User:P64/FSF/Dragonlover's Guide to Pern

The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern is a contribution to the science fiction chronicles of Pern by Jody Lynn Nye with Anne McCaffrey, the creator of that fictional planet. It is a large format companion book illustrated by Todd Cameron Hamilton and James Clouse, published by the Del Rey Books imprint of Ballantine, the original US publisher of most Pern books.

The first edition Guide was published in 1989, the revised edition in 1997 with 35 pages of new material and about 171 pages reprinted. Nine of the 24 Pern books, as we know the series today, before the first edition Guide, five more before the revised edition, and ten subsequently.

Following publication of Renegades, All the Weyrs, Chronicles, Dolphins, and Red Star Rising (US title Dragonseye).

Dragonlover's was not the first series companion book for the Dragonriders of Pern or for Jody Lynn Nye.

1a. The Atlas of Pern Karen Wynn Fonstad itself a sequel to her The Atlas of Middle-earth

b. two gamebooks by Nye

c. People of Pern illustrations by Robin Wood

2. Nye, Hamilton, and Clouse had worked with Piers Anthony ...

Illustrators Hamilton and Clouse had also worked with Roger Zelazny, author of the Chronicles of Amber, on Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Amber (Avon, 1988)

Todd and Gigi Johnson (McCaffrey's two younger children, now Todd McCaffrey and Georgeanne Kennedy). Twenty years later they are two who may write in her Pern universe.

According to Nye's introduction, in fall 1987 she spent "ten days in Anne McCaffrey's living room" along with editor Bill Fawcett, illustrator Hamilton, Anne's son Todd Johnson, and the dragonlady herself. all discussing Pern and Hamilton sketching under AIM's direction
 * At that time eight of McCaffrey's Pern books had been published. Two more were finished during the course of this project, Dragonsdawn and The Renegades of Pern, the latter published in the same month as the Guide.
 * This is a companion volume to her work, intended to help you visualize the setting and background for her chronicles. Todd [Hamilton] and Jim Clouse have contributed over a hundred pieces of art, and Todd Johnson, Anne's son and a pilot, has included a well-researched, definitive article on the Fighting Wings.

Late in the eighties Nye wrote six companion books for the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey and the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. The first four were "Crossroads Adventures" gamebooks, two set on Pern and two in Xanth. Then simultaneously November 1989, Ballantine Books published The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern by Nye with McCaffrey and Avon Books published Piers Anthony's Visual Guide to Xanth by Nye and Anthony. Todd Cameron Hamilton and James Clouse were the illustrators for both Guides, as Hamilton had been for Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Amber published by Avon one year earlier.

For the Pern guide, Nye explained in the introduction, her team had visited McCaffrey two years earlier, for ten days. In the living room Nye, editor Bill Fawcett (Nye's husband), illustrator Hamilton, and McCaffrey's son Todd Johnson discussed Pern with its creator and Hamilton sketched under her direction. They produced "a companion volume to her work, intended to help you visualize the setting and background for her chronicles."

Before the Pern guide was finished, Nye was working with McCaffrey on a novel, presumably The Death of Sleep (1990) in the Planet Pirates Series. In the next few years they collaborated in three series based on McCaffrey stories from the 1960s and 1970s.

Contents
Both editions, 1989 and 1997 New in the revised edition, 1997
 * (Acknowledgments)
 * (Contents)
 * Introduction
 * Overview
 * Fit for Human Habitation
 * The Red Star
 * From Dragonets to Dragons
 * Weyrlings — including "The Impression", a short story by JLN & AIM, 44-52
 * Training and Fighting Dragons — by Todd Johnson, pp. 54-65
 * Threadfall Charts
 * Fort, the First Hold
 * Benden, the Second Weyr
 * Holds, Crafthalls, and Weyrs
 * Pronunciation Guide to Names on Pern
 * (Sources)
 * The End of Thread
 * Life After Thread
 * Dolphineers
 * New Life for the Dragons
 * Dragons and Their Riders — index of people, dragons, and important fire-lizards
 * (Index) — familiar to Pern readers

Pern companions

 * The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern. New York: Ballantine, 1989, by Jody Lynn Nye with Anne McCaffrey. ISBN 0-345-35424-9. Second edition 1997, ISBN 0-345-41274-5. — Pern geography, society, flora, fauna, etc, including information not in the previously published fiction.

(c) Bill Fawcett and Associates


 * People of Pern (1988) by Robin Wood and Anne McCaffrey. ISBN 0-89865-6354 — portraits and other illustrations


 * The Atlas of Pern (1984) by Karen Wynn Fonstad. ISBN 0-345-31432-8 ISBN 0-345-31434-4 — authorized "Pernography" including annotated maps; illustrated descriptions of Weyrs, Holds, and Halls; chronologies; and more.

(rellim) Hans, also known as Elrhan, Master Archivist [Hans van der Boom]. MoM Staff. Meeting of Minds: An Anne McCaffrey discussion forum. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
 * Dragonharper (Aug 1987), gamebook by Jody Lynn Nye
 * Dragonharper: A Crossroads Adventure in the World of Anne McCaffrey's Pern, TOR books first printing August 1987. ISBN 0-812-56404-9
 * illus TCH (7
 * 176 game sections, no page#
 * "Years before the publication of The Masterharper of Pern, Anne gave Jody permission to write this book. It tells of Robinton’s years as journeyman Harper making his first journey to Benden, if he (read: you) fails at his tasks and problems that present themselves on this journey, he and the Harper Hall be disgraced (and you will lose the game)! Especially nice about this book I found to be the description of life on board of a Pernese ship.
 * "The book has a nicely written preface by Anne herself, the 'regular' introduction to Pern and an Introduction and Rules to Crossroads ™ Adventures by Jody’s husband Bill Fawcett.
 * Collecting Highlight (34) - Dragonharper and Dragonfire by Jody Lynn Nye


 * Dragonfire (1988), gamebook by Jody Lynn Nye
 * Dragonfire: A Crossroads Adventure in the World of Anne McCaffrey's Pern, TOR books first printing July 1988, ISBN 0-812-56423-5
 * illus TCH (10
 * 125 game sections, no page#
 * "This story tells us about Mirrim, who is being accused of stealing newly discovered artifacts from Landing (Hargreaves mentions: “from the Southern Wastes”). The adventure of course is, that Mirrim must prove she is innocent and to do that she must find the real culprit.

Nye and team
According to WikiPedia Xanth, Nye simultaneously did Encyclopedia of Xanth (1987, by Jody Lynn Nye) a Crossroads Adventure role-playing game book. ... and simultaneously did Ghost of a Chance (1988) ; set in the world of Xanth —#8 and #12 in the Tor Books (Tom Doherty Associates) series, Pern being #1 and #13

ISFDB: the three Pern and three Xanth works 1987/88/89 were her first six books. Next 1990 Ireta2 with Anne McCaffrey (Jul) and Mythology 101 (Feb); next co-works with McCaffrey Doona2 1992 and Ship5 1994


 * 1) 1988 Crossroads Adventure and Combat Command Amber books
 * James Clouse also, perhaps maps and additional illustrations(diagrams?)
 * 1) 1988 Crossroads Adventure and Combat Command Amber books
 * James Clouse also, perhaps maps and additional illustrations(diagrams?)

ISFDB credits Hamilton with co-author for Amber; interior art for Pern and Xanth (both with Clouse, also Ringworld 1994); cover art for Amber and Pern (incl 2d ed)