Dragonflight

I remember reading this series as a kid and loving it, but now I am an adult and can see how misogynist this book is. The women, other than the Wheyrwoman, do not ride dragons. They cook and clean, when they are mentioned at all. More women are riding dragons at the end, but that changes almost nothing. It's still only Queens flying, and they are segregated to their own unit.

The patriarchal bullshit doesn't stop there. The main character, a woman, has a mental breakdown because she knows that she will be shaken and yelled at by her partner when she returns from a trip he forbade her to take. And he does shake her and yell at her. "Never disobey me again." It's played for laughs. Earlier in the story he is literally committing the equivalent of spousal rape. He calls it such, and only wishes that the main character would enjoy the sex.

The main plot is thin but acceptable. It feels like a deus ex machina, even though it isn't. The characters are flat, and there's no character development. Unless going from unwilling mate to willing mate counts as development (which you shouldn't, because it happened like a switch flipping).

Nostalgia and curiosity will drive me to read at least one of the sequels, but if I were picking this up fresh I wouldn't be willing to pick up the next one.

The good: it's an interesting world with interesting characters, it's reasonably paced & well written. The audiobook read by Dick Hill is terrific, he's a very good actor.

The neutral: it's kind of an odd idea to justify a high fantasy world with a science fiction premise. (Ursula K. Le Guin also did this with the early Hainish novels, particularly the first one, Rocannon's World.) The SF elements do enter more into the story as the book progresses, leading to a somewhat bizarre, but satisfying conclusion.

The bad: First of all I find it difficult to relate to nobility, which is unfortunate because nearly all the named characters in this story are some variety of noble. The whole plot of the book serves to justify the Dragonmen's rule over the Holds (themselves feudal). It's made obvious that (literal) draconic protection is necessary, but it surely could be achieved without Draconic leadership. But monarchy is, to some degree, in nearly every high fantasy novel, & I can't fault it too much for this.

& second of all, the issue I alluded to in the title of this review—Lessa and F'lar's relationship. They are said to have romantic feelings for each other by the end, but in my view F'lar is coercive & abusive just as much then as he is in the beginning. Lessa is afraid to anger him for fear of being violently shaken & yelled at. It's pretty gross & not a healthy relationship at all (though it is perhaps realistic to how royal partnerships were in real life). It's really a shame that it's like this because otherwise the book is pretty enjoyable. I don't know if I'll read more of these novels—I don't think I can if they continue to be Like This.