User:P64/FSF/Pern

subpages

/Infoboxes

urgent save 2011-11-09 16:30


 * Ballantine/Del Rey began to use the heading "Dragonriders of Pern" in the 1980s, in the front endpapers of its books by Anne McCaffrey.
 * Ballantine/Del Rey did not market new Pern books as part of The Dragonriders of Pern --on their front covers-- until Dragonsblood 2005, the first solo effort by Todd McCaffrey.

.
The Minuteman Public Library Network catalog apparently provides links to online reviews.

ISFDB Wiki

Poor stuff at Wikipedia
 * Crafthalls of Pern
 * Holds of Pern
 * Weyr

TO DO (Dragonsong 2011-10-19)
 * does geography include architecture buildings at the scale of one Hall or one Hold?
 * fictional fictitious
 * ASK about capsule reviews via the MMLN catalog
 * check the old sources

Infobox The first seven Pern books were published before The Atlas of Pern (1984), an authorized companion by Karen Wynn Fonstad in consultation with AIM. As such their geographical settings are illustrated in the book, in the large and small (peninsulas to buildings), and their chronologies are explicitly presented in a page or two each.
 * Lead
 * Origins
 * Plot (fictional background and summary)
 * Chronology
 * Acknowledgments
 * Notes; References; External links (categories)

novellas

 * WeyrSearch 8-
 * illustrations 8-9 (map 10 essay 11) 42-43 58-59

Legends 11; lessa awoke, cold 12-14. f'lar on bronze mnementh High Reaches 14-22; Ruatha 23-47 (night); (day) Benden Weyr, hatching 47-61. That's much of two days without sleep.
 * Dragonriders 8-61
 * illustrations 8-9 24-25 50-51

opens at council after witness at Star Stones; F'lar ultimatum R'gul. This is early morning of Lessa's first flight between and flights between times to Ruatha, and F'lar's confirmation of that capability, also to himself at age 15, R'gul's succession Weyrleader 8-32. records & clutching, hatching 33-42. blackdust, threadfall over Nerat, Keroon; tomorrow Lords Council & s Continent inspection; F'nor's warning visit 43-61.
 * part 2
 * illustrations 112-13 130-31 part 136-37 part

Synopsis 114; continue 114-; council 117-124 (F'nor second appearance) one dragonet at service of each Lord; 124 F'nor 125 Robinton 129 Southern (how?)

boilerplate
Seven Pern books including The White Dragon were published before The Atlas of Pern (1984), a companion book produced by Karen Wynn Fonstad in consultation with McCaffrey. Their geographical settings from peninsulas to stables are illustrated by maps and other drawings and their chronologies are explicitly presented in the Atlas.
 * Chronology

(need same re Dragonlover's Guide)

insert section Chronology citing Chron, Maps, and Drawings in the Atlas of Pern

the "Red Star", an erratic planet that periodically brings a biological menace from space.
 * Red Star (setting around the nth Pass of
 * ref group=n ==Notes==

The period of the so-called Red Star is 250 years, and all Pern fiction is set just before or during a Pass, roughly a multiple of 250 years "After Landing" (AL). Prior to First Fall, McCaffrey set six books in the Ninth Pass, about 2500 AL; followed by two in the Sixth Pass, about 1500 AL; then Dragonsdawn and two more in the Ninth Pass. (See the complete list of stories in Pern historical time.) • Landing and events of the First Pass were universally forgotten, and the higher knowledge of the colony entirely lost, long before the Sixth Pass.
 * /ref

which comprises 24 books by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey as of summer 2011.
 * 24 books
 * ref group=n ==Notes==

The 24 books are distinct: they exclude omnibus editions and the separate publication as books of the longest works later collected or incorporated.
 * /ref

such as A Time When incorporated in The White Dragon.

it was the third to appear in the Dragonriders of Pern series as it is known today.
 * nth Dragonriders of Pern
 * ref

. Retrieved 2011-10-09. • Select a title to see its linked publication history and general information. Select a particular edition (title) for more data at that level, such as a front cover image or linked contents. Note the "Dragonriders" and "Harper Hall" subseries.
 * /ref

fantasy or science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey.
 * American-Irish
 * ref

McCaffrey has lived in the vicinity of Dublin, Ireland since September 1970, when she emigrated from greater New York City at age 44, with the second Pern book (Dragonquest) nearing completion and a contract for the third. • Todd McCaffrey (1999). Dragonholder: The Life and Dreams (So Far) of Anne McCaffrey by her son. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-42217-1. Pages 54–55, 68–71, 74.
 * /ref

DONE Am-Irish, DoP, 24 books
 * First Fall, A Gift
 * Harper Hall
 * original trilogy

