Gigi McCaffrey continues Anne McCaffrey's saga of Dragonriders of Pern with Dragon's Code. Piemur, journeyman harper, has lost his singing voice and now spends his time undercover among the displaced and disaffected oldtime Dragonriders who came uptime to help present day dragonriders to fight thread. Intrigue and complications ensue. Piemur has to balance his own needs with those of the dragonriders and the other groups in Pern. Read this excellent fantasy novel to find out how the story unrolls.

Anne McCaffrey was one of my all time favorite writers as a youngster. I grew up dreaming of becoming a dragonrider, flying around Pern and protecting the world. So, naturally, when I saw that her daughter had written a book in the world of Pern, I knew I had to read it. And for the most part, I really enjoyed it. But it was hard at first because I went in expecting another Anne McCaffrey book (even though I knew it wouldn’t be exactly the same). Gigi has a bit of a different writing style than her mother. Once I stopped expecting it to be the same, I ended up having a lot of fun!

I have a few Dragonrider books written by Anne McCaffrey, although it has been quite a while since I have read them. This new book by her daughter, Gigi McCaffrey, was a lot of fun to read. It features a good storyline in which a group of Dragonriders has come to current time, from 400 hundred years in the past , to aid the current group of Dragonriders. Not all is well between these two groups. Piemur, who used to be a master vocalist prior to losing his beautiful singing voice, is now aiding the Masterharper by serving as a spy. The story features intrigue and adventure. Looking forward to future books set in this world!

I haven't read Pern, but I've heard good things about it. That said, if it's anything like this book, I'll steer clear of it in the future, as clearly it's not for me.

This book was a tough read for me. I found that there was a lot of exposition and that the characters were sadly a little flat compared to what they were in the past. Overall the story was a good one at heart, it was just hard getting through to that story and following it along. For people who haven’t jumped into the world of Pern before, they might face a story with no real reason to keep reading as there is little detail that makes you love the characters in this book alone. As a returning reader to the Pern series, you have a bit more buy-in and want to see what will happen with well loved characters...only to be a bit let down. Overall this was a dense read and there wasn’t much payoff in the end.

I truly enjoyed this vacation back to Pern especially since it is set in a time I am enamored with! We have Master Harper Robinton, Mellony, mentions of Ruth and Jaxom and so many more that made my heart soar with longing to visit these old friends. I enjoyed this different take on Piemur's story.

This book made me want to revisit Pern! If you are a fan of Pern give this book a try!

Fans of Anne McCaffrey's original series should really enjoy this new book! Of course, anyone hoping to read this installment should read the previous books (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums) first in order to understand and appreciate this one.

While this story definitely had a different feeling than the original series, it reminded me a lot of the previous books in a good way. This book was written by Anne McCaffrey's daughter, Gigi. I think Gigi really had a good grasp of her mother’s world, but you can tell in the reading that her writing style and storytelling is not the same. Gigi’s storytelling is a bit less emotional, and her portrayal of the original characters was a bit off for me (but I still liked it).

Overall, I liked this new addition, and I am interested to see where Gigi McCaffrey will go next with her writing.

I really wanted to love this book. I've been reading Anne McCaffrey since 1985.
Unfortunately, the plot itself adds little to the lore of Pern. Also, action scenes frequently take place offscreen.
The writing is very good but the plot frequently lacks urgency.

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley in return for a fair review. I have read almost all of Anne McCaffery's books and love the world of Pern, however, this one fell flat for me. I would love to see a story set in a different time, with different characters and a different crisis that has to be overcome in the world of Pern. I feel like retellings of the same story lines with Lessa, Master Robinton, Menolly, etc. have been told from so many different character perspectives they no longer hold any excitement or interest to me. I also agree with another reviewer who said there was a lot of "showing vs. telling".

As a long time fan of the Pern series, I remember anxiously awaiting the next arrival, then begging to go to the book store to purchase it. I didn’t want to borrow them, I wanted to own them all to be able to reread them at my whim. When Ms. McCaffrey’s son took up the torch, it was much enthusiasm that I was able to share the news with my dad and others that “Pern was back!”. Now that her daughter has joined the fray, I’m hoping that Pern will be with us for the next generation and more! She is a gifted storyteller, like her mother before her. Well done!

