A new hero emerges in a divided world as one of sci-fi’s most beloved series—Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern—relaunches with this original adventure from Anne’s daughter, Gigi McCaffrey. In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dragonriders of Pern series, Gigi does her mother proud, adding to the family tradition of spinning unputdownable tales that recount the adventures of the brave … adventures of the brave inhabitants of a distant planet who battle the pitiless adversary known as Thread.
The last time Thread attacked Pern, the world was unprepared for the fight—until the Oldtimers appeared. These courageous dragonriders arrived from the past, traveling four hundred years to help their descendants survive. But the collision of past and present took its toll. While most of the displaced rescuers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed.
Piemur, a journeyman harper, also feels displaced, cast adrift by the loss of his spectacular boyhood voice and uncertain of his future. But when the Masterharper of Pern sees promise in the young man and sends him undercover among the exiled Oldtimers, Piemur senses the looming catastrophe that threatens the balance of power between the Weyrs and Holds of Pern.
When the unthinkable happens, Piemur must rise to the challenge to avert disaster and restore honor to the dragons and dragonriders of Pern. Because now, in a world already beset by Thread, another, more insidious danger looms: For the first time in living memory, dragons may be on the verge of fighting dragons.
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Love Anne Mccaffrey’s style of writing.
Dragon’s Code takes readers back to Pern, years after the events in Dragonflight. Piemur, a harper in training, is assigned to monitor the hold and dragon weyr on the Southern continent and report back to the masterharper. Some of the dragonriders brought forward in time settled in Southern weyr, but are finding it difficult to adjust to their new circumstances. When their dragons start to sicken, the dragons and riders of Southern begin to blame the other weyrs for their misfortune. Dangerous animosities rise that pit dragon against dragon and rider against rider, as one unspeakable act has the weyrs on the brink of war. What can one journeyman harper do to avert such disaster? This is a story that takes place in those awkward years somewhere between childhood and adulthood and follows Piemur as he tries to find his way thought them while preventing disaster on his home planet.
Dragon’s Code begins with an introductory chapter, that will serve both old readers and new. It concisely relates the history of Pern and the events that took place before we join Piemur in Southern. If you are like me, and didn’t quite grasp from Dragonflight that the first colonizers of Pern arrived on spaceships and created the dragons through advanced genetic techniques, the introduction clearly lays out those missing details. Old fans of the series will not be bothered by the introduction, as it is quite short, and provides a useful reminder of the backdrop against which Piemur’s story is set.
While I enjoyed seeing familiar characters like F’lar and Lessa (and of course Ramoth), I thought those were the highlights of the story. While the writing is clear and suitable for young adult readers, I thought this novel lacked the depth of previous works in the series. While the political machinations were complex, I felt the characters were rather flat. I thought the cleverest part of the writing was the organization, so that sometimes future events were placed before they occurred in the timeline of the main characters. This nicely echoed the ability of the Dragons to jump between times.
Overall, this book wasn’t up to the standard of Dragonflight, but younger readers or readers new to Pern might enjoy it.
Well, Gigi writes better than her brother Todd, but there are some things about this story that really bothered me. The story takes place at roughly the same time as The White Dragon – and almost all the characters are well-known to the readers of the Pern books written by Anne McCaffrey.
So:
1. Runnerbeasts are horses. That is clearly established multiple times. They don’t have 6 legs.
2. The Piemur of this story is a boy suffering from anxieties and insecurities, rather than the self-confident Piemur found in Anne’s books.
3. There are some fundamental issues with continuity here in regards to the other books – in particular, how does Sebell get the shit kicked out of him and nobody noticed in any of the other books?
4. In the other books, it is very clear (to Piemur as well as everyone else) the relationship between Menolly and Sebell. This book seems to miss that for the most part.
Finally, there is this whole preaching thing about giving people another chance. Not only is it preachy, but it completely ignores the established exile punishment used in the rest of the books.
Oh, and the funeral scene for “Ama” seems like a stand-in for “Anne” as in the author’s mother.
As a stand-alone book, it might be ok. But it doesn’t fit in well with the existing stories.
A wonderful adventure with characters I already love!
Full of great information and wonderful pictures!
The writing wasn’t as good as her mother’s(Anne McCaffrey), she needs to read more of the Pern series and then write more Dragon Riders stories.
Good, but not as good as the original series.
If you are an Anne McCaffery PERN fan, Dragon’s Code (by her daughter) is a story of Piemur’s adventures to fill in the blanks about what happened in his life.It was a fun read.
I love all of Ann McCaffreys books, especially the dragon series. the stories are well told and well thought out…it all feels so real !
In a word, BRILLIANT! Has everything a good fantasy book should have. Thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading this book. I give it the highest recommendation a book could possibly achieve.
This is a good novel for young adults, but not up to the level of the early Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey.
As a long, long fan of Ann McCaffrey and the Pern series as well as many others by her hand earning permanent shelves in my library, I think that the author, her daughter, wrote a tight tale of one of the characters of Pern that fits well into her mother’s gift to the world of brilliant imagination and the genius of creativity that inspired and crafted these wonderful novels.
I also think that never a more ungracious tail-hanger has ever completely ignored and dismissed the creator of such a world that the current author is banking off! Not one word in her dedication would give the reader any idea that her MOTHER is the genius behind this story. No indeed, her mother is “drifting along the cosmos as space dust with her father,” and apparently that’s all a new reader to the series needs to know.
I met Anne in the early “90’s and she was glorious! Fuchia hair, wickedly funny and a spirit that belied her age. That creative artist deserves so much more than to be banished to space drift.
Shame on you, Gigi!
It was cool to return to Pern after a 30+ year absence. I read everything McCaffery wrote on Pern when I was much younger and had much more time to read. This book is a re-cast of a minor story line in the original series and reading it felt like visiting old friends.
Great read. Fills in some gaps for the series.
The author is following in her mother’s footsteps. You can never get enough of Pern.
Great author and story
Great addition to the world of Pern!
The world of Pern has been a favorite of mine for years. The characters have become engaging, lovable, frustrating and hero’s, much like family members.
It was ok, but she’s not her mom.
Tied into the world of Pern well, but somehow lacked the pep of the originals, as though the writer loved the world of Pern and understood it but could not quite delve deeply enough into its spirit. It provided more of a background story to some of the major events in the other novels without quite establishing its own story.