Stephens, Brynne

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

1 out of 5

(1 book)

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight

(Art by Lela Dowling, Cynthia Martin and Fred Von Tobel)

The graphic novel adaptation of Anne McCaffrey's first book in the Pern series.  The deadly Thread has been absent for so long that the Lords of the Holds have begun to chafe at their traditional subservience to the dragonriders of the Weyrs.  However, when the Thread does return, the dragonriders are dangerously under-strength and only a daring mission can secure them the reinforcements they desperately need.

It's been a very long time since I read the proper novel version of 'Dragonflight' and I had forgotten just how much I disliked it.  I found the world McCaffrey created to be singularly unengaging and her characters largely irritating.  This adaptation rapidly reminded me of all those faults and then added a bunch more itself.

The artwork here is pretty bland and uninspiring, which should not be something you can say about a book featuring lots of dragons if it's been done right.  On top of that, the original novel (three or four hundred pages maybe) has been so compressed here that it becomes all but incomprehensible.  If I hadn't already read the original I'm sure I wouldn't have had a clue what was going on here at all.  Just awful.

1 out of 5

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Fantasy (here)