of Pern with the discovery of working technology and the old space ships. There are stories to tell in this direction, but I fear that Todd will continue to write in the older days of Pern and do little to expand our understanding of the world.

-Joe Sherry

As I've said before, my theory on lengthy series is they tend to be divided into several tiers of quality: great ones (usually early on), good ones that don't match the passion or excitement of the top ones, adequate ones that serviceably move the grand story along but aren't particularly original or well-written, and the bad ones that were just spit out because series fans would by them. Dragon's Fire unfortunately is in the last category and it might even be a step below if that were possible.
What places books in the lower tiers of such series are that they aren't as emotionally rewarding or their characters aren't as well-developed or they're just a bit too predictable. But what places Dragon's Fire so low is not only are all of those true, but the basic writing elements themselves, which are usually at least handled in workmanlike fashion in the adequate novels, are here an utter and complete mess.
Basic settings are seldom made clear and characters wander all over the map without any sense of place or space or context. Motivations of several characters are not made clear or are simply stated without any sense of history behind them. Some don't even make much sense. Shifts in place and time are often abrupt. Multiple plot lines are scattered about like spilled rocks on the floor and the reader lands on them with no sense of a greater pattern, no sense of transitions or story arc or development. Plot points and characters are dropped completely with little rhyme or reason, as if the book had been written by a committee whose members never bothered to read the others' work. Even the language is poorly constructed (not intentionally for effect or character development). And those typical Pern scenes such as dragons appearing in number suddenly in the sky or the sadness over the loss of a dragon are handled in at best perfunctory manner--there no warmth, no love there. There's no sense of a writer's craft or even interest and even less sense of an editor's hand trying to at least correct some of these problems.
I'd like to say something good about the book and spent a few minutes trying to come up with something, but it's near impossible. I think the best I could come up with is that Halla, the young female character, has some potential and could have done nicely in another book--one could see her appearing in earlier Pern books fully fleshed out and given the treatment that others of our favorites received from the author--such as Mennoly.
Obviously, Fire was a major disappointment, especially as I'd thought the last book, Dragon's Blood had shown some improvement from Todd McCaffrey's first collaboration with his mother, Dragon's Kin. I hope that same improvement between books now happens between Fire and whatever comes next. I know it's hard to skip a book in a series one has loved but Fire adds little or nothing to our understanding of Pern or its history and is so, so badly composed/constructed, that I'd strongly recommend not bothering with it. At the very least, if you feel compelled to read it, I'd suggest doing so with a copy of Dragonflight or Dragonsong next to you so that when you finish Fire you dive in and remind yourself what it was that made you fall in love with this series to begin with.

Dragon's Fire (2006) is the second SF novel in this subseries of the Dragonriders of Pern, following Dragon's Kin. In the previous volume, at Camp Natalon, Kindan trained Natalon's blind daughter Nuella to direct his green watch-wher Kisk. After a cave-in in the mine, Kindan taught her to take Kisk between to the trapped miners and then to bring them back with her.

During the rescue, the watch-wher rebonded to Nuella and changed her name to Nuelsk. Kindan was not very surprised about loosing the watch-wher, for Nuella and Nuelsk made an ideal pair. Besides, he had been asked to tryout at Harper Hall.

In this novel, the Shunned are outcasts from normal society. Many have done evil deeds and so their Holders have Shunned them. But many more among the outcasts are the spouses and children of the Shunned. While innocent of any wrongdoing themselves, they go with their relatives into exile.

The Harper leaders are concerned about the Shunned. The thread will be coming soon and the Shunned will be without shelter. Earlier, they had sent out Journeyman Moran to contact the Shunned, but have not heard anything back from him.

Pellar is the adopted child of Master Zist and Cayla. They are Harpers and he is also a Harper in the eyes of everyone except himself. Pellar excels at instrument making and other Harper skills. He is a graphic artist and can directly contact the mind of dragons. He even has a bronze fire-lizard, Chitter. Yet he is mute and thus cannot sing.

Zist, Cayla and their young daughter Carissa leave Pellar behind when they venture into the wilds to contact the Shunned. He would have been too obvious, but he still wants to go. While Zist and Cayla find the Shunned, they also discover that a disease is killing off many outcasts. Cayla and Carissa catch the disease and die of it.

