The Skies of Pern [Mass Market Paperback]

Was it worth it? Definitely! I'd've downed it in one marathon sitting were it not for having to go to work and earn a living. And I reread it the following week. All 450 pages of it!

Once again Ms. McCaffrey visits our old friends in the Ninth Pass, picking up where "The Dolphins of Pern" leaves off. We get to see how they deal with the perils of anti-technology fanatics ("Abominators"), the uncertainties of the role dragons will play in a Thread-free world and Lord Toric's endless greed and conniving. A major new threat faces Pern from above, and the dragons have to come up with a novel and surprising way of dealing with it. A way hinted at in earlier books, particularly "All the Weyrs of Pern".

Along the way, Ms. McCaffrey does her usual excellent job of developing characters both old and new. Be prepared for a real tear-jerker toward the end.

So, if you're a Pern fan, this one is a must! While you're waiting for this one to arrive, you might want to dust off your copy of "All the Weyrs" and "Dolphins" just to refresh your memory and whet your appetite.

My only hope is that the next installment comes soon.

The Skies of Pern is a fair book. It takes me back to Pern and I get to meet all my old friends again. See how they've grown, what new changes are taking place. It's like going home again.

But there are some major descrepancies that just cannot be ignored. For these four serious blunders I have to give only three stars instead of five.

Blunder No. One: Lady Lessa. Lady?? Since when is Weyrwoman Lessa called Lady? She is not a Holder's wife. She gave up the right to be Holder of Ruatha at Jaxom's birth. Aivas called her Lady once and was trounced quickly as to her real title and rank. She is Weyrwoman or Ramoth's Rider. This is a very serious mistake. How can Anne not remember the titles and ranks of her own characters??

Blunder No. Two: Golly. The noble bronze dragon Golanth is called "Golly"? In Dragon's Dawn the first dragons clearly let it be known that they will not tolerate nicknames. The dolphins might shorten a name due to pronunciation, but for the humans to pick up on it and follow along is wrong. It demeans the dragon.

Blunder No. Three: Mirrim. OK, to be honest here, I can't stand Mirrim. I didn't like her in DragonQuest, I tolerated her in Dragonsong, and I wished she had been banished to the Far Reaches in White Dragon. But she keeps popping back up like a really bad penny. I like Toric more then Mirrim. But besides all that. What is she doing being a weyrleader? She is only a green dragon rider. Where is the Queen Dragon of Eastern? Who is the Queen dragon of Eastern? Where does this bizarre menage a trois start? Have I missed a short story somewhere where all this is explained?

Blunder No. Four: When did the Runners Guild become a player? Seems to me that we should have had some inkling of them back in the very first book. They might have come in handy when F'Lar was trying to figure out a way to communicate with all the holds before Thread started falling. At least in Renegades of Pern, Anne started the Traders Guild back at the beginning and slowly brought them forward with the rest of the story. But in Skies of Pern we are thrown in with a very major guild and left to wonder who they are??!

I loved the book for the fact that it did take me back to Pern. But there were some major "wrongs" that I just can't ignore. So I stand by my assessment of Three out of Five stars.

There are several potentially wonderful narrative themes in the book. We have the sabotage and vandalism wreaked by the Abominators, who are determined to stop and reverse the many technological innovations initiated by AIVAS, the artificial intelligence system brought by the original colonists and lately rediscovered. We have the huge tsunami generated by the impact of a comet fragment that plunges into Pern's sea and the heroic efforts of the dragons to rescue the land bound holders. We encounter the depredations of the giant felines on the Southern Continent. Running somewhat weakly through everything else is the angst of the dragonriders who fret about what they will do, now that threadfall is nearly at an end forever.

Except for the dragonriders' fretting, which grows quite tedious, any of the story lines could have been detailed and developed into a wonderful novel-length work, but none is pursued to any great depth. Instead, they are strung together like a weakly constructed anthology of unrelated events. This is not to say that the book does not have some delightful high points, both dramatic and humorous. The result of Golanth's first "heavy-handed" attempts to practice the dragons' newly recognized skill of telekinesis by moving trundlebugs is hilarious. The dialog (dragonlog?) between Golanth and Zaranth is frequently amusing and often touching. The terror and drama of the felines' attack on Golanth, his rider F'lessan, Zaranth, and her rider Tai are well delivered, and the novel becomes a veritable page-turner at that point. Unfortunately, we are then nearing the end of the book and are disappointed that the increased tempo is over so soon.

I have enjoyed reading almost all of McCaffrey's books, and I would not have wanted to miss The Skies of Pern. Still, I wish that it had become three different novels, each one dealing with one of great story lines in depth. The fourth line, that of the dragonriders' search for a meaningful existence in the post-thread era, would be better forgotten entirely. Turning them all into astronomers is not precisely a convincing solution to their pending unemployment problem. Still, for its faults and weaknesses, The Skies of Pern deserves to be read by those who have come to know the dragons of Pern. Newcomers to the series, however, will be more pleased to seek out McCaffrey`s earlier works on this fascinating planet.