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Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey,[lower-alpha 1] who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series (as of June 2011) comprises 22 novels and several short stories. Most of the short fiction has been collected in two volumes or incorporated in one of the novels, so Dragonriders of Pern is sometimes identified with the 24 books.[lower-alpha 2][1] Two of the novellas included in the first novel, Dragonflight made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula Award.[2]
There is disagreement[3] whether to classify some of the series as fantasy rather than science fiction and what to classify for children, youth, or adults. While the earlier novels in the series have elements also present in fantasy (low levels of technology, fire-breathing dragons, feudal societies), the prologue explains the events take place on a colony world. The first novel was originally serialized in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact (1967), and that magazine did not publish fantasy. The publisher (Del Rey) lists them as science fiction titles, and McCaffrey herself describes them as science fiction and stresses the scientific rationales behind the world she has created. In more recent novels, the series moves toward more overt science fiction as the colonists rediscover their links to the past and develop much higher levels of technology.[3]
Life on Pern as presented in the novels resembles a pre-industrial society with lords, holds, harpers (musicians, entertainers, and teachers), and dragons, with the occasional examples of higher technology (like flamethrowers, telegraphi, chemical fertilizers, and powerful microscopes and telescopes).
Pernese people are described as belonging to four basic groups: Weyrfolk (including Dragonriders) who live in the Weyrs, the Holders who live in the Holds (cities, towns and farms), the crafters who live in Crafthalls (or are assigned to work their crafts in certain Holds), and the Holdless who have no permanent home (including traders, displaced Holders, and brigands).
One of the main threats to Pernese civilization in the series is Thread, which is described as a mycorrhizoid spore that periodically rains down on the planet due to the orbit of the Red Star. The Red Star is set out to be a rogue planet in the Rukbat system. The Red Star, characterized as a "Sedna-class inner Oort cloud object", has a 250 Turn (or Pernese year) elliptic orbit around its sun. Thread can reach the planet Pern for about 50 Turns while the Red Star is at perihelion. Thread is described in this series as an agent that consumes organic material at a voracious rate, including crops, animals, and any humans in its path.
The Pernese use intelligent firebreathing dragons and their riders to fight Thread. The riders have a telepathic bond with their dragons, formed by Impression at the dragon's hatching. Later books deal with the initial colonization of Pern and the creation of the dragons through genetic manipulation. The lengthy (over two millennia) time period covered by the series as a whole allows room for new stories and characters, explored by each new novel released by the authors.
There are 22 Dragonriders of Pern novels and two collections of short stories through June 2011. Anne McCaffrey once requested reading the works in the order they were written. That differs greatly from Pern historical order, for several reasons. The McCaffreys have published stories set in several different periods of Pern's history from initial exploration to more than 2500 years after landing (AL). Multiple stories feature the same events from different viewpoints. Some stories feature travel between times, even across centuries. Todd McCaffrey, writing alone or with his mother, has specialized in an early time period.
Weyr Search won the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1968 and Dragonrider won the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1969. (Both were finalists for both awards.) Dragonquest, The White Dragon, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern and All the Weyrs of Pern were among the five annual finalists for the best novel Hugo Award.
These stories take place immediately before and during the Ninth Pass, about 2500 years after landing (AL).
The trilogy was released 1978 in omnibus edition titled The Dragonriders of Pern by Nelson Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club.[4]
These stories take place immediately prior to and concurrently with those depicted in Dragonquest and The White Dragon.
The Harper Hall trilogy was released 1984 in omnibus edition titled The Harper Hall of Pern by Nelson Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club.[5] Dragonsong was subtitled "Volume One of The Harper Hall Trilogy" on the front cover of the Bantam Spectra edition, March 1986.[6]
Since 2003, Anne McCaffrey and her middle child Todd McCaffrey have developed the history immediately before and during the Third Pass, about 500 years after landing (AL).
Weyr Search won the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1968 and Dragonrider won the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1969. (Both were finalists for both awards.) Dragonquest, The White Dragon, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern and All the Weyrs of Pern were among the five annual finalists for the best novel Hugo Award.
In 1991 Dragonflight, the first Pern book published, was released as a set of three graphic novels by Eclipse Books of Forestville, California. The first two were illustrated by Lela Dowling and Fred Von Tobel, the third by Lela Dowling and Cynthia Martin. The story was adapted by Brynne Stevens.
There is an 18 track CD of music relating to the important Teaching Ballads and the work of Masterharper Robinton, made in 1998 by Anglo-Alaskan duo Tania Opland and Mike Freeman in collaboration with Anne McCaffrey at her request. "The Masterharper of Pern" project began as an idea to include written music in the book of the same name, printed on the inner faces of the cover. By the time the composers had written and auditioned the early drafts at the author's table it was clear that making the songs a reality to their creator's satisfaction was finally possible. The CD project was completed some eighteen months later and released to the approval of the author and most fans of the series.
