Dragon Riders of Pern is one of the most enduring fantasy - science fiction series ever written. It was started by Anne McCaffrey in 1967 with the novella Dragonrider but best known for the trilogy: Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon. Her son, Todd McCaffrey, continues to add to the series, which now consists of23 books. I read the first book while attending high school. I kept track of the series off an on through the years, then a few years ago I got a copy of Dragonsdawn which established the "science" behind what otherwise is a fantasy series.
Dragonsdawn begins twenty-five hundred years before the time of the first Dragon rider book Dragonflight, with three colony ships decelerating towards the planet Pern which was surveyed some two hundred years earlier and deemed colonize-able by the survey team. The plot of the story revolves around the early days of the colony on the planet and their first encounter with thread fall. There are several character story lines woven in the novel. They come and go throughout the unfolding of the story, the net effect of them is to move the plot along and give some character color to the story. One of the main sub-plots in the story is the discovery of indigenous, small, winged lizards which have telepathic abilities and the ability to shoot small puffs of flame. They are labeled "dragonets". When the colonists first encounter a thread fall and realize the grave danger they represent to the viability of the colony let alone the lives of the colonists, they attempt to use genetic engineering to make the dragonets into full-sized dragons.
There was enough science-tech geekery in the story to hold my interest plus their frantic race against time to genetically engineer dragons capable of fighting off the Thread held my attention through to the end of the story. McCaffrey spends a lot of time however on a sub-plot by a member of the crew, Avril Bitra, an astrogator who schemes to get rich and try to leave the planet in one of the abandoned transports. That doesn't end well for her and another character in the story.
On the whole, I found the story engaging, but a bit long-winded in some of the expositions on details of the story. This is not a fast paced thriller. There are moments of intensity when they are fighting the thread, but it's clearly a character driven rather than plot driven story.
My take on various aspects of the novel: (Using the 1-5 scale where the higher the score the better the rating.)
Plot: 3.5 - It's not bad, but I found it plodded along. My preference is to a much more up-tempo pacing.
Language: 3 - Again, it's not bad. There are no F-bombs, but it has its moments where emotions are running pretty hot and the language is similarly laced with expletives. Outside of these areas, the rest of the story is safe.
Violence: 4 - I liked the pacing and the narratives of their struggles against the thread fall. There is a murder that is perpetrated on one of the transports.
Sex: 4 - It happens, but there's nothing graphic nor any love scenes. There are some references to members of the crew sleeping with others with whom they are not married.
Thematic content: 5 - This is an entertaining story. The author isn't trying to make a point other than to explain how the dragons of Pern came to be. There's no eco-message of any type in it.
If you're a fan of the Pern universe and haven't read Dragonsdawn, you'll find this an interesting story in seeing how it all began. If you're not familiar with the Dragon Riders series, this book will have less appeal for you. If the book were a movie, it would be rated PG-13 for the violence and the matter of fact, yet horrifying recounting of the effects of the Thread when they fall on a human being. Once you get started though, you'll want to finish.
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