Dragonflight ~ Anne McCaffrey

My mom does not really “keep up” with pop culture. However, she does have great taste—which means that when she recommends a book or movie, I pay attention. Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series is one of those recommendations, so it’s been on my list for some time. Lately, it came up again in a podcast I listen to, so I grabbed the first three volumes from Libby, the first of which is Dragonflight. I liked this book, though it falls into some outdated tropes: Even though you could call it a story about womens’ empowerment, gender roles are pretty rigid and patriarchal. The main character Lessa does work to undermine that status quo, but she reads more as a plucky exception than a herald of real change. And F’lor (her partner) keeps shaking her, which I just found odd. There is a romantic element, but it’s weirdly non-consensual. When dragons mate, their psychically-linked riders can’t help but do the same. After the first time F’lor and Lessa’s dragons mate, he admits to…