After Master Zist returns from the disastrous journey, he takes the position of Harper at Camp Natalon. Pellar accompanies him, but stays out of sight. On the journey, Pellar notices someone among the Shunned who leaves yellowtop flowers on the graves of their dead. This person is small and wears bark sandals.

Once they reach the vicinity of the Camp, Pellar hides out while he keeps an eye on Zist and the surrounding countryside. He notices the same footprints and tracks the child. He discovers her hanging from one of his snares and learns that her name is Halla. Pellar also finds the Shunned camp.

In this story, Pellar discovers that Moran has collected a group of Shunned children and is trying to take care of them. Moran has been begging for food -- or money to buy food -- for the children, but sometimes he spends the money on hard drinks. He is well meaning, but is just not a good parent for the children.

Tenim was one of the children raised by Moran. Unfortunately, he has grown up to be a bully. Moreover, he has a falcon that he has trained to attack on order. And he has plans to steal enough coal from Camp Natalon to become rich.

Tarik is the uncle of Natalon -- the chief miner at the camp -- and the father of Cristov. Tarik is allied with Tenim in the plot to steal coal from the mine. He is also going to get rich and then boss his own mine.

This story tells of the circumstances of the Shunned. Even some Lords who had Shunned them are beginning to worry about their fate. The Harpers find that bands of children from Shunned parents are roaming the countrysides. Most of these children won't reach adulthood, dying from untreated diseases and accidents.

Another theme is the dangers of firestone. This ore is especially sensitive to water, exploding or outgassing toxic fumes on contact. Then Kindan begins to research the issue and discovers that firestone may have been different in the far past.

This novel continues the story began in Dragon's Kin and adds new characters. The tale is convoluted and exciting, a good read. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for McCaffrey fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of fire-breathing dragons, valiant heroes and heroines, and a touch of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Pern has been such a rich, living tapestry that I never expected the series to get to this point. Reading Anne's books has left me with a full sense of the depth of her world and the vitality of its inhabitants. I cried at the death of Robinton, having felt that I would almost have recognised him, Menolly, Lessa, Piemur, etc., on the street.

Dragon's Fire is... nowhere near. Instead of being immersed in depth, instead of being swept along on the tide of the story, I feel like I'm wading in an ankle-deep creek. I'm skipping through the story without understanding who the characters are, where they are, or why they act as they do.

The idea of Games continuing through the violent death of a wyrling blows my mind. And since when does firestone blow up on contact to water? Have they never fought Thread during rain or heavy fog? How in the world could the firestone miners go all day without water while working, when the guy in the stocks couldn't even tolerate just sitting there without, and yet there was only one guy coming out all day?

It's just... like someone read some of Pern and decided to write a faintly related story, with no adherence to anything that didn't suit their storyline. Altogether, not a good recommendation of the continuing series at all.

"The Red Star grows larger and Thread will return." This quote, taken from Lord Fenner of Crom Hold, nicely sums up the situation in Anne and Todd McCaffrey's latest Pern collaboration, "Dragon's Fire". In only eighteen more years (or, rather, "Turns"), the world's ancient nemesis will return, a rogue planet called "The Red Star". It will tow in its wake hordes of deadly space spores; these will rain down relentlessly upon the planet for almost a lifetime. In contact with Pern's moist, warm atmosphere, the spores become Threads, organisms which voraciously consume all organic material. Only three things can stop Threads: water, solid rock, and the fire of the great, genetically engineered dragons of Pern.

By the time of "Dragon's Fire", the settlers have been on Pern for almost 500 Turns. Memories of Old Earth are fading, and Pern has fully developed the feudalistic society familiar to all long-time fans of the Dragonrider novels. Inevitably, as the Pernese prepare for the return of their ancient enemy at the start of the Third Pass, they meet up with a slew of challenges requiring the most urgent attention.

