Dragonquest

This is the second Pern book on the list provided by the library. I read this book while traveling in Thailand. The story was addictive, and I ended up staying awake very late the night before we left to finish the book.

The story takes place 7 years after Dragonflight. The oldtimers, the riders and dragons who came into the present to help protect Pern after the thread began to fall again, are causing problems. They are demanding and greedy, and the people who live in the areas protected by oldtimers are growing resentful.

I was interested in how the groups changed from the first book to the second book. The oldtimers are brought to save Pern in the first book, and now they are causing problems for Pern by their old ways of thinking and acting. One of the things I like about the Pern series is how characters change over time. They grow more mature, or serious, or problematic, or generous. The stories are plot driven, but at the same time character driven. This makes the fantasy and sci-fi aspects softer and more human.

I also loved this book because of the introduction of the fire lizards. They are miniature dragons, basically, only more playful and not as smart. One of the dragonriders happens to impress a fire lizard on the beach, which spurs a newfound interest in the small creatures, as pets and message carriers. I especially enjoyed the scenes where non-dragonriders impress the fire lizards as pets and gain a new understanding of the emotional bond between dragon and rider.

Dragonflight

This is the first Pern book on the list provided by the library.

The main character of Dragonflight is Lessa, a clever girl who is able to speak to all dragons. When the story begins, Lessa is working undercover as a kitchen drudge in her family’s hold. The hold was seized by an ambitious overlord, and she is biding her time before she can take back the hold. This part was a bit difficult for me to be interested in, because it spends a lot of time talking from her bitter and dissatisfied point of view. It is necessary back story, though.

The dragonriders are in disfavor because thread, the destructive silver rain that dragons burn up as it falls, hasn’t fallen in hundreds of years. The citizens of Pern don’t believe it will ever fall again, and they are questioning their support of dragonriders.

The last remaining (and lazy) queen lays a golden queen egg, and the search for a suitable female dragonrider uncovers Lessa. When Lessa is brought to the Weyr and impresses her queen dragon, the story is finally in full swing. The emotional attachment between dragon and rider is a touching component of these scenes.

Of course, the thread begins to fall again, and the small number of dragons are woefully unprepared to fight it effectively. It is at this time that Lessa discovers that dragons can fly through time as well as space, and she mounts a very risky and experimental mission to bring oldtimer dragons and dragonriders to the present time to help fight thread.

By the time I was a quarter of the way into this book, I had a hard time putting it down. There is wonderful tension and excitement in this book.

The Painted Veil

The local library near my house has an extensive collection, and I occasionally make a trip down a random fiction aisle and choose a book I’ve never heard of. On a recent trip, I picked up The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham.

I’ve never been introduced to Maugham before. Actually, I’ve never even heard of him. After this book, I plan on returning to his books often. The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty, a silly society girl who marries a geeky academic scientist out of her desperation to be a bride. She quickly begins and affair with another married man, and they are discovered by her husband shortly after that. Her husband gives her two choices: get her lover to leave his wife and marry her, in which case he will give her a painless annulment, or accompany him on a research and mercy trip into an area of China that is infected with a plague of Cholera. In a painful scene, Kitty begs her lover to leave his wife, and is humiliatingly dismissed. She returns home to find that her husband was expecting that reaction and has already had her things packed for their expedition.

In China, Kitty’s husband throws himself into his work and seems determined to kill himself. Kitty is at first bored, and then decides to volunteer at an orphanage run by French Catholic nuns. Kitty’s mental, spiritual, and compassionate awakening is beautifully written. Knowing Kitty’s new world perspective gives the eventual heart wrenching ending even more poignancy.

Based on the cover art I assumed the book was written in the last decade or two. It turns out I was wrong. As I was reading, I was so intrigued by this “new” author that I flipped to the copyright page and discovered it was written in 1925. The language is remarkably modern and easy to read. Thankfully, it seems like he was a prolific author. I’ve since checked out several more of Maugham’s books. I have a new author to explore!

Pern

I am in the midst of reading Anne McCaffery’s Pern series, in the order listed on the informative bookmark at my public library. I have read and enjoyed many of McCafferey’s books since I was in high school, but I’ve never read them in order, and I have missed out on many of the Pern books. The series is addictive. I’ll be posting short reviews as I read each book in the series.

1. Dragonflight
2. Dragonquest
3. Dragonsong
4. Dragonsinger
5. White Dragon
6. Dragondrums
7. Get off the Unicorn
8. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
9. Nerilka's Story
10. Dragonsdawn
11. Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
12. Dragonseye
13. Girl Who Heard Dragons