Dragon Riders of Pern

[Mary in GA]

Has anyone read this? I read it a long time ago, but I can't remember much of anything about it. Dd, 12, loves dragons and wants to read it. Any cautions or inappropriate content? thanks.


Mary

[kate in seattle]

there is a young adult series - dragonsinger, dragonsong, dragondrums. everything in that series is a-ok.

the original triology is probably fine as well.

in later books it is quite clear that green dragon riders are homosexual. and some books have a brief mention of what the riders experience when the dragons rise for a mating flight - can't remember which books though.

hope that helps a bit

[Mama Lynx]

There is sex, in the original trilogy. It is made pretty clear what is happening when the dragons rise to mate.

I second the recommendation to start with the Harper Hall series (Dragonsong, etc.) They are wonderful books, anyway.

[Mary in GA]

OK. I'm not clear where these fall in the sequence. It's a compilation containing Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. I think we'll put this on hold, until I have a chance to go through it! Thanks for your help, Kate.

Mary

[Eliana]

OK. I'm not clear where these fall in the sequence. It's a compilation containing Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. I think we'll put this on hold, until I have a chance to go through it! Thanks for your help, Kate.

Mary

The books in that compilation all include unmistakable intimacy (and there is an element of violence threaded into some of the intimacy in the first two) the third has a young man's first imtimate experiences and is the most graphic of the three (though I think the violence in Dragonquest is more disturbing for a kid...) It is unmistakeably clear, and emphasized throughout the books, that riders mate when their dragons do - whether they want to or not, whether they like the partner or not. A contrast is also made between Weyr and Hold standards of intimate behavior - dragonriders encourage/support/are fine with numerous casual relationships, Holders have more marriage, but there are other accepted interactions, at least in certain contexts.

Dragonsong and Dragonsinger can be read without reading any of the other Pern books - and both are, in my opinion, appropriate for kids (though the first deal shows a harsh, even abusive family situation and the second some persecution by fellow students - neither is, imho, inapproriately depicted, but you should be aware of it.

Dragondrums I will not give my kids - it's a darker book and, unlike the first two, does have one explicit (for a kid's book) intimate scene... and the bullying depicted is much darker.

[but do note than none of the Harper Hall tiology books deal directly with dragons - we see a lot of the "fire lizards"... minature dragons, I guess you could call them, but the full size dragons are very peripheral in these three books]

I would not give any other Pern book to one of my teens, but ymmv. It's a shame because, in many other ways, these are more on a kid level than anything else... but I don't think they are appropriate.

...perhaps he'd like Patricia Wrede's humorous dragon series - I can never remember which comes first... there's Dealing with Dragons and Talking with Dragons and Calling on Dragons... and one more. [Aha! Searching for Dragons - and I think Dealing is the first one...]They are light, fairly tongue in cheek, and riff amusingly off fairy tale sterotypes.

McKinley has a fairly nice dragon book - Dragonhaven, I believe, but the epilogue has a compeltely different tone and, out of the blue & for no particular reason has an adult character reveal himself as homosexual - I was bothered by the randomness of it rather than the fact of it, but ymmv. (There is nothing explicit at all,btw, it's a throw away sentence in a rambling conversation that happens years after the action of the main story.)

Cornelia Funke's Dragon Rider is a favorite of my kids.

Jessica Day George has a dragon series - beginning with Dragon Slippers, the second is out and the third soon to come out.

Pamela Dean's delightful Secret Coutry Trilogy has dragons, but in a more peripheral role than the other books I've listed so far.

Perhaps Susan Fletcher's Dragon's Milk? (First in a series, as I recall)

I think TA Barron has a book with a dragon playing a significant role - part of his Merlin series... I haven't read it - I bogged down in the early part of the series, but I don't remember finding his books inappropriate... but perhaps someone else has a clearer memory.

A little youger, but still a delight, Nesbit's Book of Dragons, Grahame's The Reluctant Dragon, and Rosemary Manning's dragons series (beginning w/ Green Smoke). (*much* younger (a picture book), but deserving mention is Sutcliff's Minstrel and the Dragon Pup)

Hague's Book of Dragons has snippets of a number of different dragon stories from a variety of authors (Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader & Bilbo & Smaug are the best known)

The Neverending Story has dragons, as I recall..

Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham, perhaps?

Yep's Dragon of the Lost Sea is on my list of books to screen as is Yolen's Dragon's Blood (and sequels)

I know there are more titles, but this is all I'm coming up with... and the kids, who are better at this game than I am, are all asleep...

[Mary in GA]

for your advice and your thoughtful recommendations! VERY much appreciated.

Mary

[Ellie]

Well done, Eliana!

I enjoy all of the Pern books--I think I own all of them, in hard cover--but ITA...I wouldn't give them to pre-adult children to read.

[AngieW in Texas]

I also would recommend only the Harper Hall series for a teen. I love McCaffrey's books and read all of the Pern books that were out when I was in high school, but I won't recommend them to my kids until they're adult.

Patricia Wrede's series is:
Dealing with Dragons
Searching for Dragons
Calling on Dragons
Talking to Dragons
We've listened to it on audio several hundred times (really, I'm not exaggerating). The audio is performed by a full cast and is excellent. None of us like the voice for Morwen in the first book, but a different actress does that part in the other three books and we like her a lot.

I second the recommendation for Dragon Slippers. That was quite good. I didn't know the sequel was out.

The Companions Quartet by Julia Golding has dragons, but they aren't major characters. It's a good series though.

The Frog Princess Series by Edward Baker has dragons.

The Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull has dragons, but they don't show up until either the 2nd or 3rd book. This is an excellent series. Only the first 4 are out so far.