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i_read_whatI mentioned in my last post that Dragonflight contains two previously published short stories and quite a lot of additional content. As such, it's not really divided into chapters. That makes it a little tricky to pace out for review, but I'll do my best.
"Weyr Search" starts us off with a poem, or perhaps they're supposed to be song lyrics.
Drummer, beat, and piper, blow,
Harper, strike, and soldier go.
Free the flame and sear the grasses.
Till the dawning Red Star passes.
Each small section of the story will bring us more poetry or song lyrics, all relevant to the setting. I like this touch. It's atmospheric, and gives us an immediate sense of what common people know or remember about the setting.
I'm not going to comment on the quality, because I never had much of a head for rhyme or meter. So, there's that. It does make it very easy to track the point of view shifts, so I'm inclined to approve. It also makes it a little easier to partition out my review (this post has both Lessa and Flar's first viewpoint sections.)
Lessa
We begin with a kitchen drudge (slave or servant) named Lessa who wakes up with a very strong sense of impending doom. We get a few details about Lessa's life and it seems very sad. She sleeps in straw, in a cheeseroom with other kitchen drudges, who have to huddle together for warmth. Her hair is rank and matted and she seems frightened by the thought that someone might see her in anything other than a sloping posture. And the only being she trusts is the watch-wher, a chained and pathetic creature that had once helped save and hide her.
Lessa lives in Ruatha Hold, which had apparently been conquered by a man named Fax some time before. Ruatha seems to be doing poorly. Interestingly, this may be somehow Lessa's doing.
"Grass in Ruatha, Lessa mused, grew where it should not, died where it should flourish. Lessa could hardly remember now how Ruatha Valley had once looked, sweetly happy, amply productive. Before Fax came. An odd brooding smile curved lips unused to such exercise. Fax realized no profit from his conquest of Ruatha... nor would he while she, Lessa, lived. Ad he had not the slightest suspicion of the source of this undoing."
This section doesn't do very much to establish Lessa as a character, yet. But I like what I see so far: I like that Lessa is angry about her circumstances and I like that she's (somehow) using that anger to affect circumstances in her favor. I wonder a bit how this may affect the other people in her hold, but it's hard to blame a slave for lashing out with the only weapon she has.
F'lar
The next section, which is far more substantial, introduces F'lar, a dragonman who is visiting Fax, the Lord of the High Reaches, as part of a Search for a new Weyrwoman.
Honestly, F'lar is really just kind of awful. It's weird to me, reading this now, because I remember F'lar being my favorite character when I read this as a kid. For the life of me, I don't know why. Because he's just terrible.
I mean, okay, Fax is a complete monster. He's conquered five holds, married into a sixth, and legally inherited the seventh under unusual circumstances. He mistreats his very pregnant wife and keeps a harem of women, whose consent is dubious at best. And his takeover of Ruatha in particular was very brutal, and he apparently beheaded women and even children.
There is nothing remotely redeemable about Fax. But F'lar is still awful.
So F'lar is looking for a woman, specifically, to replace Jora, the now dead Weyrwoman. He specifically wants a strong woman, because Jora had been "useless". This is a recurring theme, really. Everyone seems to agree that Jora is just the Worst Ever, without really giving any real reason why. Supposedly, per another character, she was "weak-minded, ignorant, foolish, vapid." And maybe that's true, but it's still annoying to see these men constantly trash a woman who isn't able to defend herself. Maybe when we have a better idea of what a Weyrwoman actually does, we can appreciate this more. Right now, it just seems unnecessary.
Anyway, "Adversity, uncertainty: those were the conditions that bred the qualities F'lar wanted in a Weyrwoman." This line really makes my skin crawl, and I don't know why.
But anyway, in practice, this means that F'lar gets to be judgmental about implied rape victims.
"Fax preferred his women plump and small. There wasn't a saucy one in the lot. If there once had been, the spirit had been beaten out of them. Fax, no doubt, was stud, not lover. Some of the covey had not all winter long made much use of water, judging from the amount of sweet oil gone rancid in their hair. Of them all, if these were all, the Lady Gemma [Fax's wife] was the only willful one, and she was too old."
