The Renegades of Pern, By Anne McCaffrey

The holdless of Pern are such for many reasons. Some of them were turned out of their holds because they were unproductive. Others were made holdless because of crimes such as stealing, murder etc. Some voluntarily left their holds because of an unjust Lord Holder, and still others are holdless by choice: the traveling traders. All of these people have one thing in common: while being holdless is not an enviable position, during an Interval it is not a terrible life. But during a Pass, with Thread falling everywhere, not having a hold becomes a problem of life and death. Most Holders do not trust the holdless, calling them thieves and worse. Some of them aren’t, and some of them are. One such is Thella, lady of the Telgar bloodline, and sister to the current Lord Larad. She runs away from Telgar Hold because her ambitious spirit will not allow her to be under anyone’s control. So she forms a band of holdless men and steals what they need from other Holds in order to survive. But their raids are done with difficulty, as low flying dragons put a crimp on unseen movement. But Thella hears of a girl in the Igen low caverns who can hear dragons, and such a girl would be very useful to her and her schemes.

There’s really not much else to add, unless to say that Thella discovers some unexpected resistance to her plans and much drama ensues. And to say that while I like younger Jayge as a good character, as soon as we see him down South he really can’t hold my interest anymore. The same with Aramina. She’s more interesting when she’s younger, and not so much when she’s older. I think that’s a failing of McCaffrey, but it’s the failing of every author, really. It’s hard to make characters grow up believably, and change over time. She’s done it before, but not so well with these.

The Renegades of Pern is a very different sort of book than the rest of the Pern novels. It’s a very disjointed tale in a way, as there are more povs than normally appear. There are a lot of stories being told by different people, and we jump back and forth regularly. While this gives the reader a good look at all different sorts of lifestyles, it makes for ungainly reading. Certain parts are interesting and attention grabbing, but the constant switching back and forth makes it hard to stay interested. This book suffers from an overabundance of people and plotlines. In my opinion it’s one of the weaker Pern novels, and definitely isn’t as exciting a read.