Well, I’m a few chapters into Dragonquest, and the book is kind of annoying me.  Probably not enough to put it down, but it’s not an elegantly written book.  There is little economy of language — everything explained and detailed in narrative form — which tells me that the authors I’ve been reading bring more poetry to their language then I realized.  Comparison can shed a harsh light.

It’s not bad.  It’s just not great, and I’ve been reading some great books.  And the question comes up:  why not just read Great Books?  And I guess my answer is this:  even if an author doesn’t have the fine artists’ grasp of language or story telling, their ideas may have worth.  And in SF stories, the contexts are interesting even when the story or language sometimes is not.  One of the strongest things SF has to offer is visions of alternate planets, flora and fauna, ways of life, ways of thinking and living, of building and traveling, and of conceiving of the solar system/galaxy/universe.  Authors need not constrict themselves to what exists and what has existed.  Imagination is one of the most wonderful human qualities, and SF is a fertile field for it to grow in.

So, Pern, here I come.  Show me what McCaffrey sees in her mind, what she envisions outside of our earth and time-bound reality.