You know what, dude, fuck you. You wanted adversity and uncertainty, and now you're disappointed that they're maybe not as "spirited" as you'd like?!
F'lar also takes a moment to look at the kitchen drudges (they're in High Reaches, not Ruatha, so Lessa isn't among them), and I'd give him a point for not being a completely classist douche but...
"He nodded pleasantly to them, looking to see if one of these females might possibly have the stuff of which Weyrwomen are made. Overworked, underfed, scarred by lash and disease, they were just what they were - drudges, fit only for hard, menial labor."
FUCK YOU.
So yeah, I don't like F'lar.
Another theme for this section is the decline in status of the dragonriders. Apparently few of the Holds follow the "ancient Laws" anymore. These laws seem to be primarily defensive in nature: ridge defenses, pits of firestone, many guards. There are prohibitions against expanding outward into greener areas. (Most of the Holds appear to be sheltered by rock, which is interesting.)
Fax actually does follow a lot of the ancient laws, but only because of practicality, not because of any respect for the dragonriders. He even bans his harpers from singing or spreading dragonlore.
Now, I know enough about the premise of the series that I know that these practices actually are pretty important for survival when the Thread comes. But F'lar and the other dragonriders with him (the only vocal one being his brother, the unfortunately named F'nor) seem to be more concerned with their loss of status then they are with the safety of the people. They have bitter complaints about how Fax's table is set with young and tender game, while the "stringy and barren" animals are given to the Weyrs. When they notice the convenient absence of peasant women upon their arrival, F'nor notes that "we used to be preferred mates."
F'nor's complaint gives the Search a darker undertone and makes me side-eye F'lar's comment on a colleague going south to "pursue Search among the indolent if lovely women there." What exactly happens to those girls that aren't chosen?
How are the Dragonriders any better than Fax and his harem?
F'lar has ambitions to change things though:
"When this Search was over and the Impression made, there would have to be a solemn, punitive Council held at the Weyr. And by the golden shell of the queen, he, F'lar, meant to be its moderator. He would replace lethargy with industry. He would scour the green and dangerous scum from the heights of Pern, the grass blades from its stoneworks. No verdant skirt would be condoned in any farmhold. And the tithings that had been so miserly, so grudgingly presented, would, under pain of firestoning, flow with decent generosity into the Dragonweyr."
...I don't remember what firestoning is, but aren't the dragons supposed to PROTECT PEOPLE?!
Again, I'm familiar with the premise of the series, so I know why the dragons are important. But it's hard not to sympathize with the Lord Holders here. From what we know so far, it's been a very long time since Thread fell on Pern. (I think 200 years? Or at least that's how long the Weyrwoman's Records show a decline...hey, guys, maybe you should thank Jora for keeping them?! It sounds like she did some of her job at least!)
In the meantime, the common folk have to tithe food to the dragonriders. They have to give up their children when it comes time for a Search. And it's not clear yet that the dragons do anything useful during that time period. Do they help with construction of things? Do they carry messages? Do they get involved with rescues? Do they scout distant land masses?
It's possible, but F'lar doesn't say so.
By the way, this is what he thinks about people's reaction to Mnementh, his dragon.
"The dragons could never understand why they generated such abject fear in common folk. At only one point in his life span would a dragon attack a human, and that could be excused on the grounds of simple ignorance. F'lar could not explain to the dragon the politics behind the necessity of inspiring awe in the holders. Lord and craftsman alike. He could only observe that the fear and apprehension showing in the faces of the advancing squad which troubled Mnementh was oddly pleasing to him, F'lar."
...fuck you, F'lar. You are such a fucking bully.
F'lar hates Fax, as one should, but his hatred seems more about Fax's lack of respect (including pretending to forget his name, when "the name of the bronze riders should be as well known throughout Pern as the name of the dragon queen and her Weyrwoman") than because the man is a murderer, conqueror and rapist. He likes Gemma, Fax's wife, not because she's kind or gentle or an obvious victim of her husband, but because she knows his name and seems to respect the old traditions.
