The White Dragon: Dragonriders of Pern, Book 3

I loved this book out of all the ones in the series so I bought it for my 15 y/o daughter. I'm hoping she will like it too. Again best nook of the series and you should own it too.

I truly love the Pern series and I wish she had done more with it before she died. The White Dragon is an integral part of the story of the 9th pass of the Red Star and introduces us to Ruth, the white dragon, arguably the most important dragon on Pern. One thing that is glossed over is that Ruth is a hermaphrodite. The dragon is referred to as 'he' but it is brought to our attention that 'he' is all the colors, including gold and green, which means 'he' is both male and female and is probably why 'he' is not interested in mating. 'He' is also 'she.' ' We are also given a clue when 'he' tells Jaxom 'his' name - Ruth, which is a female, not a male name. As 'he' is golden, Ruth is a queen. 'He' is also a bronze, a brown, a blue, and a green. 'He' is all the colors, which is why the fire lizards find 'him' so fascinating. I find it interesting that McCaffrey brought this to our attention then immediately diverted our attention from it, by focusing on how 'he' was not interested in mating. It is interesting that in the story a dragon rider brings it to Jaxom's attention that Ruth is ALL colors, yet no one makes the connection that that means 'he' is also 'she', and a queen dragon.

I read these books many years ago, the the early’80s. I fell in love with the world of Pern and the unique and talented writing of Anne McCaffrey. I am so glad I bought all the books and the 3 illustration reference books. It is such a joy to return to Pern. I am listening and reading the books. Audio adds much definition and emergence in the stories. Excellent reading for all, who are interested in fantasy.

The planet/state of Pern is a functional society created by charter, shaped by the disaster of thread, and honed in the Present Pass.This book, as it could go without saying, is terrific. But if this is your first visit to Pern, do start with the first book so that you will know the background of this one.

The runt, white dragon Ruth, being raised by Jaxom at Ruatha Hold, surpasses the expectations of the all by surviving. Jaxom ready to take over leadership of his Hold must wait because of the uncertainties of the time. Old time dragon riders are unable to adapt to the societal changes, which have occurred during the four hundred years since the last pass. Tension increases between current population and old timers. Jaxom is finally allowed to begin training Ruth to fight thread, but can't do it where ground crews might see him. When a queen egg is stolen from Benden Weyr, it appears that dragons might fight the old timers dragons. Jaxom secretly returns the queen dragon to prevent this from occurring. One of Anne McCaffery's best books in the Dragonrider series. Many twists of plot and surprising discoveries.

I've read most of the Pern novels since they first came out, along with a number of McCaffrey's other series. Love her work, which is a cross between sci-for and fantasy. Her world building is very realistic and based on natural scientific ideas with a magical/supernatural twist. Love that her dragons are a natural defense against the invasive spores that periodically bombard the planet of Pern, destroying all life they touch. The relationships between the dragons and their riders are wonderful and deep, and the greatest dangers they face together during Threadfall (the spores) stem as much from centuries of lost lore as the actual Threads themselves. Ruth, the White Dragon, becomes a pivotal champion is this tale, despite being considered by the other dragons and their riders as a freak. I highly recommend the entire series for anyone who likes sci-go, fantasy and especially dragons.

I must have read this book a half dozen times. When I like a book, I reread them over and over. My paperback copy has absolutely disinergrated, so I decided to get this on my Kindle. Easy to carry, and the pages don't fall apart. Why do I llike this book so much? I really like the Jaxom character and his dragon Ruth. Together they are an incredible team. The next book "All the Weyers of Pern" completes the full realization of this dragon/man team. In the "White Dragon" we follow along with Lord Jaxom as he matures into a man, with Ruth growing and maturing with him. The story starts out with Jaxom and Ruth taking their first flight together and, with Ruth's unique gift for going Between time and space. Ruth always knows "When" he is. This book flows well and is well written. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys Anne McCaffrey's Pern series.

I really enjoyed the story of the teen Jaxom and his unique white dragon Ruth as Jaxom came to terms with his status of one day being the Lord of Rutha hold, a dragon rider but not in the same capacity of other dragon riders. Jaxom pushes against the confining restrictions others have put upon him and Ruth, saves Benden and the other northern weyrs fighting dragon against dragon with the southern weyr. Jaxom after a serious illness which could have killed him traps him on the Southern part of Pern, he helps to discover interesting things about Perns past and discovers Sharra, the woman he loves.

