The White Dragon

He's just an overgrown fire lizard!

He'll never be a real dragon!

The white dragon Ruth was never supposed to survive. Small for his size and stuck in his egg, Lord Jaxom saved his life. Now the young boy who isn't quite a Lord Holder, and the dragon who never should have lived have a life time bond. While Ruth pays no mind to the insults thrown his way, Jaxom is determined to prove his friend is just as good as the great bronzes.

The first half of this novel I have to admit dragged on. It mostly focused on Jaxom and Ruth exploring their capabilities as dragon and rider, which was entertaining, but there wasn't a huge amount of conflict. A few political spats from the Lord Holders and the familiar threat of thread, but aside from that not much happens until the exiled Southern Riders decide to meddle in the affairs of the North.

The Southern riders are old and dying. We've known this since book two. Exiled due to their greed and treatment of Pern, they have been a long overdue thorn that has decided to burrow in deeper. The hot headed and egotistical T'ron chooses to commit a heinous crime that nearly sets dragon upon dragon. This is the first conflict we see, where Jaxom and Ruth begin to prove themselves and is a turning point for the plot.

The Northern riders begin expansion into the Southern Continent, far away from the Southern Weyr so as to avoid further conflict and in search of a lost rider. Jaxom and Ruth soon stumble upon fire lizards who can give the riders clues to their mysterious ancestors and a curious ability only Ruth can use. As the Northerners begin to dig into the past that surrounds them, the bits and pieces they uncover start to unravel the mysteries surrounding the ancestors. I do wish the two stories, that of Jaxom and Ruth's realization of their self worth and the expansion of the Southern Continent had been split into separate books. I don't feel like Jaxom and Ruth went through enough trials to become who they are by the end of the book. It was more like they overcame school yard bullying than anything else, which in itself should be rewarding, but it fell flat.

I am also not one to enjoy politics, even if they are fictional. The plot structure could have also used work, as it sometimes jumped to a person's POV that was summing up what happened in the previous novels and the current one. None of this summary was needed and interrupted the storyline.

I'm not willing to give up on Pern just yet. I do want to know more about the ancestors and if the current inhabitants of Pern can deconstruct and figure out all that has been left behind. I also know there are a few books that take place during the original trilogy and I would be interested to know what has been happening in the other Weyrs.

Sometimes, you read a book when you're thirteen, and you're all, “Yeah, Jaxom! No one understands what it's like to be stuck in between so many things except you and me! I get this! I want a dragon!” Then you read that same book again when you're 32, and you're all, “Jaxom, you are an arrogant little snot.”

Anne McCaffrey took the Dragonriders series down the coming-of-age trope storyline with the third installment. She really does a marvelous job building that sense of self-conscious egocentrism that plague kids at this stage of life. She then mirrors that with the very idea of Ruth who is truly one of a kind and will never be like everyone else, a fact we all end up facing at one point or another. It's a good story, but somewhat marred by my adult skepticism. I can't look past the way Jaxom treats Mirrim and Corana anymore and his actions now seem a bit more reckless than precocious concerning his adventures. It's all in character as far as Jaxom is concerned, but it's no longer the kind of character I look for.

Still, I like the ending especially closing with Lessa and the fireplace and the discoveries that point to how much of Pern is left to explore. It doesn't speak to me as fiercely as it did my first go around, but it will always have a place in my heart.

I came to this book after many other fantasy books and later than many people discover them. The ‘reveal' about the source of the colonies was not as fresh to me, but the story was still a novel incorporation of a coming of age story with dragon riding. Planning to read other novels in the series and the world of Pern.