Fuck you, F'lar.
The last part of F'lar's section is interesting because it introduces a former dragonrider named L'tol or Lytol. His dragon, who is described as green here, but is brown in later books (which has some very unfortunate implications that I'll avoid getting into at this time), was killed during the Spring Games.
It's not clear if Lytol left voluntarily or not. It is mentioned that seeing the dragonmen "revived his awareness of exile". But the exile could be self-imposed. As much as I'm starting to hate the dragonriders at this time, I can only imagine how hard it would be to look around and see happy riders and dragons when your own partner, with whom you have a psychic link, is dead.
Lytol is the one who gives us, and F'lar the most useful and relevant information in the chapter. We find out more about Fax's excesses, particularly his scheme of keeping Gemma pregnant in order to kill her in childbirth (he needs her family's support and therefore can't kill her outright) and what he did to Ruatha.
While he is a bit of a dick about the prospects of the women in High Reaches, as well as Jora, Lytol is also the only one in this section who actually seems to care that Fax is a monster. There's a bit that's interesting, that suggests that he may have personally suffered at Fax's hands:
;When Fax came to power, any man with wit sent his daughters down from the High Reaches or drew a brand across their faces.; He paused, his countenance dark and bitter memory, his eyes slits of hatred. 'I was a fool and thought my position gave me immunity."
I'm not sure if we're supposed to read that as Lytol having a daughter, taken by Fax (it doesn't seem to fit given the time frame. F'lar and F'nor are in their twenties and they do not indicate that Lytol's accident was that long ago. In contrast, F'lar hadn't been born when Jora was found), or if Lytol himself was targeted. Either way, he urges F'lar to have the Weyrleader look into Fax.
Lytol is the only character who seems to elicit any kind of empathy from F'lar or F'nor, but even F'lar's empathy manages to piss me off.
"Lytol continued. He was talking too much and too fast. It would have been insultingly rude in another, lesser man. It was the terrible loneliness of the man's exile from the Weyr that drove him to garrulity. Lytol skimmed the surfaces with hurried questions he himself answered, rather than dip once into matters too tender to be touched - such as his insatiable need for those of his kind. Yet he was giving the dragonment exactly the information they needed."
Fuck you, F'lar. Since it's your fucking 3rd person limited narration. Also this might imply that Lytol's exile was involuntary, in which case, you people are lucky he's even talking to you.
Or when Lytol is discussing how special Ruatha's Lords are:
"'You think to find a Torene or a Moreta hidden at Ruatha Hold in these times? Well, bronze rider, all of Ruathan Blood are dead. Fax's blade was thirsty that day. He knew the truth of those harpers' tales, that Ruathan Lords gave full measure of hospitality to dragonmen and the Ruathan were a breed apart. There were, you know' - Lytol's voice dropped to a confiding whisper- 'exiled Weyrmen like myself in that Line.'
F'lar nodded gravely, unwilling to deprive the man of such a sop to his self-esteem."
Fuck you, F'lar.
Lytol also gives us some context as to what exactly is going on with Ruatha, which, if you recall, may actually be LESSA's doing:
"'No, there is little, very little left in Ruatha Valley.' Lytol chuckled softly. 'Fax gets nothing from that Hold but trouble.' This reflection restored Lytol to a semblance of normal behavior, and his face twisted into a better humor. "We of this Hold are now the best clothmen in all Pern. And our smithies turn out a better tempered weapon.' His eyes sparkled with pride in his adopted community."
Nicely done, Lessa.
"'The conscripts from Ruatha tend to die of curious diseases or accidents. And the women Fax used to take...' His laugh was nasty. 'It is rumored he was impotent for months after.'"
Holy fucking shit, Lessa.
Now, granted, that could be coincidence, but F'lar's response: "Flar's acitve mind jumped to a curious conclusion. 'There are none of the Blood left?'" Which seems to confirm that this is actually Lessa's doing.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, LESSA.
