Dragonflight

If you read the blurb for this book, you'd think it was about a strong female character who 'save[s] an entire world' - great for something published in 1968. Unfortunately this isn't what happens - she's sidelined by male characters, one of whom she ends up in a controlling and abusive relationship. There are some interesting ideas in the book, but the relentless way in which F'lar controls and abuses Lessa (she's continuously worried that he will 'shake her', which indeed he does on several occasions) makes it a painful read. He doesn't get held to account for any of his actions, and instead is the hero of the story.

I remember reading this series as a kid and loving it, but now I am an adult and can see how misogynist this book is. The women, other than the Wheyrwoman, do not ride dragons. They cook and clean, when they are mentioned at all. More women are riding dragons at the end, but that changes almost nothing. It's still only Queens flying, and they are segregated to their own unit.

The patriarchal bullshit doesn't stop there. The main character, a woman, has a mental breakdown because she knows that she will be shaken and yelled at by her partner when she returns from a trip he forbade her to take. And he does shake her and yell at her. "Never disobey me again." It's played for laughs. Earlier in the story he is literally committing the equivalent of spousal rape. He calls it such, and only wishes that the main character would enjoy the sex.

The main plot is thin but acceptable. It feels like a deus ex machina, even though it isn't. The characters are flat, and there's no character development. Unless going from unwilling mate to willing mate counts as development (which you shouldn't, because it happened like a switch flipping).

Nostalgia and curiosity will drive me to read at least one of the sequels, but if I were picking this up fresh I wouldn't be willing to pick up the next one.

Okay I liked this book, it's alright science fantasy, heavy on the fantasy...

But god the relationship between the main characters is awful and doesn't even really matter to the story. The story isn't improved in anyway by its marginal inclusion, it's just baffling. Why why why it's so gross

Okay I liked this book, it's alright science fantasy, heavy on the fantasy...

But god the relationship between the main characters is awful and doesn't even really matter to the story. The story isn't improved in anyway by its marginal inclusion, it's just baffling. Why why why it's so gross

Just a few notes: Dragonflight is a fairly light SF/fantasy novel that has held up well over the 35 years or so since I last read it. There were more typos than I remembered! There is more visual imagery than in Dragon's Kin, and I wonder whether that is a trademark difference between Anne's writing and her son's.