If you have entered the Dark Academia world of Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean tales, the dragons that the Riders Quadrant hope to bond with have a long-revered antecedent in Fantasy/Science Fiction. Inspired by the influential writer/editor Judith Merill, Anne McCaffrey created a massive series compiling over two millennia of history about the Dragonriders of Pern over her entire life.
A Radcliffe graduate in Slavonic Languages and Literature from a military family, Anne McCaffrey gravitated toward Science Fiction writing in the 1950's. However many prizes she won for her short stories, McCaffrey could not get past the women in these texts, always being the proverbial "damsel in distress." She not only wanted to write about aliens, she wanted to write about fighting them and surviving as they (typically) wrecked the environment.
Becoming a full-time writer in 1965, McCaffrey wrote two prescient short stories about a group of colonists from Earth who wind up on the distant planet Pern (an acronym for "Parallels Earth, Resources Negligible") in the Rukbat system. 1967's "Weyr Search" laid the foundation for these travelers and their quest to establish civilization. After its appearance in the October 1967 issue of "Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact," McCaffrey became the first woman to win Science Fiction's prestigious Hugo Award in 1968. Its two-part followup, "Dragonrider" would lead to her becoming the first woman to be awarded the Nebula in 1969.
Capitalizing on her success (and wisely writing to include the budding YA readership,) McCaffrey incorporated both stories into July 1968's novel "Dragonflight." Using the prologue to explain the complex history of Pernise residents taking to the caves to avoid the dangerous microorganism-based threat Thread dropping from the sky, we learn that they built systems to grow and preserve crops, maintain a suitable population, govern via a skills-based hierarchy, and (most importantly) use time-travelling dragons as defense.
Lessa is a drudge. Just another young lady born to do the necessary work to make the Hold where they reside better. However, the Hold in Ruatha has not been in the best of hands - if any. There are no real crops to harvest. Life is barely continuing amid the unclean rooms where spiders descend from their ceiling webs much like the aforementioned threat. All around her, Lessa is mentally battered and ignored.
The so-called leader of the kingdom, Fax, is combing the territory in search of something. Fax, his aide d'camp F'lar and their entourage have arrived to a rude awakening. The food is intolerable. The accommodations were cold and unwelcoming. It is no wonder that Fax destroyed the study of any myths that would keep this place alive - he committed an act here a long time ago that practically suffocated the Hold.
There is a force here. Fax is drawn to it. F'lar and F'Nor sense it ("the watch-wher is hiding something.") Mnementh and the other dragons practically lead them to it. At this cobbled-together dinner there are several "disturbances." Primarily, Fax's paramour Lady Gemma is pregnant and feeling the kind of pains that can no longer be hidden from the coterie. Amid Fax's growing anger and its expected boiling over, the dragons have a reaction outside that can only be explained as "at the sunset, at a flock of passing wherries, at mealtimes." They are clearly living in times where what sounds passed out, probably is not.
Lessa felt a presence as well. In trying not to think about Fax, she was only reminded of the horrific thoughts of him murdering her family. As it turns out, Lessa had purposefully left the windows cracked and started no fire. A dream at dawn told her that he was returning to try to take the Hold once again. As she struggles with the ultimate revenge, we learn that she has a little hidden ability to communicate with the animals, specifically the watch-wher who is related to the mighty dragons that soar in the skies above.
Dragonmen were still human, and there was Weyr blood in her veins. It was the same color blood as that of anyone else; enough of hers had been spilled to prove that.
Without no blows, weapons brandished, or even cruel words, McCaffrey has established the protagonist and antagonist. Around both of them swirl a world of conflict. Both have secrets that are about to be discovered. However, we know that only one actually is the physical inheritance of the power that guided Pern during better days. We sense that this battle is the continuation of generations of conflict that will likely outlive them.
McCaffrey did not have to resort to writing under a male nom de plume, and still took advice from her fellow Fantasy/Science Fiction writers. For instance, the great John W. Campbell (who published the first two stories) asked that when she transferred these to "Dragonflight," she added some detail about what it is like to fight off Thread and time travel. The unpublished third short story "Crack Dust, Black Dust" was written to try it out. Eventually, McCaffery held out that her heroic prose and the majesty of dragons and medieval lifestyle would be enough for readers.
