The White Dragon

Sequel to Dragonquest, although I think it falls more neatly into place right after Dragondrums. Another re-read. I remember liking this one quite well in the past, but this time around it started to get tiresome, dragged at the end, and I was relieved to finish it. Doesn’t bode well for continuing in the series, or picking up any of the Pern books I missed the first time around (there’s quite a few that continue events after this book, and many precursors).

The main character in The White Dragon is Jaxom, who’s in training to become a Lord Holder but impressed a small white dragon when he’s not supposed to. The dragon Ruth is a runt, everybody thinks it will die and so Jaxom takes Ruth back to his Hold instead of staying in the weyr where dragonriders live. Ruth not only survives, he thrives, even though he remains smaller than all the other dragons- which happens to fascinate all the fire-lizards- they swarm him wherever he goes. Jaxom knows his duty to learn how to manage the Hold and eventually take his place in charge, but he chafes at not being able to do what other dragonriders do: fight Thread. At first, he’s not even allowed to go between on his little dragon. He teaches Ruth to fly against Thread in secret, until being caught out, is put into a weyrling class for his own safety, but soon finds that boring as well. He shamelessly uses a common girl’s infatuation with him as a ruse for going places on his dragon alone, and ditches her when it suits him. As events progress through the book, Jaxom ends up on the Southern continent, involved in explorations there, privy to meetings between higher-ups on Pern trying to settle conflict between all those who want Southern land (and still dealing with the Oldtimers there), and eventually finding ruins from the ancients which give glimpses into Pern’s past, and might give them knowledge they seek. That should have been more exciting than it was. Jaxom takes some stupid risks, gets deathly ill as a result, has to convalesce in the South, falls in love with his nurse, and stands up to her brother who objects to their union.

Through it all, I found Jaxom himself rather boring. In fact, all the people were. The only character I really liked was Ruth, in spite of the difficulty he put Jaxom in when it turns out he will never mature sexually. Some unpleasant people mock Ruth’s stunted growth, and Jaxom feels guilty about enjoying women in ways he knows his dragon can never share (as they have a telepathic link). He does eventually come to terms with this. Many characters from the previous books make repeat appearances- in fact quite a few chapters are told from other perspectives, which also made me less interested in the story, somehow. Menolly was still an appealing person, everyone respects Robinton, Piemur was alternately cocky and bragging, then avoiding everyone’s company. I don’t get why they all despised Mirrim. I remember puzzling over this before, when I first read this books- and this time I read the scenes that included her several times over, and it just wasn’t conveyed to me, why everyone found her manner so offensive. Oh well.

As I had half-expected, this book dampened my enthusiasm to continue in the series. I have Moreta on my shelf, and there’s plenty available at the public library. But I will turn to something else now.