The Oldtimers

[Reisheiruhime]

Ya know, those guys? Well, do you think Lessa made a mistake in bringing them, or was that a good choice?

[dlbpharmd]

It was the only choice she could make - and it was a good one. Benden could not have continued to protect Pern from thread at the pace that they were going.

[dANdeLION]

Lessa made the only choice she could have. Given the clues she had were all from the past, and not the future, then I have to assume that though she may have doubted the wisdom later on in her life, she never did so much as to go back and warn her past self against doing it.

[dlbpharmd]

Oh my gosh! Someone posted in the McCaffrey forum!

Welcome, dAN!

[aTOMiC]

I agree with dAN and dlbpharmd. Having finally finished reading Dragonflight I now understand that the situation was clearly hopeless without the assistance of the "Oldtimers" so to speak. I often thought that using time travel in that way would tend to damage the space time continuum in some fashion. I intend to read the following books to see if McCaffery touches on possible negative consequences of manipulating people, dragons and equipment to alter the present or the future of Pern.

[dlbpharmd]

Happy reading, Tom.

I have read all of McCaffrey's Pern books, and I enjoyed them all.

[dANdeLION]

Tom, you'll see that the Oldtimers end up being a lot of trouble. Still, the Thread would have been worse, and not all Oldtimers were trouble; in fact, I think even without the Thread factor, more good was done than harm by bringing the Oldtimers to the present. While some were stuck in their traditions, they also brough a lot of forgotton knowledge that was very important.

[Dragonlily]

I agree, there was no other viable option. The Oldtimers, arrogance and all, were essential. Without them, F'lar and his little Weyr would one by one have died fighting and the North Continent would have become a boiling gray mass of thread.

[Edge]

Exactly. No matter what might develop in the future, she really had no feasible alternatives.