When you discuss legends of the fantasy genre names like J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Robert Jordan are often names suggested but Anne McCaffrey has written a series of over 20 books which were first published in 1968 – an under-heard of OG of the fantasy genre. Dragonflight is the first in the grand series that McCaffrey is known for. It’s not that long, it does have some issues but overally there’s a great basis here. So let’s get into it.
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Dragonflight follows Lessa, a young woman who discovers quite early on that she has a very unique ability which would make her very useful to anybody who realised she has this power and her journey through what is actually the future of Earth where humanity have colonised another planet and we follow their descendants.
Dragonflight plot – 4.25/5
Dragonflight has a generally really cool premise – without spoiling too much of the plot – as I mentioned before, we follow Lessa as our main character as she attempts to work her way up to become useful during a war – along the way, she realises she has a very powerful ability that means she could end up helping win the war.
It’s a plot that had a lot of potential and could, for some, keep them very interested for a while but it just lacked a real sense of pace or tension to keep me truly interested.
There’s also an element of the book’s shortness that also hampers the plot. At around 300 pages, this is basically the equivalent of a novella in the fantasy genre. Thus, there’s never really any time to get things going and there aren’t quite enough pages to build up the lore. One of the reasons that so many fantasies are longer is simply because not only is the author having to tell you a compelling story but they’re also having to try and build a history and a world around all of the story. And due to Dragonflight’s shortness, it seems
Dragonflight characters – 3.75/5
The reason Lord of the Rings is considered one of the GOATs of the fantasy genre is because of the incredible human stories it tells within the fantasy genre. This is an area many other in the genre struggle with and I’d say it’s Dragonflight’s weakest element. Our main protagonist is Lessa is clearly the best of the bunch as she’s headstrong which I imagine at the time of publishing was very rare in literature.
F’lar is a leader in the book and his and Lessa’s relationship is decent enough to be compelling with their dynamic at times being humorous and bordering on flirting, yet never really ruins the story by trying to over-romance and focus on a corny relationship between the two of them.
The rest of the cast is fairly forgettable though.
Dragonflight final rating – 4/5
Anne McCaffrey is a legend of the fantasy genre and led the way for many fantasy authors after her. Dragonflight is the first in a vast series and at times it does feel like the first. It’s got some great writing and a great idea with some solid characters but its shortness and lack of character depth or plot unfortunately left me feeling a little underwhelmed after reading it. There are plenty more books to go in the series though with the first three being the minimum to read, so maybe I’ll those further two up at some point in the future.
