The Dragonriders of Pern series was a major obsession for me for most of grade school, when I first read them. Dragonflight begins with an extremely strong, ruthless (and borderline sociopathic) female character who I of course immediately thought was the most cool character ever. Unfortunately, poor Lessa was written by Anne McCaffrey who does not LIKE extremely strong and ruthless female characters, preferring to have them “tamed” by the nearest Strong Male Protagonist. (The exceptions to this rule are generally Evil. Compare and contrast this mindset with C.J. Cherryh where ruthlessness and strength in a female character are definitely preferred traits.) Lessa does get a few moments of awesome heroism in later parts of this book and in the series over all, but she’s more or less relegated to being the fearsome “scary dragon woman in the background.” Despite this, and a few other incidents throughout the series, I was utterly captivated with these books for a very long time.

The basic concept of the story is that Pern is a colony world that has lost contact with its home government and has also lost most of its technology thanks in part to the “Red Star,” which periodically causes a “rainfall” of a very dangerous lifeform that eats living matter. They are able to survive due to “dragons” an indigenous lifeform that the early colonists tinkered with, creating huge animals that are able to exhale flame thanks to the ingestion of a of a certain kind of rock. These dragons are telepathic and bond mentally with their riders, and are able to teleport over long distances. When you are ten, all of this adds up to Extreme Awesome, even if later you get sick of the gender dynamics, homophobia and slut-shaming.

LESSA: *Has a premonition! Talks to her Only Friend in the World, the Hold watch-wher* Um. Is anything going on?

ONLY FRIEND IN THE WORLD: *There is nothing wrong, except he wants cuddles.*

LESSA: *is more than happy to oblige!*

ONLY FRIEND: <3

LESSA: <3


In Which Lessa is a Lady of the Sith and F'lar has all the Triumphant and isn't sharing.