McCaffrey's real fight would be to have her work recognized as more than the newly fashioned subgenre of Fantasy. While she took that designation as a part of her process, McCaffrey wanted to be known as a "Science Fiction writer who added Fantasy." For instance, the existence of dragons on Pern is not constructed around some mythical evolution. McCaffrey explains early on that the inhabitants "genetically engineered" their phosphine-breathing dragons.
By 1978, McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series was widely popular as the completion of the original trilogy, "The White Dragon," was among the first Science Fiction books to ever make the vaunted New York Times best seller list. Over twenty-four books (including some with her son Todd at the helm with her ideas,) the Pern series has been consistently entertaining generations even after losing the second female Grand Master of Science Fiction to a stroke in 2011.
NEW MUSIC THIS WEEK
MEGADETH [GLASS EMBER LP/CD/CS](BLKIIBLK/Frontiers)
And then there were three. Metal's Big Four says sayonara to the speed-limit breaking, boundary-shattering Megadeth with their self-titled eighteenth album. 50 million albums ago in 1981, Slayer was just starting, Anthrax was cutting their teeth, and Dave Mustaine was in Metallica. His firing created the fire for Mustaine's legendary run in the Big Four. Twelve Grammy nominations later and "Megadeth" is still firing on all cylinders. With lead guitarist Teemu Mantysaari handling the high-wire solos (check the shred on the chugging "Tipping Point,") Mustaine is grinding out guttural anger ("I Don't Care") that smacks of "Peace Sells" and Eighties-style rippers like "Let There Be Shred" like it was 1981 yet again. "Megadeth" is not necessarily a celebration of their music but a continuation of their command.
It's a Megadeath Mega-Weekend with the premiere listening party for "Megadeth" at T-BONES on Friday, January 23rd.
THE FORMAT - Boycott Heaven [BLUE LP/CREAM LP/CD/CS](The Format/Virgin)
You probably know The Format for who they became in opposition to who they are. Before the major success of fun., Nate Ruess was the sweet voice of the crunchy Pop of this Arizona band. With his musical collaborator Sam Means, The Format went from Phoenix radio stars to an Elektra contract in the early 2000s. Reviving the band as adults, "Boycott Heaven" is primarily an observation of their inspiration from now-in-fashion Nineties Alt. Rock. The title track is emotional LOUDquietLOUD balladry driven by booming riffs. "Depression" is a post-Grunge surprise that easily would have been a hit in 1992. Still, The Format are looking back at their lives, so the struggle to get along ("Holy Roller") is neatly mixed with the sweetness of a life lived to its fullest ("Right Where I Belong") all delivered with that "How did we get here again?" wonder.
KINGS OF LEON - EP#2 [RED LP](Love Tap/Virgin)
CAT POWER - Redux EP [10" LP](Domino)
The Followill Brothers return to their jagged, nervy roots on this simply titled EP. Four songs that throw back to the early years where "Holy Roller Novacaine" and its locomotive drive were their guiding force. Still, the brothers are writing as maturely as possible ("In Space") and much of the thrust of the EP echoes their biggest hits from "Only By The Night."
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of her album "The Greatest" (and continuing her tradition as the Indie Rock song interpreter,) Chan Marshall gives two covers from James Brown and Prince, plus one unreleased song ("Could We") with her massive Dirty Delta Blues band including Judah Bauer, Gregg Foreman, and Jim White.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS - World's Gone Wrong [BLUE LP/LTD CD](Thirty Tigers/The Orchard)
The grand dame of Americana is back. "World's Gone Wrong" revisits the Lucinda of her early years (when there was no Americana, or even the less catchy Y'allternative.) Like the bluesy swagger of her Rough Trade years, the title track combines that Stax Records-snap with woozy Replacements-esque happy-in-this-sadness. Joined by Brittney Spencer, Mavis Staples, and Norah Jones, Williams is entering her Seventies with the same Country/Rock zoom she brought the world with her self-titled blast in 1988.
