McCaffrey, Anne
About the Author:
Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win the Hugo and Nebula awards. She died in County Wicklow, Ireland in 2011.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
2 out of 5
(2 books)
TOP PICK:
Dragonflight
Dragonflight
The first book of the Pern series. Forgive me if this is short review, but I haven't much to say.
I didn't really enjoy this book much, finding it rather predictable and generally quite mediocre. The mystery of the missing dragonriders is the book's best element, but even that struggles to offset the awkward prose and uninspiring story.
I guess I'm just not a McCaffrey fan (which is a bugger, considering I own seven more of her books that I haven't read).
2 out of 5
Dragonsdawn
A prequel to the Pern series. This book tells the story of how the colonists from Earth originally arrived on Pern. It chronicles the deadly first encounter with the Thread and shows how the native fire lizards are engineered and raised into the mighty dragons featured in the later books.
To be quite honest I've read colonisation science fiction written much better elsewhere. Things like the Thread and the dragons might have worked better if it weren't for the fact that, even if you know almost nothing about the Pern stories, you'll know they're coming.
Another thing I strongly disliked was the inexplicable contingent of Irish pikeys. They just seem to be a pointless bit of anachronistic nostalgia on the author's part.
As I always have, I found McCaffrey's prose sluggish, uninteresting and lacking in flow. It speaks volumes that it took me two weeks to read this book when I can usually read at least 100 pages a day. I really wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a real Pern junkie (God help you).
2 out of 5