Dragonflight

Lessa is an amazing heroine who rises from scullery maid to ruler of a full Weyr of dragons, thanks to a persistent dragon rider who recognizes her hidden talents.

I admired her as much in either position, whether she was subtly using her powers to tear down her oppressor from the kitchen corner or flying high on her dragon, protecting those under her care from certain death. No matter what privilege or honors come to her, she remains humble and thereby gathers the admiration and love of all who know her.

Dragonflight was a novel that I was hesitant to read at first, and I was shocked when I was drawn right in. I have no idea how I felt for the characters and shared their desires so quickly. One minute, I was trying to remember which character was which, and the next, I had fallen in love with them.

I was not expecting this book to be so enjoyable. The tale that is woven creates a beautiful story and has all of my favorite elements: Dragons, mindreading, time travel, a clever enemy, and strong characters. 

The world of Pern felt so real to me that I wanted to be a part of it. Everything made sense: The culture, the politics, and the environment. Even the role of dragon and rider felt right to me.

I fell in love with the characters right away and didn’t want the story to end. It made me want to have a dragon of my own and have that inseparable bond of trust and love.

This book by Anne McCaffrey was the first book to ignite my love of dragons! I related to the characters and immersed myself in their detailed world.

In my teenage imagination, not only could I fly on a dragon's back, but the powerful creature could be my friend! This was just what I needed at that age. 

I fell in love with the people of Pern and their struggles to survive. They adapted and overcame the dangers. They battled against the thread and made a home on Pern.

I was amazed that this was a science fiction book, not a fantasy. It had dragons. I was well past my young adult years when this book hooked me like a fish.

In this world, I saw infinite possibilities for more stories. It touched my heart and made me realize that I could overcome any obstacle in my life. It also taught me that, like Pern, my future held… show more.

All right, I’m a sucker for fantasy too. Dragonflight was a novel well before it was a video game; I first read it in the 1970s, not long after it was first published, and I think it was the first proper fantasy I’d come across.

Fifty years later, I thought I’d reread it, and I have to say, I was astonished.

I’ve read lots of fantasy novels in the intervening years, some of them very good, and I’d expected that Dragonflight would seem a little jaded by comparison. I found the reverse was true. This is a rollicking tale, with… show more.

Published in 1967, Anne McCaffrey’s novels, Dragonflight and later Dragonquest, about telepathic dragons who bond with humans to fight a lethal danger from the sky, read as a fantasy novel, yet McCaffrey insisted the novels were in fact science fiction.

Her world-building was extensive involving colonization, guided evolution, and interplanetary dynamics. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best SF novel, the books were also captivating reads.

This is the first book of a very long list of books about the dragon riders of Pern. This is one of my favorite series. Anne McCaffrey created a world where dragons and humans coexist to eliminate any threats against the planet of Pern. Only certain humans are chosen to bond with the dragons by linking with them telepathically, once the dragon accepts the bond is made. Once again the heroes have to fight off impending planetary threats while riding on the backs of fire-breathing dragons. Who wouldn’t want to ride on a dragon? While this is not the first… show more.

Dragonflight is the first book I read that combined dragon fantasy and science fiction. I eventually read all twenty-five novels of the Dragons of Pern Series. This book created a new world with a unique cooperation between dragons and humans. Humans came to the world of Pern to find new lives. They became cut off from the rest of humanity and lived an agrarian lifestyle. They live in peace until a natural phenomenon causes the humans to genetically adapt a local species to deal with a devastating repeating blight. The Dragons of Pern books pulled me into the world of… show more.

Dragonflight, of the Dragonriders of Pern series, is considered YA, yet these books are a very satisfying read for adults who may take different things from them. The two aspects of the books I found most powerful were, first, the craft guilds, both the valuing of craft itself--making things by hand--and the magic involved in the creation of cloth and music. Second is the sentience of the dragons; a rider is “impressed” by a single dragon, which lasts for life. These are both ideas admirably developed by McCaffrey that have stayed with me.