The Skies of Pern

February 19, 2001

Bestseller McCaffrey's first Pern novel in three years returns to the world of her most popular series, Dragonriders of Pern, reprising almost all the best-loved Pernese characters. In earlier episodes, hero and heroine F'lar and Lessa summoned the captivating dragons and their riders from the remote past to save Pern from a devastating rain of Thread, while the later discovery of Aivas, the artificial intelligence that guided Pern's original human settlers, brought technological marvels like printing to Pern and helped shift the Thread-producing Red Star from its lethal orbit before it self-destructed. Now neo-Luddite Abominators are bent on destroying all of Aivas's gifts and returning watery Pern to its primitive state, while the Dragonriders struggle to find new purpose in a Threadless world. F'lar and Lessa uneasily contemplate second careers or—horrors!—retirement, while their genteel and amorous son F'lessan and perceptive green rider Tai arrive at both a dragon-assisted romance and a whole new role for the telepathic and telekinetic dragons. McCaffrey's various themes—traditionalism vs. technology, the necessity of societal change, feminist commentary on draconian psychology—are at times awkwardly integrated. And her slightly watered-down villains seem peripheral to the action, merely a means to showcase familiar personalities performing during crises. Nonetheless, as all her Pern novels amply demonstrate, McCaffrey's sexy and cunning dragons carry the day—and the novel—with impeccable, irresistible panache. (Apr. 3)Forecast:A likely genre bestseller, but some younger Pern fans may be put off by the emphasis on retirement, unable to appreciate the angst of inexorably approaching age.

December 20, 2000
McCaffrey's famed dragonriders have been called back after three years. Pern may be free of Threadfall, but a new danger is coming.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2001
In "The Dolphins of Pern" (1994), Aivas (an acronym for artificial intelligence voice address system), a recently discovered artifact from the Pern settlers' original landing, taught the later people of Pern how to end the deadly Thread falls by moving the satellite that caused them. But problems remain. The Dragonriders, longtime defenders against Thread, must find new occupations in a Threadfree society. There is also the matter of which of the long-lost technologies reintroduced by Aivas can be adopted without disrupting the planet's culture. Those who consider Aivas an "abomination" resume their efforts to stamp out all new technology through brutal attacks on various Holds and Craft Halls. Then a massive comet crashes into Eastern Ring Sea, causing destructive tsunamis throughout the planet. F'lar and Lessa, Weyrleaders of Benden, and their dragons Ramoth and Mnementh, and Lord Jaxom and his white dragon Ruth--all familiar from earlier series installments--figure in the tale, but the main characters are F'lar and Lessa's son, F'lessan; his dragon, Golanth; young Tai; and her green dragon, Zaranth. The love that grows between F'lessan and Tai provides lovely romantic relief from the exciting action, and the realization that dragons are capable of telekinesis as well as telepathy and teleportation promises that "there will always be dragons in the skies of Pern!" (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)