Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy, #1) (Pern, #16)

by Anne McCaffrey

[ladygrey]

I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't find this book when I was a kid and read it then. Because I think I would have really enjoyed it and reread it and it would have become a part of my lexicon beside [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1314406026p2/5339.jpg] and [a:J.R.R. Tolkien|656983|J.R.R. Tolkien|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1199863358p2/656983.jpg] and [a:C.S. Lewis|1069006|C.S. Lewis|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1211981595p2/1069006.jpg].

Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it as an adult, I totally did. The world is well crafted and the characters are interesting, even when Lessa's obstinate she isn't obnoxious. It's surprisingly mature and also the plot was able to surprise me. It was refreshing for the story to not play out the way I was expecting.

It's also interesting to read it for the first time now, not as an adult but in the midst of a YA explosion on the market, full of paranormal books that are predictable and engaging. Comparatively, [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1323715139p2/26.jpg]'s writing is smart but also more cerebral than emotional. It's not detached necessarily, like some books I've read recently. But she really doesn't delve into the emotions of the characters or tell a particularly emotional story the way modern day YA writers are wont to do. Most of the time when a story lacks emotion I find it less interesting, which is why it's interesting that I didn't with this one. Maybe because it was written in a different time, it didn't feel like anything was absent - it was just a different kind of story.