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Dragonsdawn (1988)

Dragonsdawn (1988)

Book Info

Genre
Rating
4.11 of 5 Votes: 4
Your rating
ISBN
0893662135 (ISBN13: 9780893662134)
Language
English
Publisher
ultramarine publishing company

About book Dragonsdawn (1988)

Those who have followed my blog for a while, know that I am a huge Anne McCaffrey fan, and that her Dragonriders of Pern are my favourite series. I have re-read Dragonsdawn for the umpteenth time now, and was surprised that I had not yet written a review about it.This book explains how the humans travelled to Pern, a 15 year journey, with most of them asleep. They brought everything they would need to build a low-tech society, the animals and plants thought compatible with the Pern soil and environment. And dolphins to guide their ships and help map the coastline. It was a one way journey, with no way back.The first eight years went well, they build a society, and farms, and everyone could earn a big piece of land after working hard on the colony’s behalf. The story follows a few people, but for me the focus is on two children, Sorka and Sean, who are the first to make contact with the little firelizards and imprint them, and that will be of major importance for the continued existence of humans on Pern. The strange hobo planet in the Rukbat system has been closing in on Pern for the past few months, but it will pass harmlessly. Or so they thought. The strange trajectory of the planet brings it through the Oort cloud, and in its tail it brings a deadly Thread to Pern. It eats everything alive. The little firelizards have been trying to warn their people, getting them and the animals inside, but the humans did not understand. Until the first threads fell, eating them and their crops and animals. The firelizards breathing fire are the only things saving them, and the stone roofs of their houses. When the people understand what it is, and where it is coming from, and that it will fall for 40 to 50 years, they need to make plans, and fast. They need to come together, back to Landing, and fight this stuff with fire. But the airsleds were not built for such extensive use, even if they have enough HNO3 to fight with. The only possible solution, is to make the little firelizards bigger, and able to communicate with humans. In their midst is the ancient biologist Kitty Ping, who has studied with a very advanced race, and she agrees to try to alter the little firelizards to their needs. It takes a lot more time for them to succeed, and then for the dragons and their riders to grow up. I really enjoyed seeing Sorka and Sean grow up, and learn their way around Pern. Sean is from a gypsy family and they don’t really like him socializing with Sorka, but they stay friends. Sorka teaches him the rules he did not bother to learn before he skipped school, and together they explore the beaches. I loved it when Sean earned his horse, and how the biologists and vets were able to design it exactly as Sean wanted. Both Sean and Sorka become apprentice vets, and they both imprint one of the dragons Kitty Ping has designed. Together they will lead the dragonriders of Pern in their battle against thread.Of course not everything is going allright, there are some dissidents and other stupid people on the colony. Avril Bitra thinks she can escape Pern after mining some of the precious black diamonds and other valuables, and she doesn’t hesitate to kill to get her way. But the brave Sallah Telgar is on to her, and at the cost of her own life, stops her, while helping her planet by providing some extra helpful data. Then there is Ted Tubberman, a very unhappy man, and after the dead of his children in the first Fall, he has gone mad with grief. Against the colony’s wishes he sends out a distress signal asking Earth for help. Of course it will take 10 years to reach Earth and there is no guarantee at all that they will come to their aid. And at what cost? But he also starts tinkering with lethal earth animals and that will leave a legacy not easily forgotten or killed.In the end they will have to flee the Southern continent and move up north, where they will have to live in extensive caves but with all the luxury of home. There has to be room enough for the dragons as well ...It is a very engaging read, and it makes me wish I was living in the future and able to go to a new planet to start a new community with likeminded people. It sounds like hard work but very rewarding and I would love to be the first one to see or do things. Of course I want a firelizard of my own as well. I do recommend this series. A note of warning: lots of books are stand alone, jumping hundreds of years through time and give us new heroes and heroines and stories. Some books are connected though, following the lives of a few people. I just love them all. From moderate technology, they will become more middle ages without much technology as the machinery they brought with them becomes irreplaceable and knowledge is lost because of plagues and accidents. But slowly they relearn things, and when they discover their ancestors Landing and the spaceships they left behind, they will finally be able to fight the planet that brings them Threat every 250 years. Anne McCaffrey has written many engaging science fiction and fantasy series, and I love most of them. I will re-read those often. I have most of her books, and hope to find the missing ones someday.10 stars.© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