...can you aim for F'lar next time?
Introduction | Table of Contents | Part 1:2
"Weyr Search" starts us off with a poem, or perhaps they're supposed to be song lyrics.
Drummer, beat, and piper, blow,
Harper, strike, and soldier go.
Free the flame and sear the grasses.
Till the dawning Red Star passes.
Each small section of the story will bring us more poetry or song lyrics, all relevant to the setting. I like this touch. It's atmospheric, and gives us an immediate sense of what common people know or remember about the setting.
I'm not going to comment on the quality, because I never had much of a head for rhyme or meter. So, there's that. It does make it very easy to track the point of view shifts, so I'm inclined to approve. It also makes it a little easier to partition out my review (this post has both Lessa and Flar's first viewpoint sections.)
Lessa
We begin with a kitchen drudge (slave or servant) named Lessa who wakes up with a very strong sense of impending doom. We get a few details about Lessa's life and it seems very sad. She sleeps in straw, in a cheeseroom with other kitchen drudges, who have to huddle together for warmth. Her hair is rank and matted and she seems frightened by the thought that someone might see her in anything other than a sloping posture. And the only being she trusts is the watch-wher, a chained and pathetic creature that had once helped save and hide her.
Lessa lives in Ruatha Hold, which had apparently been conquered by a man named Fax some time before. Ruatha seems to be doing poorly. Interestingly, this may be somehow Lessa's doing.
"Grass in Ruatha, Lessa mused, grew where it should not, died where it should flourish. Lessa could hardly remember now how Ruatha Valley had once looked, sweetly happy, amply productive. Before Fax came. An odd brooding smile curved lips unused to such exercise. Fax realized no profit from his conquest of Ruatha... nor would he while she, Lessa, lived. Ad he had not the slightest suspicion of the source of this undoing."
This section doesn't do very much to establish Lessa as a character, yet. But I like what I see so far: I like that Lessa is angry about her circumstances and I like that she's (somehow) using that anger to affect circumstances in her favor. I wonder a bit how this may affect the other people in her hold, but it's hard to blame a slave for lashing out with the only weapon she has.
F'lar
The next section, which is far more substantial, introduces F'lar, a dragonman who is visiting Fax, the Lord of the High Reaches, as part of a Search for a new Weyrwoman.
Honestly, F'lar is really just kind of awful. It's weird to me, reading this now, because I remember F'lar being my favorite character when I read this as a kid. For the life of me, I don't know why. Because he's just terrible.
I mean, okay, Fax is a complete monster. He's conquered five holds, married into a sixth, and legally inherited the seventh under unusual circumstances. He mistreats his very pregnant wife and keeps a harem of women, whose consent is dubious at best. And his takeover of Ruatha in particular was very brutal, and he apparently beheaded women and even children.
There is nothing remotely redeemable about Fax. But F'lar is still awful.
So F'lar is looking for a woman, specifically, to replace Jora, the now dead Weyrwoman. He specifically wants a strong woman, because Jora had been "useless". This is a recurring theme, really. Everyone seems to agree that Jora is just the Worst Ever, without really giving any real reason why. Supposedly, per another character, she was "weak-minded, ignorant, foolish, vapid." And maybe that's true, but it's still annoying to see these men constantly trash a woman who isn't able to defend herself. Maybe when we have a better idea of what a Weyrwoman actually does, we can appreciate this more. Right now, it just seems unnecessary.
Anyway, "Adversity, uncertainty: those were the conditions that bred the qualities F'lar wanted in a Weyrwoman." This line really makes my skin crawl, and I don't know why.
But anyway, in practice, this means that F'lar gets to be judgmental about implied rape victims.
"Fax preferred his women plump and small. There wasn't a saucy one in the lot. If there once had been, the spirit had been beaten out of them. Fax, no doubt, was stud, not lover. Some of the covey had not all winter long made much use of water, judging from the amount of sweet oil gone rancid in their hair. Of them all, if these were all, the Lady Gemma [Fax's wife] was the only willful one, and she was too old."
