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i_read_whatSo last time, the action, so to speak, came to a resounding halt while we saw Kylara had over a clutch of fire lizard eggs in an attempt to improve her sex life. We can't say she doesn't have determination.
This time, we rejoin F'lar, and I hate to say it but I'm actually kind of happy about that because it means things are actually happening.
So we start out with F'lar in his usual dickish form. Someone named G'nag is trying to give him a message from F'nor. To be fair, it's apparently "five leaves of notes" and Lessa is waiting for F'lar. I don't know a straight man alive who would prefer reading a five page letter over making time with his hot wife, so I guess I should cut F'lar a little slack here.
A little.
But actually F'lar is cranky because he stayed up drinking and talking again with Robinton. Which Lessa predicted. I'm glad she doesn't mind her husband's illicit romance. To be fair, if I was married to F'lar, I'd probably enjoy the respite from him too. F'lar is also annoyed by the fact that Mnementh is making "a gentle ascent". Aw. Mnementh. You are the best.
So anyway, the night with Robinton wasn't just sweet nothings, Robinton is a good source of information about all of the different Holds, and he has information F'lar needs to know if he's going to "effect a revolution".
For all his many many faults, I do think F'lar is the lesser of a whole bunch of evils when it comes to leadership, so I guess I'm tentatively in support of this.
We get an interesting glimpse into F'lar's point of view about the Oldtimer conflict. According to F'lar "[R]everence for the older rider was a part of weyr life", and when he realized how inadequate Benden Weyr was for fighting Thread alone, he had ascribed many virtues to the Oldtimers that were now hard to arbitrarily sweep away.
I wish we got a bit more of a glimpse into this time period actually. It makes some sense. In Dragonflight, there was an interesting unspoken subtext about F'lar's father F'lon and how he was basically the proponent of the idea that Thread would return. F'lar basically created his whole adult identity around the idea of preparing for Thread. And the impression I get from this passage, and F'lar's earlier interaction with T'ron, is that T'ron may well have started to take on that same role for F'lar, as the man with all of the real world expertise in fighting thread.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't think F'lar is giving himself or Benden Weyr enough credit. Benden Weyr was hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched, yes, but it wasn't like he didn't have his own plans. That idea to set up a Weyr ten years ago wasn't necessarily a bad one, even if it got overshadowed by Lessa's heroics. But then Ms. McCaffrey would still prefer I forget about that.
Anyway, F'lar had been too caught up in hero worship to realize that the modern dragonriders were adapting and improving the Oldtimers' techniques, thanks especially to the size, strength, and greater intelligence of their dragons, while the Oldtimers have grown more and more intractable. F'lar's still holding out hope that he can unite all of the dragonmen though.
I do wish we got to see more of what it was like just post Dragonflight: when the relations between the Oldtimers and modern dragonriders was good. I feel like maybe I'd get a better idea of how things went to hell. I still would really like to see the Oldtimers' perspective of the conflict. Though if it's anything like R'gul's perspective in Dragonflight, it will just be more one-sided stupidity.
It is kind of funny though that when F'lar thinks of the five leaves of the message he thinks "Well, he'd find out what Kylara was doing later." Like all F'nor actually does is bitch about Kylara.
We're told that the Weyr is working on excavating the rooms, and F'lar and Mnementh admire Ramoth as they fly. She's almost twice the size of other queens, and Mnementh remarks that "a good rider makes a good beast" Which is interesting. I wonder how that works.
Also, Mnementh, you are amazing and F'lar at best is a total asshole, so I am skeptical.
So they're going to the Crafthall. There's a cute moment where the dragons claim to be going "swimming", while F'lar and Lessa walk together, her arm around his waist and his over her shoulder. It's nice to see that they're legitimately happy, despite all the bullshit in Dragonflight.
Anyway, they're there to see Fandarel. There's a brief moment where Terry, the dude who had the knife that caused all the trouble earlier, apologizes for what happened to F'nor.
The Craftsmen are all tired and punch drunk, apparently having worked themselves into exhaustion studying their new toys. F'lar and Lessa manage to make them laugh with droll comments, which livens the mood considerably, and then they get to see the distance-writer.
The explanation is gobbledygook to me, but it sounds a lot like a telegraph. The complicated part is laying the wires to get it to work.
Meanwhile, Lessa catches sight of a different problem. The food being served to the Craft people is disgusting. It turns out that Fandarel is unmarried, and the Craft headswoman, while a good cook, is much better at bringing up faded ink on skins that they've been having her do that instead. The other wives have been similarly drafted into craft positions.
I am a little amused at how once again, necessity trumps gender roles. I wonder if Pern has its own Rosie the Riveter.