I received a digital copy of Dragon's Code from NetGalley.

Piemur has always been one of my favorite characters, in this we have his side of things when Southern dragonriders plot to take a queen egg and would be holder ambition upon the lands of Ruatha Hold meet. Piemur's anxiety over his changing voice and urgency to prove his value to Harper Hall as something of a spy, map maker and teacher amidst it all too.

Through Piemur's eyes we see Benden's queen egg was stolen and mysteriously returned. Piemur unravels this mystery and sees the Dragon queen hatch and impress, it's nice to put that small mystery their names to rest when I don't believe we knew them before. Perhaps we'll see Nimath and Mikay again in the future?

Piemur, with Menolly, Sebell, N'ton, his dragon Lioth, and J'hon and his dragon Mirth help keep a eye on Jaxom. It gets Sebell badly hurt so Piemur takes his found family home to meet his foster family in Crom. Home to Ama, his foster mother, her death and the likeness to her name with Anne's made my heart ache for Gigi and her family. I seem to read McCaffrey when I find loss in my own life, my own mother's passing just at the end of July is still a fresh wound in my heart only a few months old.

Piemur finds the strength to use his changed voice to sing his foster mother on, her death brings into focus his will to live for something - to bring the Old Timers of Southern Weyr into the present Pass, to offer to use his voice for them, so they can come to accept how time changes people, even if they are blinded by perceived faults.

I hope that Gigi McCaffrey does again soon write in the "sandbox" of Pern (which I can't help but think of as Weyr hatching grounds).
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It has been a long time since I have visited the world of Pern and it was great being back. I liked how the mix of old and new drove the story. Piemur, a journeyman harper, is as lost as the Oldtimers. They are not adjusting to how Pern changed and Piemur is looking for a direction for his life after his voice broke and he can no longer sing. The danger and adventure keep the story moving as both finally find a direction and place in their life. Nice addition to a old and familiar world.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Release date: 2 October 2018
Author: Gigi McCaffrey
Publisher: Penguin Random House/Del Rey
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
One sentence review:  A coming of age story that brings the magic of Pern back into the imaginations of readers of all ages.

Summary: A young, unlikely hero stumbles into a plot that could tear Pern apart. 

I only lightly ventured into the world of Pern as a young adult. (Three or four books, maybe?) I think my lack of clear memory of Pern really helped me enjoy this story. Rather than comparing Gigi's voice to that of her mother's, I read a story about dragonriders and a magical world that I recalled vaguely from high school. 

Gigi did a wonderful job building the world of Pern to a newcomer to the series. She opened the world often visited by her mother and brother to a new generation of readers without requiring prior entry. Her invitation is written with love and that translates to the reader. 

Gigi's writing shines with the character development of the protagonist of the story. The characters feel very human and very real. While they are not quite as...complex?... as I typically enjoy, they are wonderful and stick with you after you've finished reading. (Let's be honest, I like a bit of darkness in my heroes. I call it complexity, but it might just be a touch of shadow. Given this is a Noble-bright sort of fantasy,  the characters are as natural for the genre.)

I think fans of Pern and newcomers, alike, will enjoy this addition to the Pern world.

Gigi McCaffrey does a fine job of continuing Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern series. The society on the planet Pern is endangered when someone steals one of the queen eggs from the hatching ground. This violation could result in dragons fighting dragon and Craft fighting Holders. The young journeyman Harper Piemar is tested as he finds himself in the middle of this crisis.

The quality of writing in this book is so much lower than the originals that it is embarrassing. I will not review online.

I've been a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series ever since I stumbled across them at the bookstore across the street from my house when I was a teenager. While my love of fantasy and science fiction may have already been well established by that time, the Pern books had a huge impact on how I felt about dragons in the genre and I've never really been able to find anything that I think comes close to the Pern books. As much as  I love the series I wasn't a huge fan of the Pern books Todd McCaffrey wrote. He's a good author but his Pern books didn't feel like they really fit in with the series to me. So I approached Gigi McCaffrey's book with a bit of hesitation, though I was still hopeful for a great book.