You know what, dude, fuck you. You wanted adversity and uncertainty, and now you're disappointed that they're maybe not as "spirited" as you'd like?!
F'lar also takes a moment to look at the kitchen drudges (they're in High Reaches, not Ruatha, so Lessa isn't among them), and I'd give him a point for not being a completely classist douche but...
"He nodded pleasantly to them, looking to see if one of these females might possibly have the stuff of which Weyrwomen are made. Overworked, underfed, scarred by lash and disease, they were just what they were - drudges, fit only for hard, menial labor."
FUCK YOU.
So yeah, I don't like F'lar.
Another theme for this section is the decline in status of the dragonriders. Apparently few of the Holds follow the "ancient Laws" anymore. These laws seem to be primarily defensive in nature: ridge defenses, pits of firestone, many guards. There are prohibitions against expanding outward into greener areas. (Most of the Holds appear to be sheltered by rock, which is interesting.)
Fax actually does follow a lot of the ancient laws, but only because of practicality, not because of any respect for the dragonriders. He even bans his harpers from singing or spreading dragonlore.
Now, I know enough about the premise of the series that I know that these practices actually are pretty important for survival when the Thread comes. But F'lar and the other dragonriders with him (the only vocal one being his brother, the unfortunately named F'nor) seem to be more concerned with their loss of status then they are with the safety of the people. They have bitter complaints about how Fax's table is set with young and tender game, while the "stringy and barren" animals are given to the Weyrs. When they notice the convenient absence of peasant women upon their arrival, F'nor notes that "we used to be preferred mates."
F'nor's complaint gives the Search a darker undertone and makes me side-eye F'lar's comment on a colleague going south to "pursue Search among the indolent if lovely women there." What exactly happens to those girls that aren't chosen?
How are the Dragonriders any better than Fax and his harem?
F'lar has ambitions to change things though:
"When this Search was over and the Impression made, there would have to be a solemn, punitive Council held at the Weyr. And by the golden shell of the queen, he, F'lar, meant to be its moderator. He would replace lethargy with industry. He would scour the green and dangerous scum from the heights of Pern, the grass blades from its stoneworks. No verdant skirt would be condoned in any farmhold. And the tithings that had been so miserly, so grudgingly presented, would, under pain of firestoning, flow with decent generosity into the Dragonweyr."
...I don't remember what firestoning is, but aren't the dragons supposed to PROTECT PEOPLE?!
Again, I'm familiar with the premise of the series, so I know why the dragons are important. But it's hard not to sympathize with the Lord Holders here. From what we know so far, it's been a very long time since Thread fell on Pern. (I think 200 years? Or at least that's how long the Weyrwoman's Records show a decline...hey, guys, maybe you should thank Jora for keeping them?! It sounds like she did some of her job at least!)
In the meantime, the common folk have to tithe food to the dragonriders. They have to give up their children when it comes time for a Search. And it's not clear yet that the dragons do anything useful during that time period. Do they help with construction of things? Do they carry messages? Do they get involved with rescues? Do they scout distant land masses?
It's possible, but F'lar doesn't say so.
By the way, this is what he thinks about people's reaction to Mnementh, his dragon.
"The dragons could never understand why they generated such abject fear in common folk. At only one point in his life span would a dragon attack a human, and that could be excused on the grounds of simple ignorance. F'lar could not explain to the dragon the politics behind the necessity of inspiring awe in the holders. Lord and craftsman alike. He could only observe that the fear and apprehension showing in the faces of the advancing squad which troubled Mnementh was oddly pleasing to him, F'lar."
...fuck you, F'lar. You are such a fucking bully.
F'lar hates Fax, as one should, but his hatred seems more about Fax's lack of respect (including pretending to forget his name, when "the name of the bronze riders should be as well known throughout Pern as the name of the dragon queen and her Weyrwoman") than because the man is a murderer, conqueror and rapist. He likes Gemma, Fax's wife, not because she's kind or gentle or an obvious victim of her husband, but because she knows his name and seems to respect the old traditions.
