Anne McCaffery created a great book series, The Dragon Riders of Pern, and the
one I’m reviewing is, The Dolphins of Pern, she made me think that I was on
another planet trying to become a Dolphineer. This 340 page, Sci-fi/Fantasy book
has everything, adventure, danger, surgery and dragons. This book starts on the
planet Pern, a land where Earth’s descendants started to colonize. Pern is a
planet with dragons and dolphins and many other strange things. The protagonist
is a young boy named Readis, who wants to become a master fisherman like his
Uncle. The antagonist is, I think, the hardships he has to go through to reach
his dream. One days Readis went out with his uncle to go fishing but got caught
in a squall, and their ship went under, but luckily some "ship fish"
(dolphins) saved them and brought them to shore, and started to talk. Readis’
parent’s wanted Readis to have nothing to do with the dolphins and tried to
make him forget, but Readis wouldn’t and one day he went out with the dolphins
to swim, and got a thorn in his foot which crippled his leg. His parents,
especially his mom would never forgive the dolphins and forbid Readis from
seeing them, even though they tried to warn him about the thorn, which they
discovered, using a type of sonar. Readis spent most of his time at school,
which was a big honor (only a few people are allowed to go to school). He makes
some new friends at the school, like T’Lion the dragon rider, and Avias, the
computer from the past which the ancients used, but he still wanted to learn
more about the dolphins, so defying his parents he runs away to become a
Dolphineer. He finds a nice spot where the dolphins can swim into if they needed
any help or just wanted to play. Even with the dolphins, Readis wonders if his
parents miss him at all. During a storm many dolphins are injured and Readis, is
one of the few people who knows how to sew dolphins back up. Because of his
brave efforts the Tillek, which is kind of like a king to the dolphins, comes
and gives him his Dolphineer status with a big coronation. All of his friends
are there, and even his mom and dad. A passage that really got to me was when
Readis and his friend T’Lion had to sew up a dolphin, because its intestines
were falling out. "’Wait a minute. I’m looking…" T’Lion
riffled through the pages of the boo, which he kept well above the water and any
splashes. "Oooo! Ugh!" He paused, lowering the book slightly to pear
at something. "Ah, here. Human intestines." He bent down to peer at
the injured [Dolphin]." I found this passage to be very important, because
this is where T’ Lion and Readis discover that they have what it takes to be a
dolphineers. I chose this book because I have heard good things about the series
of books and this was one of the first one, so I decided to give it a try. I
liked this book because it was very interesting and had some pretty cool parts
in it. It shows how different species can live together in a society. This was a
cool book because it mixed some Earth customs with fantasy and it turned out
wonderful.