.
Menolly
 * E Malczynski (2) (better DSong wraparound)]; (better DSinger wraparound); DDrums medallion)
 * V Poyser (M & P omnibus)
 * Rowena M (2 + Peimur)
 * Call (ISFDB DSong http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518FTMH4C8L.jpg DSinger http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513KPJ58CXL.jpg)
 * Yuen (ISFDB - too small to detect M

UK
 * D Roe (2, tiny M) - also Get Off & White D
 * S Weston - new HH art, only DDrums on display
 * L Edwards (2, tiny M) - also White D

France
 * Didier Thimonier (2 + Piemur)
 * Wojtek Siudmak (2) - not evidently Menolly

look alike?
 * Malczynski DSinger, front teen and back child
 * Roe (small); maybe also Edwards (even more challenging)

NOT
 * Marcellino (ISFDB DSong http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/ec/26/f3d6a2c008a062c4629b6010.L.jpg DSinger http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/7b/59/115f808a8da0fb522aa38110.L.jpg
 * Rowena 2 redhead
 * Call 2 redhead
 * Thimonier 2 black (dark skin, short hair)
 * Siudmak 2 long brunette, but naked beauties
 * Poyser beauty


 * Dragonsong
 * Dragonsinger
 * Dragondrums

First US
 * hard, Fred Marcellino
 * DSong Mar76, DSinger Feb77, DDrums Mar79
 * paper, Elizabeth Malczynski (website) at Pern.NL
 * DSong May77, DSinger Oct78, DDrums Feb80
 * (not credited acc ISFDB) "Cover artist is uncredited. No visible signature. Source of the credit is the artist's website"
 * omni, Victoria Poyser at Pern.NL
 * Jul 84 The Harper Hall of Pern Doubleday SFBD
 * WARNING Google books mentions 1979 omnibus not in ISFDB: "All three books were collected in The Harper Hall of Pern (Doubleday, 1979)." (and shows a distinct cover)

Later US
 * paper, Rowena Morrill at Pern.NL DSong Mar86 DSinger Apr86 DDrums May86
 * paper, Greg Call DSong,DSinger,Drums Apr03
 * paper, Sammy Yuen, Jr. DSong,DSinger,DDrums Jun08

First UK
 * hard, Colin Saxton at Pern.NL (missing at ISFDB) — "Anne has stated in at least two interviews (first in 1983, and the other much more recently) that Colin Saxton's dragons most closely capture her own image of Pernese dragons."
 * DSong Oct76?, DSinger Jul77(none at ISFDB), DDrums
 * paper, David Fairbrother Roe (website) at Pern.NL (missing at ISFDB)
 * DSong 1978(noname at ISFDB) DSinger 1978 DDrums 1981

Later UK
 * paper, Steve Weston (ill.) at Pern.NL DSong 1993
 * DDrums 1982 Corgi ppb his first Pern commission; Pern.NL displays DDawn, DFlight, DQuest(from UK boxed set), Drums ""I designed the dragon to look as if it would actually be able to fly: stable and light, with a large wing area. Once established, this type of dragon was used on all the other dragon paintings done for Anne McCaffrey. The original concept was therefore very important."

Les Edwards at Pern.NL re-covered DSong, DSinger, WhiteD (all on display); First Fall/DDawn omnibus (on display); and many recent books


 * The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

major revision done 2011-10-15; STORIES NEED WORK


 * A Gift of Dragons

major revision done 2011-10-15; STORIES NEED WORK

ISFDB displays US cover for both editions

ISFDB specific listing for the first edition identifies interior illustrator Tom Kidd, among other things

draft text
The 7th Pern book
 * Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Moreta was the last Pern book published before The Atlas of Pern (1984), an authorized companion by Karen Wynn Fonstad in consultation with McCaffrey. As such its chronology is explicitly presented in the Atlas and its geographical settings are illustrated by maps and other drawings — from peninsulas to buildings.

The first six Pern books —the "original" Dragonriders trilogy and the young-adult Harper Hall trilogy— were all set just before or during the "Ninth Pass of the Red Star", the erratic planet that periodically brings a biological menace from space (Thread).

draft Ninth Pass
The 10th Pern book Renegades was the fourth with original cover art by Michael Whelan. Although his interpretation of skybroom trees (which survive threadfall) did not match her own, Anne McCaffrey liked the work so much that she purchased the original for her dining room [HvdB with photo]. The man in the forefront must be Jayge whom she modeled in name appearance and character(?) on a personal friend recently killed, John Greene. [Todd McCaffrey about 30 at the time of Greene's death calls Greene the first acquaintance whom AIM wrote into Pern entirely.]
 * Renegades of Pern

Renegades lacks a single plotline. It features the interplay of two problems, the Holdless and the Southern Continent. The Holdless are people who live outside of Hold, Crafthall, or Weyr. Some live outside by choice, others are the criminal element, those exiled unjustly (victims of oppression), and the children of any group.

