Pern: An historic overview of Rukbat’s third planet
Sep 23 '04 (Updated Sep 26 '04)
The Bottom Line While I don't consider Anne McCaffrey's Pern books to be high literature, they are certainly among the most popular "speculative fiction" books written in the past three decades.
I recently re-read Anne McCaffrey’s original Dragonriders trilogy and the follow-up Harper Hall trilogy which covered some of the same events from a different perspective. Having been freshly dipped in dragon lore, I decided to continue forward with some of the later books that I had not yet read. When I began to think about reviewing some of this popular collection of speculative fiction works, I realized that there was some basic background information that was common to each of the books. I decided to avoid the verbatim repetition of this foundational history in all of my Pern reviews by consolidating that information in one place—this is the place.
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Most readers of science fiction and fantasy know about Pern. This world, set in a distant future, is the home of some of fantasy’s most beloved creatures, Dragons. These giant winged beasts hold a special fascination for people of all ages—from Puff (that friend of Jackie Paper) to Smaug (the nemesis of Bilbo Baggins) there has been a special relationship between humans and their scaly counterparts. Anne McCaffrey has effectively exploited the dream of dragons in her well-loved books about Dragons and their people.
About the Planet
Pern is the third planet in the Sagittarian sector's Rukbat star system. Humans first came to Pern to escape ongoing wars in the populated parts of the galaxy. Shortly after settling on Pern, communication was lost with the parent planet and soon, the Pernese virtually forgot their origins. The planet has two major land masses known as the Northern and Southern Continents. The Southern Continent has a warm, tropical climate, lush vegetation, and fertile soil. The Northern Continent has a cooler climate and is covered by less hospitable mountainous regions.
Unfortunately, Pern is a planet under duress. A rogue planet orbiting the same sun is covered with a pernicious parasite known as Thread to the Pernese. During 50-year Passes in which the red planet travels closest to Pern, the Thread is able to cross interplanetary space to fall into Pern's atmosphere and burn through both vegetation and animal life, wreaking havoc on the inhabitants of Pern. Due to the relative lack of natural resources such as metal, and the susceptibility of wooden structures to the ravages of Thread, the people of Pern have to live in stone holds that are immune to Threadfall. This makes the Northern Continent ideal for habitation: the Southern Continent lacks the mountainous caverns which are modified to become the holds around which Pernese life is centered.
About the Culture
In order to combat the threat of Thread, the Pernese have bred indigenous flying lizards into larger, telepathic dragons which can spit flames at the Thread, burning it from the skies before it can reach the ground to burrow into the ground, ruining crops and threatening the extinction of life on Pern. Dragonriders bond with their dragons at hatching through a process called Impressing which creates a telepathic connection allowing the dragon and rider team to work together extremely effectively. Dragons also have the useful ability to teleport with their riders from one location to another by passing through the nothingness known as Between. A Rider’s unique connection with their Dragon also means that if either dragon or rider is killed, the other is likely to follow close behind—the rider simply losing the will to live, the Dragon disappearing Between.
Societal structure is quasi-feudal with Lord Holders—the hereditary mayors of the city holds—acting as the government, and the majority of knowledge and technology maintained by Craftmasters in sovereign craft halls. Some of the most important crafts include: the Harpers who maintain historical records, teach elementary education, and provide entertainment for important functions; the Herders who are responsible for all selective breeding and livestock maintenance; the Healers who study herb-lore and the healing arts; and the Smiths who are responsible for all things mechanical and are the inventors and industrial artists of Pern. While there is some overlap in the duties of the various Craft Halls, each craft tends to be very protective of its own slice of knowledge and influence.
