Fantasy and Sci-Fi Classics: "The White Dragon"

In the third installment of her bestselling Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McAffrey moves more into YA territory, while losing none of the texture and power of her worldbuilding.

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Note: As some of you no doubt noticed, the original e-mail for this post was a review for The Idea of You. I decided to re-send today’s newsletter, with the proper review of The White Dragon. The review for The Idea of You will be forthcoming.

It’s been a minute since I reviewed one of the Pern books by Anne McAffrey and so, having finished The White Dragon, I figured it was time to get back to it. 

In this book we can definitely see a bit of a shift when it comes to the focus of the story. While young characters have certainly appeared in the previous two, it’s at this point where we can see McAffrey exploring what would today be called a young adult side of things, particularly since Jaxom is the main character and our primary point of identification. We get to see the way that he grapples with his liminal state as both a dragonrider and a Lord Holder, two positions that never go together on Pern. Likewise, we get to bear witness to his first flushes of love and desire, and while some of these are a bit cringey, they do feel remarkably authentic. When it comes right down to it, adolescent boys are just kind of silly sometimes, but McAffrey’s genius lies in her ability to make Jaxon a very likable character, even if we sometimes do get frustrated with him.

McAffrey is also particularly adept at showing us the deep and emotionally resonant relationship that Jaxom shares with his dragon, Ruth. The human youth and his dragon are bound tightly together, not least by the fact that the latter is unlike almost any other dragon that has ever been born, not only because of his color and his relatively small size but also because of the fact that he doesn’t seem to have any inclination to reproduce. Time and again we see the way that some of the other dragonriders look down on Ruth–even going so far as to predict that he won’t live very long–but one thing that never wavers is the love that Jaxom and Ruth have for one another. And, more to the point, Ruth proves remarkably adept at both jumping between and in fighting Thread. The  scenes in which boy and dragon communicate and bond are, I think, some of the emotional highlights of the book, far more so than the juvenile romance.

There are some important points of continuity with the earlier books, particularly when it comes to Pern’s history and the way that the past continues to impact the present. At several points in the novel characters discover remnants from the Ancients, objects that have been long forgotten but which provide those in the present new means of understanding both the world around them and the skies above them. There’s something quite compelling, I think, about the idea that, in order to move into the future, the people of Pern must look back to an earlier stage in their development. As has been clear from the very first book, the residents of Pern have allowed themselves to fall into something of a decline, and it is now necessary for those in the present to look beyond their own limitations and established ways of doing things. 

Moreover, these storylines are also testaments to McAffrey’s undoubted ability when it comes to worldbuilding. Unlike so many other fictional worlds, Pern is not a fixed, static entity. Instead, it is a planet on which civilization has ebbed and flowed with the passage of time, sometimes making leaps forward and at others lapsing back into old ways. I don’t think it’s going too far to suggest that this period in Pern history is something of a renaissance, led by the likes of Lessa, F’lar and, of course, Jaxom. Moreover, this is also a time of significant political tumult and foment, and these three characters also have a key role to play in the way that Pern and its various political entities will exist and interact with one another. 

This isn’t to say that this book isn’t populated by other fascinating characters, because it is, and for me Masterharper Robinton is one of the very best. He has the sort of cheery disposition that you’d expect from a character like this one but, while he may be very fond of his wine, he has a remarkable storehouse of wisdom and political acumen that serves the planet as a whole very well indeed. Robinton is someone who knows more about the past than most, but he doesn’t feel as if he should be bound by it for its own sake. At the same time, it’s also clear that he is not physically invincible, and he actually comes quite close to death due to overexertion. Even though I enjoyed getting to spend time with Jaxom and Ruth, I repeatedly found myself wishing that we also got to spend more time with Robinton, particularly since the segments told from his viewpoint are those which tend to be the most about the politics of Pern. 

Overall, I found myself quite enchanted by The White Dragon. It does a very good job of balancing its young adult vibe (even if that category didn’t exist at the time) with the broader science fantasy ethos that has already been established with the first two volumes in the series. What’s more, it also makes sure that there are enough changes going on in Pern society to make future stories set on this extraordinary planet almost a certainty. And it does all of this while giving us a compelling and tightly-woven narrative that nicely ties up all of the plot threads that it has introduced.   

It also serves as a remarkably satisfying conclusion to the first three books as a whole. While there are times when the seams show a bit–in the sense that the first book wasn’t written as a book but rather as separate stories–The White Dragon is clearly the most cohesive of the first three books in the Dragonriders of Pern series. Moreover, it attains that elusive feat: giving us an ending that makes us feel more than satisfied while also giving us plenty to whet our appetite for future dragonrider adventures. 

I know that I’ll certainly be along for the ride!