On Pern, Lessa rises from exile and bonds with a queen dragon just as the planet faces a deadly return of Thread, forcing rival factions to unite in a fight for survival.
Selected by: Josh
A foundational dragon-and-time-travel oddity that split the room hard between genre delight and total resistance.
Josh's May pick dropped the club into Pern, where the opening slog, dated gender dynamics, and flat fantasy furniture tested almost everyone before the weyr politics and time-travel mechanics finally kicked the book into gear. Matt and Eric both warmed up once the sci-fi machinery arrived, with Eric especially enjoying the astronomy, teleporting, and political break from tradition, while Josh valued the worldbuilding and the book's early influence on modern dragon fantasy.
Ed, meanwhile, bounced off the whole enterprise and gave the room its clearest dissenting vote, finding the mix of fantasy and sci-fi disengaging rather than charming. The final verdict is a qualified genre yes: strong for readers who like old-school fantasy/sci-fi history, rough going for anyone who needs modern pacing, richer character work, or less 1960s relationship nonsense.
The best-aged votes clustered around the worldbuilding, the dragon bond, and the surprise sci-fi/time-travel turn, especially for Josh, Matt, and Eric. The worst-aged material was just as clear: Ed, Matt, Eric, and Josh all circled the gender dynamics, with Ed also finding the whole thing painfully dated and Matt calling out the generic fantasy shell.
Best: Josh, Matt, Eric | Worst: Ed, Matt, Eric, JoshThe room mostly wanted structural surgery. Matt would cut the explicit prologue and let the sci-fi past emerge through hints, Josh wanted the two merged halves properly rewritten into one coherent book, and Ed and Eric both landed on the same blunt fix: give the story more action.
Structure: Matt and Josh | More action: Ed and EricF'nor and the Harpmaster/Master Smith lane took the oddball honours, with Eric liking F'nor's intense return and lieutenant energy, Josh reaching for Master Smith Something-or-other, and Matt giving the nod to the Harpmaster. Ed abstained by way of total disengagement.
F'nor, the Harpmaster, and Master Smith Something-or-otherThe casting board went from plausible to cursed very quickly: Matt picked Anya Taylor-Joy, Josh went full LOTR-era Viggo Mortensen, Eric offered Charlie Hunnam, and Ed suggested Andy Serkis or Benedict Cumberbatch for every dragon with Tom Holland doing everyone else.
Casting chaos by Ed, Matt, Eric, and JoshThe recommendation vote is narrow and conditional. Matt, Eric, and Josh would recommend it mainly to fantasy or sci-fi readers interested in an early genre-defining work; Ed would tell almost anyone to read literally anything else.
Yes, with genre caveats: Matt, Eric, Josh | No: EdJosh picked Dragonflight because he had history with the series and wanted to revisit an early genre-shaping work. He liked the colony-reverted-to-feudalism premise, the dragon communication, the hidden time-travel element, and the way the book helped set the tone for later fantasy and sci-fi hybrids. His reservations were mostly structural and dated: the first and second halves feel merged rather than fully integrated, Lessa's early mind-control ability gets dropped, and the relationships and gender norms show their age.
Overall take and standout notes pending.
Overall take and standout notes pending.
Matt found the first quarter a real slog, but thought the book improved considerably once Lessa became queen and the Weyr politics took over. He liked the romantic tension staying wary instead of instantly mushy, thought the time-travel solution passed the pub test, and enjoyed the fantasy/sci-fi blend more once the conflict accelerated. His biggest gripe was the prologue and explicit spacefaring setup, which he thought would have worked better as background hints.
Overall take and standout notes pending.
Ed hated it and could not go higher than a one because getting through it felt like work. He could see why the book may have been special in its time, but the fantasy/sci-fi blend was exactly the wrong lane for him and he found the whole thing boring, dated, and disengaging.
Eric found the opening weak and generic as fantasy, but the dragon material, political discussion, and gradual sci-fi reveal pulled him in hard. He especially liked the time-travel mechanics, the way teleporting brushed up against astronomy, and the chapter where F'lar starts breaking old traditions. The pulpy flatness did not ruin it for him; if anything, the second half made the premise click.
Overall take and standout notes pending.