Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm. . . . .could have been better
Review: I'm rather fond of the Pern series by Ann McCaffrey and am happy to see the story continued by her son. That said, I must say that this book does not quite live up to the same standard as his Mothers. You have a situation where tragedy strikes, a solution is presented and then....abruptly it ends on a happy note, without tying in all the little 'sub-plots' throughout the book. The storyline as well the characters need to be furthur developed and polished. Perhaps reading the original series would help. . . . . .
Rating: 
Summary: An avid Pern fan's thoughts
Review: I'm sorry to seem contradictory to all of you others who are giving this book such miniscule ratings, but I truly believe that this, as well as all other McCaffrey books, is a work of genius. I have been reading the Pern series for eight years and I think that this certainly cleared up some questions. In fact, just two days before I learned that this new book was coming out (and consequently went on a three-day hunt for all of the information I could find) I had asked a friend on an Instant Messanger program exactly what they new about whers. Their answer? "Well, they came after dragons... They were bio-engineered by Wind Blossom and.... and they're photophobic...... and.... and..... they have scales..... and they don't impress!"
Slightly disheartened that they knew no more than I did, I searched for a few hours on whers... I found nothing more than that, at the time. Two days later, the same friend came up to me yelling like the end of the world was coming that, "THERE'S GONNA BE A NEW MCCAFFREY BOOK!!!"
So that's when I went on the three-day search. It's also when I pre-ordered my three copies (one to read, one to have in perfect condition, and one to pass around to friends so that I could hook them on Pern) from this site on my mother's account (hehe, she had to pay the bill.... *cough*Christmas present come early, maybe?).
I have read this book four times, actually, but that is beside the point. I find this to be an excellent addition to the Pern series, and I am delighted that Mrs. McCaffrey has let her son, Todd, in on the joys of this world in more ways than even such prime reading as this can bring you. This book brought so much of the missing information about whers that it is astounding that it would all fit into one book! I continue to bow at the bookshelves of McCaffrey books in bookstores, and have only recently begun nodding my head deeply towards the Tolkien books. McCaffrey and son will be at the top of the booklists, and they will stay there, if I've anything to do with it... sadly, I have very little to do with it -_-
The only bad thing is that many still haven't read this book, so _authorized_ Pern PBeMs will not let you impress a wher, even if your character does not want to be a candidate. This has led to me "throwing the book at them" and practically insisting that they read it.... or else.
This has been a long and drawn-out response from Reshymda the Pern Fan, wanna-be wher-handler or wanna-be greenrider.
Rating:
Summary: Dragon junkies will get their fix
Review: I've been a dragon junkie for over 30 years. (My cats have been named after Dragons & my daughter's name is Kylara). If this was your first Pern read you would not be that impressed. The writing is not up to Anne McCaffrey's normal level. The story is very good, but the vivid descriptions that grab you and take you into the story are not there. The characterization is done very well, the plot kept me interested. And you know there could possibly be more stories following this line. For Todd's first attempt it's not too bad......but it needs more color and life.
Rating:
Summary: A long awaited new Pern novel that was over too soon
Review: In the mines of Camp Natalon the miners work hard to mine the coal that is so important to the people of Pern. It is a camp that could become a permanent mine if the camp is able to prove itself under the leadership of Natalon. But there is a rift in the camp. Some of the miners believe that Natalon is weak because he uses watch-whers in the mines - trusting in them and their handlers to detect the dangers of the mines and save lives. Then disaster strikes and the only watch-wher is killed - along with his handler. The original handlers son Kindan starts to train as a Harper, but then he is given the task of raising another watch-wher from the egg. Along with the secretive Nuella, Kindan must learn all he can about the little watch-wher because there is trouble brewing at the camp and it could turn deadly. I have been waiting for a new Pern novel for ages and this book was definitely worth the wait. This is not a good book to read if you have not read any Pern book before, but in a way it is also very self contained and easy to read because it is looking at a time in Pern's past that has not been covered before. The other brilliant part is that it covers the watch-wher (a part of Pern that is not covered well anywhere). My one complaint is that I finished the book in one setting and I didn't want to leave the characters behind because they had become so real and so familiar. It is hard to review this book in a way because so many of the parts that make this book so good are parts that will ruin the story if they are exposed - let me just say that there are some twists and turns that will keep you guessing and keep the novel mocing at a blistering pace. This is a brilliant book and I can't wait to see what Todd does with his forthcoming book Dragonsblood. This book was a great read and had all the strength of characters that i have come to expect from Anne McCaffrey. The only thing I would recommend is that you make sure that you read Dragonsflight first because you will get a really good grounding in Pern is you read it first.
Rating:
Summary: solid but uninspired, one of the weaker Pern books
Review: It is appropriate that Dragon's Kin is set in a mining camp as ever since the earlier "Long Interval" series of Pern novels she has been "mining" the world of Pern for more ideas and stories. The quality of these later stories is seldom as strong as the earlier ones (referring to Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon, and the Harper Hall trilogy), running a spectrum from almost as good (All the Weyrs) to merely adequate (dragonsdawn, renegades). Dragon's Kin falls somewhere in the middle, not nearly as good as her great works, not nearly as bad as the worst. If you haven't read any Pern, this book is somewhat independent, but does assume a basic knowledge of how the world works and therefore isn't a good starting place. Even more importantly, however, you should start with the strongest examples not the weakest, so begin with DragonFlight and move on through there before coming to Dragon's Kin.
