Dragon Harper by Anne and Todd McCaffrey

Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd Mccaffrey. New York: Del Rey, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-345-48031-6

This is the newest (but one) of the new Dragons of Pern novels, written in collaboration between the progenitor of the series, renowned science fiction and fantasy author Anne McCaffrey, and her son, Todd. Diehard fans of the series will definitely want to read it.

Counting myself among their number, I have done so. While I have no regrets about that, I do have to say that Todd doesn’t have quite the deft touch of his mother when it comes to characterization, plot development, and the like.

His story lines are compelling enough. This one being an example: a flu pandemic sweeps throughPern and kills one in three or so of the general population, hitting the young and active the hardest. The dragon riders are only able to provide limited assistance, due to the imminent arrival of threadfall (well, only a decade or so out), so that they cannot afford to lost a third or so of their numbers, which would leave Pern unprotected.

So there is plenty of drama and angst in the story line. But when reading one of Anne’s books, every aspect of the story as it develops seems almost fore-ordained, completely logical, as though it couldn’t possibly happen any other way. You don’t get that feeling in Todd’s writing. At times things that are happening seem a bit confused, and even arbitrary.

Likewise with character development. With Anne’s characters, you invariably relate to them, and identify with them almost immediately. With Todd, it takes longer. You do eventually get there, but it takes time.

There is also one major plot flaw (in my view). Why is our hero, young Kindan, immune to the flu? Why is he the only major character who never catches it? There is no rationale provided for this so far as I could tell, other than pure chance. That hardly seems fair, when almost everyone else we care about succumbs.

Even so, I probably shouldn’t complain. If I didn’t have the master storyteller, Anne McCaffrey, to compare with, I’d probably be perfectly happy with Todd’s writing. Fans of Pern will definitely find this worth the reading.

Deluge by McCaffrey and Scarborough

Deluge by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Book Three of The Twins of Petaybee. New York: Ballantine Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-345-47006-5

OK, so now we have two completed trilogies in this series. The first trilogy consisted of Powers That Be, Power Lines, and Power Play. This second trilogy includes Changelings, Maelstrom, and now, Deluge. The basic plot line, you may recall, involves a sentient planet that works to protect its now indigenous human population, which it recognizes as its useful ally in preserving the natural nature (how's that for a repetitious redundancy?) of the world, while working against any humans that come with the intent of despoiling or exploiting the natural resources found there.

One of the leading humans on the planet, named, Petaybee (which name comes from pronouncing aloud the initials of the words “Powers That Be,” i.e. PTB), Sean Shongili, just happens to be a silkie, a human being who turns into a seal, once he enters the water. And the second trilogy, The Twins of Peytabee, focuses on the adventures of his children, who inherit the silkie shape changing ability. Their mother, Yanaba Maddock-Shongili, was formerly a colonel in the enemy Company Corps, was won over to the side of Petaybee in the very first novel in the series.

In this tome, the twins are off to another planet, traveling with the alien water city that gradually came to light in previous volumes. Off they go, trying to drum up support for Petaybee off world, since the Company and its private army, keep on trying to interdict and conquer the native population. They end up on a Company prison world, which, a little too coincidentally, just happens to turn out to be the original home world of the aliens. Many adventures are had along the way, but a happy ending is had just in time.

If there is any complaint about these stories, it is that everything is a little too pat, too trite, and too nice. The bad things that happen along the way are too obviously temporary, and we are never in any real state of alarm or worry about how it will all turn out. Still, entertainingly written, this latest book is definitely recommended for anyone who has been following the series from its inception. And it seems very likely that more volumes will follow, which I will probably also read, should it prove convenient to do so. Which is to say, I might not go out of my way to read more of them, but if I see them at the library, I probably won't try to resist.

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl . . . and more

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl (1997) and Acorna's Quest: The Adventures of the Unicorn Girl (1998) by Anne McCaffrey and Margarget Ball, and Acorna's People: The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl (1999) by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBNs (paperback editions, respectively): 0-06-105789-4, 0-06-105790-8, 0-06-105983-8.

I had read some of the Acorna books shortly after they were published, but then I hadn't kept up with the series, which now runs to 10 volumes, if you include the new “Acorna's Children” series. So when I ran across the first three volumes in a friend's library, I couldn't even remember for sure how far in the series I'd gotten. So, thinking I ought to catch up with the series, I borrowed the first three, and read all of them. Frankly, a mistake. I now realize (again) why I abandoned the series in the first place.

The basic story idea is cute, don't get me wrong. Little unicorn girl is found in the vastness of space, and is raised by two space rats, rough and ready asteroid miners with the proverbial hearts of gold. But it's the REST of the story that depresses me, or worse yet, bores me. The milieu in which they supposedly live and operate. Here's this planet full of oppressed and abused children, forced to slave away in the mines, and in other horrible ways, forced into other kinds of slavery as they get older. And Acorna, naturally, becomes their savior. And turns their society upside down, with a little (actually a LOT) of help from her friends.

It's just too hokey, and not very realistic. And what's the point of it all? Then there's one of the miner's rich uncles, who lives a lavish Arabic type lifestyle, and originally wants to add Acorna to his collection of eccentricities and oddities. But becomes her biggest supporter and fan, once he actually gets to know her. All of this side stuff, not directly relevant to the Acorna story I find tedious, irrelevant, poorly plotted, and just plain distracting. It's not really worth putting up with the secondary plots just to get to the primary story line.

I did manage to wade through the first two books AGAIN, just so I could get to the third one, which I hadn't previously read. In that one, she finally finds her own kind, but they turn out to be pretty suspicious, and she, of course, having been raised in human society, doesn't know how to behave or act like one of them. Major cultural adjustment required.

Not to mention that her people are pretty neurotic in many ways. But then, I guess you would be too, if some evil alien race had tried to totally torture, maim, brutalize, and otherwise destroy, your race. The experience of the unicorn people, too, is more than just a little over the top. Not very believable, to be honest.

You know how this entire storyline affected me? Just like I hate the kind of comedy, so often found in sitcoms or so-called romantic comedies, which generate their humor by putting people in amazingly embarrassing situations, so here, I found myself hating to have to wade through the parts of the storyline that are seemingly trying to play on my sympathy, by putting someone (the human children in the first story, or Acorna's people in the third one) in a truly awful, horrible, situation, just so that we can rejoice when they're saved from it.

Not my cup of tea. I don't think I'll bother with any of the remaining books in the series. There's just too much else out there I'd rather be reading than this.