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i_read_whatSo we last left off with Fax getting his just desserts and Lessa abandoning her dream of ruling Ruatha to go off and partner with a dragon.
Now, granted, I don't begrudge her that. Dragons are awesome, even if the dragonriders in this book are not, but I would have also loved the story of Lessa figuring out how to be a Holder Lord after ten years in slavery. The advantage to this scenario is: no fucking F'lar. But it is what it is.
So this last part of Weyr Search starts off with Lessa, left alone in F'lar's quarters. It's pretty clear that F'lar hasn't bothered to explain much of anything off-page. She has figured out that by "Weyrwoman", F'lar wasn't propositioning her, but that's only because of what she could overhear from the dragon. Lessa realizes that she's one of many candidates, but notes that F'lar had offered her the position as though it was a foregone conclusion. "He had his own generous portion of conceit, that one, Lessa decided." Oh, Lessa, you have no idea.
It occurs to me that F'lar is very lucky that he is the favored son on the narrative, and thus is pretty much always right. It IS a foregone conclusion that Lessa will be chosen as Weyrwoman. (I don't really consider that a spoiler because otherwise we wouldn't have much of a story.) But what if she hadn't?
Lessa gave up her chance at ruling a small kingdom because F'lar promised her something even better. If she wasn't chosen, what exactly would have happened to her? Would they have taken her back to Ruatha, booted Lytol and Jaxom out of her Hold, and put her in charge after all? Somehow I doubt that.
It'd be one thing if F'lar had been honest with her: had explained that she'd be one of many candidates, so she could have made an informed choice. But he didn't, he's letting a very vulnerable woman gamble away her entire future without knowing the risk. Even granting that he's sure she'll be chosen, it's a dick move.
Fuck you, F'lar.
It seems like F'lar's self-consciousness about his shabby quarters last part wasn't merited. If nothing else, I have trouble believing that the quarters in Ruatha all had their own bathing rooms.
Since Lessa has spent the last ten years covered in filth and rags, she is ALL about the chance to finally scrub clean. She even manages to do something about her hair.
Actually, I admit, I'm a little skeptical about the last part. From the way her hair was described in the book so far: filthy, tangled, matted, I'm a little skeptical that some handfuls of "sweet sand" and a single wire-toothed comb is all it took to make it pretty.
But what the hell, Lessa's been through a lot so far. If Ms. McCaffrey wants to cut her a break and let her have long waist-length pretty hair, I'm not going to bitch too much. Let's just consider it one of her superpowers. In the meantime, Lessa finally gets a chance to see her reflection in a polished piece of metal.
"Why that girl in the reflector was prettier than the Lady Tela, than the clothman's daughter! But so thin. Her hands of their own volition dropped to her neck, to the protruding collarbones, to her breasts, which did not entirely reflect the gauntness of the rest of her. The dress was too large for her frame, she noted with an unexpected emergence of conceit born in that instant of delighted appraisal. And her hair ... it stood out around her head like an aureole. It wouldn't lie contained. She smoothed it down with impatient fingers, automatically dismissing a need for disguise, the hair drifted up again."
Of course, Lessa is beautiful and the only lasting effect of years of malnourishment and abuse is her thin build. Though, I suppose I don't really mind that too much. And really, I like Lessa's reaction here far more than the false modesty we see from many other female lead characters. Maybe other characters will also find her beautiful and maybe they won't, but I think after ten years of filth and squallor, Lessa deserves the opportunity to look in a mirror and feel pretty.
The only thing that doesn't quite sit right to me is the moment of conceit that she has when she notices that her new dress is a little too large. That would make sense in our society, when we're all bombarded with the idea that slim is better than fat. For many people in our society, finding out that ones' clothes are too big is a good feeling, because it means that we reached the goal that we'd been working toward. But Lessa isn't thin because she's tried to be. She didn't lose weight through her own efforts to manage diet or exercise. Being thin doesn't represent the end result of hard work, for Lessa. It represents years of abuse and starvation.
So anyway, F'lar returns, and because eventually F'lar and Lessa have to become the main romantic pairing of the book, we get a gratuitous moment where Lessa sees F'lar scratching Mnementh's eye ridges with a "curiously tender expression".
"She had, of course, heard of the strange affinity between rider and dragon, but this was the first time she realized that love was part of that bond. Or that this reserved cold man was capable of such deep emotion."
Oh Lessa, honey, no. You deserve so much better.
Thankfully, F'lar soon notices her and breaks the spell with some gratuitous douchebaggery:
"'You wash up...pretty, yes, almost pretty,' he allowed with such amused condescension in his voice that she pulled roughly away from him, piqued. His low laugh mocked her. 'How could one guess, after all, what was under the grime of ... ten full Turns, I would say? Yes, you are certainly pretty enough to placate F'nor.'"
