Oh my god. So I thought the other books were full of weird rape and slut-shaming, but this one is the worst one yet. WTF, McCaffrey.It takes some special talent to write a sex scene between two people who are in love and want to have sex, and somehow make it actually rape.This entire scene between F'nor and Brekke, what the actual fuck. [CW: definitely pretty much rape.]She tried to break away from him, but even with one arm the brown rider was stronger. Trapped, she began to cling to him with the strength of utter despair....“You won’t lose Wirenth. It’s different when dragons mate, love. You’re the dragon, too, caught up in emotions that have only one resolution.” He held her tightly as she seemed to shrink with revulsion from him as well as the imminent event. He thought of the riders here at Southern, of T’bor, and he experienced a disgust of another sort. Those men, conditioned to respond to Kylara’s exotic tastes, would brutalize this inexperienced child....Still holding her, he carried her out of the weyrhold, smothering her protest against his chest as she realized his intention....He wanted to be gentle but, unaccountably, Brekke fought him. She pleaded with him, crying out wildly that they’d rouse the sleeping Wirenth. He wasn’t gentle but he was thorough, and, in the end, Brekke astounded him with a surrender as passionate as if her dragon had been involved....She permitted him to caress her but there was a shadow lingering in her eyes and a reluctance in her body. “I want to, oh how I want to, F’nor, but I’m so scared. I’m scared to my bones.” He kissed her deeply, ruthlessly employing subtleties to arouse her. “Please, Brekke?” “It can’t be wrong to be happy, can it, F’nor?” she whispered, a shiver rippling along her body. He kissed her again, using every trick learned from a hundred casual encounters to wed her to him, body, soul and mind, aware of Canth’s enthusiastic endorsement.And WTF is up with men constantly giving women "a little shake" in way we're supposed to read as like... roughly affectionate?“Indeed we will. We’ll bring them up to date if …” “Lessa,” and F’lar gave her a little shake, his pessimism dispersed by the vehemence of her response and the transparency of her rapid calculations on how to bring about such changes.“To keep other men from you?” F’nor demanded, giving her a little shake. “Why? Whom are you keeping yourself for?”Not to mention that both F'lar and F'nor casually think they'd like to beat Kylara. Granted, she's a pain, but sometimes I think I can hardly blame her.F’nor told her in a pleasant drawl though it cost him much to keep his temper. It was too bad you couldn’t beat a Weyrwoman with impunity. Her dragon wouldn’t permit it but a sound thrashing was what Kylara badly needed.First he’d better get over the urge to beat Kylara, and give T’bor the chance to reprimand her privately.Anyway, even when it's not being infuriating, this book is a lot of boring political maneuvering (which is painted as Super Serious Man Business We Have To Have A Duel To Settle This And The Fate of Pern Hangs In The Balance when the dudes are doing it, and Ladies Being All Emotional And Catty Why Can't They Just Behave Themselves when it's the women, but you know). And a little bit of interesting Pern backstory, which honestly is the thing I remember loving about this series.
n°2 de la Ballade de Pern."La quête du dragon" se déroule quelques années après la fin de "Le vol du dragon". Les Anciens, ramenés du passé par Lessa, ont du mal à s'habituer à la Pern actuelle et aux changements que la société a connu durant l'intervalle de 400 ans. La tension entre les Weyrs, les ateliers d'artisan et les Forts est palpable et suscite des incidents. La découverte d'artefacts des ancêtres dans des passages oubliés des weyrs et des forts laissent entrevoir l'espoir d'une destruction des Fils à la source, sur l'Etoile rouge.Cette fois le héro de l'histoire est F'nor, frère cadet de F'lar, maître du dragon brun Canth, et l'héroine, Brekke, maitresse de la reine Wirenth. le fil rouge de l'histoire est bien la découverte de nouveaux moyens de lutter contre les Fils, voire de les détruire avant leur chute, mais le contexte socio-politique de Pern joue un grand rôle. Comment réussir à agir et faire bouger les choses quand on vous oppose sans arrêt traditions, habitudes et inertie ? Ce qui ne m'avait pas passionné lors de ma première lecture (il y a bien des années...), mais beaucoup plus aujourd'hui. Je suis toujours sidérée du nombre de personnages créés par A. McCaffrey, qu'elle parvient à utiliser et faire intervenir à bon escient, même dans un rôle mineur. Et de sa capacité à créer des personnages que l'on a envie de baffer voire de frapper avec un objet contondant. Seulement 3 étoiles pour ce tome 2 car je n'apprécie pas vraiment Brekke (et Mirrim), l'histoire avec Kylara ne m'intéresse pas et je trouve Lessa particulièrement égoïste.
What do You think about Dragonquest (1986)?
I still love this book for what it is and for what it sets up. At the same time, I was totally bowled over by a certain dubious consent scene and other attitudes legitimising domestic violence that weren't part of my awareness when I first read these books (many times) as a teenager. They alter my fondness for a character I otherwise like very much and a relationship that I always viewed very positively. Disappointing. The words might not change, but times and attitudes do. A fascinating way to measure the development of my own thinking and my consciousness of social issues as my horizons have broadened over the years. Anne McCaffrey proved herself to be a bit of an Oldtimer herself here. For a relatively feminist and obliquely gay-friendly world, some nuances of its culture are still quite dated. Having said that, DRAGONS. FIRE LIZARDS. AMBITIOUS PLOT. DRAGONS. TRADITION vs. INNOVATION. DRAGONS. RUTH <3 Ultimately, the core Pern books champion moving away from dated attitudes to more enlightened, civilised ideals, methods, technologies and social systems, so they'll always have that trend in their favour.
—Alsha
First of all I did not read the entire book,that being said it was because I could not stay interested. There was too much small uninteresting nonsense,to much focus on the mundane and not enough focus on important subject matter. This book would be good for me if I was a person who just read to fill my time,however I'm not. I like being submersed in a story so I can live an adventure or just be entertained.Sadly I just lost interest.Most of the time (while reading) I was thinking about previous books I've read and wanted more life from this book. There was also needless and a constant bickering from the characters,which got old quickly. In my head I heard (I know I am but what are you ?)kind of thing. And no this is definitely not a stand alone book.My best friend let me barrow his collection of McCaffrey and I really wanted to share his love for the writer,but sadly I can not.Sorry pal and thanks for the loan but she is not for Me.
—Donnie
So, this is the second book of a trilogy, and then there's another trilogy, and then some other books, and when you've tallied it all up, you have something like 27 books in the series. And I've read the first two, but unless I get pneumonia and my reading time suddenly quadruples, I'm probably done, and I feel strange about it, because when all is said and done, I don't hate these books.The setting is imaginative. The stories move along at a good pace. The stories are interesting. If that was all their was to a book, this would be a pretty decent read. But it isn't.The characters are garbage. They're cardboard. The heroes never make any mistakes, but they also never do anything interesting. If anything they do is surprising, it isn't genuinely surprising, it just wasn't foreshadowed.The writing, the style? Also largely nonsense. When I got to the end of the book, and I found myself wondering what happened in the next one, I had a flash of inspiration: I would much rather read the plot summary than the actual plot. What I like about this series is the hierarchy, the relationships between people, the structure of the world, and how the events in the story impact that society. But since I don't like or care about any of the individual people, it's more than enough to just read what happened next, in bullet points or on a timeline.So fuck it.
—Judah Nielsen