The problem I have with reviewing a book like this is its always so difficult not to compare any of the newer Dragonriders of Pern books with the originals which just isn't fair to Todd or Gigi. So I was honestly a bit surprised with how well Gigi McCaffrey did in matching the tone and feel of her mother's books while still making the story and it's characters her own. Dragon's Code was one of those books that I enjoyed so much I was unable to stop reading it once I had started and there were honestly a few times where it felt like this was something Anne McCaffrey herself could have written, which really impressed me coming from a first-time author.

Pern is one of my favorite fantasy worlds to return to and I thought the world in Dragon's Code was as beautiful and richly detailed as it's ever been and the characters were fantastic. Piemur has always been one of my favorite characters in the Pern books and I thought Gigi did a great job expanding on his character and showing what he would be like as he aged and changed as a person. He's always been one of those characters that I wanted to read more of and I'm happy he's one of the main characters in this book. It's always good to see familiar faces who were kind of pushed to the back take center stage once again.

I do have to say though that I thought the dialogue was a bit rough and ridiculous at times and the author was a little too free with the random info dump. I mean I understand that there is a lot of background information that she wanted to fill in with this book so new readers didn't have to read the entire series to enjoy it but I don't think it was very well done. It took away from my enjoyment of the book whenever it happened.
That being said, I still found this book to be beautifully written full of great characters that were a lot of fun reading about. I can't wait to see what Gigi McCaffrey has next in the series but I know the wait is not going to be an easy one. I will happily recommend this book to anyone looking for something to read, and can honestly say that while it would help to read the original books first, Dragon's Code makes a pretty solid jumping off point for new readers.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced the magic of Pern, and Gigi McCaffrey's new book helped bring back that feeling of wonder from my childhood.

I feel like us readers finally got a decent ending to Piemur’s arc begun in Dragondrums, which never satisfied me completely. I always love spending time with Pern’s harpers and it was a pleasant journey this time around too, as well as getting to see some scenes of life amongst the Holders.

I also appreciate that Gigi showed that it’s not all black and white with the Oldtimers. I always felt the renegade Oldtimers had been painted with a simplistically broad brush, and this story helps show that though they may be driven to make poor decisions they’re not sitting there wondering how they can constantly be a pain in F’lar and Lessa’s backside. They went forward through time because they wanted to help people, and Gigi did a wonderful job humanizing the individuals within the group.

A reading of this is helped by having a familiarity with Anne’s books. There are many references made to other events and characters, and though a good few are explained for a new reader, I feel like one would get the most out of the character interactions in here by reading through the first few books in the Dragonriders of Pern series.

For me this was a wonderful return to Pern and its brave dragonriders.

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I grew up reading, and re-reading, Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. I found the Harper Hall trilogy one day at the library and never looked back, I was totally hooked. I've either read or listened to the audiobook, or both, for every one of her Pern stories. It's just a such a huge and richly detailed world. The whole premise of Pern where it feels old and fantastical but it's actually so far in the future has always been amazing to me.

Now, with Dragon's Code by Gigi McCaffrey, I felt like I was coming home again. Dragon's Code did justice to the world and characters Anne created so many years ago. I felt like this was a continuation of the Harper Hall series with the way it came back to Piemur as the central character and his continued work for the Harper Hall on the Southern Continent with the Old Timers. As events unfold, with the Old Timers still balking at the new times and new ways, Piemur, along with a few other characters you'll remember, struggle to save the peace between the weyrs.

Gigi McCaffrey still had her own voice in this story as well though, it didn't feel like she was trying to mimick Anne McCaffrey's style at all. My one disappointment in this story was that I felt it was over too soon! I wanted more story! If you haven't read the original Pern stories, don't let that deter you. Where necessary, previous events are succinctly explained throughout this book as well. I hope to see more Pern stories from Gigi McCaffrey. I am definitely a fan!

