Dragonsong
July 4th, 2007 by Sara
HaikuReview: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey (Isn’t this cover art great? You gotta love the library!)
Traditions can suck.
But even old ways can change,
If you have Dragons.
All I have to say is: ‘klah.’ Yes. If you’ve ever read any of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Klah is the Pernese word for the hot, caffeinated beverage people drink in the morning. Can anyone say Coffee?
Klah is the embodiment of all that is good and bad in fantasy/sci-fi books for me. The wonderful complexity of building new worlds and the risk of creating new ‘fantasy’ speak for familiar concepts. I have a love/hate relationship with klah.
I’ve been rereading the beloved, and truly wonderful Pern books. I remembered them for their strong heroines who bucked convention. But I have to say I was shocked when I read the first book, Dragonflight.
Lessa, the main character in Dragonflight, is a very strong woman, but she also lets herself be bullied. More than that, she lets the weyr leader (dragon boss), treat her roughly and condescendingly. Often. I feel torn about this. On one hand, Lessa thwarts convention and pretty much does what she wants, even if it’s ‘not allowed.’ On the other hand she lets herself be treated semi-badly without much of a negative reaction.
It got me thinking about how to believably portray strong women in repressed societies. I mean, if Lessa just said, ‘Screw you! I can do whatever I want,” then we, as readers, probably wouldn’t buy it. That’s the thing about traditional society, it’s hard to go against convention.
But I wanted Lessa to recognize that she was being treated unfairly or wrongly. I wanted her to be internally outraged by her treatment, even if she didn’t do anything about it. I realize that it was a different time when Anne McCaffrey was writing this (1968), but it was still difficult for me to accept.
But by the time I got to Dragonsong, I was relieved. The female characters are much stronger in this third Pern book. Dragonsong is probably my favorite of Anne McCaffrey’s novels, and after reading it, I felt more confident in the world of Pern. Perhaps, Anne McCaffrey was just getting into her stride with the first 2 books.
Despite their possible flaws, Anne McCaffrey’s books are awesome and it has been wonderful to read them again. They feel reassuringly familiar to me and are a perfect route for escaping reality. Plus, DRAGONS! I heart dragons!
Posted in Haiku review, I heart this book
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2 Responses to “Dragonsong”
July 11th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Hee! I reread this earlier this year, too, but didn’t get as far as rereading the sequels. Must do that ASAP!
In defense of klah, I must say: 1) lots of cultures have caffeinated beverages, and you couldn’t ask China to call tea “coffee.” But, 2) this didn’t occur to me as a kid–I definitely identified klah as a direct translation of coffee–yet for some reason loved the new word, anyway.
But 3) I actually agree with you. In spite of both 1 and 2 above, I feel the love/hate about it now, too. Ha! :D
July 13th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
<p>Good point about tea definitely not being coffee. But I think part of my thought was that the klah tree has red seeded fruit on it, like the coffee plant. Though klah does come from the bark, not the seeds/beans. Also, the people of Pern did originate on earth, so maybe the terms would reflect that? Though they have been on Pern for a very long time. Mostly I just meant that coming up with new words for familiar concepts, and naming in general, seems to be a big challenge in fantasy books and that ‘klah,’ in both its strengths and weaknesses, is a mascot for that challenge.</p>
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