Fuck you, F'lar.
The last part of F'lar's section is interesting because it introduces a former dragonrider named L'tol or Lytol. His dragon, who is described as green here, but is brown in later books (which has some very unfortunate implications that I'll avoid getting into at this time), was killed during the Spring Games.
It's not clear if Lytol left voluntarily or not. It is mentioned that seeing the dragonmen "revived his awareness of exile". But the exile could be self-imposed. As much as I'm starting to hate the dragonriders at this time, I can only imagine how hard it would be to look around and see happy riders and dragons when your own partner, with whom you have a psychic link, is dead.
Lytol is the one who gives us, and F'lar the most useful and relevant information in the chapter. We find out more about Fax's excesses, particularly his scheme of keeping Gemma pregnant in order to kill her in childbirth (he needs her family's support and therefore can't kill her outright) and what he did to Ruatha.
While he is a bit of a dick about the prospects of the women in High Reaches, as well as Jora, Lytol is also the only one in this section who actually seems to care that Fax is a monster. There's a bit that's interesting, that suggests that he may have personally suffered at Fax's hands:
;When Fax came to power, any man with wit sent his daughters down from the High Reaches or drew a brand across their faces.; He paused, his countenance dark and bitter memory, his eyes slits of hatred. 'I was a fool and thought my position gave me immunity."
I'm not sure if we're supposed to read that as Lytol having a daughter, taken by Fax (it doesn't seem to fit given the time frame. F'lar and F'nor are in their twenties and they do not indicate that Lytol's accident was that long ago. In contrast, F'lar hadn't been born when Jora was found), or if Lytol himself was targeted. Either way, he urges F'lar to have the Weyrleader look into Fax.
Lytol is the only character who seems to elicit any kind of empathy from F'lar or F'nor, but even F'lar's empathy manages to piss me off.
"Lytol continued. He was talking too much and too fast. It would have been insultingly rude in another, lesser man. It was the terrible loneliness of the man's exile from the Weyr that drove him to garrulity. Lytol skimmed the surfaces with hurried questions he himself answered, rather than dip once into matters too tender to be touched - such as his insatiable need for those of his kind. Yet he was giving the dragonment exactly the information they needed."
Fuck you, F'lar. Since it's your fucking 3rd person limited narration. Also this might imply that Lytol's exile was involuntary, in which case, you people are lucky he's even talking to you.
Or when Lytol is discussing how special Ruatha's Lords are:
"'You think to find a Torene or a Moreta hidden at Ruatha Hold in these times? Well, bronze rider, all of Ruathan Blood are dead. Fax's blade was thirsty that day. He knew the truth of those harpers' tales, that Ruathan Lords gave full measure of hospitality to dragonmen and the Ruathan were a breed apart. There were, you know' - Lytol's voice dropped to a confiding whisper- 'exiled Weyrmen like myself in that Line.'
F'lar nodded gravely, unwilling to deprive the man of such a sop to his self-esteem."
Fuck you, F'lar.
Lytol also gives us some context as to what exactly is going on with Ruatha, which, if you recall, may actually be LESSA's doing:
"'No, there is little, very little left in Ruatha Valley.' Lytol chuckled softly. 'Fax gets nothing from that Hold but trouble.' This reflection restored Lytol to a semblance of normal behavior, and his face twisted into a better humor. "We of this Hold are now the best clothmen in all Pern. And our smithies turn out a better tempered weapon.' His eyes sparkled with pride in his adopted community."
Nicely done, Lessa.
"'The conscripts from Ruatha tend to die of curious diseases or accidents. And the women Fax used to take...' His laugh was nasty. 'It is rumored he was impotent for months after.'"
Holy fucking shit, Lessa.
Now, granted, that could be coincidence, but F'lar's response: "Flar's acitve mind jumped to a curious conclusion. 'There are none of the Blood left?'" Which seems to confirm that this is actually Lessa's doing.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, LESSA.
...can you aim for F'lar next time?