POPPY - Empty Hands [BLUE/PINK LP/CD](Sumerian/Virgin)
Poppy's seventh album follows her best-selling album yet ("Negative Spaces,") Grammy nomination (singing with Knocked Loose on the still-obliterating "Suffocate,") and biggest radio single ever ("End of You" with Amy Lee of Evanescence and Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox.) Since she has turned her stage show into performance art, the recordings have become more aggressive ("Bruised Sky") as she casts her singing ("Guardian") against a brutal roar. With the Industrial trimmings and the emotional Pop hooks (the beat-driven "Unravel" where the scream is wisely buried in the mix,) Poppy continues to wait for that big hit to push her over the top.
GLAIVE - Y'ALL [2LP](Glaive)
Sometimes the time on a major label is less of a lesson in success and more in working within limits. Glaive makes his peace with his "sadboy" persona with an album that pulls in EDM and Hip-Hop beats for a uptempo rollercoaster ride. On cuts like "Asheville," "Foreigner," and "We Don't Leave The House," it is fun to hear his gasping singing try to outrun sequencers and machines. While on the downtempo "Bluebirds," Glaive feels the need to speed up his delivery and eventually settle into a Pop chorus that dwells with you. However, it is the beat-driven Hip-Hop looping of "Veni Vidi Vici" that richly deserves to break out with its soft breaks and Glaive rap/singing behind the album's whip-riding groove especially with the array of "I Just Can't" leading him toward a final decision.
ARI LENNOX - Vacancy [WHITE LP/CD](Dreamville/Interscope)
KATIE TUPPER - Greyhound [LP/CD](Arts and Crafts CAN)
With Valentine's Day on the way, here are two stunning R&B-based singers for your love-soaked listening. Ari Lennox has a Gold debut ("Shea Butter Baby") and some hit singles (the Disco-y "Pressure" still has its groove.) For album three, "Vacancy" is about transition and pushing her R&B away from everyone else. Classic Motown grooves meet sturdy Hip-Hop beats (think Nineties ballads.) However, her true jawdropper is the Doo Wop-meets-modern Hip-Hop on the wailing Werewolf transition of "Under The Moon." It drips with attitude and reckless abandon as she pulls closer to succumbing to its horror-movie lyrics. One of the best singles of 2026.
If Chappell Roan is serious about heading to Saskatchewan, she needs to scoop up this husky, breathy alto singer from there and bring her to us. Apologies to all the Pop queens who work out their voices with R&B-laced jams and that patented Hip-Hop-based lyrical gait. Tupper can do more with so much less. "Original Thoughts" and "Jeans" are based around a slinky drum beat and a little chord on guitar or piano. Tupper dominates them both. This is music that knows when you arrive at the chorus, you will be tugging at your clothes and biting your bottom lip. When she speeds up ("Right Hand Man") and doubles her voice, you can hear the Pop queens sit up and pay attention to her trills and how she smooths out her falsetto. Tupper is yet another Canadian import ready for our mass consumption.
VINCE GUARALDI TRIO - Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown [RED HEART LP](LMFP/ThinkIndie)
Speaking of Valentine's Day, the Seventies Charlie Brown TV specials and movies remain a fantastic source for Jazz evolving into an ideal score genre to maintain a variety of moods. In his studio, Guaraldi explored a handful of themes including wispy, heart tugging melodies (with cool Rhodes and a hint of Synth) as well as Classical variations (Chopin, Bach) and the time-tested "Linus and Lucy."