Ugh. Of course, F'lar doesn't actually mean the mockery. We got a very obvious moment before that where he takes in her changed appearance with "intense" eyes. But god forbid he not be a dick. Fuck you, F'lar.
Though there is something he wants her to do for him: "At her startled exclamation, he turned, grinning maliciously now as his movement revealed the caked blood on his left sleeve. 'The least you can do is bathe wounds honorably received in fighting your battle.'"
Oh fuck you, F'lar. You would have ended up duelling Fax eventually, with or without Lessa.
But this is of course where Lessa gets to have her "oh no, he's hot" moment, as she's face to...back, with the first adult man she's had any real interaction with in ten years. And to be fair, by description, F'lar is nice to look at.
"His coldness was caution, she decided, not lack of emotion. His sternness must be assumed to offset his youth, for he couldn't be that much her senior in Turns. There was a blackness about him that was not malevolent; it was a brooding sort of patience. Heavy black hair waved back from a high forehead to brush his shin collar. Heavy black brows, were too often pulled together in a glower or arched haughtily as he looked down a high-bridged nose at his victim, his eyes (an amber, light enough to seem golden) were all too expressive of cynical emotions or cold hauteur. His lips were thin but well-shaped and in repose almost gentle. Why must he always pull his mouth to one side in disapproval or in one of those sardonic smiles? Handsome he must be considered, she supposed candidly, for there was a certain compelling air about him that was magnetic. And at this moment, he was completely unaffected."
Here's the thing. I don't actually hate the romantic dynamic between F'lar and Lessa. I actually think their personalities balance each other very well. F'lar is an asshole, yes, but he likes to use that assholishness to get a rise out of Lessa. Lessa, for her part, is cynical and prickly, which would put a lot of people off, but F'lar seems to enjoy her rough edges. And she, for some reason, seems to enjoy engaging with him. Their back and forth dynamic feels like one of equals, crossing swords.
They also have compatible goals and values. Lessa also takes the threat of the Red Star seriously and hates the sloppy greenery that she sees around the Hold (though she's part of the reason for it in Ruatha). And as we'll see coming up, she will have a lot of her own frustration with the way the Weyr is run. F'lar is arrogant, but he's ambitious and driven and that appeals to her. We already know that he admires her strength and spirit. It works.
As much as I hate F'lar on general principle, I actually really enjoy their scenes here. If I'm just looking at these scenes, I find myself looking forward to seeing how this develops.
Unfortunately, I remember enough of the book to know that I'm going to hate the actual execution of the romance. And I know that F'lar is going to get a lot worse before he gets better. Assuming he gets better. Lessa deserves better than this.
Anyway, after their meal, the tone changes as a keening fills the room. F'lar is once again needlessly an asshole, when shoves a loose white robe at her and tells her to change clothes. "'Take it off, or do I assist you?' he asked with no patience at all.'
...why then did you give her the green dress to begin with? Why not just have her wear the white robe all along? Are you that worried about stains? Fuck you, F'lar.
But anyway, that leads us into the Hatching scene, the true climax of the short story.
Lessa is placed in a group of other girls, and she is unimpressed:
"Loud screams and wailings diverted Lessa, and she saw more dragons descend to hover just above the cavern floor, each rider depositing a young woman until there were twelve girls, including Lessa. She remained a little apart from them as they clung to one another. She regarded them curiously, contemptuous of their tears, although her heart was probably beating no less rapidly than theirs. It did not occur to her that tears were any help. The girls were not injured in any way that she could see, so why such weeping? Her contempt of their bleating made her aware of her own temerity, and she took a deep breath against the coldness within her. Let them be afraid. She was Lessa of Ruatha and did not need to be afraid."
I'm a little annoyed by the undertone of 'not like other girls' that I'm getting from this bit. At the same time though, it is fair to say that Lessa has survived an experience that these other young women didn't, and it both hardened her and made it very difficult for her to find common ground with what should be her peers. And it's good that this isn't ignored. I'm just hoping eventually we'll get to see Lessa actually get a female friend.
So anyway, the Hatching starts and it's brutal. We see fledglings bust their way out of their shells, make their way to the young candidates and utterly maim the shit out of them while they search for the right ones.
The golden fledgling is particularly brutal, as she shakes the nearest girl so hard that her head "snapped audibly" and she ends up tripping into another, gashing her from shoulder to thigh, mortally injuring her. Egads.
