Dragongirl Audiobook By Todd McCaffrey cover art

Dragongirl

Dragonriders of Pern, Book 21

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Dragongirl

By: Todd McCaffrey
Narrated by: Emily Durante
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Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned from the past, where she and a group of dragons and riders fled so that the wounded could heal from their previous battles. Gone only three days, yet aged more than three years, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman prepared to fight against the Thread that threatens to destroy her world.

Fiona’s life takes a pivotal turn when a shocking tragedy thrusts her into a position of authority. Now she finds herself leading weyrfolk who have a hard time trusting a senior Weyrwoman who is both young and an outsider.

But even greater challenges lie ahead: Thread is falling and there are too few dragons to stem the tide. Many have died from the recent plague, and even with the influx of newly mature dragons from the past, the depleted fighting force is no match for the intensifying Threadfall. Fiona knows that something must be done, and what she proposes is daring and next to impossible. But if her plan succeeds, it just might save them all.

Pay another visit to Pern.©2010 Todd J. McCaffrey (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Dragons

Critic reviews

"Todd McCaffrey continues carving his own niche in the Pern canon while remaining faithful to the world-building and characterizations that have made his mother Anne's series a perennial favorite" ( Booklist).

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Engaging Dragon Lore • Interesting Time Travel • Wonderful Variance • Likable Characters • Continuing Saga
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The main conflict is never resolved and we are subjected to death after death and I can't see why.. So much time is spent covering a period of hopeless events in Pern with no hint of how it can be resolved. The eternal "it will all work out" cheer from the main character becomes grating. I want to get to the next milestone in the story but I found it hard to sit through this entire book. Unusually depressing and hopeless for a Pern story. The love story aspect tries hard to be very open minded and pushing hard on open/shared multi partner relationships. I get it... but it just comes off as unfulfilling and awkward because Fiona ends up not truly fully loved by anyone. For a 17 year old to be presented as capable of "loving everybody" just doesn't work. If I were to reread this part of the Pern history again I would skip this book.

ugg... Dragging and mournfully slow

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The relationships Fiona had and at her age were just too weird and took away from the story. This is my 3rd TM book. I miss AM’s writing style.

Not the same as AM.

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This book was better than the last...written more closely to the form and manner I’ve grown accustomed to and love. Going to get the next one now!!

Getting better again

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Story was a bit wandering and didn't resolve well. If you're desperate for a pern story, not a bad listen.

An ok Pern story

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Good story. But slow moving. Bogged down in details that don’t always complement the story

Good

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Most of the other reviews I read for Dragongirl were very negative. While I have to agree that this is probably my least favorite of the Pern books so far, I didn’t find it all bad.

This book continues the story arc that began about six books back with Kindan and the Watchwhers. During the first two or three books Kindan was a young boy who had all kinds of different adventures and interacted over the years with lots of people and situations. He has trained as a Harper, and because Harpers are often called on to do healing, he has become something of a Healer too. His healing skill got a lot of painful practice during the people plague about ten years before the beginning of this book, during which his first love, Korianna, died.

The main character of Dragongirl is Fiona, Korianna’s baby sister.

About two books back, we were introduced to Fiona, the second daughter of the Fort Hold holder, and Korianna’s baby sister. Kindan saved her life during the human plague, or at least this is the way she sees it, and she has had a crush on him ever since.

After Fiona, who has recently impressed a dragon – Talenth – at Fort Weyr, along with all the weyrlings (young dragon riders) and their dragons, along with most of Fort’s injured older dragon riders, has spent three years at the abandoned Igen Weyr learning to fly Thread and recovering from their injuries, returns to the Fort Weyr of the present, they land smack in the middle of the Dragon Plague again. The leader of the Telgar Weyr has just foolishly led all the dragons of his weyr Between without meaning to because he insisted on overworking them and ignoring the fact that the dragons were sick. Fiona and the dragons and riders she had worked with at Igen get volunteered to go to Telgar to take up the slack.

They have been there about two days when Talenth comes down with the Dragon Plague. She is not the only one.

Fortunately, Laurana and Kindan show up shortly thereafter with the plague cure. And decide to stay there.

Despite the cure, despite ‘timing it’ to train the weyrlings and young dragons, and despite the various weyrs sharing their dragon wings, there still aren’t enough dragons to properly fight thread, and this will lead to a higher rate of injuries and deaths.

At this point, the story seems to become needlessly confusing, and that is where I am most disappointed with it. With the new characters among the weyrfolk of Telgar, frequent and very confusing instances of timing it (shorter than their three-year stint at Igen, but they sometimes wind up flying the same instance of threadfall two or three times in an attempt to get it all), and various mating flights as nearly every Gold dragon on Pern rises within the space of a couple of weeks, with the attendant mating frenzy among the dragon riders, it is next to impossible to keep up with what is going on.

Love Pern still, but this is too confusing

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this one is part of an ongoing story. which is what kept me interested knowing that there would be another book coming along. the complexity and the time taken to explain the numerous relationships was a turnoff for me. however, the main dragon/pern story is what kept me listening: that was enough to hold my interest.

just enough to keep you interested

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didn't come to until later in the book but here the author has a minor having sex with a 33 year old . I question if this would be good for children at the age I first discovered Dragon Riders of pern over 40 years ago.

Is it good for Children?

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worst dragon Rider book so far. I usually listen repeatedly. to these books. It took a really long time to get interested in it.

Not a great read

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Todd is not the writer his mother was. too many loose ends, pointless dialogue, flimsy ending.

plot weak

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