Not 'Short Story' Material...

We both have what we wanted, said a dragon in a sleepy satisfied tone.
Try though she would in all the years she and M'hall were the Weyrleaders of Benden, Torene was never sure which dragon had spoken. Or to whom. from The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall by Anne McCaffrey.

Dolphins, Dragons, Holds and backstory...

From a writer's perspective, one needs to understand where one's characters, and the history of the world in which they live, are coming from, and knowing how long it can take to create or visualise this backstory when the world is new and alien, and it's people as unusual as the world itself, I understand that this is an investment of a great many hours. So, perhaps a writer can be forgiven for wanting to share these snippets of backstory with a loyal readership, no?

That is as may be and all to the good, but please do so in a way that is as engaging and affirming as the novels themselves. Show the reader what is happening, do not just tidy up the notes you made as backstory and publish them, telling us, lecture style, what happened when the volcanos errupted, or the old holds filled to overflowing meaning that new must be established.

If I were not as involved in the life stories of the dragons of this world, then First Fall might well have killed the series of books for me... but because I am, I ploughed through, filling in the gaps in description and engagement with my own experience of Pern; with what I know, and feel and believe. The one good thing to come out of reading this, I'm now more interested in reading of the Dolphins of Pern - which just happens to be the next book in this series.

I waited a long time for it to be my turn to read this Pern offering... and I was disappointed.

cy=