Dragon's Fire(CD)(Unabr.) [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey have collaborated a second time to write a novel of Pern's earlier days. Dragon's Fire takes place during the same time period as their first collaboration Dragon's Kin, which would be the end of the Second Interval after Landing (the settlement of Pern) before the Fall of Thread. This novel has to do with discovering new sources for firestone, the material needed by the dragons to breathe fire. Pellar, a young mute boy is apprenticed to Masterharper Zist and they work together to search for Moran, another Harper who has gone missing trying to help The Shunned. The Shunned are a segment of Pernese society which have been outcast for various crimes but also at the whim of a Lord Holder. Pellar's story intertwines with Halla, a homeless girl, and Cristov, the son of a miner. There are references to the characters of Dragon's Kin, but this serves more to place the story in a time period rather than illuminate the story here.

While Dragon's Fire is, at its core, about finding a safe way to mine firestone, most of the novel focuses on the various adventures of Pellar as well as Tenim's (a villain) desire to gain power and money. Dragon's Fire does not seem to tell the story it claims to tell, and the issue with firestone is almost an afterthought except for discussions on the challenges of mining firestone because of how volatile the material is. Midway through the novel the story picks up and the McCaffreys start driving towards a conclusion, but the first half of the novel meanders around without accomplishing much. By the end Dragon's Fire is a better novel than Dragon's Kin, but it does not hold up nearly as well against Anne's classic Dragonriders of Pern novels. Interestingly enough, Todd McCaffrey's solo Pern novel, Dragonsblood, is also a stronger novel. The fact that the stakes do not feel very high or important has to do with the reasons why this novel is not as effective as other Pern stories. This is a problem in telling stories set early in a long chronology because we know that the dragons have firestone and no previous mention of the danger of firestone has been seen in prior novels, it is difficult to feel that there is a chance that the story will not end well for Pern.

Sometimes I wish that Pern would start to go the way of Darkover (Marion Zimmer Bradley) in that the lost colony will eventually become re-discovered by Earth and the culture conflicts. Anne already set this up in All the Weyrs of Pern with the discovery of working technology and the old space ships. There are stories to tell in this direction, but I fear that Todd will continue to write in the older days of Pern and do little to expand our understanding of the world.

-Joe Sherry

As I've said before, my theory on lengthy series is they tend to be divided into several tiers of quality: great ones (usually early on), good ones that don't match the passion or excitement of the top ones, adequate ones that serviceably move the grand story along but aren't particularly original or well-written, and the bad ones that were just spit out because series fans would by them. Dragon's Fire unfortunately is in the last category and it might even be a step below if that were possible.

What places books in the lower tiers of such series are that they aren't as emotionally rewarding or their characters aren't as well-developed or they're just a bit too predictable. But what places Dragon's Fire so low is not only are all of those true, but the basic writing elements themselves, which are usually at least handled in workmanlike fashion in the adequate novels, are here an utter and complete mess.

Basic settings are seldom made clear and characters wander all over the map without any sense of place or space or context. Motivations of several characters are not made clear or are simply stated without any sense of history behind them. Some don't even make much sense. Shifts in place and time are often abrupt. Multiple plot lines are scattered about like spilled rocks on the floor and the reader lands on them with no sense of a greater pattern, no sense of transitions or story arc or development. Plot points and characters are dropped completely with little rhyme or reason, as if the book had been written by a committee whose members never bothered to read the others' work. Even the language is poorly constructed (not intentionally for effect or character development). And those typical Pern scenes such as dragons appearing in number suddenly in the sky or the sadness over the loss of a dragon are handled in at best perfunctory manner--there no warmth, no love there. There's no sense of a writer's craft or even interest and even less sense of an editor's hand trying to at least correct some of these problems.

I'd like to say something good about the book and spent a few minutes trying to come up with something, but it's near impossible. I think the best I could come up with is that Halla, the young female character, has some potential and could have done nicely in another book--one could see her appearing in earlier Pern books fully fleshed out and given the treatment that others of our favorites received from the author--such as Mennoly.