Let's think about this from the Holder Lords perspective for a moment: for the past couple of hundred years, they've been turning over food supplies to these dragonriders who seem to do absolutely nothing for anyone (despite having skills that would be useful in many ways). They are forced to provide young people for them for their Searches. And those young people could very well end up severely injured or even KILLED during these ceremonies.
I can't imagine why the Holder Lords are unhappy!
Anyway, one of the girls seems to freeze, and Lessa grabs for the dragon to pull her away from her, which causes the dragon to, of course, immediately bond with her. It's love at first sight.
Actually, it's described a little creepily:
"'We'll get you something to eat directly,' Lessa assured her briskly and blinked back at the dragon in amazement. How could she be so callous? It was a fact that this little menace had just seriously injured, if not killed, two women.
She couldn't believe her sympathies could swing so alarmingly toward the beast. Yet it was the most natural thing in the world for her to wish to protect this fledgling.'
I was going to say how creepy it was that these dragons can apparently psychically influence their bondmates to that extent, but then I realized that it's basically how we see cats. So I rescind my complaint.
Okay, so that is the end of "Weyr Search", the first of Anne McCaffrey's short stories, and part 1 of 4 of the novel Dragonflight.
I can see why it won her the Hugo. The premise (DRAGONS!!!) is pretty great. The world building is interesting. The pacing is good. The characters are reasonably developed and vivid, not a dud in the bunch (except maybe F'nor, as he's limited to being F'lar's sounding board.). I may hate F'lar, but I can't deny that I feel that hate very strongly. I'm emotionally invested in hating him. So good show.
And then there's Lessa. I think, if we're looking at the perspective of a story written in 1967, Lessa must have been a truly groundbreaking character. I think she might be one even now. She's a deposed princess archetype who actually gets to be angry! Genuinely, truly, actively angry. She is driven, she is passionate, she is vicious and ruthless, and she is fucking effective at it.
And then there are her flaws: her single-minded focus on revenge, her cruelty toward someone who absolutely didn't deserve it, her willingness to endanger her countrymen and manipulate the people around her so that she can reach her goal. It's rare to see an author intentionally give a female character these sorts of flaws. It's weirdly refreshing.
To misquote John Mulaney: Lessa's a bitch and I love her SO MUCH.
Next time, I'll be starting Part 2 of Dragonflight: the short story "Dragonrider." Let's see if F'lar manages to actually not piss me off this time. I'm not holding my breath.
Part 1:3 | Table of Contents | Part 2:1
Now, granted, I don't begrudge her that. Dragons are awesome, even if the dragonriders in this book are not, but I would have also loved the story of Lessa figuring out how to be a Holder Lord after ten years in slavery. The advantage to this scenario is: no fucking F'lar. But it is what it is.
So this last part of Weyr Search starts off with Lessa, left alone in F'lar's quarters. It's pretty clear that F'lar hasn't bothered to explain much of anything off-page. She has figured out that by "Weyrwoman", F'lar wasn't propositioning her, but that's only because of what she could overhear from the dragon. Lessa realizes that she's one of many candidates, but notes that F'lar had offered her the position as though it was a foregone conclusion. "He had his own generous portion of conceit, that one, Lessa decided." Oh, Lessa, you have no idea.
It occurs to me that F'lar is very lucky that he is the favored son on the narrative, and thus is pretty much always right. It IS a foregone conclusion that Lessa will be chosen as Weyrwoman. (I don't really consider that a spoiler because otherwise we wouldn't have much of a story.) But what if she hadn't?
Lessa gave up her chance at ruling a small kingdom because F'lar promised her something even better. If she wasn't chosen, what exactly would have happened to her? Would they have taken her back to Ruatha, booted Lytol and Jaxom out of her Hold, and put her in charge after all? Somehow I doubt that.
It'd be one thing if F'lar had been honest with her: had explained that she'd be one of many candidates, so she could have made an informed choice. But he didn't, he's letting a very vulnerable woman gamble away her entire future without knowing the risk. Even granting that he's sure she'll be chosen, it's a dick move.
Fuck you, F'lar.
It seems like F'lar's self-consciousness about his shabby quarters last part wasn't merited. If nothing else, I have trouble believing that the quarters in Ruatha all had their own bathing rooms.
Since Lessa has spent the last ten years covered in filth and rags, she is ALL about the chance to finally scrub clean. She even manages to do something about her hair.
Actually, I admit, I'm a little skeptical about the last part. From the way her hair was described in the book so far: filthy, tangled, matted, I'm a little skeptical that some handfuls of "sweet sand" and a single wire-toothed comb is all it took to make it pretty.
