Review of "Dragon's Fire" by Todd & Anne McCaffrey
(3 of 5 stars)
Let me start by saying that I adore Pern and have loved all of Anne's
Dragonrider novels. "Masterharper" and "The Dolphins
of Pern" are two of my favorite books ever. I literally cried when
Masterharper Robinton died! Anne is the only author that
has ever stirred emotions in me so deeply. I go into her book's
expecting to be moved. I enjoyed "Dragon's Kin" (Anne And
Todd) and "Dragonsblood" (Todd) very much, though admittedly not as
much as any of the one's prior.
I am currently on page 150 of the newest book "Dragon's Fire" (Anne
and Todd). I'm not even through with the first of the two
stories, "Pellar". Once again I find myself with tears in my eyes;
alas, it is not due to the magic of the story, it is due
to the lack of that magic...
On a technical side let me point out that this is the worst editing I
have ever seen in a published book. There are missing
words, misplaced words, and glaring error's that should have been
caught by any half decent copy-editor. Example from page
85: "She ordered the larger stones be laid down first and packed with
the backs of the shovels, then covered by a thinner
layer of the light gravel be shoveled out to cover it." The second
half of that sentence reads as if it were written by a
second grader. I believe the blame for this rest's solely on
Ballantine / Del Rey and not on the author's.
The author's however must take the blame for the meandering story
line. In the past I've alway's found it difficult to put
down a Pern novel. At least a few of them were finished in one sitting
and caused much lack of sleep! So far with "Dragon's
Fire" I've found it difficult (at times) to continue reading. I've
grown weary of running across passage's that I have to
reread (or flip back pages) in order to make sense of.
The profusion of characters is confusing at times. There are 13
characters listed in the Dramatis Personea in the front of
the book, there are three times that in the first story alone. Where
is the Dragondex that graced the back pages of the
Anne's early books? It would have made sorting out the numerous
characters easier. And how about the map? The shunned
characters in "Pellar" are moving around from location to location and
we are unable to track their movements without pulling
out one of the earlier books! What happened? Anne and Todd are better
than this book shows.
I just finished "Pellar". I have to point out that this book is not
two stories, it is two parts. And the end of Pellar will
leave you very angry... (I suppose that is good writing for you, leave
you begging for more.
After all the critique of the first story, I thoroughly enjoyed the
second part of the book! It's almost as if it were
written by a different person than the first half of the book (hmmm!)
Still not the magic of the earlier books but decent
reading none the less. It has inspired me to go back and read the
seventh pass chronicles again.
Let me know what you think...
KevinBe
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