Obviously, Fire was a major disappointment, especially as I'd thought the last book, Dragon's Blood had shown some improvement from Todd McCaffrey's first collaboration with his mother, Dragon's Kin. I hope that same improvement between books now happens between Fire and whatever comes next. I know it's hard to skip a book in a series one has loved but Fire adds little or nothing to our understanding of Pern or its history and is so, so badly composed/constructed, that I'd strongly recommend not bothering with it. At the very least, if you feel compelled to read it, I'd suggest doing so with a copy of Dragonflight or Dragonsong next to you so that when you finish Fire you dive in and remind yourself what it was that made you fall in love with this series to begin with.

Dragon's Fire (2006) is the second SF novel in this subseries of the Dragonriders of Pern, following Dragon's Kin. In the previous volume, at Camp Natalon, Kindan trained Natalon's blind daughter Nuella to direct his green watch-wher Kisk. After a cave-in in the mine, Kindan taught her to take Kisk between to the trapped miners and then to bring them back with her.

During the rescue, the watch-wher rebonded to Nuella and changed her name to Nuelsk. Kindan was not very surprised about loosing the watch-wher, for Nuella and Nuelsk made an ideal pair. Besides, he had been asked to tryout at Harper Hall.

In this novel, the Shunned are outcasts from normal society. Many have done evil deeds and so their Holders have Shunned them. But many more among the outcasts are the spouses and children of the Shunned. While innocent of any wrongdoing themselves, they go with their relatives into exile.

The Harper leaders are concerned about the Shunned. The thread will be coming soon and the Shunned will be without shelter. Earlier, they had sent out Journeyman Moran to contact the Shunned, but have not heard anything back from him.

Pellar is the adopted child of Master Zist and Cayla. They are Harpers and he is also a Harper in the eyes of everyone except himself. Pellar excels at instrument making and other Harper skills. He is a graphic artist and can directly contact the mind of dragons. He even has a bronze fire-lizard, Chitter. Yet he is mute and thus cannot sing.

Zist, Cayla and their young daughter Carissa leave Pellar behind when they venture into the wilds to contact the Shunned. He would have been too obvious, but he still wants to go. While Zist and Cayla find the Shunned, they also discover that a disease is killing off many outcasts. Cayla and Carissa catch the disease and die of it.

After Master Zist returns from the disastrous journey, he takes the position of Harper at Camp Natalon. Pellar accompanies him, but stays out of sight. On the journey, Pellar notices someone among the Shunned who leaves yellowtop flowers on the graves of their dead. This person is small and wears bark sandals.

Once they reach the vicinity of the Camp, Pellar hides out while he keeps an eye on Zist and the surrounding countryside. He notices the same footprints and tracks the child. He discovers her hanging from one of his snares and learns that her name is Halla. Pellar also finds the Shunned camp.

In this story, Pellar discovers that Moran has collected a group of Shunned children and is trying to take care of them. Moran has been begging for food -- or money to buy food -- for the children, but sometimes he spends the money on hard drinks. He is well meaning, but is just not a good parent for the children.

Tenim was one of the children raised by Moran. Unfortunately, he has grown up to be a bully. Moreover, he has a falcon that he has trained to attack on order. And he has plans to steal enough coal from Camp Natalon to become rich.

Tarik is the uncle of Natalon -- the chief miner at the camp -- and the father of Cristov. Tarik is allied with Tenim in the plot to steal coal from the mine. He is also going to get rich and then boss his own mine.

This story tells of the circumstances of the Shunned. Even some Lords who had Shunned them are beginning to worry about their fate. The Harpers find that bands of children from Shunned parents are roaming the countrysides. Most of these children won't reach adulthood, dying from untreated diseases and accidents.

Another theme is the dangers of firestone. This ore is especially sensitive to water, exploding or outgassing toxic fumes on contact. Then Kindan begins to research the issue and discovers that firestone may have been different in the far past.

This novel continues the story began in Dragon's Kin and adds new characters. The tale is convoluted and exciting, a good read. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for McCaffrey fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of fire-breathing dragons, valiant heroes and heroines, and a touch of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin