Just reviewed Three Pernese Novels for SBR

Folks, I reviewed Dragonheart, Dragongirl, and Dragon’s Time — the first two by Todd J. McCaffrey (né Johnson) and the third by Todd J. McCaffrey and Anne McCaffrey — just now at SBR.

Here’s the link:

http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/todd-j-mccaffrey-writes-pern-competently-but-thats-all/

As it says . . . I found these novels to be competent.  The middle one, Dragongirl, had a few moments where I really liked it but others I just couldn’t stand.  All three of these novels received relatively low marks from me, the last one (Dragon’s Time) getting a B-.

I’m aware of how difficult it is to write in someone else’s universe as I’m trying to finish my late husband Michael’s work and he doesn’t write much like me at all.  Plus, I’ve read the Brandon Sanderson-finished “Wheel of Time” books — so far, there are two out, with one more due next year — and have them on the list at Shiny Book Review (SBR) to be reviewed in coming days.

So saying something is competent isn’t a slap at Todd McCaffrey in the slightest; what I’m mostly saying is that there’s not much life to the writing, and that I didn’t get engrossed in the stories.  Someone else probably will feel differently than I do as reviewing is always a highly subjective art; also, even though I do feel sympathy and understanding to a degree with regards to Mr. McCaffrey (by the way, Anne McCaffrey and I are no relation whatsoever, not even through marriage; my late husband Michael used to say he wanted to have her career, though), I can only review the book that’s in front of me.  Which is exactly what I did.

So, should you read these three books?  If you enjoy the “Dragonriders of Pern” series (these being the twenty-second, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth novels in the series), you’ve probably already picked them up.  But if you haven’t read any of them, I’d skip these and read the original trilogy instead — that’s Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon, all by Anne McCaffrey.