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Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: “[Anne] McCaffrey here adds yet another dimension to her colorful and vivid saga by focusing on the attractive dolphins and their highly believable society.”—Publishers Weekly When the first humans came to settle the planet Pern, they did not come alone: intelligence-enhanced dolphins also crossed the stars to colonize Pern’s oceans while their human partners settled the vast continents. But then disaster struck. The deadly silver spores called Thread fell like rain from the sky, and as the human colonists’ dreams of a new, idyllic life shattered into a desperate struggle for survival, the dolphins were forgotten. Now, centuries later, as the dragonriders of Pern prepare to complete the momentous task of ridding their world of Thread forever, T’lion, a young bronze rider, and his friend Readis, son of the Lord Holder of Paradise River Hold, make contact with the legendary “shipfish.” And as the....… (more)
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Their story is playing out in the midst of the excitement surrounding the promise of overcoming thread once and for all with the information and technology being provided by Avis, an Artificial Intelligence left behind by the original founders of Pern.
Readis was fascinated by dolphins the moment he was saved by them. And they talked to him and his uncle Alemi! His dream is to be a Dolphineer, like one of the
T'lion is young. He impressed Bronze Gaddareth when he was only ten. It was too young for Weyr standars but they have no choice. Too young to fly thread, he becomes a taxi driver for important people coming and going to Landing. There, he meets Alemi and the dolphins. He was then acquainted to Readis and his ideas of helping the dolphins.
Its a very fascinating story. I actually would understand why the dolphins would want to leave polluted earth. They are the most patient and understanding creatures. I love dolphins.
In the end, Readis heads Dolphins Hall with T'lion and Gaddy as Dolphin liaison for the Weyrs.
It's pretty average for a Pern novel, it really lagged occasionally and sometimes it felt rushed. Ah well it was an interesting revisit.
A number of people realize (practically simultaneously) that the "shipfish" of Pern are actually dolphins who travelled from Earth with the first settlers. They were engineered to have human speech and increased intellects, and even generations after humans stopped remembering them, they still remember humans. They're thrilled to have contact with humans again. One boy, Readis, runs away from home to form a Dolphin Hall. Meanwhile, a Holder is plotting to settle the Southern Continent against the Weyr-leaders' advice. And there's a big storm that doesn't actually do anything. That's pretty much it! Even famous characters like Leesa, Menolly, Mirrim or Jaxom are colorless and personality-free here.
This was easily the most boring Pern book I have ever read in my life. I would much rather read another book about the brave-flame-haired-fiesty-girl fighting against sexist-evil-old-dude and psychically bonding with a dragon; as trite and wish-fullfillment-y as that is, at least there's something there. This was just empty of all inspiration, emotion, plot, or character.