Storyline: 4/5 
 Characters: 3/5 
 Writing Style: 3/5 
 World: 4/5 
 It doesn't seem to much to ask that an exciting book also avoid dumb moments, for a thriller to avoid plotholes, for a straightforward adventure story to be consistent. My experience with fantasy epics, thrillers, and action-adventures, however, suggests that the authors that write these kind of books are also the ones that have their characters behave uncharacteristically to generate drama, for their plot to center on dumb decisions to generate more excitement, and worry little over whether the events and details fit together. It is a most welcome day, then, to discover Anne McCaffrey's Pern. It is exciting, not dumb; both thrilling and sensible, adventurous and coherent. This is not literature; few thoughtful turns of phrase or descriptions of beauty. It is not contemplative; no philosophy here. It is not social commentary; the flaws of this society are as believable, commonplace, and accepted as those of our own. This is simply a fun book that managed to avoid common mistakes. 
 There were two motifs added to what was an already oddly-envisioned science fiction, dragon fantasy pastiche. These other two (view spoiler)[time travel and lost civilization (hide spoiler)] were entertaining but did chink what was an otherwise creative and believable world. One was introduced so offhandedly - and with such immense repercussions - that it robbed the tale of some of the fun and credibility. The other had been intimated from the beginning but was so thinly presented that the reader has good cause to wish for more detail and depth. In both areas the novel suffers - not unreasonably - from its 1968 origins and the fact that decades of development in those other genres have taken ideas and bettered them. Similarly, this was a book whose enjoyment turned very much on delivering what was expected - the bad guy getting what was deserved, the good guys saying just the right thing at the right time, the heroine surprising everyone with her craftiness. It was a book where you saw what was coming, delighted in seeing it come to fruition, and rested sated after each event was over. Today we would accuse the story of being too easy, too satisfactory; and if every novel I read was this way, it would indeed be too saccharine. I haven't come across enough of these, however, to cause me to sneer at the joy and success it contains, to hold it in disdain for being too gratifying. McCaffey helped the critic and snob in me to simply relax and enjoy a fun, creative tale. Thank you, McCaffrey.