In "Dragon's Kin", the previous book of this storyline, we were introduced to the coal miners living in Camp Natalon, located in the hills near Crom. Of special import were the following characters: Masterharper Zist; Kindan, an orphaned miner boy; a blind girl named Nuella; a seemingly deranged villain named Tarik, himself a miner; Tarik's troubled young son, Cristov. We learned that coal has been getting harder to find close to the surface, and we learned new and important details about the watch-whers, ungainly creatures closely related to dragons, but comfortable only in dark places like mines.

So, has the figurative coal seam of Pern's early history been played out? Hardly! There are many new veins to be discovered and quarried.

While "Dragon's Fire" is technically a sequel to "Dragon's Kin", it actually consists internally of two books; I will treat them here as two separate entities.

The events of the first book, called "Pellar", run mostly parallel to those in "Dragon's Kin". We learn of the great personal tragedy which leads to Master Zist going to Camp Natalon, a rather unlikely place for a Masterharper to be. We are also introduced to his adopted son Pellar, a mute boy with a great talent for hunting, tracking and other woodcraft, also healing. These two characters have a good reason to be in Camp Natalon: they are investigating the steady pilferage of coal. They have their suspects, but need proof.

I actually liked "Pellar" much more than "Dragon's Kin". Although the latter was an enjoyable read, it suffered from two significant flaws. First, Todd's literary voice did not blend well with his mother's. Second, the behavior of miner Tarik, and to a lesser extent Masterharper Zist, just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. They just didn't have the right kinds of motivations -- especially Tarik. But "Pellar" provides a wealth of much-needed background information and clarification. Also, the authors' writing styles are much more harmonious now. No doubt, this is because Anne and Todd have had more practice in working together; also, Todd has matured as a writer in his own right.

"Pellar" introduces us to a few more important characters. There is the Shunned girl Halla. There is the journeyman harper Moran. We learn early on that he was supposed to be on a clandestine mission to learn more about the Shunned, but mysteriously vanished. What has he been up to? And then there's a ruthless new villain, Tenim.

To understand a little about the Shunned, just think of the Holdless of Ninth Pass Pern, two thousand Turns in the future. These people are depicted in "The Renegades of Pern", but "Dragon's Fire" introduces enough of a twist to the concept to avoid being overly repetitious. What will happen to them when Thread starts falling? Does anyone care?

The second part of "Dragon's Fire" shares the name of the whole volume, and takes place in the Turns after "Dragon's Kin". A new problem is arising for Pern: firestone. This is the combustible rock which dragons must chew to produce flame, vital in searing Thread from the skies. The problem is that firestone is TOO combustible. The mines have an unfortunate tendency to explode. Dragons hate the stuff, but nobly chew it anyway for the good of all Pern. Experienced, non-crispy miners are in desperately short supply, and there are few volunteers. How has Pern managed to put up with this mess for so long?

There is another brewing crisis involving the watch-whers, but I won't give any details away.

In corresponding with Todd himself, I learned that "Dragon's Kin" was really meant to be a "Young Adult" novel, but because of its being part of the Pern series, it was published under the standard Del Rey label instead. I would rate "Dragon's Fire" the same way, given how most of the protagonists are children, and the story is told mainly from their viewpoint. They face challenges familiar to many of the young people on Pern: learning who they are, and coping with the often heartbreaking fact that life frequently isn't very fair.

"Young Adult" or not, there is plenty here for us older readers to enjoy. Don't let it deter you.

A few miscellaneous thoughts: Todd (I'm sure it has to be Todd) adds a lot of fascinating details to Pern. Things like the colors of dragon eggs or what firestone actually looks like. There are whole chapters devoted to the Spring Games (in this era called the All-Weyr Games). This is an annual contest held by the Weyrs during an Interval to keep practicing Thread-fighting techniques.

There are a few flaws in "Dragon's Fire". I noticed one jarring contradiction, involving Pellar's rank as a harper. Again, some of the villains just don't seem to have convincing motives. Maybe they're just deranged. Hopefully a future sequel will explain things better.

Given how I got only an hour and a half of sleep last night, being totally drawn into this story, I definitely give it two thumbs up. If you're a major fan of Pern, by all means get this book in hardcover.

I'm looking forward to chewing on the next installment. Bring it on!

