A Mighty Good Read - "Dragon's Fire"

The first Anne McCaffrey book I read was "The White Dragon". The story of Jaxom and his telepathic white dragon Ruth held my attention like no other book had since I read the Hobbit series the summer I was 14 (I spent all summer holed up in my basement bedroom to read those books) - I soon fell in love with the Planet Pern and all of it's inhabitants - (especially Masterharper Robinton - but that's a whole 'nother story -) While these books are not of the epic proportions of the Harry Potter novels - the "dragonrider culture" has a huge following.

There are over 2 dozen books in the Pern series - recently Ms. McCaffrey has collaborated with her son Todd, (I think he was the original weyrling), for two novels - the latest is called Dragon's Fire - a story set in the first "interval". The world of Pern is sometimes confusing, as the story lines of the different books flip back and forth through time - but as with any series, you get to know the characters, and they become like old friends. There are also groupings of books within the series that have the same characters in them - and we're talking hundreds of years involved here, so there is a lot of lattitude for plots.

As with any good fantasy, there is good and evil - as I said, this is set early in the "life" of the planet's colonization - there are few "holds" (cities) and few "weyrs" (home of the dragons and their riders) The Craft halls have not all been established - but the story winds around so you know that the dragonriders will flourish and Pern will continue to exist.

Although Anne McCaffrey has written scores of other books - the Doona series, Pegasus, Crystal Singer and Acorna series' to name a few, oddly I have never been able to "get into" any of her other "fantasy lands" as it were. But, as I said, with over two dozen books in the Pern series, many I have read 3 or 4 times (yes, I find them that engaging and I cry and laugh just like the first time) there is plenty of entertainment to go around.

Doing some of the research for this post, I found that I have something to look forward to, Anne and Todd have another book coming out in January 2008 - Dragon Harper - just in time for my Village Books (our local independant bookstore) Book club Birthday reward - your age or -up to 39% off - any book you wish - isn't that a great deal! I can hardly wait.

Neelix says he doesn't know what all the fuss is about - "There are never any cats in any of those books." he says. "Yes, sweetie, but I've often thought that dragons and cats are a lot alike - telepathic - able to teleport between space and time- yup, you're a lot alike."

If you decide t take the plunge into the world of Pern, it is actually suggested that you read the books in the order that they were written - starting with the trillogy - The Dragonriders of Pern

I hope you enjoy it.