Lessa's on top of the food situation, summoning some of the women from the Lower Cavern (I wonder if they have a choice in the matter?), while F'lar asks Fandarel if he's so short of men that he has to draft the women too.
Fuck you, F'lar.
Terry points out that it's not that they're short of men, but that they need people with the dexterity and interest required for their projects. F'lar backs off, and the Crafters go into greater detail about the work they've been doing with their records, and the difficulty with worn out skins and the need for transcription.
F'lar asks if they'd considered asking Robinton for help with the transcription, which is another good idea, and leads into a conversation about the Crafts as a whole.
Meanwhile, F'lar would like them to try to get the distance-writer installed in Telgar ASAP, and there's talk about logistics. F'lar pledges dragonback help and the Crafters are relieved. This segues into the Crafter point of view of the Oldtimers: namely that they've always lived with Thread all of their lives, and that they don't understand how the Holds and Crafts have developed in the four hundred years without Thread. And moreover, they can't really conceive of a life without fighting Thread, or that it might be possible to destroy Thread forever. This makes both F'lar and Lessa thoughtful.
Then F'lar finally reads the letters to learn about the fire lizards. Lessa remembers that the plate from Fort Weyr that they found last book (which McCaffrey remembers even though she can't remember the Southern Weyr backstory...no I'm not letting that go!) had mentioned fire lizards and she regrets giving it back to them. F'lar thinks there might be a whole lot more to find in Fort Weyr, seeing as how it's the oldest of them. But that has some difficulty.
I really like this whole chapter. It's a slow chapter, like Kylara's last time, but where Kylara's chapter was fundamentally pointless, honestly Kylara and Meron could have just shown up at the wedding with the fire lizards on their arm with one line of dialogue as to where they came from and we wouldn't have missed anything, this chapter has a definite purpose.
It fleshes out the Crafthall and Terry and Fandarel, who have distinct voices and roles. It allows us a glimpse into what the Smiths actually do: and their reinvention/rediscovery of old knowledge and technology. It gives F'lar and Lessa a chance to act as a team, which we haven't really gotten to see since the better scenes in Dragonflight: and their banter and interplay continue to entertain. We get to see F'lar and Lessa both demonstrate their leadership skills in a number of ways.
It's slow, but it isn't static. There's real progression for the characters. F'lar and Lessa learn more about the Crafts in general, about how they function and what they need, and how they can help. They even get some important outsider insight into the Oldtimers. The fire lizard reveal was almost unnecessary, but it will be interesting to see if they find a way to use that.
This time, we rejoin F'lar, and I hate to say it but I'm actually kind of happy about that because it means things are actually happening.
So we start out with F'lar in his usual dickish form. Someone named G'nag is trying to give him a message from F'nor. To be fair, it's apparently "five leaves of notes" and Lessa is waiting for F'lar. I don't know a straight man alive who would prefer reading a five page letter over making time with his hot wife, so I guess I should cut F'lar a little slack here.
A little.
But actually F'lar is cranky because he stayed up drinking and talking again with Robinton. Which Lessa predicted. I'm glad she doesn't mind her husband's illicit romance. To be fair, if I was married to F'lar, I'd probably enjoy the respite from him too. F'lar is also annoyed by the fact that Mnementh is making "a gentle ascent". Aw. Mnementh. You are the best.
So anyway, the night with Robinton wasn't just sweet nothings, Robinton is a good source of information about all of the different Holds, and he has information F'lar needs to know if he's going to "effect a revolution".
For all his many many faults, I do think F'lar is the lesser of a whole bunch of evils when it comes to leadership, so I guess I'm tentatively in support of this.
We get an interesting glimpse into F'lar's point of view about the Oldtimer conflict. According to F'lar "[R]everence for the older rider was a part of weyr life", and when he realized how inadequate Benden Weyr was for fighting Thread alone, he had ascribed many virtues to the Oldtimers that were now hard to arbitrarily sweep away.
I wish we got a bit more of a glimpse into this time period actually. It makes some sense. In Dragonflight, there was an interesting unspoken subtext about F'lar's father F'lon and how he was basically the proponent of the idea that Thread would return. F'lar basically created his whole adult identity around the idea of preparing for Thread. And the impression I get from this passage, and F'lar's earlier interaction with T'ron, is that T'ron may well have started to take on that same role for F'lar, as the man with all of the real world expertise in fighting thread.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't think F'lar is giving himself or Benden Weyr enough credit. Benden Weyr was hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched, yes, but it wasn't like he didn't have his own plans. That idea to set up a Weyr ten years ago wasn't necessarily a bad one, even if it got overshadowed by Lessa's heroics. But then Ms. McCaffrey would still prefer I forget about that.
