Hello everyone, my name is Grunt11B. I am the husband of “The Bibliophagist.” She has asked me to guest post on her blog from time to time. The topics will be anything from book reviews to post about how life is married to a devourer of books. I am not as eloquent with my words as she is but I made it through Afghanistan alive so writing a few words on a blog should not be too bad. Plus, I try to live by my personal golden rule “A happy wife is a happy husband.” I spent twelve years is the military with my last four as an Army Grunt so when she asked me about this blog series I, of course, needed to come up with a cool military name that incorporated books. I am by no means creative so after sitting and staring at my computer screen for an hour or so and then trying to cheat by looking up other blog names I came up with this one. So, without further ado welcome to the first installment of “Words from a Foxhole!”
For my first post, I am going to do a review of the “Dragon Code” by Gigi McCaffrey. I chose this as my first book because Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series is one of my all-time favorites. I find myself leaping head first into Pern every year because I find her world and characters so appealing; I love to get lost flying on the back of a dragon through the skies of Pern searing their mortal enemy “Thread” to ashes. Become a hero who saved the world once again and having the ladies throwing themselves at me wanting to do… well, you get the point.
My wife loves to talk about the cover of the book first since it is the first thing you see. Which makes sense because most of the time it is the cover that gets you to pick up the book in the first place. The cover ofDragon’s Code is very simple with not a lot of detail. It almost looks like something you would see in a high school art class. But the covers of all the Pern books have been changed over the years to look this way for some reason. I don’t know why because the covers of the original books where gorgeous. At a young age, I used to sit and watch my uncle paint the covers, they were so breathe taking that as I grow older and came into my own as a mini devourer of books I remembered those paintings and found Pern for myself. Since this series is one of my favorites I wish they would go back to the more elaborate covers so that they will once again draw in new young readers to this fabulous world. Because as the covers are now without knowledge of the books already they would never have made me stop and pick this book off the shelf.
I believe this is Gigi’s first book in her mother’s world. Which having read many of interviews with her brother Todd, can be a daunting task since her mother’s world is so beloved by so many people around the world. I felt, in the long run, she did a great job. The book started off pretty weak it was almost like she was scared to dive into Pern and make it her own. As the book progressed you could tell she was becoming more confident making Pern her own.
A new hero emerges in a divided world as one of sci-fi’s most beloved series—Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern—relaunches with this original adventure from Anne’s daughter, Gigi McCaffrey.
In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dragonriders of Pern series, Gigi does her mother proud, adding to the family tradition of spinning unputdownable tales that recount the adventures of the brave inhabitants of a distant planet who battle the pitiless adversary known as Thread.
The last time Thread attacked Pern, the world was unprepared for the fight—until the Oldtimers appeared. These courageous dragonriders arrived from the past, traveling four hundred years to help their descendants survive. But the collision of past and present took its toll. While most of the displaced rescuers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed.
Piemur, a journeyman harper, also feels displaced, cast adrift by the loss of his spectacular boyhood voice and uncertain of his future. But when the Masterharper of Pern sees promise in the young man and sends him undercover among the exiled Oldtimers, Piemur senses the looming catastrophe that threatens the balance of power between the Weyrs and Holds of Pern.
When the unthinkable happens, Piemur must rise to the challenge to avert disaster and restore honor to the dragons and dragonriders of Pern. Because now, in a world already beset by Thread, another, more insidious danger looms: For the first time in living memory, dragons may be on the verge of fighting dragons.
For the most part, I loved this book. The main character, Piemur, was one of my favorite characters I the last few books Anne McCaffrey wrote. In her books, he was more of a side note that only came out sparingly but I was always left with wanting more from him. When my wife showed me this book on NetGalley I became instantly excited. I’m talking five-year-old walking into a candy store excited! I was finally going to get more Piemur.
I mentioned before that I felt that Gigi started off the book weak. The reason for that was that in the beginning, she spent a lot of time explaining the world and characters. Which normally would not be a bad thing but with the following this series has and the time period her book takes place in, this level of detail was not needed. This book is a rewrite of one of Anne’s books but from the POV of Piemur so all the characters are known commodities. Another reason I felt it was weak was the fact that for the first few chapters it felt like I was reading a book written for a young teenager. You could tell that you were in the Pern world but could also tell that it was not Anne or even Todd McCaffrey writing this book.
The last thing that brought my enjoyment of the book down was the fact that Gigi would switch time periods from one paragraph to the next with no warning. This lead to a lot of confusion as I had to keep going back to see if I missed something. As a Grunt, I like things organized and well planned out. If this is you as well then you are going to need to be prepared to be flustered by this book at times.
Now for the rating. I like my wife use the book scale to rate things. I would give this book 3.5 out of 5 books but since ripping a book in my household is a quick way to get divorced I will round down and give it a 3 out of 5 books. Sadly my wife has informed me that she is working on getting another small book graphic, but for now, she is using hearts. So I guess it would have 3 hearts… This was a good book and I would recommend it to all my friends if they have read the series before. I would just need the spelling and grammar errors fixed along with the level of detail at the beginning of the book reworked to bring it in line with the rest of the books in the series. If this happened I could easily see myself giving it a 5 out of 5. All and all this was a great first attempt at making the Pern world hers.
Thank you for joining me in my Foxhole and reading this review of “Dragon Code.” I don’t read as fast or as much as my wife does so I will most likely only have one maybe two posts a month. Please comment and let me know how you liked this review and what you did not like. If you are also a fan of the Dragonriders of Pern series let me know what your favorite character or dragon is. Now keep your head down and move with a purpose!