The rediscovery of Pern's Southern Continent, the largest on Pern and the one originally selected for colonization (at Landing 2500 years ago), partly for its greater subtropical area. [By area, much or most of both large continents is polar or subpolar. The Northern is otherwise temperate, with cold winters, where the Southern is temperate and subtropical. There is not much dry land in the tropics. Relying on the Atlas of Pern, the first and only clear indication of latitude.

The 11th Pern book All the Weyrs continued the history of the "Ninth Pass" climaxing in the 21st year with the final solution to Threadfall ("imminent" in within 30 years when this Pass ends). The denouement is the deaths of both the Masterharper Robinton and the ancient artificial intelligence AIVAS, who have separately guided Pernese society back near the progressive yet utopian trajectory planned by the leading colonists.
 * All the Weyrs of Pern

In detail All the Weyrs continues both The White Dragon and Renegades of Pern insofar as their action is set on the rediscovered southern continent and they end within weeks or days. (Dolphins also continues the southern story of rediscovery and return to the early plans of the colonists but on a side track rather than the mainline of history where the world is at stake.)


 * The Dolphins of Pern
 * published without the Pern historical prologue

The 13th Pern book (and fourth primarily for Young Adults?) it is set on the Southern Continent near and mainly during the main action of All the Weyrs (1991). It spans more than seven years mainly in two parts, when the main character Readis is seven and when he is 14 or 15 years old. The stage was set in Renegades, whose later action occurs in the same part of the continent, with some of the same personnel (Readis' parents and their unofficial Paradise River Hold, approved at the end of Renegades). It also links with Dragonsong via Menolly and her brother Alemi as adults.

The fictional planet Pern was colonized more than 2500 years ago by 6000 people, 24 dolphins [species t.t.?] enhanced for human speech, along with flora and fauna and lesser fauna. In order to deal with Thread, a periodic biological menace from space, the human colony soon relocated initially to rocky strongholds, and lost contact with the dolphins. The prologue to Dolphins shows the loss from delphinic perspective 102 years after Landing.

The story features the rediscovery of dolphins by humans, soon after they have begun to rediscover the long-abandoned Southern Continent (whose north coast is subtropical or tropical). It is set midway in the Ninth Pass.

The 15th Pern book Masterharper of Pern turns back to the last fifty years of the Eighth Interval, featuring the biography of Robinton as a boy and musical prodigy through middle age as Masterharper, near the end of the Interval and at the beginning of the seminal Dragonflight. Robinton was Anne McCaffrey's favorite character, modeled in some respects upon her musical mentor F. [Dragonholder and Dedication]
 * The Masterharper of Pern

As for the Harper Hall trilogy, especially Dragonsinger, Masterharper is set primarily within the harper profession and largely at their Crafthall, which was long ago the College at Fort Hold. At the same time, the novel may be set more than any other everywhere in inhabited Pern. His mother fills some stations in the field during his boyhood and he visits most of the west and some of the east during his assignments as a young man and in his mature pursuit of affairs of state.

The 16th Pern book Skies of Pern is set a few years after All the Weyrs and Dolphins, the latest in Pern history and the last written by Anne McCaffrey alone. [A Gift of Dragons (2002) collected four stories by AIM but only one original, the others published 1973, 1986, 1998, and she later wrote one yet-uncollected story in 2003.] It features the capabilities of dragons --whose future, along with the Weyrs, is in doubt 30 years hence; the disposal of the Southern Continent --and perhaps the unknown Western; and the resistance movement, continuing All the Weyrs in all three respects. (See also Red Star?)
 * The Skies of Pern

The Skies acknowledges more scientists than any other, especially regarding collision with a cometand the resulting light show and tsunami. The painting by Les Edwards was the first used for both UK and US editions and it made him a celebrity [HvdB] although barely used in the cover design.

draft Third Pass
The 18th Pern book Dragon's Kin was the first co-authored by mother and son, Anne and Todd McCaffrey, age 77 and 47 at its release. It is set about a decade before the Third Pass, about 500 years after landing and 2000 years before the Ninth Pass featured in 12 of 17 previous books (all by Anne alone). Like Dragonsong the main characters are children. The protagonist Kindan would be a secondary character in Dragon's Fire and primary in Dragon Harper, the two following collaborations. The three books may be considered a children's trilogy at least so much as Harper Hall.
 * Dragon's Kin

In sharp contrast to Red Star, set at the onset of the Second Pass, this Pern is essentially that of the Sixth and Ninth Passes, 1000 and 2000 years later. The loss of historical records, decline of learning, and breakdown of equipment ... There is no longer any hint of Terran or colonial society that preceded "Hall, Hold, and Weyr". Dragonsdawn (First Pass) and Red Star (Second Pass) featured a transition essentially complete long before Dragon's Kin.
 * [To me it seems that the Harper/Healer Capiam in Moreta, 1000 years later, recovered more ancient knowledge pertaining to its influenza epidemic than did the adults in Dragon Harper.]

