Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (unabridged audiobook read by Dick Hill; 9 hrs 14 min on MP3): Lessa is a young girl who bonds with a queen dragon and joins the dragonriders to fight the Threads, a vague enemy which sounds more like a natural disaster than anything. I’ve read a lot of fantasy in my day, but this was my first visit to Pern, and I spent much of the time wondering how in the world so many books managed to be written in this series. The characters are shallow and not especially likable, the names are all spelled with apostrophes (ugh!), the writing was awkward and flowery, and the paradoxes brought on by time travel were frankly tiresome. I guess if I had some kind of existing affinity for dragons I would have been more drawn in, but I don’t. I sincerely doubt I’ll be reading anything else set in Pern.

A note on the audio: Hill’s dialogue was great, though his reading of the description was pretty meh. Then again, I’m not convinced that’s not mostly the fault of the prose itself, as opposed to his acting ability.