We have that old problematic fave. You know you fantasized about flying on a dragon's back, and being friends with Menolly. We all had that OC with a red/turquoise/black/purple dragon.
A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha what is wrong with Anne McCaffery That said those books are a lovely, weird, cozy place for me to go back to. I'm not sure I knew what I wanted out of literature until the first time I read a book that involved intergalactic travel, time travel, and DRAGONS all at once. I have a huge weakness for that sweet spot where sci fi and fantasy are blended through fantastical understanding of hard science or the marriage of knowledge and wonder, and not many people write it well. Pern and Enchantress from the Stars are what come to mind. I'm actually in the middle of White Dragon right now--I should pick it up again, I was just distracted by other books. EDIT: oc with a gold queen, I don't do things halfway
I absolutely adore these books, and it is true, they really are comforting! Just thinking about them is giving me a warm feeling. I must have reread them hundreds of times, I just grabbed The Masterharper of Pern and its spine is falling apart. See, I think I had a silver at some point - it was like a gold queen, but silver. I remember making my own website on avidgamers to have our Pern RP, so I got to be Weyrwoman... man I had so many maps drawn out.
@littlewhitemouse of course Jaxom's titular white dragon is the original Mary Sue OC accoutrement. The setting of these books is frankly horrifically dystopian though and I think the fanbase tends to not really talk about that a lot. At least the parts of it that I've encountered.
Yeah, the setting is kind of awful. There are vague hints of maybe things getting a bit better by the time of Skies of Pern, but everything before, say, All the Weyrs is frankly horrible. In DragonsDawn things seemed to be all right, but apparently 2500 years of "if you don't do as I say I'll throw you out into the deadly rain" does some things. Part of the problem I think is that the earlier books looked like regular fantasy, and high fantasy settings, chock full of feudalism and repressive class systems and invisible serfdom, are almost always dystopian, despite all the bright, colorful elves and whatnot. Anyway, does anyone have any theories as to why the dragons have rather bad memories when the firelizards are able to pool their memories together to reach back millennia?
I suspect the dragons have bad memories on purpose so that they continue to face danger rather than run from it.
I think that the dystopian setting was part of what drew me into it. I started with Menolly's books, and I ended up identifying with her a lot, so I felt that the story was about overcoming the oppressive parts of the setting. I also projected my opinions onto characters a lot, so I managed to not suffer much throughout the more... difficult parts.
I've actually only ever read the Harper Hall trilogy, whoops! Fully intending to read the main series soon, time to get my problematic on
Actually, I always got pretty swept up into the books and didn't give much thought to how much living in middle-era Pern, or like, any time in Pern would suck, because I lose all reasonable thought and just start waving my arms and hollering when dragons are involved. Dragons!!! I love dragons!!! What absurdly backwards gender roles, fractured and violent military government, and centralized stranglehold on goods??? I can sing things as a job and have a dragon!!! I also find weird societies with uncomfortable norms more fun to read about than not so, like, okay, dragon-enforced serfdom in a world of constant military vigilance and leaders that are thrown ass deep into inhuman mental connections so strong and total that they can't be separated from their animal counterparts and will change laws when the lizards have fits, this sounds like it'll be wild! It is. So that never really detracted from reader enjoyment for me, regressive as it all is. Of course I don't understand how they do things, their incomprehensibly strong dragon mind melds are throwing them all through the emotional wringer constantly! Totally different: would kill to know what klah really tastes like. I vacillate between thinking it much be more like a thin cinnamon tea and more like a hot spiced cider, but with an alien fruit. We'll never know.
Yeah, Harper Hall is very much For Kids, which doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable read. The for adults books are delightfully full of long, drawn-out nitty gritty of managing and changing and constructing a society, entire chapters about how new discoveries change farming and governing and carrying messages and daily life, it's such braincandy for worldbuilding. Also, as mentioned earlier in other thread, dubcon gay orgies. And duels! And PTSD.
It's apparently coffee-like enough to be palatable, but with hints of chocolate and cinnamon and some other stuff, and there are some people who definitely think it isn't a worthy substitute.
Yes, I don't mind the dystopian hell nature of the world, I mind more the people who think the place sounds wonderful. Perhaps if you get to be the top 1%, but even their lives sound shitty in many respects. I also give the characters a lot of breaks because, raised in this world, of course they just accept shit as normal.
And some of them are Robinton, Masterharper of Pern, so like, they're not all bad people. You're right. Not all men. Robinton, Masterharper of Pern, would NEVER do this.
Now, I think it might be entirely rational to say "Dystopia? but DRAGONS!" and accept that trade but then DRAGONS.
Okay, the dragons were super great. I had a blue rider OC. But you know what was even better than the dragons for me? MOTHAFUCKIN DOLPHINS OF PERRRRRRRRN *Fires confetti cannon* Genetically engineered dolphins that can communicate and work with humans?! Shit was my JAM. Still is.
I am so fucking glad I never fandomed this series because ignoring how truly horrible-for-the-characters the worldbuilding often is, but playing with thos elements anyway, just makes me shudder. Spoiler: Rape And "lol necessary rape" just seems to be a theme in McCaffery's books. The Freedom books had it too, with even less justification than dragon orgies, and had all the characters involved saying it was necessary despite not coming from backgrounds where they would reasonably think so. It skeeved the fuck out of me, even while I wondered if they were right.
I used to play on Harpers Tale (I even had fire lizards which were hard as hell to trade for) when I was little. And by god do I adore the Pern books, but there are so many places Anne went wrong. (I can't say I'm fond how her son writes though. I just don't like some of the world building he does.) I also did a ton of egg hatching roleplays on Neopets back in the day. Loved me some greens and browns.
