Welcome To the Cedar Grove

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=

Clicks definitely needed for this little guy - thanks to the downtime on the server... and no they didn't seem to add back the lost time, so... we're probably going to lose this one, if not our hatchling as well.



please click.

Please click the little guy - we'd like this one to survive...

I've been seeing these things popping up all over the place recently, and while clicking to help some of my friends hatch their dragons, I came across one of my own. Please click on the egg to help my little one survive...

"Strength and speed beyond your dreams, for the Llysanyins are the children of the west wind from the land of the star-kindred, the land beyond the sun. East they came to bear the Dragonlords in a time lost in the mists of the past... and that is what you nearly had covering your...'pure bred desert mare' " Bard Otter speaking of the stallion Shan from The Last Dragonlord by Joanne Bertin.

It's a book that contains a few interesting concepts. Firstly the Dragonlords - they're described as weredragons. Human souls bonded with dragon souls, more than one and less than the other, who live for many centuries beyond the lives of Truehumans and whose dragon souls take over at the 'death' of the human part of them, to become Truedragons. (//I suppose the poor author had to invent /some/ way of there being new dragons, since it seems somewhat dangerous to suggest we came from eggs//).

These Dragonlords were created by wild magics that took the human and dragon souls, fused them into one and then split that one into two halves... creating the soul twin. Each dragonlord has a soul twin... his or her perfect partner and true love. The Dragonlords are able to change at will between human and dragon form, but even in dragon form the dragon part of the soul is somewhat quiescent to its human counterpart, like a presence, a voice... (//Rather like being impressed to yourself//). It is the Dragonlord's role to be the judges of disputes and keepers of peace between Truehuman nobles and lands.

So of course you know there are going to be those that resent that and wish to see the destruction of the Dragonlords, and that forms the premise of the story... an interesting read filled with court intrigue, dark magics and the search for true love, (//irritating, because how could anyone so bonded with a dragon be so foolish and so blind - stupid?//). Perhaps we misread somewhere along the line, but there seemed to us to be one glaring inaccuracy/plot device that jarred us from the story, (//No. Nowhere before did the dark mage make connections with the Queen Shaeldar, we did not misread.//), but otherwise it was well thought out, and kept us wanting to read right to the end.

cy= & dV=