TONI BRAXTON - Toni Braxton/Secrets/The Heat [LP](Legacy)
With a career spanning over 30 years, Toni Braxton was the R&B singer of the early Nineties thanks to these three albums. L.A. Reid and Babyface went clinical in their design of Braxton as the next in lineage from Phyllis Hyman ("Another Sad Love Song") and Anita Baker ("Breathe Again.") Her second smoldering album "Secrets" called back to Motown as well as forward to the bump n'grind dominance coming to Adult R&B Radio even today. However, it was the big sell/Diane Warren ballad "Unbreak My Heart" that saw her almost out-Whitney Whitney. Following a lengthy and costly court case, "The Heat" saw Braxton entering 2000 as an uptempo R&B/Hip-Hop singer ready for guests like Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes and Dr. Dre. By this time, Braxton was ready for a major change that included acting and headlining at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. For the Nineties, Braxton ruled the R&B and Pop charts presaging that future R&B stars would need to immediately be prepared to be multi-hyphenates.
Various - SO HIGH I'VE BEEN: EUROPEAN ROCK 1967-1973 [3CD](Grapefruit/Cherry Red)
In the Sixties, we talk a lot about how much music saw its evolution through social change and an "unknowing" imitation of the most popular artists of the day. ("Unknowing" because lyrics, musical charts, and a variety of performances were not available for quick study as they are today.) When Rock N'Roll burst out of America in 1957, and the Beatles plus the British Invasion made certain it was worldwide, Europe caught on to both significant waves in the late Sixties. As more of a reflection of the overwhelming sea change in youth culture, these singles are the music that was both a reaction and a necessity. The Dutch were especially varied in their contributions with dramatic psychedelia from Q65, a new wave of Frug-ready Pop from Shocking Blue, and oblique Beatlesque Pop from Tages. The Garage band Group 1850 started as a wild-haired Garage band only to morph into the Netherlands first Prog Rockers on the abstract but rewarding "Mother No-Head." In Italy, Equipe 84 layered their harmonies, as Germany's Tangerine Dream were taking their Can-like grooves in Electronics. As the Seventies dawned, the French joined in the fray with the wah-wah space blues of Ame Son and the very post-Freakbeat Psychedelia of Alice. As "So High" traverses into the Seventies, Prog splinters into welcome additions from Gong, Necronomicon, Magma, and PFM before ending with the biggest Dutch export of all, Golden Earring and their immortal road song "Radar Love."
SEAROWS - Death In The Business of Whaling [GOLD LP/CD](Communion)
Alec Duckart is a new brand of singer/songwriter. While there is a definite vulnerability in his high croon, his quavering Elliott Smith-isms and wordless choruses harken back to British Folk. His haunted Iron & Wine-ish breakdowns ("Photograph of A Cyclone") are stories of love eroding and him wanting a reaction. Any reaction. When he does not get it, and we do not either - wordless choruses are implication, compliance, and indifference all at once. The smoother, almost soulful Folk of "Dirt" is closer to his earlier songs that caught the attention of Gracie Abrams and Ethel Cain.
CRYSTAL LAKE - The Weight of Sound [LP/CD](Crystal Lake)
ALL HELL - Sunsetter [CD](Terminus Hate City)
Japanese Metal/HC/Punk is often a wild ride because of how much these artists tend to ramp up the chaos. Japanese Metalcore band Crystal Lake introduce a different blend of chaos into their galloping, thunderous rippers. The title track twists and turns around Hardcore riffage before dissolving into double-kick madness - and that is after an anthemic slow opening (which one would imagine is how they kick off their shows.) As all good overseas artists trying to break into the States, Crystal Lake takes their pick of some choice guests. Weirdly even though they skillfully use members of Signs of the Swarm and Killswitch Engage, it is Myke Terry of Volumes that contributes the most thrills to the head-spinning drums and guitar chug of "Neversleep." Their seventh album over twenty years delivers an explosive Stateside introduction.
Asheville, NC's All Hell deserve far more than 850 monthly listeners for their variations on Black Metal. With the understandable and Venom-ous vocals, "Sunsetter" steers into some Eighties/Nineties Black Metal (the brutal opener "The Violent Brood") as well as some mid-period Entombed-style groove/slam on the title track and "The Ancients Rise." All Hell use their Thrash ideas as a point to leap into new variants. "Behold The Night" dares to combine busy double-kick runs, stops with a bridge and synth break (!) before sailing away into what could be a solo, but this trio uses it for a brief rideout. Clever arrangements and new frontiers in black-and-white sound await you.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
