Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011)

I approached this book with a little wariness as although I had loved it when I read it years ago, I was disappointed when I re-read the first section more recently - as it won a Hugo award, it was in an anthology of Hugo winners that I read earlier this year. At the time, I said "I'm afraid I was a little disappointed. When I first read this novella years ago, I enjoyed it so much I immediately bought Dragonflight. This time around, certain things jumped out, such as the patronising attitude of F'lar, the apparent hero, towards Lessa. He eventually realises she has spent ten years undercover in her own home, having to live as a slave, beaten and malnourished, and yet has absolutely no sympathy let alone empathy for her subsequent feelings or behaviour. The story doesn't allow any real exploration of the trauma she has undergone, and how she might realistically have a meltdown after achieving what has been the goal of her life, but instead rushes off into her attempt to impress the new queen dragon. So it came across as a mite superficial, and the villain's name was unfortunate, especially as in those days everyone would have known what a fax machine was."

So I approached with those reservations, but strangely enough found I was enjoying that first section more than last time. I still have those reservations about the hero and the rushed ending of the first section, but this time it served to get me back into the story which became more absorbing as the book went on. The book is organised into a number of sections, which begin at different points along Lessa's timeline as she becomes Weyrwoman and finds all is not well in the remaining dragon weyr, but eventually she and F'lar are able to act decisively and to start mobilising the population of Pern to face the imminent danger of deadly Thread spores from the red planet which is at last making its close approach.

A slight criticism again is that the author tends to skate over things which would no doubt be explored in much greater depth in a modern story, but that is to some extent the style of the late 60s when this was written, and when even science fiction and fantasy novels were not long books. So Lessa's epic ride into the past is told quite economically. Still, the ending sets everything up for an exciting sequel. Given the slight reservations, a 4-star read rather than 5, but still very enjoyable and a keeper.… (mais)