But what the hell, Lessa's been through a lot so far. If Ms. McCaffrey wants to cut her a break and let her have long waist-length pretty hair, I'm not going to bitch too much. Let's just consider it one of her superpowers. In the meantime, Lessa finally gets a chance to see her reflection in a polished piece of metal.
"Why that girl in the reflector was prettier than the Lady Tela, than the clothman's daughter! But so thin. Her hands of their own volition dropped to her neck, to the protruding collarbones, to her breasts, which did not entirely reflect the gauntness of the rest of her. The dress was too large for her frame, she noted with an unexpected emergence of conceit born in that instant of delighted appraisal. And her hair ... it stood out around her head like an aureole. It wouldn't lie contained. She smoothed it down with impatient fingers, automatically dismissing a need for disguise, the hair drifted up again."
Of course, Lessa is beautiful and the only lasting effect of years of malnourishment and abuse is her thin build. Though, I suppose I don't really mind that too much. And really, I like Lessa's reaction here far more than the false modesty we see from many other female lead characters. Maybe other characters will also find her beautiful and maybe they won't, but I think after ten years of filth and squallor, Lessa deserves the opportunity to look in a mirror and feel pretty.
The only thing that doesn't quite sit right to me is the moment of conceit that she has when she notices that her new dress is a little too large. That would make sense in our society, when we're all bombarded with the idea that slim is better than fat. For many people in our society, finding out that ones' clothes are too big is a good feeling, because it means that we reached the goal that we'd been working toward. But Lessa isn't thin because she's tried to be. She didn't lose weight through her own efforts to manage diet or exercise. Being thin doesn't represent the end result of hard work, for Lessa. It represents years of abuse and starvation.
So anyway, F'lar returns, and because eventually F'lar and Lessa have to become the main romantic pairing of the book, we get a gratuitous moment where Lessa sees F'lar scratching Mnementh's eye ridges with a "curiously tender expression".
"She had, of course, heard of the strange affinity between rider and dragon, but this was the first time she realized that love was part of that bond. Or that this reserved cold man was capable of such deep emotion."
Oh Lessa, honey, no. You deserve so much better.
Thankfully, F'lar soon notices her and breaks the spell with some gratuitous douchebaggery:
"'You wash up...pretty, yes, almost pretty,' he allowed with such amused condescension in his voice that she pulled roughly away from him, piqued. His low laugh mocked her. 'How could one guess, after all, what was under the grime of ... ten full Turns, I would say? Yes, you are certainly pretty enough to placate F'nor.'"
Ugh. Of course, F'lar doesn't actually mean the mockery. We got a very obvious moment before that where he takes in her changed appearance with "intense" eyes. But god forbid he not be a dick. Fuck you, F'lar.
Though there is something he wants her to do for him: "At her startled exclamation, he turned, grinning maliciously now as his movement revealed the caked blood on his left sleeve. 'The least you can do is bathe wounds honorably received in fighting your battle.'"
Oh fuck you, F'lar. You would have ended up duelling Fax eventually, with or without Lessa.
But this is of course where Lessa gets to have her "oh no, he's hot" moment, as she's face to...back, with the first adult man she's had any real interaction with in ten years. And to be fair, by description, F'lar is nice to look at.
"His coldness was caution, she decided, not lack of emotion. His sternness must be assumed to offset his youth, for he couldn't be that much her senior in Turns. There was a blackness about him that was not malevolent; it was a brooding sort of patience. Heavy black hair waved back from a high forehead to brush his shin collar. Heavy black brows, were too often pulled together in a glower or arched haughtily as he looked down a high-bridged nose at his victim, his eyes (an amber, light enough to seem golden) were all too expressive of cynical emotions or cold hauteur. His lips were thin but well-shaped and in repose almost gentle. Why must he always pull his mouth to one side in disapproval or in one of those sardonic smiles? Handsome he must be considered, she supposed candidly, for there was a certain compelling air about him that was magnetic. And at this moment, he was completely unaffected."
Here's the thing. I don't actually hate the romantic dynamic between F'lar and Lessa. I actually think their personalities balance each other very well. F'lar is an asshole, yes, but he likes to use that assholishness to get a rise out of Lessa. Lessa, for her part, is cynical and prickly, which would put a lot of people off, but F'lar seems to enjoy her rough edges. And she, for some reason, seems to enjoy engaging with him. Their back and forth dynamic feels like one of equals, crossing swords.
They also have compatible goals and values. Lessa also takes the threat of the Red Star seriously and hates the sloppy greenery that she sees around the Hold (though she's part of the reason for it in Ruatha). And as we'll see coming up, she will have a lot of her own frustration with the way the Weyr is run. F'lar is arrogant, but he's ambitious and driven and that appeals to her. We already know that he admires her strength and spirit. It works.
