Book review: Dragonflight

Have you ever fallen into the trap of picking up a mediocre story, sticking with it in the hope that it gets much better (perhaps encouraged when it gets a little better but not great), and then staying to the end because there's not much left? I imagine it's common among people who read novels for pleasure, tho it's not unique to this medium. Offhand, the best thing I have to say about the first volume of the late Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern is that it ends well for a non-final volume: resolved enough to end without suspense, yet hinting at excitement to come.

( Cut for length )

Next on my reading list is Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. It's much longer than Dragonflight, but I may just finish it faster. From the excerpts I know, he was one smart writer.