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106 of 112 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
in the middle tier of Pern books, better than some later one, February 5, 2005
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. Dragonsblood for the most part falls into the second category, with a few flaws that move it down a bit within that tier.
It isn't such harsh praise to say the book doesn't match the first two series (dragonflight/quest/singer/song/drums, White Dragon) since they were so good, but one does miss the deep characterization, the passion, the originality of those earlier works. It's also not on par with some of the later "good-but-not-great" ones, such as All the Weyrs, but it does a decent job of storytelling within a familiar world.
Unfortunately, one of the flaws is that it's a bit too familiar plot-wise. We've seen much of Dragonsblood's story before: the plague, the race against time for a cure, the use of timing it to heal wounded dragonriders, the girl who can hear all dragons, the intemperate and/or incompetent weyrleader/weyrwoman who threatens the weyr's survival, found technology from the past helping out in the present, and perhaps most egregious, the use of a song from the past to inform the future of what they should be doing. It would have been nice to have been given a more original storyline.
Dragonsblood tracks two time periods, the second generation after original colonization, focusing mostly on Wind Blossom, and 500 turns later, focusing on Lorana. During threadfall, a plague strikes first dragonlizards and then dragons themselves, calling into the question the very survival of the humans on Pern. Without going into how, both time periods race to find a cure. Wind Blossom and others must also figure out a way to get that cure to the future. It's a more compelling and fast-paced plot than most of the later Pern books, and the time switches are handled well for the most part, with little confusion. Some confusion does arise, however, from the sheer number of characters, many of whom seem a bit superfluous. Some judicious editing would have helped here.
The characters range from fully fleshed out ones such as Lorana and Wind Blossom to several who are more shallowly presented and a few who simply appear and disappear both in the text and in memory.
There are a few clumsy attempts to "explain" why things happen as they do in the future, those awkward "so that's why people call them that" moments that often occur in prequel books. Even worse, there are a few times where things seem to contradict earlier, accepted Pern history. The suspension of disbelief at those moments is pretty hard.
The ending has a bit of a deus ex machina feel to it and is greatly burdened by the sudden influx of techno-speak. Here again, it's hard to believe what is happening, as characters in a barely-technological society are suddenly spouting gene theory and actually performing experiments, and doing it all quickly and smoothly. The ending, therefore, pulls the book down a bit in its rating.
In the end, while it has its many problems, Dragonsblood isn't a bad addition to the Pern canon, though it doesn't add much. Since it's better than Dragon's Kin, the previous book and one which McCaffery worked on as well, the trend is towards improvement, which bodes well. I'm not sure there are a lot of Pern stories left to tell (the overly familiar plot in this one gives pause), but with Dragonsblood's improvement over Dragon's Kin, McCaffery junior shows he might be able to handle what ones are left. Recommended for fans of the series, who won't be as disappointed as they've been with others. But for newbies, go back and start with Dragonflight and read in publication order. Then you'll understand why so many people flock to buy even the weaker ones.
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199 of 216 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Another slide downwards for Pern, February 4, 2005
Please ignore all but the first review of this particular book. Honestly, this was *not* good work, in a few ways, it was superior to Dragon's Kin, but not by very much. And it spoils more than it helps continuing the story of Pern.
~*Mild Spoiler alert.*~
Anne has made a reputation for not allowing fanfiction to be written (up until very recently) about her world, Pern. Her fear was that people would warp her world in ways she did not want. However, she seems to have allowed Todd to do plenty of warping on his own. And to be honest, I have seen better fanfiction than this book! (Track down Dragonschoice, if you don't belive me.) Where this book mostly fails is in it's treatment of previous canon, storyline and characterization.
Dragonsblood does not follow earlier story canon [Whers *were* an error, *not* a secret back-up plan, meant to look like a mistake]. Years of Anne telling us it was supposed to be a mistake, cannot suddenly be undone by deciding that "No! They weren't a mistake! They're supposed to eat Thread at night! Yeah! Because the air's all thick and stuff, and they fly in teams just like dragons!" Let's forget completely for a moment that: 1. Whers aren't that social (Dragonflight), and have lousy telepathy, so they couldn't really organize themselves anyway. 2. They have stubby, nothing wings that are clipped on top of it (Dragonflight). 3. How does the air get "thick" at night? 4. Anne's said in more than one place that Thread does not fall at night (http(colon)//www(dot)ids(dot)org(dot)au/~annac/dr/drmain/ammsg(dot)html, and Skies of Pern, and if it does, that's what the grubs are for. Not whers that have suddenly developed the ability to fly, and somehow eat Thread without it eating them from the inside out before it dies.
Todd also unfortunately forgets basic details about the very creatures he's writting about: whers have only 2 toes on each foot, not 3, *cannot* fly, and cannot hang about during the day. Experienced Weyrfolk do not suddenly forget that gold dragon eggs are 30% larger than regular eggs, and golden-tinged, so cannot "regular" eggs cannot be confused for gold ones.