As much as I hate F'lar on general principle, I actually really enjoy their scenes here. If I'm just looking at these scenes, I find myself looking forward to seeing how this develops.
Unfortunately, I remember enough of the book to know that I'm going to hate the actual execution of the romance. And I know that F'lar is going to get a lot worse before he gets better. Assuming he gets better. Lessa deserves better than this.
Anyway, after their meal, the tone changes as a keening fills the room. F'lar is once again needlessly an asshole, when shoves a loose white robe at her and tells her to change clothes. "'Take it off, or do I assist you?' he asked with no patience at all.'
...why then did you give her the green dress to begin with? Why not just have her wear the white robe all along? Are you that worried about stains? Fuck you, F'lar.
But anyway, that leads us into the Hatching scene, the true climax of the short story.
Lessa is placed in a group of other girls, and she is unimpressed:
"Loud screams and wailings diverted Lessa, and she saw more dragons descend to hover just above the cavern floor, each rider depositing a young woman until there were twelve girls, including Lessa. She remained a little apart from them as they clung to one another. She regarded them curiously, contemptuous of their tears, although her heart was probably beating no less rapidly than theirs. It did not occur to her that tears were any help. The girls were not injured in any way that she could see, so why such weeping? Her contempt of their bleating made her aware of her own temerity, and she took a deep breath against the coldness within her. Let them be afraid. She was Lessa of Ruatha and did not need to be afraid."
I'm a little annoyed by the undertone of 'not like other girls' that I'm getting from this bit. At the same time though, it is fair to say that Lessa has survived an experience that these other young women didn't, and it both hardened her and made it very difficult for her to find common ground with what should be her peers. And it's good that this isn't ignored. I'm just hoping eventually we'll get to see Lessa actually get a female friend.
So anyway, the Hatching starts and it's brutal. We see fledglings bust their way out of their shells, make their way to the young candidates and utterly maim the shit out of them while they search for the right ones.
The golden fledgling is particularly brutal, as she shakes the nearest girl so hard that her head "snapped audibly" and she ends up tripping into another, gashing her from shoulder to thigh, mortally injuring her. Egads.
Let's think about this from the Holder Lords perspective for a moment: for the past couple of hundred years, they've been turning over food supplies to these dragonriders who seem to do absolutely nothing for anyone (despite having skills that would be useful in many ways). They are forced to provide young people for them for their Searches. And those young people could very well end up severely injured or even KILLED during these ceremonies.
I can't imagine why the Holder Lords are unhappy!
Anyway, one of the girls seems to freeze, and Lessa grabs for the dragon to pull her away from her, which causes the dragon to, of course, immediately bond with her. It's love at first sight.
Actually, it's described a little creepily:
"'We'll get you something to eat directly,' Lessa assured her briskly and blinked back at the dragon in amazement. How could she be so callous? It was a fact that this little menace had just seriously injured, if not killed, two women.
She couldn't believe her sympathies could swing so alarmingly toward the beast. Yet it was the most natural thing in the world for her to wish to protect this fledgling.'
I was going to say how creepy it was that these dragons can apparently psychically influence their bondmates to that extent, but then I realized that it's basically how we see cats. So I rescind my complaint.
Okay, so that is the end of "Weyr Search", the first of Anne McCaffrey's short stories, and part 1 of 4 of the novel Dragonflight.
I can see why it won her the Hugo. The premise (DRAGONS!!!) is pretty great. The world building is interesting. The pacing is good. The characters are reasonably developed and vivid, not a dud in the bunch (except maybe F'nor, as he's limited to being F'lar's sounding board.). I may hate F'lar, but I can't deny that I feel that hate very strongly. I'm emotionally invested in hating him. So good show.
And then there's Lessa. I think, if we're looking at the perspective of a story written in 1967, Lessa must have been a truly groundbreaking character. I think she might be one even now. She's a deposed princess archetype who actually gets to be angry! Genuinely, truly, actively angry. She is driven, she is passionate, she is vicious and ruthless, and she is fucking effective at it.
And then there are her flaws: her single-minded focus on revenge, her cruelty toward someone who absolutely didn't deserve it, her willingness to endanger her countrymen and manipulate the people around her so that she can reach her goal. It's rare to see an author intentionally give a female character these sorts of flaws. It's weirdly refreshing.
To misquote John Mulaney: Lessa's a bitch and I love her SO MUCH.
Next time, I'll be starting Part 2 of Dragonflight: the short story "Dragonrider." Let's see if F'lar manages to actually not piss me off this time. I'm not holding my breath.