Ahira's Hangar

I have picked up the two books I had not previously read Dragon's Blood and Dragon's Fire. I hope I like them better than the watchweir book. I hope to get to them later this week...

I started reading Dragon's Blood tonight and I already have some continuity issues with it ~ or perhaps I am misremembering earlier Pern books?

Menolly -

I'm not sure if this should be spoiled or not, given that the book has been out awhile, but better to be safe than sorry:

[spoiler]

Since when do watch-whers fly?
Since when does Thread fall at night?
Since when do watch-whers get together under guidance of their queens and fight the Thread at night without knowledge of any humans?
Since when are watch-whers a top secret and deliberate successful experiment rather than a successful mistake?
Wasn't the Asian scientist lady the grand-daughter rather than the daughter of the great geneticist who created the dragons?

I'm sure I will come up with other things to ask about later.


[/spoiler]

Yes, I probably do need to reread Dragon's Kin. I did not like it, and did not read it very closely, and that a couple of years ago.

So this guy is completely (and clumsily) retconning all of the watch-wehr stuff, eh?

Well, it can be a mixed bag with passing on the torch, either before death or after.

For example, Christopher Tolkien has been nothing but very respectful towards his father's work and memory.

Brian Herbert has just made a mess of the Duniverse.

I would think the jury is still out on Todd.

However, having read further:

[spoiler]


Wow, is he ever recycling plots and ideas in this book.

besides the awkward retconning...

* younger Queen rider who has healing talents and who can talk to all dragons being bullied by the senior Queen rider of her weyr (can you say Breke and Kylara - though I liked Breke a lot more than this cardboard chickie)

* dumb and agressive weyr leader who stands in the way of progress and cooperation

* dragons timing it to the past to heal and grow the young to increase their numbers during a current crisis

* there is already talk of teaching songs to be sent to the future

* planetwide plagues (humans in the recent past, dragons and fire lizards now, though the dragon aspect of it is new)

ugh.


[/spoiler]

I read Dragon's Fire, and yeah the harper characters are an improvement...but yeah, it is not as good as one of Anne's books...

I guess I can see what Todd is doing, but...

And I can understand why he is staying so far away from the areas his mother was so strong in, but...

He has picked an era his mother never wrote about - the Third Pass. And I think that was wise.

And he has written stories about professions and things that his mother never spent a lot of time with, ie watch-wehrs and mining. And that is not so wise.

I am the granddaughter of two coal miners, and the mining stuff puts even me to sleep. And I want to read about dragons not failed mutant dragons (which is what they are, no matter how much he retcons them).

I dunno. I surely hope he will not do a bunch of retconning of the Harper Hall in the upcoming book.

Ok, here is my review from Amazon (has spoilers)
:

[spoiler]

This review contains some spoilers, so keep reading at your own risk...









I'm not even sure where to start with the problems I had with this book...

Is it the recycled elements from earlier (much better) books in the series? A duel, a plague, female apprentices facing sexism in the harper hall?

Is the flat characters? Including Kindan, a classic Gary Stu if I have ever run across one?

Is it the "super" apprectices, who are assigned important tasks without any adult supervision, and then who are tapped to be working masters (though technically of journeyman rank) in their hall (and who will give them the final touches to their educations so they can ever be REAL masters when nearly all of the real masters are dead?)

Is the way that someone is given ONE WEEK'S intense training to fight in a duel, and then somehow becomes an expert rather than a corpse? In ONE WEEK?????????????????? Sorry - martial arts take a heck of a lot more training than that!!!

Ugh. Completely unrealistic in sooooooo many ways, and not well written to boot.

Incidentally, this follows Dragin's Kin then Dragon's Fire, but takes place BEFORE Dragonsblood. So the newer books are not even being written and published in chronological order, on top of all of their other problems.


[/spoiler]

I gave it two stars.