Dragonheart

Anne McCaffrey is the quintessential writer of fantasy books pertaining to dragons. These books are always wonderful, well written, and perfectly characterized. All of her series are great but the ones that take place on Pern are the best of all.

We love this author. Had all of her books at one time but foolishly gave them to a son. Now we're "recollecting" and are just as thrilled as the first time we read them. She'd done an amazing job working with her son and he's nearly as good as she is.

Todd McCaffrey continues the series he began with his mother Anne. The time of the series begins about ten Turns before the Third Pass, almost midway between the First Pass and the Sixth Pass of Moreta and Nerilka. "Dragonheart" takes the story into the early Threadfalls of the Third Pass. Some familiarity with Anne McCaffrey's series about the Dragonriders of Pern is advised before reading the series of five books set in the Third Pass era, and it would be best to read the other books in this series before reading "Dragonheart." "Dragonheart" is largely the story of Fiona, the only child of Lord Bemin of Fort Hold to survive the Plague that struck Pern late in the Second Interval. As the only survivor, she's being groomed to become Lady Holder at Fort. She's thirteen at the beginning of the book and because of her position has never really had a childhood. Brought to Fort Weyr with her father to watch a Hatching, she and everyone else are surprised when the gold queen hatchling seeks her out from the audience. She Impresses Talenth and becomes a Weyrwoman. With the first Threadfalls of the Third Pass imminent, a disease is found among the fire lizards that many holders and weyrfolk keep as pets. Fiona had been forced to give up her queen fire lizard as everyone sends the fire lizards to the Southern Continent hoping to avoid contaminating the dragons. The plan isn't entirely successful as dragons begin falling ill. As Thread begins falling, casualties among the inexperienced dragons and their riders are high, a problem compounded by the disease weakening and killing dragons. As the situation darkens, Fiona begins hearing a mysterious voice telling her things will eventually work out. The dragonriders decide to send injured dragons, riders, and weyrlings back in time to abandoned Igen Weyr for several Turns so the injured can recover and the weyrlings can grow and train to return ready to fight Thread. They will age three Turns but only three days will pass in the time period they leave. The flight back in time is lead by a mysterious queen rider. Fiona, in spite of her young age, has the only queen at Igen and therefore is the Weyrwoman. She learns to cope with her responsibilities, aided by an even younger weyrgirl who at ten Turns becomes headwoman, mostly because she's the only other female to make the trip in time to Igen. They form an alliance with traders who had been using Igen Weyr, and also become involved in setting up the first Wherhold for raising and training watch-whers. With "Dragonheart" Todd McCaffrey gives us a lot more detail about weyrling training than had been presented in other Dragonriders books. He shows how Fiona has to grapple with her position as a very young Weyrwoman as she trains with Talenth and the other weyrlings. Even though it will be a while before Talenth rises to mate for the first time, Fiona is nervous at the prospect of the emotional storm that envelops dragonriders, especially the queen rider and

I read this book in two days. Did very little else as I couldn't put it down. It was well worth the time and brought great enjoyment! I like the way it shows how knowledge is dependent on people and that after a great sickness so much knowledge is lost which takes years or even generations to recover. I eagerly await the next book in this series.

On the planet Pern, Fort Hold Lord Holder Bemin and his daughter Fiona sit in the audience observing the young candidates trying to impress the newborn dragons. However everyone is stunned when Talenth leaves the staging area to enter the audience as that has never occurred before. The dragon chooses Fiona as his future rider in the fight against thread which periodically falls, destroying organic matter. However, due to a Plague, the dragon-rider teams are way below the battle strength numbers needed to win. Thread is coming soon while the pandemic infection is killing the dragons. At Fort Weyr a mysterious weyrwoman convinces Fiona to take the injured into the past so they can heal and spend years training before returning to the present to fight thread. Heeding the advice, Fiona takes them back one decade to Iser Weyr so they can heal and train under the tutelage of experience dragon riders with the goal to come home to fight thread. Continuing the tradition of his mother, the great Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey provides an exciting Pern thriller (his second - see DRAGONSBLOOD) starring a feisty female who will remind the audience of Lessa (see DRAGONFLIGHT). However the enjoyment is in watching how a weyr functions; especially insightful is the class distinctions between Traders and Riders, etc. Talenth like all fledgling dragons owns the book as he innocently charms his rider and readers. DRAGONHEART is an entertaining Pern fantasy. Harriet Klausner