Dragonblood is Todd McCaffrey's solo venture in adding to the books about the world of Pern and its dragons built by his mom, Anne McCaffrey. I found this book difficult to read but ultimately, if you just keep on reading, you will find it a good story.
The dragons of Pern will be flying thread for the first time in hundreds of years and all the weyrs of Pern are battle-ready and looking forward to fighting the old nemesis. Before the first thread fall a mysterious illness strikes the dragons which decimated their numbers alarmingly over time. A solution had to be found fast! The folk of Benden Weyr (Lorana and Kindan mostly, with the help of K'tan, Silana, and M'tal) search desperately in the old records for clues on curing the rising epidemic.
First of all ... you know how dragons can move not only between places but between times as well? Well, that's what Todd did with us here. He kept jumping us back and forth between places and between times. And just like the dragonriders and the dragons who jump between times, I felt just as stretched out and stressed from the journey. Eventually, the need for the jumps manifests --- but is sure is a tiring journey, though.
Second, there is a lot of terminology to work through. If you thought watching
House and listening to him and his fellows bandy words / names of several diseases was confusing, wait until you read this book and encounter geneticists talking. I swear, it is a different language all together. It sounds like English but when you string them together it gets confusing. I'm just thankful I was reading it and not hearing it. That meant that I could slow down my reading and even go back to the parts that confused me. That way I was able to make sense of most of it.
This book emphasized the relationship of the fire-lizards, dragons, and watch-whers. Half the book was dedicated to Wind Blossom, the geneticist who created the watch-whers, and the last remaining Eridani Adept during the 6th dragon generation. Dragons and watch-whers were both derived from fire-lizards and were both designed to fight thread, with the dragon being the obvious and visible thread fighter.
It primarily revolves around Lorana, a girl who had a talent for healing animals and excellent drawings and best of all, the ability to speak to all dragons. The majority of the book tells of her desperate struggle to cure the dragons of this deadly illness.
If you decide to read this book I recommend you read the stories in squence, even though each book is independent of each other.
- Dragon's Kin - the story of Kindan and the watch-whers of Pern
- Dragon's Fire - the story of Pellar, the silent harper, Halla, the child of one of the Shunned, and Cristov, the son of a Shunned miner
- Dragon Harper - the story of Kindan and his life at Harper Hall
- Dragonsblood - the story of Lorana and Wind Blossom. Kindan is here again several turns older than he was at Dragon Harper.
I can't say I'm in love with his work yet, but it is a credible effort and hopefully, his writing style will improve and we will see more new Pern books in the future that will follow the legacy of Anne McCaffrey.
