SF Diary Review: ANNE McCAFFREY – Dragonrider.

ANNE McCAFFREY – Dragonrider. Serialized in Analog SF, December 1967 – January 1969. Novella. Nebula winner. Reprinted in Nebula Award Stories Four, edited by Poul Anderson (Doubleday, hardcover, December 1969; Pocket, paperback, January 1969). This is the sequel demanded by the story “Weyr Search” that appeared in the October 1967 issue of Analog. Once again there seems to be the feeling of watching an alien culture from the outside, as the deadly Threads begin falling from the Red Star. A synopsis of the previous story would have been useful but is not given. It is only gradually the threads of the earlier tale are woven back into place. There is only one weyr of dragons and riders remaining to fight the Threads. All of the others have been mysteriously vacated soon after the previous threat was over, 400 Turns before. But Weyrwoman Lessa’s discovery that the dragons can travel between times as well as place makes a solution become clear at once. That the story then falls precisely…