Comments on: “Dragonflight” by Anne McCaffrey

By: Corky

Corky — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:54:34 +0000

Interesting discussions. Have any of you read Kristen Britain’s series “Green Rider”? If so, I would enjoy hearing your opinion.

By: carolyn

carolyn — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:34:39 +0000

I’m pretty sure I STILL love those books.
the Harper Hall ones in particular, but really all of them.

By: Sherry

Sherry — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:00:35 +0000

I loved the Pern books when I was a young adult, but I was disturbed by all the promiscuous sex. I had/have standards about that sort of thing.

As for YA books with girls being friends instead of rivals or loners, that’s a hard question. Kiki Strike coms to mind. Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girl series is fun, not serious at all, but good for a rainy day. Shannon Hale’s fantasies have girls leading the way and sharing friendship and training together for leadership. Hilary McKay’s books also feature friendships between sisters and others.

Hey, there are more of these kinds of books than I thought.

By: weirleader

weirleader — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:47:47 +0000

huh, I’m half-curious to re-read the series given your analysis (and the 20ish years since I read it as well). But I’m thinking I’d be better off just remembering the good parts (agenothree — sheesh, am I a geek or what?) and remaining blissfully ignorant of the shallowness therein.

A couple other books I remember enjoying (though I suppose they could hardly be called YA) are Mirror of Her Dreams and The Eight (nearly fantasy, with math and chess thrown in to boot). But now that I think of them in the right light it’s clear that they, too, are in the girl-loner category.

The more I think of it, it seems that much of YA fantasy is built around the loner, be it boy or girl.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:12:09 +0000

Ack, Kerry, you’re killing me. How would I join you AND read the Baroque Cycle plus books for my book groups? I have the entire set, too; I worked at Half Price Books for a year

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:44:47 +0000

I have the entire run of Trixie Beldens, even the last books released in the late 80s, and was thinking of blogging my rereading of them starting sometime this summer.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:41:17 +0000

Farrar, you nail exactly what bugged me about Dragonflight this time around, and why I haven’t even bothered with the Twilight books.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:40:08 +0000

Tulip and Jessica, the Trixie Belden books were a favorite of mine (hence: name of blog), and Beatrice was at the top of the list of names if Drake or Guppy had girl parts. thought the friendships with Trixie, Honey and Diana were nicely done, and more complex than that of Nancy Drew, Bess and George.

I can’t wait to look up some of these other series. I knew you readers would come through!

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:36:12 +0000

Steph, I do think His Dark Materials deals with sexuality in an interesting honest way, but I didn’t think it did the same for religion. And Lyra was that clever-girl loner type. The constant switching allegiances of Lyra’s parents gave me whiplash.

By: Steph

Steph — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:54:11 +0000

One thought on the YA fantasy front that has a strong female character, I think, is Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy. I think it deals with sexuality in a really interesting and honest way.