I admit, I got confused when I was looking at the order to read these books in and picked this up instead of Dragonsong, so I suspect I have missed some of the character development given if you read in publication order. But I have to admit to being disappointed in this book. I loved the Pern series as a teenager and wanted to come back to it as an adult. Unfortunately, whilst some books stand the test of time, I'm not sure this one does.This is partly because I really ended up disliking the main character. now I'm all for judging the morality of the book on the time in which it was written, so perhaps Jaxom's frankly appalling attitude towards various females in the book can be excused. What I don't think can be excused so easily is that he is whiny, bratty, throws his toys in the air and demands respect and is somehow given it. He's had everything handed to him on a plate; he's a dragon rider, a Lord of Pern and a generally coddled youngster and he's a pain in the proverbial. He uses and discards girls with no thought or consideration to their feelings, he does stupidly reckless things and gets praised for them. It's never enough for him, he always wants more, needs more and is never pulled on his serious attitude problem.McCaffrey is writing a highly patriarchal society, which is fine. But in the earlier books she makes at some effort at least to challenge the status quo as she goes along. Here we are meant to root for a kid who takes what he wants; both materialistically and sexually and I just couldn't do it. One of the stronger female characters, the first woman to ride a green dragon in fact, is written off as being selfish, unpredictable and 'proddy' whilst Jaxom gets away with blue murder yet is brave and adventurous. Maybe I'm being harsh, maybe it is me judging a book by current expectations despite my own belief that this is unjust, but the character just got on my nerves and some of his actions made me deeply uncomfortable; there's a throwaway rape scene in here for instance that was completely unnecessary regardless of time period or societal norms.Even if you take out the troubling characters though, this book has a somewhat larger issue and that's in the distinctly noticeable lack of plot. Things happen and characters muddle around, but it's all very relaxed and with no overarching conflict or main narrative thread to resolve. There are perhaps a handful of sub-plots that you might at a stretch call a narrative, but they are very weakly linked together and nothing much interesting happens in any of them. There's a reasonable amount of world-building and that kept me interested enough, but it is deeply lacking in a strong narrative or resolution. Things happen for no real reason, Jaxom gets into various scrapes and throws various fits, he has sex a bunch of times and that's kind of about it. Events that could have been pulled into a grand narrative are all but forgotten once they're done.That said, there are some definite mitigating factors here; the Harpers are brilliant characters and I loved having them along for the ride. It suggests I'll enjoy the Harper Hall trilogy more and Dragonsong is the next on my list. I loved Jaxom's dragon Ruth and felt McCaffrey did excellently at utilising this strange little dragon throughout the novel. I really enjoyed the escapades with the fire lizards; they are wonderful little creatures and made me smile every time I came across them. And I felt the additional world building here was well-done, both with the Old-Timers and the discovery of artefacts from the first landing on Pern. I'm interested enough to continue my re-read and just hope that Jaxom isn't a key character in any of the future novels.

Either i have aged, or this text...i loved the pern series, read the books as they came off the presses...now? The school-mistress attitude, of directing and correcting, of explaining and urging everyone and everything, i now find intensely irritating...all the bullies, all the little dictators, are annoying...the male superiority attitudes, the female submissiveness, are sickening...did i not see this, years ago? No, i went for the adventures, the excitement, the plot, which is quite intricate...now this text is like re-visiting an echoing, empty, cobweb-filled attic room...sorry...i am a grown-up now, a boring adult...not a fierce youngster...ho hum....tempus fugit...

Rereading the Dragon Books as I am, the story unfolds as rivetingly as on my first reading it decades ago. More of the important and complex characters are developed. Both human and dragonkind including their small cousins the fire dragons. I know there is so much more to come as the books untangle the story of Pern and its inhabitants. Knowing will in no way spoil the depth of my enjoyment.

I was handed a copy of "dragon flight when I was 13 and since then I have read every "Pern" book that I could get my hands on. They are so well written that you forget that you are reading and can visualize them in your head. I am a huge fan of Sci-Fi and Fantasy and I love it when the Author can write in a way that allows you to see the characters not just read about them. The Dragonriders Of Pern is one of the best series of books that I have read. I found that I could not wait for the next book. When I would sit down to read one, I would tend to forget about the things that I needed to do and read the book until it was done. I couldn't put it down. I look forward to more books in this series if she has more to give.I return to this book every few years. The story is fantasy, but the situations are human. On a backdrop of dire danger to the people - we watch the characters learn trust - well not all of them, leadership, and love.

One of Anne's best, at least I think so. She seemed to get into the skin of her characters as she wrote about them, for instance, in this book, concentrating as it does on Jaxom and Ruth, we see Lessa in an entirely different light. As always, there are quibbles, in a specific instance Meron, a very nasty and unpleasant bit of work, has managed to acquire, and keep, a fire lizard, while a mildly grumpy holder had his fire lizard go 'between' on hatching and never return, which doesn't really add up. However, these inconsistencies appear in every book ever written, so no problem.