By this point in the series, McCaffery is down to picking out minor parts of the Pern world that have yet to be explored--she already did the explanatory prequels, she covered fire lizards and dolphins, she's covered harpers and traders and riders. She isn't left with much and so we get Kin, focusing on watchwhers and miners.
This is set between the time of the original series and the prequel books. The disadvantage is that we don't get to see those characters most of us fell so in love with. The advantage is that she (I keep saying she but of course her son is co-author) doesn't have her hands tied as she did in the prequels with having to explain specific rituals, names, etc, a reason those prequel books tend to fall in the lower ranks of quality.
In general, this is a solid book. The characters are mostly interesting enough, though not particularly so and if they aren't all that vividly constructed, they also manage to move beyond being simply cardboard characters. The plot is somewhat predictable--it's hard to imagine a book centered on a mining camp that won't have at its climax a cave-in scene, though perhaps it didn't need to be so obviously telegraphed as it is here. Characters pretty much act as we would expect them to from our very first meeting of them (with perhaps one or two exceptions) and events pretty much fall into the order we expect. None of the characters have the force of a L'essa or a Robinton or a Piemur (even in comparison to their first introduction as characters as opposed to after reading several books about them), nor do any of the inter-relationships have the same emotional strength or passion as is so evident among those earlier characters (or even those earlier characters and their dragons). Granted, this is a high standard, but it is after all one which McCaffery set herself. But if Kin doesn't come close to meeting that standard, it doesn't fall completely on its face either.
That is, except for one curiously grating plot point involving watchwhers going between and which seems predicated on several characters having completely forgotten events from earlier in the book. This was a pretty major flaw to have found itself into the book, and in a stronger work would have had probably more of an impact for the worse, but here is just sort of annoying.
In language and complexity, the book seems geared at a somewhat younger age, though I'm not quite sure why. Dragonsong etc. were also somewhat YA, but I don't recall them being so simple in their language and plotting, though perhaps I'm not remembering correctly. As with those three Harper hall books, there is room here for a continuation with several of these characters, who were likable enough and just interesting enough that I'd pick up another book involving them, though not with the avidness with which I awaited books like The White Dragon or All the Weyrs.
In the end, a serviceable book, an amiable one, but not a compelling one and not an essential one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent addition to this series
Review: It is sixteen years until the next Pass of the Red Star and then Thread will rain down, destroying everything organic on Pern. A problem has arisen on Pern that could have serious repercussions for the next Turn if not solved now. Coal that the people depend on for a variety of tasks has played out on the surface and the people have to dig underground to find any. Natalon has set up a promising camp that if it contains as much coal as he thinks will turn him into Lord Natalon and the camp into a designated Mine. The camp's watch-wher Dask saves many lives when the mine collapses but he and his bondmate die leaving Kindan an orphan. He is taken in by a Master Harper and he decides he wants to train in the Harper hold. However, the mines desperately need a watch-wher and Natalon asks Kindan to try an impress an egg. He succeeds with Kisk who he cares for while she is still in her egg and the two reach adulthood together, working together with a very special young woman to prepare Pern for when thread falls again. Another piece of the puzzle that makes up Pern is solved as readers learn how humans, watch-whers and dragons become part of the fighting unit to take out thread. Kindan is a very special hero willing to give up his dreams to help the miners who need him and his special abilities. It is interesting to see how watch- whers help save miners lives because of their own unique abilities different than the dragons and their cousins the fire lizards. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: lovely cooperative effort
Review: Nice when mother and son can cooperate so well. This is a lovely new book and gives us hope for more and more in this great series. It was especially nice after buying two "new" books from this author and finding they were old books with a new title.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as early books
Review: Not near as good as McCaffrey's early books, also it seems like they have lowered the age of their target audience over the past few books. Either Kindan is mentally challenged or they need better proof-readers and editing; some whole paragraphes seemed repeated; Kindan seemed to learn Nuella's secret twice, plus Kindan explained at the beginning of the book to his freind about the watch-wher going in-between, knew nothing about it in the middle of the story and later in the story knew it again.
Overall, the story was good and I enjoyed revisiting Pern - the ending had a nice little twist but could have been a little longer cleaning up loose end.
Rating:
Summary: Dragon's Kin
Review: Once again, Anne McCaffrey has done it. She always takes me away to Pern and when I finish the book, I still want more. Dragon's Kin ranks right up there with her other Pern books. Excellent reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to standard set by rest of series
Review: The story was OK, but the McCaffrey flair for character and story development was not there. I own all the other books in this series, and many of Anne McCaffrey's other series as well, and her ability to make realistic characters that readers actually like and care about is missing from this latest effort. Reading this book was like eating cotton candy -- you know you're eating, but you're not getting anything of substance. The idea was good, but this looked like a skeleton outline of a book that needed fleshing out.
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