Although Hall, Hold, and Weyr are mature as institutions, the Northern Continent remains sparsely populated. Crom Hold is new and the mineral resources of the continent or planet are little known or exploited, even there to the north of Fort, the first refuge on the Continent.

Kindan is a boy in a new mining "Camp", not yet proven as a minor hold. His father keeps the Camp's watch-wher, a reptiloid relative of dragon and fire-lizard that may bond with a human at hatching (as fire-lizards may and dragons must). Although capable of flight and some threadfighting or transport at night, its role pertains to safety: early detection and prevention of or recovery from mining disasters --mainlhy in turn because of its extraordinary sensory capabilities in the dark.

Kindan's talent and early training for the Harper craft (music & learning) is frustrated by his father's death; he must succeed as keeper of Camp N's watch-wher. The camp is afflicted by petty crime (coal theft) and sabotage (a plot to gain control). Cooperating with the children, the watch-wher does prevent great loss of life, but only by working with a blind girl instead of Kindan, for her capacity in the dark (empathic and sensory) is greater than his. On the one hand, life is saved and a criminal plot mainly thwarted; on the other Kindan is freed from the interspecies bond and reponsibility to the mining community, to attend Harper Hall.

The 20th Pern book Dragon Fire was the second by Anne and Todd McCaffrey. It follows some of the young people of Dragon's Kin, including Kindan in a secondary role. It is set mainly in the same region, Crom and its borderlands, far north of Fort and the Harper Hall.
 * Dragon's Fire

The first of its two books features Pellar, a mute apprentice Harper with extraordinary skills at tracking and outdoor survival. Essentially he works as a spy for Harper Hall, gathering information about the holdless people of Pern --who range from criminals deliberately undercover to the orphan or abandoned children of adults who were outcast justly or otherwise years ago. Pellar's work takes him north to the threatened wher-hold (residence of a queen watch-wher) to meet both the endangered watch-whers and their wher-keepers, and also to the criminal element around Camp Natalon.

The second book concerns firestone, the phosphorus-bearing mineral (rock) necessary for draconic production of flame that "chars" Thread. [chemical warfare different from combustion?]. Firestone is mined like coal. It's more valuable and a critical shortage may be imminent. At once, Cristov of Natalon turns his attention from coal-mining to firestone-mining and the criminal element from petty theft of coal to corner of the firestone market --partly by deadly sabotage of working mines.
 * market for watch-wher eggs?

The tale also follows a degenerate Harper who set out on a mission to the holdless years ago. He leads a wandering group of children and youths but leads them to survival only by resort to petty crime. The paths of Pellar, the troup, the wherhold, and the Natalon criminals converge.

The resolutions are that the immediate threat to watch-whers is relieved, a safer form of Firestone is re-discovered, and a new "Firehold" is established to begin its mining and supply of the Weyrs, people by an amnesty for the holdless. Pellar the mute spay and Halla the holdless orphan girl become leaders of the new Hold.

The 21st Pern book Dragon Harper continues the biography of Kindan, protagonist of Dragon's Kin and a secondary character in Dragon's Fire (crucial to the reorganization of firestone supply and to saving the watch-whers). It begins when he is a new apprentice at the Harper Hall; as such some part of DH is contemporaneous with Dragon's Fire but the former covers a greater timespan.
 * Dragon Harper

Kindan and his friends among the new apprentices successfully navigate the bullies and turn the worst of them into an important friend an ally. By unfortunate accident, however, they are responsible for the destruction of some irreplaceable records, for which Kindan is expelled to service at Fort Hold (the stone city a short walk from the Harper Hall).
 * coming to love with Koriana, daughter of Lord Bemin

Influenza strikes in a devastating epidemic. Kindan is personally fortunate, although he loses the love of his young life. His personal courage or persistence, as well as his ingenuity, along with his incomplete training as a Healer (part of the course for all Harpers) mitigate the plague at Fort Hold and earn him the respect of most local survivors including Lord Bemin.

The 19th Pern book
 * Dragonsblood

The 22nd Pern book
 * Dragonheart (novel)

The 23rd Pern book
 * Dragongirl

Soon after the beginning of the Third Pass, in the aftermath of an epidemic disease that strikes dragons, and the disastrous loss at once of the entire Telgar Weyr. The crisis is familiar to readers: not enough dragons (as in the original Dragonflight).

The 24th Pern book and the last to date, Dragon's Time is a straight sequel to Dragongirl, continuing the action (508.7.21). Soon after the beginning of the Third Pass, in the aftermath of an epidemic disease that strikes dragons, and the disastrous loss at once of the entire Telgar Weyr. The crisis is familiar to readers: not enough dragons (as in the original Dragonflight).
 * Dragon's Time