Book #71: The Rowan, by Anne McCaffrey

[grav_ity]

A re-read, for the umpteenth time. I don't re-read McCaffrey often, because the books do not stand up very well, but I still like this one a lot. There are parts of it I don't love (basically every part involving Jeff Raven), but I love the Rowan herself rather extremely.

It's interesting, reading now, how young the Rowan is always coded. It almost feels like a YA novel, pacing-wise, except there's all these year jumps that put her into her late 20s. Possibly this is just my bias showing through, but still.

I did note a lot of things that are very much to my type specifically: Talents are never evil. They just aren't. No Talent, ever, was evil (this shifts a bit later on in the series, if memory serves, but still. Very me).

Anyway, I don't own the rest of the series (though I think the Pegasus books are somewhere in lone_pyramid's basement), so I can't keep going (not that I have the time!), but I don't think I would have anyway. McCaffrey is a memory for me, but one I am quite reluctant to revisit.

(I would like to try the Space Selkie books again, though. Just because.)

Comments

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

I think her Harper Hall and the original 3 Dragnriders books stand up pretty well, but otherwise I agree with you. I don't reread a lot of her other stuff. I vagely recall this book, having read it during my teens. It's funny, I read MOST of McCaffrey's stuff in my teens. She was one of my favorite authors, and it's clear how much her books and writing influenced me. Twice in recent feedback from readers and my editor, people have compared my own books to her style. Which I take as a compliment. :)

ETA: a caveat...those six books hold up well so long as I remember the era in which they were written. When calling dragonriders "dragon women"is considered an insult worth a knife fight, that definitely dates the book.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

My main stop with the Lessa books is the lack of sexual consent, actually, in addition to the casual misogyny. F'lar straight up refers to it as rape at one point, and doesn't stop, and the F'nor/Brekke scene gave 12yo!me screaming nightmares for weeks.

(Not to mention the weird homophobia.)

MORETA, though. I like that one! And you are absolutely on with the Harper Books (though I would also say that they have the same problem The Rowan does: at some point, The Dude shows up and takes charge, in that case, Sebell).

ANYWAY.

I do love the books, which is one of the reasons I don't like to think about them.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you are not wrong. The consent issues didn't even occur to my 10-11 year old self, and never jumped out at me until I reread the series as an adult. But by then, I'd been traumatized by some pretty severe rape scenes in 80's era romance novels, and McCaffrey's seemed tame by comparison. (Seriously, Johanna Lindsay was like EVERY SINGLE BOOK. I'm trying to remember other authors, but for awhile it was like I couldn't find anything in romance that wasn't rape. Kind of like the trend now that was started by the 50 Shades hysteria.)

I think I also look at the Pern books through the rose-colored glasses of how formative they were for me - they were my first fantasy/SF, they made me fall in love with the genres and want to be a writer, which has been a driving goal of my existence ever since. So, yeah. I might not be able to look at them obectively.

But I do remember the moment when F'lar calls it rape, and I remember too well his tendency to shake Lessa whenever she upset him. I try not to dwell on those things when I think about the books. :(

Oh, and I should re-read Moreta! I'm pretty sure I even have it on my kindle...

[tielan]

Oh, lord, Johanna Lindsay. *facepalms*

I have the books, I kind of elide over the questionable bits, because I really enjoyed the worldbuilding.

Interestingly, I do the same with Patricia Keneally, whose worldbuilding I loved when I was 15, but whose preachiness (the Kelts have a perfect society) really irked me.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. That book.

The Rowan is one of my favorite AM female characters--I do really have a type when it comes to McCaffrey: The Rowan, Lessa, Killashandra Ree, Menolly, Moreta. All strong and 'unstable' (depending on the book).

I always feel like Jeff suffers from McCaffrey Alpha Male Syndrome (F'lar, Lars Dahl, the dude from Restoree all sort of fit this mold). Which is not to say he isn't annoying and I seem to recall last time I re-read it that I objected to how he takes over the narrative as The Hero (then he goes on to be Earth Prime instead of the Rowan, because she's not stable enough or some guff like that).

The disjointedness stems from it being a short story, I think? Like, the Tower part is the original story and the before-bits were written later.

I tend to avoid the sequels, even though it panders to that 'dynasty/family' thing I like, but the whole Afra marries Damia thing always grosses me out.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Also, an obsessions with breeding which ALWAYS sidelines the female characters. *sighs*

I'm so glad we're not there anymore, you know? My books also deal with babies to a degree (bc: politics and stability and etc), but god damn, I'm glad we've advanced!

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Killishandra. The Crystal Singer was one of my favorites.

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

I think she also codes young because she is so isolated and without a peer group, and that was actually acknowledged as a major thing and issue for her throughout the novel. Mentally, responsibility-wise, she had to act like an adult from a young age. Emotionally, she was almost forcibly stunted and not allowed to mature all the way. So she finds Jeff and falls into infatuation as much as love with him and it reads young because she still is so emotionally young throughout the book.