Anyway, F'lar had been too caught up in hero worship to realize that the modern dragonriders were adapting and improving the Oldtimers' techniques, thanks especially to the size, strength, and greater intelligence of their dragons, while the Oldtimers have grown more and more intractable. F'lar's still holding out hope that he can unite all of the dragonmen though.
I do wish we got to see more of what it was like just post Dragonflight: when the relations between the Oldtimers and modern dragonriders was good. I feel like maybe I'd get a better idea of how things went to hell. I still would really like to see the Oldtimers' perspective of the conflict. Though if it's anything like R'gul's perspective in Dragonflight, it will just be more one-sided stupidity.
It is kind of funny though that when F'lar thinks of the five leaves of the message he thinks "Well, he'd find out what Kylara was doing later." Like all F'nor actually does is bitch about Kylara.
We're told that the Weyr is working on excavating the rooms, and F'lar and Mnementh admire Ramoth as they fly. She's almost twice the size of other queens, and Mnementh remarks that "a good rider makes a good beast" Which is interesting. I wonder how that works.
Also, Mnementh, you are amazing and F'lar at best is a total asshole, so I am skeptical.
So they're going to the Crafthall. There's a cute moment where the dragons claim to be going "swimming", while F'lar and Lessa walk together, her arm around his waist and his over her shoulder. It's nice to see that they're legitimately happy, despite all the bullshit in Dragonflight.
Anyway, they're there to see Fandarel. There's a brief moment where Terry, the dude who had the knife that caused all the trouble earlier, apologizes for what happened to F'nor.
The Craftsmen are all tired and punch drunk, apparently having worked themselves into exhaustion studying their new toys. F'lar and Lessa manage to make them laugh with droll comments, which livens the mood considerably, and then they get to see the distance-writer.
The explanation is gobbledygook to me, but it sounds a lot like a telegraph. The complicated part is laying the wires to get it to work.
Meanwhile, Lessa catches sight of a different problem. The food being served to the Craft people is disgusting. It turns out that Fandarel is unmarried, and the Craft headswoman, while a good cook, is much better at bringing up faded ink on skins that they've been having her do that instead. The other wives have been similarly drafted into craft positions.
I am a little amused at how once again, necessity trumps gender roles. I wonder if Pern has its own Rosie the Riveter.
Lessa's on top of the food situation, summoning some of the women from the Lower Cavern (I wonder if they have a choice in the matter?), while F'lar asks Fandarel if he's so short of men that he has to draft the women too.
Fuck you, F'lar.
Terry points out that it's not that they're short of men, but that they need people with the dexterity and interest required for their projects. F'lar backs off, and the Crafters go into greater detail about the work they've been doing with their records, and the difficulty with worn out skins and the need for transcription.
F'lar asks if they'd considered asking Robinton for help with the transcription, which is another good idea, and leads into a conversation about the Crafts as a whole.
Meanwhile, F'lar would like them to try to get the distance-writer installed in Telgar ASAP, and there's talk about logistics. F'lar pledges dragonback help and the Crafters are relieved. This segues into the Crafter point of view of the Oldtimers: namely that they've always lived with Thread all of their lives, and that they don't understand how the Holds and Crafts have developed in the four hundred years without Thread. And moreover, they can't really conceive of a life without fighting Thread, or that it might be possible to destroy Thread forever. This makes both F'lar and Lessa thoughtful.
Then F'lar finally reads the letters to learn about the fire lizards. Lessa remembers that the plate from Fort Weyr that they found last book (which McCaffrey remembers even though she can't remember the Southern Weyr backstory...no I'm not letting that go!) had mentioned fire lizards and she regrets giving it back to them. F'lar thinks there might be a whole lot more to find in Fort Weyr, seeing as how it's the oldest of them. But that has some difficulty.
I really like this whole chapter. It's a slow chapter, like Kylara's last time, but where Kylara's chapter was fundamentally pointless, honestly Kylara and Meron could have just shown up at the wedding with the fire lizards on their arm with one line of dialogue as to where they came from and we wouldn't have missed anything, this chapter has a definite purpose.
It fleshes out the Crafthall and Terry and Fandarel, who have distinct voices and roles. It allows us a glimpse into what the Smiths actually do: and their reinvention/rediscovery of old knowledge and technology. It gives F'lar and Lessa a chance to act as a team, which we haven't really gotten to see since the better scenes in Dragonflight: and their banter and interplay continue to entertain. We get to see F'lar and Lessa both demonstrate their leadership skills in a number of ways.
It's slow, but it isn't static. There's real progression for the characters. F'lar and Lessa learn more about the Crafts in general, about how they function and what they need, and how they can help. They even get some important outsider insight into the Oldtimers. The fire lizard reveal was almost unnecessary, but it will be interesting to see if they find a way to use that.