This was quite an interesting twist to the Pern universe. Here we follow the stories of the first colonists of Pern from first landing till almost a decade later when they leave the Southern Continent for the safer Northern Continent and settle in Fort Hold.Although the story is different to what I was used to, Anne McCaffrey's style had shown through regardless. I felt comfort in seeing that all the protagonists are flawed and dislikeable in some way. Moreover, when things starts to look bad it becomes a whole lot worse before the ending sweeps in with an orchestra, banners, and all manners of proud and happy feelings (all Star Wars-like). In addition to Anne McCaffrey's story-telling style I was not surprised to see quite a bit of gender typing, especially towards the end. But what I did not see coming was the slight slut-shaming I spotted in the beginning. I know that the author always brings the issue of gender equality forward in her books, but the latter was quite surprising and a bit unsettling to me.I also have to mention that the characters’ cussing was smartly used; it was not overly used nor just thrown in there. Some situations are just so crappy that there is no other way to describe it but with F-bombs. It made it feel real to me and that these people were scared and stressed.But I genuinely liked this twist; it was interesting to see how everyone's lives progressed over the course of the book. But my heart stuck on Salah Telgar and the relationship between Sorka and Sean. The other characters have moments in the book where they shine, but these three always kept my interest. And their stories certainly all left a lasting impression on me. I also really enjoyed seeing how all the lore and history you learn of in the previous books have been tied in together here. Moreover, it was fun to see how all the fantastical events were given a 'scientific' explanation, and how this advanced society and their technology was explained. A lot of back-story was given here, which I enjoyed.The audiobook was enjoyable to listen to, the narrator did do a decent job most of the time and even managed the female characters quite well. But every time he attempted to do an 'exotic' accent or an emotional scene I wanted to burst out laughing. It just came off sounding campy and stereotypical to me. I may be alone in this but the narrator is the reason this book lost a star for me. On the positive side though, he did manage to carry the pacing well and if there were any faults in the writing I did not notice it. In addition to the narrator there was also one or two plot points I felt were not properly covered and would have liked an explanation or just better writing to make it feel less like a plot hole.Sorka and Sean’s story line is very interesting to me, their relationship and partnership was absolutely lovely to read (naturally Anne McCaffrey would pay homage to her Irish roots with them), I hope there is a book that follows their story further…

Do You like book Dragonsdawn (1988)?

This is a re-read -- I burned my way through all the Dragonriders books in high school and absolutely loved them, regardless of the fact that McCaffrey is (should I say was? I was really sad when she died) only fair-to-middling at crafting prose. She is a great world-builder though, and I loved this book especially because (spoiler alert) of the reveal that the Pern books are science fiction and not high fantasy (which you could easily be forgiven for believing after the vaguely medieval feel of
—Hallie

My Pern Re-read continues!Dragonsdawn is one of the most sci-fi of all the Pern novels, because it's cohesive and gives a strong background for why Pern was settled and lacks the fantasy tinge present in The Dragonriders of Pern and The Harper Hall of Pern. It creates a strong cast of character and vivid early colonial life, and I like the way most of them weave through each other. I adore Sean Connell/Sorka Hanrahan as a couple, and it was enjoyable watching the dragons' creation. There are two notable flaws: one, McCaffrey wasn't edited (or at least not edited well), and it's very inconsistent with earlier novels. McCaffrey gives some things a hand wave, but for someone who likes consistency, it's jarring. It didn't bother me that much as a teenager, but it bothers me a lot now.Secondly, I read the original 1988 US print run copy, and there are some really, really bad errors. This is a book that makes me wonder if Anne McCaffrey had some kind of no-edit contract, because there's no sign of editing. It's really noticeable right at the beginning when Bendon is speaking with Ezra Keroon and Jim Tillek. Jim Tilleck's name keeps changing (multiple times he's called "Jim Keroon" so I was confused about if they were relatives or if "Jim Keroon" was actually Ezra). This is just one example, but there are flaws like this consistently through the book, and it makes the writing confusing at points. I know there's a lot of complaints at the E-book editions containing typos, but the print editions of most of the Pern books have editing issues, too.If this had a more thorough editor, it could've been a five star book.
—Aishuu

This is the single most important book in my entire personal library because this is the one that introduced me to Anne McCaffrey's wondrous world of Pern. When I had first picked up this book, it was near the top of a stack of books I had sitting beside my bed. The stack started at books I thought I would find less interesting and proceeded downward to those I thought would be more to my new-to-the-fantasy-genre taste. I could not have been more wrong.Treasured perhaps above any of my books is 'Dragonsdawn'. It is in this book that I found a certain contentment with science fiction, though it was never a genre I was particularly interested in, while it filled my vast appetite for all things dragon. Since I'm one of those people that constantly has to figure out how or why things have come to be, especially when discussing fantastical worlds and creatures, watching the slow evolution of Pern's dragons before ever reading any of the other Dragonriders of Pern novels was probably the best way to introduce me to this world. And oh how I've come to love it since!
—Leah Alvord

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