In a classic study of literature, one would take into account issues of character: whether a character is an antagonist or protagonist, what virtues and flaws do they exhibit, the depth or detail regarding their character; or one would take into account issues regarding the plot, particularly the character of conflicts (man v. man, man v. Nature) and the pace of the story; or issues of setting: place, time, landscape, etc. Typically, novelists fight the inclination to rehash their own formulas in subsequent novels, so that the character, plot and setting have minimal variation, particularly for science fiction/fantasy writers where series-writing is often discouraged. McCaffrey created Pern and her various dragonriders — and then sets them all aside.

In this novel, McCaffrey takes a risk as a novelist, with two departures from her usual approach to the Dragonriders of Pern series. First, she de-emphasizes the...