Review: Dragon's Code: Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern

Dragon's Code: Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern by Gigi McCaffrey
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Lovers of the young adult trilogy, Harper Hall will enjoy this new perspective from Piemur. This book should be read after reading the original trilogy by Anne McCaffrey to fully appreciate this tale. When I read the original trilogy, I loved the first two books, Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. When it suddenly shifted to Piemur in Dragondrums, I was severely disappointed. Primarily because I didn't care for Piemur and didn't want to read about a "boy". There were so many stories already with boy leads. As a strong willed twelve year old girl three decades ago, this was a letdown. Returning as an adult to see another perspective from Piemur I am nostalgic for my younger more innocent years.

Piemur is in a tough situation where he is no longer a child yet not quite an adult. Anne McCaffrey's daughter, Gigi gives a slight different flavour than her mother. Gigi's writing is less emotional. As in, Piemur comes across as just a mini adult. Whilst Anne wrote him with child like antics and behaviours to be expected from a pre-teen young adult. It is hard to exactly point my finger on the subtle difference, but as an avid fan of the Original Ms. McCaffrey, there is a little bit of spark that is missing for me.

Still, this story brings back good memories of the original series. It takes us back to a time where there is turmoil and hard feelings. Feelings of resentment that are shown from the losing side. I enjoyed seeing from the other side because it is not so black and white when it comes to the Old timers. They were lauded as saviours and then within a book or two, they became horrid villains. That extreme always troubled me when I read this as a child. I couldn't understand how someone could go so bad and become so evil so quickly. Seeing the old timer's side from Gigi McCaffrey's perspective helped balance the story and made me a bit sad for these people. These people who sacrificed so much to do what they do best. And they are displaced in a modern time where the norm is drastically different then what they are accustomed to living.

Is this a commentary for those who grew up in a different time and now have to adjust to a world they can no longer understand? Where their value is no longer appreciated and instead, they previous benefits are ripped away and labeled as arrogant privilege? And yet not all the Oldtimers have difficult integrating into this new world. Those who can accept change and adopt new practices are thriving. But at what cost? Because now they are considered traitors. It is a quandary which Ms. McCaffrey does a nice job of setting up and letting the reader decide which side they fall on. I think as a teenager, I would have been outraged and sided with the current dragon rider regime. In my older jaded age, I can understand and empathize with the old timers. This is a tough call as there are no winners in this scenario, only losers. It will be interesting to see if Ms. McCaffrey will continue to revisit the old world and reminisce with beloved characters or if she will start fresh and begin where her mother left off. I had hoped for the later and I'm still optimistic we might learn what happens to this world after thread was finally defeated.

*provided by NetGalley