The Skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I SO wanted to give this book five stars. Five stars because I miss Anne McCaffrey and she showed a different way to depict women in science fiction. Five Stars because I got to go back to Pern and enjoy the dragons and dolphins. But I just couldn’t.
Had I read this a long while ago when my eyes were still good, I might have given a higher rating. I wouldn’t have had to listen to the narrator, Dick Hill’s version of the story. Ugh! He makes all the women sound like weak whiners. Even Lessa, who is supposed to be a strong leader, Mr. Hill diminishes with his vocal characterization. But there was no text-to-speech so I was stuck with his voice. And there is no loanability for these books. What the Heck! Poor people want to read, too!
But maybe Dick was only working with what was there? Did our dear Ms. McCaffrey write the book with the male heaviness I felt? I just wasn’t happy with how it progressed. It took me much longer to read, just because it didn’t pull at me like, say, her Harper Hall books did. Okay. I did read most of this series about twenty-four years ago. Whew! That is a long time ago!
It was only near the end of reading this book that I realized that this was the last solo book of the series. I will now have to look up the continuation written with her son, Todd or those he wrote alone. I have a few sitting here, but I will have to find the Kindle versions and Audibles to get by.
SO as much as I miss our dear Anne McCaffrey and her love and talent, I have to stay truthful. This just wasn’t my favorite Pern.
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