Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern - Chapter Fifteen and Aftermath

[kalinara]

So, we've hit the final chapter. The plague is being dealt with, animals and people being vaccinated, but there's still concern about a potential resurgence. What can be done about that?

( And well, we need a big heroic act worthy of being memorialized centuries, if not thousands of years later )

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern - Verdict

[kalinara]

So, let's talk about Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern.

First question, of course, is does it pass the test of time?

I would say yes. It does. I would say that looking at the series on a whole, I think Moreta is probably the best book in terms of quality, in the whole Pern series so far.

That said, I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed certain others. The problem with the level of quality of this book, as well as its placement in the series, is that the flaws are very very apparent.

If I read Moreta first, I would probably praise it unconditionally. If I'd read Moreta first, I probably wouldn't have gotten so sick and tired of McCaffrey's blatant tendency to take characters that we're already predisposed to dislike and strip them of any possible redeeming or positive characteristic.

I'm not a person that generally leans toward villains or even anti-heroes. In general, my sympathies stay with the protagonist. Even in cases where the protagonist is a hypocrite or maybe isn't quite the moral paragon that the author thinks he is. I might bitch about them (see, e.g. Drizzt Do'Urden), but I generally will still prefer the hero to succeed and the villain to meet an appropriate end that fits the story.

But even I think this is too much.

It's not enough apparently for Sh'gall to just be the unfortunate rival to Alessan. It's not enough that he and Moreta are clearly not suited for each other as partners. No. Instead, he also has to be abusive to her, and Leri, and everyone else. He cannot for once say a kind or insightful word. He is supposedly, per the other characters, a good leader. But we never see that. Instead, we see a gibbering coward who is useless even when he's right about the level of danger. He never once is seen to actually manage his Weyr. Instead, it's the ladies who do the work while he gets in the way. He complains about giving plasma for the vaccine, he mistreats the replacement healer. He faints on giving blood, he snivels and whines. There is never a moment where this guy is allowed even a second of positive description.

He's not a character. He's a cartoon.

Tolocamp started out with a hint of nuance, being genuinely helpful to Alessan at the beginning of the crisis. He wanted to go back to Fort Hold for fairly legitimate reasons and didn't like hearing that he can't. Okay. And then the next time we see him, he's skipped town without anyone's okay, abandoned his wife and daughters to die. Up and married some new young thing that he implicitly may have manipulated into it (I can't say for sure, but there was that note about moving her and her family into the castle). He's denying sanctuary to sick people, hoarding medication, shirking his duties. And so on and so forth. And of course, he can't even be sad that his daughter left. He has to disown her outright.

What tiny bit of grace he had in the beginning is long gone. He's another cartoon.

It's frustrating. And unfortunately, after the Oldtimers suddenly lost all their likability and complexity, after Yanus and Mavi went from uncomprehending parents to being okay if their daughter died during Threadfall, after poor incompetent Pona and somehow-able-to-bully-a-fucking-prince, Dorse...

It's become a thing for me. And that's upsetting because it does put a damper on a good reading experience.

Anyway, so let's talk specifics.

Plot:

Overall, the plot is good. It's tightly paced. There's not a lot of wasted beats. I don't feel like it drags. There's suitably high stakes, and while medicine isn't my thing, I didn't notice anything too laughably wrong to take me out of the story.

I mentioned in the last review about my issue with time travel in the story. I won't rehash it here. I'll just say that I think the story could have been written in a way that it wasn't necessary and that would have prevented me from being distracted by all these possible loopholes and "should have dones".

The ending itself is mostly good. Even though it makes me annoyed anew that Jaxom somehow managed to get to Cove Hold while completely out of it with stupid plot fever. If Moreta died, he should too.

But overall, I thought that the build up, emotionally, was quite good. I could see how the elements of the tragedy were already seeded in the characters. Moreta is already pre-disposed to put duty first and to endure for the sake of the greater good. Holth's age and weakness was pre-established. And everything fit together.

I might have liked it better if they died trying to finish as opposed to when the endeavor was over. But I admit, the story as is, just has a sad sort of "what a waste" feel that works very well.

I'm still pretty mad about the Aftermath chapter. God forbid we hear whether or not M'tani is stripped of his rank. But we do get to see the male love interest married off to a completely different woman. Woo.

So Characters:

Moreta is an excellent lead, and one that breaks the mold pre-established by this series. She isn't tiny, dark-haired, young, and completely inexperienced. If anything, I think she has the most in common with Kylara. She's tall, blond, buxom, casually, confidently sexy. She's got experience and knows how to use it. She has hobbies and flirts madly. She has children! Who she doesn't raise! And doesn't really want to raise! And that's okay!

She lacks Kylara's pettiness and cruelty, but I still think maybe she shows us the kind of woman Kylara might have become if she'd had time to mellow.

I love that she's older. She has a son who is old enough to fly a dragon, and is described as more man than boy. She's served in more than one Weyr. She's got a profession, of sorts. And I'm 99% sure she's at least ten years older than Alessan, which I like a lot.

Speaking of. I like Alessan too. I like their dynamic, both the playfulness and the moments of unexpected seriousness. This is the first romantic relationship in this series that actually works for me, from the getgo. (I love F'lar and Lessa, but they were a trainwreck in Dragonflight. The less said about the others, the better.)

The parallel focus on Capiam was pretty good too. I thought McCaffrey did a good job with him, letting him be his own person and have his own dynamics. We've never really explored the Masterhealers before, so this was nice.

And most of the minor characters, like K'lon, M'barak, Jallora, and so forth were very likable.

...but McCaffrey really needs to stop smoking crack or whatever she does when she names these dragonriders. It seems pretty clear how the apostrophe is supposed to work. When a dragonrider Impresses, he shortens his name to something much easier and more efficient to say on the fly. It's faster to say F'lar than Falarnon. F'nor over Famanoran.

It doesn't always work. F'lessan is really no easier to say than Felessan. But these are at least names that are pronounceable! And while the Ninth Pass had a few mind-bogglers (G'Dened), for the most part, they're not that bad.

The names in Moreta though, oh my fucking god. You saw them! I'm half tempted to do a bonus post that just collects the stupidest names in the book. There are a fucking lot of them.

--

So in the end, flaws aside, I really did enjoy the book. The plot's good, the characters are good, and my complaints, though I dwell on them a lot here, are relatively mild. So yes, it's a passing grade. :-D