I sorely wanted to believe that Todd McCaffrey's concept of Pern would pick up Anne's McCaffrey's visionary thread, in harmony or counterpoint, and am therefore saddened to report that his handling seems so unevenly discordant to me that I may not trouble to read another of his tales.

Where Anne McCaffrey's Pern always held a note of optimism and hope through the most difficult of times, Todd McCaffrey's Pern is jarring and uncomfortable as it explores the unsavory underbelly of the culture--a Pern I never expected to see and honestly can't believe exists. The very concept of a "Shunned" subculture in the numbers posited; of Weyrleader D'gan threatening to kill an injured, albeit Shunned miner? Firestone so unstable and volatile a substance that a drop of water will explode it? ("Dragon's Fire") (Shards! Let's hope a rider doesn't sneeze while passing his dragon firestone! Or fly through a moisture-rich cloud!) Dragons dying by the dozens and an acutely sensitive Lorana, who can feel every death, not being rendered catatonic by the horror of it? Lorana continuing to function, even to the extent of learning genetic manipulation (!), after her own Queen, Arith, dies? ("Dragonsblood") Flight games continuing with little emotional impact or comment after the death, by firestone explosion, of a weyrling delivering firestone? ("Dragon's Fire") Compare that to Anne's description of the acute psychic agony suffered by Lytol years after the death of his dragon, brown Larth ("Dragonflight", "The White Dragon"), and I find myself asking, who ARE these people? They dress like Pernese, they attempt to speak like Pernese, yet they haven't the sensibilities of folks who have been reared with and lived in the company of the lofty dragons of Pern.

I've read the covers off of Anne McCaffrey's Pern sagas until the characters are as familiar to me as childhood friends, and this is not the Pern I know.

And the discomfort inflicted by Todd McCaffrey's tales is interminable--heaping disaster upon disaster and horror upon horror through chapter after chapter until I can barely stand to continue reading. If I wanted to wallow in this type of dark emotion, I could simply stay on present-day Earth, turn on the telly and absorb the news of the Middle East. In the past, I've escaped to Pern to soothe my jangled psyche by immersion in a culture more inherently honorable and magical than my own. I'm afraid that Todd McCaffrey's Pern is too realistic, if you will; too unpleasantly akin to my own world, to entice me to visit again.

"Dragon's Fire" is the second collaboration between Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd (a published novelist in his own right). Judging from these collaborations, and from the publication of a "Pern" novel under Todd's name alone, it is clear that the torch is being passed from one generation to another.

This is not the strongest of the "Pern" stories -- nor, however, is it as bad as, say, "The Dolphins of Pern" (the point of which I still have yet to ascertain!) Set toward the end of the Interval between the Second and Third Passes, the inhabitants of Pern deal with the several challenges including:

1) Firestone problems

2) Shortage of dragonriders

3) Shortage of watchweyrs

4) What to do about "The Shunned" -- a culture of pariahs seperated from the rest of the Pern civilization.

5) An irresponsible Weyrleader (of whose appearance in the next novel I have little doubt!)

A couple of unique characters add to the charm of this novel.

Virtually no new ground is broken here -- but what is presented is pleasant and entertaining.

(I would be interested to hear if other readers caught the same parallels to "Oliver Twist" as I did. Please feel free to e-mail me.)

I introduced my mother to the Pern books years ago, and since then we've reduced our collection of Anne McCaffrey books, Pern-related and otherwise, to a well-loved stack of dog-eared, broken-spined, bathwater-and-chocolate-spotted wrecks. When Todd McCaffrey began writing, Mother and I were both thrilled. More Pern books! NEW Pern books!

I, for one, am now extremely disappointed. This is not the same Pern. Suddenly there are Shunned everywhere, and there is a healer who works mainly with stones; firestone is highly explosive; watchwhers (which now fly thread at night) are tremendously important but never adequately described; dragonriders lose their dragons -- a tragedy described in Dragonsfire as so much worse than the loss of a child -- and then go normally about their business in the Weyrs, pausing now and then to wince when something dragon-related reminds them of their loss. (Whither Brekke?) One-dimensional bad guys abound, being, apparently, arseholes for the sake of being arseholes. There is little in the way of motive -- and even if the motives were explored, the reader is given no particular reason to care, as the characters are rarely fleshed-out enough to inspire sympathy.