And also about the world itself, Tea plants simply didn't take to Pernese soil, they were not lost because of the Crossing (Dragonsdawn), Pern does not have honey, because bees didn't survive the trip (The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern). Forgetting one or two of these things isn't so bad, its the fact that so many of these little facts are wrong and the incorrect statements repeated so much that rankles the mind of anyone who loves the original Anne books.
The storylines are a tangled mess, the jumping back and forth between the first and third Passes makes following the story difficult. Between having a new character being added every few pages and sumarilly forgeting they exist or killing them, leaves little opportunity to empathize with many of the characters or even care much when they do die or dissapear. Many plotlines were started, and nothing was made of them, Todd's editor should've snapped those out when she saw them. It probably would've helped kept the book from being a 400+ page monster if she had. That's disgraceful really, just because the McCaffrey's write-something, doesn't mean it has to go into print. There is such a thing as viciously and heartlessly murdering your darlings in the editing and polishing phases of writting.
Characterization was poor, lacking both in nearly any empathizing qualities or even likability. Wind Blossom was nicely portrayed as a somewhat bitter woman, forever living with the memory of her mother's standards, this created a good area of sympathizing with her, but she has no real redemming qualities to either make her even somewhat likable or able to be seen as anything but a plot device.
Lorana is a Mary Sue character if there ever was one, entirely too sweet and naive for anyone's tolerance, all she wants is to do good for the world, sketching pictues (I take the time now to remind you that at the 3rd Pass, paper was replaced with hides for record keeping, only paid Artists got canvas to paint or draw on), but all those icky-bad people and that yucky-yuck disease just make things so hard for her to do all those lovely sketches that people find so enchanting. Because she's had such a hard life after that plague; "Wait, wasn't there The Big Plague in Moreta? Yeah, but this is another plague. They happen a whole lot, just no one talks about them, for some reason I don't really explain all that well." Like they've never seen a portrait made before Lorana showed up.... She's too damn wishy-washy. And let's not start on the Talent universe infringements: her carisaks (you just couldn't say shoulder bag, could you Todd?), her Damia-style God-like telepathic powers. "She's so strong not only can she talk to other dragons, all of them talking all of the time doesn't seem to drive her out of her mind, and she can toss dragons /between/ to the colony days, and they aren't even hers!" It's nauseating, for once can we have a sona solve problems with a bit of ingenuity? Not all that tossing about of super-powers like they've been doing since Skies of Pern.
Aside from those two, every other character tends to slip through the cracks of one's mind, there's nothing in particular to keep them stuck in your memory. They basically did nothing but be plot fodder, and not even good fodder at that, choking their way down the throat of the reader as they struggled to find the signifigance of naming every single person in the Lower Caverns, and medical tents, even as some of them did only minor things like bringing food in for the main characters to eat, or offering Wind Blossom a cup of klah. Is it really necessary to mention all of those people? When they have absolutely no influence over the storyline or even in the actions of the main chracters?
Dragonsblood is unpolished, sorely needed to be cut by 50 pages, the hanging plots needed to be tied up, and for Faranth's sake Todd, Read ALL of your mother's books first! Get your facts straight, and make post-it notes of them somewhere where you can see them to remember that whers have two toes, that Pern doesn't have honey, that whers were an error and no amount of covering your ears and saying "nah-nah" won't unmake that statement, and for all of those little things that ruin the atmosphere of the world we've all come to know and love.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Nice enough, but not Pern, October 26, 2005
This book is nice enough on its own, but only if you disregard everything Pernese from Dragonsflight onward. While reading this book, the phrase that most popped into my mind was "Did Todd even READ his mother's books?" He basically takes Pern canon and throws it out the window, unceremoniously and unapologetically. The only way I allowed myself to enjoy this book at all was to consider it part of a parallel universe, certainly not the Pern I've been devoted fan of for the past 23 years. Canon, Todd, canon! I'm not sure which of the many, many deviations from canon I was most horrified over, but I think one of them was Todd's addition of steps (steps!!!!!!) from every single weyr within a Weyr. No! Only the queens weyrs have steps. If all the weyrs had steps to them (and can you imagine how this would be accomplished as far above the ground as some weyrs are?), I think this would have been mentioned previously. What HAS been mentioned previously is snippets that prove there are no steps; for instance, Menolly requires a ride from Mirrim and Path to reach Jaxom while he's sleeping in one of the weyrs. Moreta requires a lift from Malth to reach Berchar in S'gor's weyr. I won't even comment on the watch-whers, since others have here. I really have no problem with different writers in a series adding new content and material, but...don't make major changes to canon! There's plenty that could be added to Pern without blatantly refuting all that's been suggested throughout the series!
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