Book Review: Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

It's been seven Turns (the Pern word for years) since the events of Dragonflight. The people of Pern still fight the falling Thread. If the Thread hits the ground, it burns the area and burrows in. Burrowed Thread spreads far and wide. The main tool in fighting the Thread is the dragons of Pern who burn the Thread in midair. In the previous book, the Pernese used some extra tools to fight the menace--the master craftsmen developed flamethrowers to deal with landed Thread and the dragonriders were able to bring hordes of dragons and riders from the past to help fight. The Oldtimers had just finished fighting the Thread in their time, which is only supposed to come every two hundred years. That explains where all the dragonriders disappeared to four hundred years before.

The mathematical discrepancy (four hundred versus two hundred) is because the Thread somehow skipped a visit due to the orbital variances of the Red Star (which is actually a rogue planet in the Pern system). Luckily, the dragonriders have been able to predict where and when the Thread falls thanks to carefully charted records. As this story starts, several problems arise. First, the Thread start falling out of sync with the schedule, causing emergency deployments of dragons and ground-based flame throwers. Second, the Oldtimers have a lot of old time ideas about how they are supposed to be treated by the other people on Pern. They expect privileges which often are not forthcoming. Third, the leaders of the dragons (divided into seven Weyrs) are getting into political squabbles, with the newly-established Southern Weyr having an ambitious and ruthless Weyrwoman, Kylara, who is barely held in check by her Weyrman. She wants to be in a more influential position and is indifferent to whom she will step on to get there. 

The book has more political and inter-personal drama than the first story. It still has plenty of dragon action and excitement. They discover a telescope in an ancient back hall of one of the Weyrs (remember, the planet was colonized eons ago and has slid back from even remembering they are a colony), letting them get a closer, more disturbing look at the Red Star. Can the dragons, who are able to travel instantly to other locations as long as they can picture them clearly, go all the way to the Red Star? Who will protect Pern if they go to fight the Thread on its home turf?

The story is very enjoyable but leaves a lot of loose plot points that hopefully will be resolved in the next book. At least, I hope to find that out soon!

Recommended.