That leads me to another gripe. There are many characters in Todd McCaffrey's Pern books, most of whom are indistinguishable. Names are too similar, and descriptions few and far between, which leads to confusion [see D'lin, D'gan, D'vin]. I mentioned this to Mom, who said "I thought it was just me, not concentrating well enough to keep the characters and locations straight."

"Mom," I said, "think back. I bet that right now you can actually picture Robinton, or Sebell, or Piemur -- all harpers, but all very different. You can picture Ruatha Hold, Cove Hold, Paradise Hold, Benden Weyr. Now try to picture Kindan. Try to picture Camp Natalon."

"You're right," she said.

In Anne McCaffrey's books, you could generally see the room in which the characters stood, or the layout of Hold or Weyr. There was atmosphere. There was distance. The characters were individuals, with individual traits and tics -- think about F'lar's constant battle with hair in his eyes, Piemur's quick and hyperactive ways, Jancis sturdy and dimpling, Mirrim charging about like a particularly bossy bull in a china shop; simpering, puffed-up Esselin, somber Lytol, massive Fandarel and his never-ending quest for maximum efficiency. Even those who were not necessarily physically described were often recognizable through dialogue alone.

There are large mistakes in the new books. During the Games (also new), a weyrling blows up due to firestone, for no apparent plot-related reason other than to emphasize yet again the danger of firestone -- and the whole affair is quickly forgotten in the awarding of prizes. Lorana supposedly has a sort of inferiority complex due to the loss of her family during the Plague; this is pointed up now and then, in direct opposition to her assertiveness in handling dragons, dragonmen and obnoxious Weyrwoman alike. Pellar does not love Aleesa's daughter, and then he does. He sees a red-headed boy going into the mine, but though the boy and his hair color are important enough to be noticed, he isn't important enough that we are able to put a name to him. Later on, I believe a dragon actually changes color over the course of a few pages, but I can't be sure without the book here; the dragon in question was Telenth, though I could have him mixed up with Talith, which brings me back to the name problem. Even the minor name issues are an irritation - overuse of similar letter groupings (Pellar, Halla, Allera, Nuella, etc.), or first letters of names, like the slew of "K" names used in Dragonsfire. It is nearly impossible to keep everyone straight. Reading Pern books is not supposed to be work.

I'll grant that taking on a complete fictional world is an enormous task. Comparisons to that world's creator are inevitable. Complaints about any change to that world are also inevitable, and for good reason. Todd McCaffrey, if you want a different world to write about, create one, and if you aren't up to the task of taking over your mum's world, with her carefully-crafted characters and elegant descriptive passages intact, don't do it!

I have loved the dragon books since I was a little girl and had high hopes that Todd McCaffrey could continue the series in the same vein as his mother. Unfortunately, this book rambles from plot to plot like the shunned children it follows ramble across the Pernese landscape. The motivations of the characters are completely unfathomable! Tenim, the evil teen, spends time on one elaborate plan after another for no understandable reason. Since he has no compunction about murder or theft, how much easier it would be to simply steal what he needs rather than forcing a miner into a complicated skimming plot, or traipsing cross-country to search for a fabled watchweyr lair! There are so many characters introduced in the book that it's virtually impossible to care about any of them. Plus, the book introduces a callous violence that's not a part of Anne McCaffrey's original writings. A butchered fire lizard left out on a table. A girl left dead. Children tortured. There's none of the gentle civility and pulling together in the face of adversity that marked Mrs. McCaffrey's books. This is a dark, confused, and (most sadly) poorly-written and BORING book.

As I said, I love the dragon books. This is not a dragon book. Perhaps we should just all give a long, high keen and declare the series between.

I've loved Pern since I was a teen. Lessa, Robinton, F'lar, Moreta, Menolly, all of the characters became friends I visited again and again. Sadly, the newer books don't have the "magic" that the early ones did. Nor do the voices of the co-writers blend well. The narrative is bland, and while the mute Harper boy is an intriguing concept, the whole story is cardboard, like BAD fanfic. I fear fans will have to look for good fanfiction to continue Pern, as some of that is better than this latest professional entry.