A second CD pertaining mainly to the work of Pern's other favourite harper, Menolly, was completed in December 2008. Entitled "Sunset's Gold," this features Opland and Freeman with a host of world class musicians from the USA and as far afield as Australia, and comprises twelve tracks of music recorded from 2006 through 2008. The CD includes the ballad, "Four Hundred Turns," written by Anne McCaffrey shortly after she completed "Dragonflight." It was placed in a desk drawer where it lay forgotten for almost forty years until the author rediscovered it just as the CD project was underway. It has never been seen or published before.
Songbooks are also available containing the music from each of these projects.
Information about the music of Pern can be found at : [2] or [3]
There have been several efforts to bring Pern to film. The first was by Alliance Atlantis which produced concept art. Development efforts failed and they eventually sold their rights.
There have been several games released based on the Pern series.
In 1983 Mayfair Games created a board game "Dragonriders of Pern" featuring cards with Pern characters and locations. This game is now rare and valuable to Pern collectors.
In 1983, Epyx released a video game "Dragonriders of Pern" for the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 in which the player could battle Thread and engage in diplomacy on Pern.
In 2001 a video game Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern was created by Ubisoft Entertainment for the PC and Dreamcast. This game follows a dragonrider as he Searches for young women to be candidates for Impressing a new gold dragon, and battles the "bad guys" on an adventure across Pern.
A number of online MUD-style games have been created exploring the Pern universe, most notably PernMUSH. These are unofficial and tend to centre on role-playing rather than combat.
In the Pern series, McCaffrey attempts to portray a society caught between its attempt to build a utopian dream and a grim and inescapable reality, which from the start forced exceptionally hard choices. The creation of the Dragons such that they were bound to aid humanity was certainly morally questionable – but they were also created to preserve human lives, and no other solution existed. Pragmatism can forgive many things, and this reality is one oft-learned on Pern, where proclaimed utopian traditions fall against the reality of simple day-to-day survival.
McCaffrey does allow a more utopian and progressive outlook to win out in the end, though the future of this society could be considered somewhat in doubt. Before the Ninth Pass, however, Pernese society was largely static, and many of its functions and features are open to review as an interesting case of a utopia trying to survive in conditions where it cannot.
Another repeated theme is the preservation of ideas and the generation of myths. On Pern, knowledge and cultural practices regarding Thread must persist for 200-year Intervals (see below) – a period of time nearly as long as the United States has existed – without the immediate presence of the organism to prompt remembrance. In that time, facts can become legends and societal practices can appear to be meaningless tradition. As McCaffrey herself asks to open the first story "Weyr Search" (see below): "When is a legend legend? Why is a myth a myth? How old and disused must a fact be for it to be relegated to the category: Fairy tale?"
Pernese society exhibits the usual organizational characteristics of feudalism, but shows a certain specific leaning towards utopianism which is worthy of some review to understand the series' context. The social structure on Pern is strictly divided between Hold, Hall, and Weyr, respectively comparable to the medieval triune of Nobility, Guild, and Church. The Pernese themselves consider this structure an ideal organization meant to avoid the violence and excess of their Terran ancestors. One remarkable feature of Pernese society is its stability, having lasted approximately 2,500 years with little change.
The agrarian idealism of Pern, however, is marred by the constant reality of Thread. Fighting Thread requires a considerable concentration of social resources. Suspending disbelief and focusing on the necessary supply of material to the Weyrs to sustain the dragons, and the populations (a Weyr, exceeding two thousand persons, compares to some medieval cities) leads one to conclude that a principal part of the available agricultural and industrial productions of the planet would be devoted to this quasi-war effort during the Pass, and a considerable fraction during the Interval.
Within the Weyrs, there is a highly efficient and well run system. It is run by a Weyrleader and Weyrwoman, and has a very large number of support staff.
A constant repetition of Passes and Intervals leads to the tantalizing prospect that Pernese outlook in general may be cyclical rather than progressive; this similarity with Egypt under the Pharaohs would explain the long duration and rigidity of Pernese culture. However, it has thus been speculated by some fans that the end of Thread and rapid technological progress at the end of the Ninth pass would result in severe social disruption. McCaffrey's later novels of Pern tend to explore the growing rift between traditionalism and modernism. Social change is portrayed as both desired and despised. The destruction of Thread, a goal sought after by the Dragonriders and the peoples of Pern, forces a radical rethinking of the role of dragons in a post-Thread world.
Pern created an interesting example in that it is an agrarian society portrayed without organized religion. However, the latest short story, "Beyond Between," introduced the concept of an afterlife.
In her introduction to The Girl Who Heard Dragons (1994), Anne McCaffrey described an encounter with a girl who tried to argue that there was no way a successful colony could have been established on Pern without religion. Anne's exact words at this point were, "I told her in very certain tones and terms that Pern was my world, and I could do with it what I wanted. I wanted it not to have religion, considering the crimes committed in the name of one deity or other." Ten years later, in a 2004 interview with Lynne Jamneck for writers-world.com, she described the thoughts that led her to write "Beyond Between." "I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured – since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing – that religion was one problem Pern didn't need. However, if one listens to childhood teachings, God is everywhere so there should be no question in any mind that he is also on Pern. Thus, there is a heaven to which worthy souls go. So, without mentioning any denomination of organized religion, I figured that both Moreta and Leri deserved respite after their trials...and that's where 'Beyond Between' is."
