The Skies of Pern
Aug. 9th, 2025 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustBy Anne McCaffrey.
This is me being late to the party again, since this book was published in 2001.
Back in the day, when I first read the Pern series, I finished at All the Weyrs of Pern. Maybe because I didn't know about the others, or maybe they weren't even out yet. But also it felt like a satisfying conclusion.
But The Skies of Pern was the final book that Anne McCaffrey wrote solo, and also the final book in the timeline. So it's kind of been on my bucket list. Over the past year, I've been doing a reread of the Pern books, so it seemed like a good time to finally check it out.
* It's set 11 years after All the Weyrs of Pern, and 32 years after Dragonflight. Which is about the same length of time since I started reading the books, which is kind of mindblowing. It makes it feel like futurefic, in a good way.
* The dragonriders succeeded in moving the orbit of the Red Star, so there'll be no more Thread after this Pass. But also, regardless, there are only 16 Turns left of this Pass! People will live to see its end! Half a century of Threadfall once seemed interminable. Now there's light at the end of the tunnel.
* I love that Weyr, Hold, and Hall are working (mostly) in unison, like a well-oiled machine. It's so amazing that there's a full complement of dragons, so different from the skeleton crew of that lone desperate Weyr.
* The Abominators are truly depressing. They fear science and medicine and technology. They distribute anti-surgery pamphlets, depicting it as torture and vivisection. They try to destroy the Healer Halls. Their attitudes are disturbingly familiar.
* A comet causes a tsunami, and desperate evacuations, and the need for an early warning system. I love that they used science and technology to assess the threat, and dragons and teleportation and time travel to warn and rescue people. I've always loved the meshing of science fiction and fantasy elements.
* I appreciate the proposal that dragonriders can switch to a future of sky-watching. But I have my doubts as to how many are suited to it - active vs sedentary, requiring very different temperaments.
* F'lessan and Tai. Their romance was fine, I guess? But that scene where their dragons go into a mating frenzy, and F'lessan is standing in front of Tai, telling her to choose him before she loses the awareness to choose at all - that's not how it works! It feels like McCaffrey is adding a fig leaf of consent, but it's not convincing.
* I'm kind of dubious whether felines can actually take on dragons, even huge feral felines.
* I loved the emergence of the dragons' TK abilities! It completes the trio of telepathy, teleportation, and telekinesis.
* I love the suggestion that in the future, dragons could go into space, and launch weather satellites, and divert other astronomical hazards from collision with Pern. An exciting and hopeful future. And a good place to end the main timeline story.
This is me being late to the party again, since this book was published in 2001.
Back in the day, when I first read the Pern series, I finished at All the Weyrs of Pern. Maybe because I didn't know about the others, or maybe they weren't even out yet. But also it felt like a satisfying conclusion.
But The Skies of Pern was the final book that Anne McCaffrey wrote solo, and also the final book in the timeline. So it's kind of been on my bucket list. Over the past year, I've been doing a reread of the Pern books, so it seemed like a good time to finally check it out.
* It's set 11 years after All the Weyrs of Pern, and 32 years after Dragonflight. Which is about the same length of time since I started reading the books, which is kind of mindblowing. It makes it feel like futurefic, in a good way.
* The dragonriders succeeded in moving the orbit of the Red Star, so there'll be no more Thread after this Pass. But also, regardless, there are only 16 Turns left of this Pass! People will live to see its end! Half a century of Threadfall once seemed interminable. Now there's light at the end of the tunnel.
* I love that Weyr, Hold, and Hall are working (mostly) in unison, like a well-oiled machine. It's so amazing that there's a full complement of dragons, so different from the skeleton crew of that lone desperate Weyr.
* The Abominators are truly depressing. They fear science and medicine and technology. They distribute anti-surgery pamphlets, depicting it as torture and vivisection. They try to destroy the Healer Halls. Their attitudes are disturbingly familiar.
* A comet causes a tsunami, and desperate evacuations, and the need for an early warning system. I love that they used science and technology to assess the threat, and dragons and teleportation and time travel to warn and rescue people. I've always loved the meshing of science fiction and fantasy elements.
* I appreciate the proposal that dragonriders can switch to a future of sky-watching. But I have my doubts as to how many are suited to it - active vs sedentary, requiring very different temperaments.
* F'lessan and Tai. Their romance was fine, I guess? But that scene where their dragons go into a mating frenzy, and F'lessan is standing in front of Tai, telling her to choose him before she loses the awareness to choose at all - that's not how it works! It feels like McCaffrey is adding a fig leaf of consent, but it's not convincing.
* I'm kind of dubious whether felines can actually take on dragons, even huge feral felines.
* I loved the emergence of the dragons' TK abilities! It completes the trio of telepathy, teleportation, and telekinesis.
* I love the suggestion that in the future, dragons could go into space, and launch weather satellites, and divert other astronomical hazards from collision with Pern. An exciting and hopeful future. And a good place to end the main timeline story.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 04:31 pm (UTC)That is still one of my least read books in the series though.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-16 11:59 am (UTC)