First and foremost – I can’t believe how quickly time flies! Did you know that this year marks the fiftieth anniversary for the Dragonriders of Pern series? Okay, I can’t really comment on how quickly that time actually flew, not being alive for half of it…but still. It feels like just yesterday I was picking up my first book by Anne McCaffrey and losing myself in her words. So it seems right, in a way, that they’re using this momentous occasion to try something new in the world.
I know I’m not the only fan out there that has greatly missed getting new books from the Dragonriders of Pern series. However, I long ago came to terms with the idea that I would never be seeing any news works from it – after all, Anne McCaffrey had sadly passed away, and the previous attempts made to keep the mantle going weren’t impressive (for me, at least).
So imagine my surprise when I learned that Gigi McCaffrey was writing her own original story set in the Dragonriders of Pern world. At first I’ll admit I was a little hesitant, but after looking at the book for a couple of days I decided to just go for it and give it a try. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
I was shocked. I honestly think that if you had handed this book to me when I was younger and very much into Anne McCaffrey, I never would have been able to tell the difference. Gigi did a wonderful job capturing the essence of the world and the writing style that her mother used.
Now, looking at this book compared the others, as an adult and a book reviewer, I can clearly tell some differences, but honestly? I’m okay with that. Gigi McCaffrey is a writer in her own right, and I think I’d be disappointed if she didn’t try to do things her way.
I've always loved the Dragonriders of Pern series. I loved the explanation for how dragons came about, why they were important to the people, and the world that was built around it all. It was enchanting and enthralling.
Reading Gigi McCaffrey’s take on her mother’s world was interesting. I love that she chose to keep so many of the core elements – I don’t think I could have considered it the same world without those pieces. I can clearly see her mother’s influence, but I can also see what parts of the world Gigi McCaffrey enjoyed writing the most.
It was so great to be reading this series again, but I’ll be brutally honest with you. I know I wouldn’t have just accepted anything from this series. I remember when I was on my Anne McCaffrey reading kick – the last three I read just didn’t read that well, and really put me off of her writing for a while. It wasn’t until later that I learned that it had been her son writing those books under her name. But it explained everything about why I hadn’t liked those books.
I hope that helps you believe me when I say that Gigi McCaffrey did a great job capturing the important parts of this series. This really did feel like diving back into the series, as opposed to diving into a series that is sort-of-like-the-original-but-not-really.
I really enjoyed the main character, Piemur. He had an interesting character arc, one part coming of age and one part learning to appreciate the situations that other people can find themselves in.
Words cannot express how happy I was to see Menolly and all the others again too. I sincerely hadn’t expected cameos, let alone major parts, from characters I had previously read about. That was a nice touch.
Obviously it was so wonderful to see the dragons and fire lizards again too. While I have always loved the dragons, there will always be a special place in my heart for those cute little fire lizards. The girl in me still wishes I could have one.
I can’t believe how excited I am about this series, all over again. It’s almost – but not quite – like finding the series again for the first time. I do hope that Gigi McCaffrey continues to write for the series. I’m not sure if she’s written anything else, but after this I clearly need to take some time to look into her works some more.

Let me start out by saying that I have every book of Pern written by both Anne and Todd McCaffrey and have read the first 10 so many times that I had to replace my copy of Dragonriders of Pern because it fell to pieces from being read so many times. Yes, I am a huge fan!

It felt so good to be back in Anne McCaffrey’s world of the dragons, riders, and harpers of Pern.

In Dragon’s Code, Anne’s daughter Gigi takes over the reins and brings us Piemur’s story during the time of The White Dragon. We even get to see where Piemur came from and meet his family.

I fell back into Pern immediately and at times forgot this book was not written by Anne. I found myself once again enthralled and teary eyed at an Impression, holding my breath during a journey Between, and on the edge of my seat when Thread fell.

I was so happy to be back with Piemur, Menolly, Masterharper Robinton, and their firelizards. I hope Gigi continues to give us more stories of Pern and the beloved characters I have loved for decades!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Publishing for the advance copy!*