Reading Recommendations

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This page collects all of our reading recommendations in one convenient location, sorted by episode! We broadly do not recommend reading Pern (unless...), so here are our alternative recommendations of better books that you should read instead.

• Episode 1: Dragonflight (1968)
  • If you’re interested in stories about ugly and violent revenge involving magic and power fantasy and the messy ways in which society can turn in on itself, Tequila Mockingbird recommends Blood Debts, by Terry J. Benton-Walker.
  • If you’re interested in some of the theoretical questions McCaffrey’s world-building is interested in (power, gender, sex and sexuality, social organization), Lleu recommends Samuel R. Delany’s Return to Nevèrÿon series (first book Tales of Nevèrÿon), the second book of which (Neveryóna) is in fact dedicated to McCaffrey and includes an homage to Lessa’s first ride on Ramoth.
  • If you’re interested in violent revenge stories with complicated romantic relationships in which power dynamics are going back and forth at fast pace, Tequila Mockingbird recommends The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage (重生之将门毒后), a webnovel by Qian Shan Cha Ke (千山茶客).
• Episode 2: Dragonquest (1971)
  • If you liked these complicated political tensions and people trying frantically to avert giant, potentially world-ending political crises, as well as the ideas about social transformation, with some wild sexual politics and interesting ideas about alien gender and sexuality (and multiple explicitly gay characters), Lleu recommends Eleanor Arnason’s Ring of Swords.
  • If you’re interested in a tortured, messy, ugly female villain whose psychological decline is compelling and tragic, and at the same time you also want to watch her get her face stomped into the dirt, Tequila Mockingbird recommends the animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender, because Azula is so much better than Kylara in every possible way.
• Episode 3: Dragonsong (1976)
  • Surprise: we pretty wholeheartedly recommend reading Dragonsong itself! If you only read one book in the series, it should be this one.
• Episode 4: Dragonsinger (1977)
  • In spite of some reservations, if you liked Dragonsong, we also pretty wholeheartedly recommend Dragonsinger!
  • If you haven’t already read them and are interested in stories about protagonists who are in fact extremely competent but, because of traumatic backstories, do not believe in their own competence and so are their own worst enemies, Tamora Pierce’s Immortals quartet (first book Wild Magic) has...frankly, many of the same flaws as McCaffrey, but Lleu wanted to note the resonance between Daine and Mennoly.
  • If you’re interested in the portrayal of a community of musicians and scholars — and if you’ve ever had to write a dissertation or any other long piece of writing — Lleu also recommends Patricia A. McKillip’s The Bards of Bone Plain.
  • If you’re looking for more of a young adult school story about a young woman who is thrown into an academic community and builds an interpersonal community, Tequila Mockingbird recommends the Witchlings series (the first book is also called Witchlings), by Claribel Ortega.
• Episode 5: The White Dragon (1978)
  • [TBD]
• Episode 6: Dragondrums (1979)
  • [TBD]