The Dragonriders of Pern

My parents divorced when I was 10 and we moved temporarily into the house built for my grandparents' eventual retirement. There was only one proper bedroom but upstairs were two lofts - one filled with twin beds and the other filled with books. I'll let you guess where I spent most of my time.


Up to this point, my favorite book had been The Hobbit but much as I loved it, there was really no place for girls in Tolkien's Middle-earth. Dragonflight was the first book that I remember wanting to live in; I could picture myself at Benden Weyr. Of course, I wanted to Impress a dragon, which makes me giggle a bit because I've since developed vertigo and it's funny to think that I used to want to fly.


Anne McCaffrey passed away last November and I'm ashamed to say that a friend's post about her death triggered the first thought I had had of her books in at least a decade, maybe longer, but when I decided to start this blog, hers was the first name that came to mind and I knew I had to reread at least the first book.


So, I bought the trilogy for my Kindle (yes, it's blasphemy but how else can I carry a library with me wherever I go?) and with the first page, I was hooked. I know how the books end. I know the storyline and the characters. It didn't matter. I stayed up reading until 3am because I couldn't bear to stop.


Perhaps The Dragonriders of Pern isn't literature, perhaps it's Fantasy and not even 'proper' Science Fiction, but Anne McCaffrey created a world in which women could be heroes and when she first wrote it, it was a new and daring premise.  And she told a damn good story. I remember being young and slightly lost and feeling more at home in the pages of her book than I did in real life. 

Almost 30 years later, and it's still a good story with well-drawn characters, a fascinating world, and excellent pacing, but its hero is no longer unusual. I love that it's become normal for girls to be heroes in our fiction because fiction, especially Fantasy and Science Fiction, is a safe place to explore new ideas, it opens doors and gives people the idea that they can walk through them confidently.  

Thank you, Anne, for Pern and all who follow in your footsteps.