In my mind, the wher-folk were the best part of this book. Although my obsession kinda colors my opinions here. -- OOC / Addying Board

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 14:14:30 10/05/06 Thu
Author: LG
Subject: In my mind, the wher-folk were the best part of this book. Although my obsession kinda colors my opinions here.
In reply to: LG 's message, "So Mom finally sent me the latest Pern book!" on 14:09:28 10/05/06 Thu

First, there wasn't anything new and revolutionary concerning whers, but there WAS some elaboration on them and their bonding habits. And I really want to know if anyone has any arguments, additions, etc., because these conclusions (as altered by discussion here and accepted or shot down by Kitty) would be what I'd be having Yima teach.

- Apparently, newly-hatched whers do go between if they don't have anyone to bond with. The bonding process in Dragon's Kin takes time, and Dragon's Kin also establishes that watchwhers can and do bond with multiple people at a time (even if one bond always seems to be stronger than the rest, from what evidence we have); at the same time, it's made clear that not just ANYONE can bond with a wher (though probably anyone who can Impress a firelizard can, since the wher-handlers consider a boy with a firelizard to be qualified because of his brown), and Aleesa says that the unbonded hatchling will "choose" to go between forever. The conclusion I'm drawing, from taking all of those bits of evidence into account, is that baby watchwhers make choices like dragons do, but make more measured ones (influenced, of course, by the blood-bonding and the behavior of their handlers) and therefore take their time at it--and it would make sense for dragons to be designed to make nearly instantaneous ones, since the mental link between dragon and rider is MUCH closer in order for them to work together in Threadfall. A dragon's mind has to "match" its rider's much more closely than a wher's mind has to match its handler's, so if the dragon can't find a very close match right away and get the mental link started, there's no POINT in its living any longer.

- Kindan claims in Dragon's Fire that he DELIBERATELY broke his bond with Kisk to allow Nuella to bond with her, which clears up some questions that I, at least, had about the incident. PRESUMABLY it wouldn't have worked if she wasn't already close to Nuella, but that's never explicitly stated, so that's just my guess.

- Also, Dragon's Fire confirms two important things about handler deaths: that a watchwher can and will re-bond, and that if it DOESN'T re-bond within a certain time window then it will go ahead and go "between". (Aleesa explicitly tells her daughter that Aleesk will outlive her, her daughter is [implied to be] the only one in the makeshift wher-hall who can re-bond Aleesk, and if her daughter DOESN'T then Pern will be deprived of its queen watchwher.) I'm assuming, from the language Aleesa uses around the subject and the fact that it would make sense, that this is another "choice" by the watchwher. (Though one assumes that the whers were all PROGRAMMED to make this "choice", as they would be to make the "choice" of going between if not bonded shortly after hatching; it seems to be a thing they universally do, and it seems like something their designers would program into them as they programmed it into the dragons.) The question left, of course, is, "How long ARE watchwher lifespans?" To which we aren't given an answer, but it's an interesting question.

- Watchwhers do definitely at least START their mating flights in the air, because a character observes them doing such, though we don't get told how they end. Here I'm going with the mention in the Harper Hall books of them actually breeding on the ground - presumably the winner of the flight lands near the gold and gets on with it, while the rest don't get a go, but we don't actually get to confirm this because the POV character is too busy having sex. :/ And, by the way, wher flights are definitely very "loud" for the people nearby; the book's wher-handlers plan for it and all pair off beforehand.

Also, we now know more about firestone mining! (I am very glad this book came out before I started doing much with Hale and Janis, especially since Kitty was talking about the Weyr needing a firestone mine and I was hoping those characters could be part of it. Because this is IMPORTANT TO KNOW. XD) And firestone in general, some Weyr-specific details.

- There are TWO KINDS of firestone. The kind apparently mined for an undefined period after the Ancients and before Lessa & co has these problems:
Contact with water releases gasses from this firestone that either sear humans' lungs, or explode upon contact with open air! And the latter happens more often than the former. This book has lots of that happening. One bucket of water destroys an entire mine. A WEYRLING, transporting this firestone for the Games, blows up. Sweat and spit are enough to be a problem. Storage facilities blow up a lot, in the sense that Telgar Weyr has TWO fairly recent former firestone storage rooms that are now nasty scars in the rock. Ouch. Sparks can ALSO cause explosions, just to add another element of danger. And chewing it hurts dragons' throats; they do it anyway at their riders' request. D: Poor dragons!

- The RIGHT kind of firestone, that the Ancients first found, does not react at all with water and is far less stressful on the dragons. It's apparently a geode within sandstone (blue-green crystals, which are the actual firestone), and can be found within scattered rocks on seashores as well as mined from the ground.

- Firelizards can use the "right" kind of firestone, but not the "wrong" kind. They refuse to chew the bad stuff. :D Smart firelizards!

- Dragon's Fire gives us numbers for how much firestone a Weyr generally needs per practice session/Threadfall, but I am too lazy to find that specific page right now.
Except that oh look I am ON that page, wow lookit my magical book-flipping-open powers! So, here's what D'vin says: "We like to keep only a little on hand because it's so dangerous. Typically a dragon needs at least a hundredweight of firestone for a full Fall, sometimes two or three. With three hundred fighting dragons in a Weyr, that works out to a minimum of fifteen tonnes per Fall....My search of the Records indicate that in a typical Fall, Weyr needs closer to forty tonnes."

And finally, there are the Shunned. Think of marked, criminal Holdless and their families; I won't go into them too much because it sends me into spasms of rage. (THEY ARE ESSENTIALLY HOLDLESS, FLAME IT TODD WHY DID YOU HAVE TO INVENT A BRAND-NEW CONCEPT FOR THIS, DID YOU NEVER READ THE RENEGADES OF PERN, THE HOLDLESS COULD HAVE WORKED JUST FINE FOR YOUR SPECIFIC PLOT- except on and on and I think I broke my roommate last night ranting. Yeah. Also BIRDS OF PREY ARE UNNECESSARY WITH THE FIRELIZARDS, WHY WOULD THE ANCIENTS HAVE GONE TO THE TROUBLE OF UNPACKING THOSE OVA, but that's an old RP rant of mine anyway.)

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

And, I just recalled.... -- LG, 13:34:49 10/06/06 Fri
- Could be -- GC, 15:17:11 10/06/06 Fri
  - A good reason to have... -- El, 16:51:35 10/06/06 Fri
  - Larth-isms! :D -- LG, 16:53:24 10/06/06 Fri
    - Hehe! -- GC, 03:59:55 10/07/06 Sat
      - Well... -- LG, 13:20:46 10/07/06 Sat
        Could be -- GC, 13:47:41 10/07/06 Sat