All the Weyrs of Pern - Chapter Eighteen

[kalinara]

So last time, Robinton got kidnapped. As expected, really. Also we got more of the "save Pern" plan, which inexplicably involves lying to a lot of the people involved.

AND we have this really weird idea that some of the dragonriders DON'T know about time travel?

This is like the opposite issue than the one I had with Moreta. In Moreta, I couldn't see any reason why the dragonriders should know that "timing it" is a thing. Is it plausible that someone discovered it before Lessa? Sure. But was it really necessary? Eh.

Also, I mean, the idea that they COULD time it makes the end of the book seem really stupid. If you can time travel, you can take a fucking nap in between. It's not like Lessa, who tried to travel back four hundred years in one go.

But here, we're in the Ninth Pass, full of Weyrs that wouldn't exist if Lessa hadn't brought them into the future. One day, there was one Weyr. Technically, maybe two, since they tried going back to start Southern Weyr. Then there was ALL OF THEM.

There is no plausible reason that Jaxom can't just tell people "we're going back in time to do this."

ESPECIALLY since the Old Timers WILLINGLY made the jump to the future to begin with, out of the grace of their hearts, even knowing that Thread, for them, had just ended. I know McCaffrey hates nuance and doesn't like to remember that her ultra-conservative adversaries all, to a man, made that selfless choice, but they fucking DID.

I get that, for McCaffrey, Jaxom is the ultimate hero of the series (which is possibly why I like Skies of Pern so much, but that's a tangent). But she doesn't seem to be able to shill him in this position without diminishing every other character. It's annoying.

( Sorry for the rant, let's go! )