The Dragons are portrayed as very large creatures; the largest described in the series, the gold queen dragon Ramoth, was described as being about forty-five feet (as large as the largest Tyrannosaurus rex ever found) or thirteen and one half meters (as large as a jet plane – dragon size is an ongoing debate among fans) in length. She would be the largest flying being, and among the largest predators, ever known. The massive amount of food which must be consumed by several thousand such creatures is staggering, particularly at the height of a Pass, when they fly against Thread at close intervals. The area of grazing land required to support nearly 3,000 dragons each consuming three to four cattle (or herdbeast) a week has been compared to the whole Mississippi basin with a sustainable herd.
The economic strain on an agrarian society by the dragons would thus be nearly unsustainable, and can only grow worse when the requirements of the sedentary and usually luxuriously-sustained Weyrfolk are included. However, Pern has been able to meet this strain during each Pass successfully, though the Ninth Pass saw considerable discontent, and a full record of all passes has not yet been provided.
Anne McCaffrey informed people several years ago that the "meters" measurement is a mistake and the dragons are supposed to be measured in feet; she had erroneously thought meters to be another term for feet, but has since been corrected. Also, while the largest dragons need to eat three to four herdbeasts a week, greens and blues (the smallest dragons) would only need to eat one or two. Considering that about 50% of the dragons are greens, that would make the strain on Pern's resources much easier to handle.
During the second Long Interval (a time when the Red Star failed to pass close enough to the planet to bring the incursion of Thread) before the Ninth Pass, however, unpopularity with the only remaining inhabited Weyr, Benden Weyr, had grown to such a point that the Holders were willing to risk combat on highly disadvantageous terms to end the tithe of materials which traditionally supported the Weyrs. This is a further suggestion of the general strain and potential unpopularity of the severe burden inflicted by the Weyrs, a burden that ultimately remains entirely necessary until the end of the Ninth Pass.
The Pernese economy, based upon the Mark, appears to be a command economy. The Mark is made of wood, a fiat currency, and has no inherent value; prices across Pern are fixed by a yearly meeting of Traders, Craftmasters, and Lord Holders. The Mark is valued in fractions, rather than decimals. For instance, there are Marks worth one half of a mark, one fourth of a mark, and so on. Bartering is also common practice on Pern. According to comments made by Piemur in Dragonsinger, the relative worth of mark pieces differs based on which crafthall has issued (and thus backs) them and can be a consideration in financial transactions.
Pern fandom consists of a large variety of fan communities. The largest part of fandom is made up by clubs that allow their members to 'play' Pern by creating original characters within the setting of Anne McCaffrey's world. To avoid conflicts with Pern canon and trademarks, each club typically chooses a particular location and timeline as a unique setting different from Anne McCaffrey's established history of Pern. Most commonly, clubs are named for the main Weyr chosen as playing location.
Historically, the first clubs started out publishing printed fanzines containing fanfiction and artwork. With the advent of the internet, clubs using online technology such as roleplay via chat or email (PBeM) became popular. Text-based online virtual reality games, primarily MUSH and MUCK variants such as PernMUSH, have modeled Pern since the early 1990s. In the mid '90s, stringent rules were placed on the creation of new clubs and the governance of existing clubs, resulting in legal action against some fans.[11] For example, no new fan-created MU* games were allowed while the game rights were licenced to Ubisoft for the development of the Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern computer game (released in 2001).
In November 2004, Anne McCaffrey relaxed her fandom rules significantly and allowed Pernese fanfiction to be posted freely throughout the Internet. Soon after, fanfiction sites such as FanFiction.Net started offering the opportunity to post and read fanfiction based on Anne McCaffrey's works. The relaxing of the rules also resulted in the appearance of message board-based games as another popular club type. Fan sites no longer require approval and are not bound to the formerly strict canon rules, resulting in fan clubs testing out alternatives such as new dragon colors or off-Pern scenarios.
From 2000 until 2005, Anne McCaffrey's website offered a popular discussion forum and chat (The Kitchen Table) for fans to interact with each other and with the author. After its discontinuation in January 2005, several fan-organized discussion forums have taken its place as an outlet for fan activity.
Offline, the largest Pern fan gathering is WeyrFest, held yearly at Dragon*Con since 1992. Over the last few years, Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey were frequent attendees at WeyrFest, offering fans a chance to meet the authors in person.
Leadership of these dragons and riders falls to Xhinna, female rider of a blue dragon, who must earn the respect of all who follow her and solve the problem of how to get sufficient numbers of dragon eggs, all while protecting her people and baby dragons from the predators and, worse, traitors!
Barnes & Noble lists a CD "Dragon's School by Anne McCaffrey" expected December 2011.[1]. Confirmed 2011-10-09. Soon after release of Dragon's Time, Todd corrected that early date for the next book and did not comment on its title or completion of the epoch. Todd McCaffrey (2011-07-07). "Newsletter". http://pernhome.com/tjm/?p=2173. (responses 18, 20, 24).
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