About Dragons and their Riders
The Dragonriders live separately in Weyrs which house the huge dragons. They are effectively an independent knighthood, protecting all of Pern (at least, all of the Northern Continent) from falling Thread. Dragons have boron-based blood which determines their color as follows:
Gold – queen, female, the only breeding dragons, only dragons ridden by women
Bronze – male, the ‘leaders’, usually mate with queens
Brown – male, slightly smaller than bronze, may mate with greens
Green – female, cannot breed due to chewing firestone
Blue – male, may mate with greens
The sub-culture of the Dragonriders has some peculiarities which may be whispered about in the holds of Pern, but the ramifications of which may not be fully appreciated by the other members of Pernese society. The senior queen dragon in a Weyr is the most respected dragon in the Weyr. Her rider is the Weyrwoman who effectively rules the Weyr alongside the Weyr Leader. The Weyr Leader is determined by which of the Bronze dragons mates with the queen during her mating cycle. This is partly due to the telepathic bond between rider and dragon. During a mating flight, the riders become overwhelmed by the mating instincts of their dragons, with obvious consequences. While there is no requirement for the Weyr Woman and Weyr Leader to form a personal bond, the involuntary sexual nature of their relationship tends to lead them in that direction.
It is also important to note that while Greens don’t lay eggs, they do have mating cycles. In fact, greens tend to be a bit on the randy side, mating far more often than queens. Again, the riders become overwhelmed by the instincts of their dragons and sexual events take place. While Anne McCaffrey never exactly spells this out, the upshot is that, since all the green riders are men, the vast majority of green and blue riders are gay. (I didn’t notice this fact at all in my first reading of the Pern books over 15 years ago. Because McCaffrey is so circumspect about this aspect of Dragon lore, I think this series can still be safely read by kids as young as 12 without causing their parents to freak-out, but my 'official' recommendation has to be 15.) According to discussions on some Pern related websites, green and blue riders may keep female companions close-at-hand when mating is imminent, but you don’t actually see this in the books.
About the Author
Anne McCaffrey, began writing about Pern with novellas called Weyr Search (Oct. '67), and Dragonrider (Dec. '67, Jan. '68), originally published in Analog magazine. Those works were combined, expanded and re-published in 1968 as Dragonflight—the first book in the Dragonriders’ dynasty. She followed that first success with a new book every few years so that now there are over 20 books in the collection when including the short stories and other supplemental volumes. The world of Pern has developed a huge following in the United States as well Great Britain and Ireland, where she currently makes her home. Her books have been translated into at least 22 languages including Japanese, Finnish, Hebrew, and authorized Braille.
When reading any of the Pern books, the reader may notice that McCaffrey has a particular affinity for the musical arts. This is not surprising as her first creative love was for music rather than writing. As a young woman, she studied voice for 9 years, becoming involved in productions of both opera and operetta.
McCaffrey’s complete bibliography is quite extensive. It includes not only the Pern books, but also the Acorna series, the Brain and Brawn Ship series, the Crystal Singer series, the Dinosaur Planet series, the Doona series, the Freedom series, and a variety of less well-known works. She has recently begun to pass the torch of her most famous world to her son Todd McCaffrey who co-wrote Dragon’s Kin, published in 2003, and who is currently working on his own novel, Dragon’s Blood, due out in January 2005.
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My thanks to the users at Anne McCaffrey's home page for helping me to correct some errors in this review. You can find the threaded conversation at:
http://forum.annemccaffrey.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19704
Corrections were also made based on information found at Sariel's Guide to Pern:
http://www.srellim.org/pern/stories.htm
Thank you Cheryl for pointing me in the right direction.
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Pern related resources:
The official Del Rey Pern site - www.randomhouse.com/delrey/pern/
The official Anne McCaffrey site - www.annemccaffrey.org/
A Pern fan site - pern.dreamhaven.org/
Another fan site - www.srellim.org/pern/index.htm
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Books in the Pern collection:
Dragonriders Trilogy
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
Harper Hall Trilogy
Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums
Other Pern Novels
Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern
Nerilka’s Story
Dragonsdawn
Renegades of Pern
All the Weyrs of Pern
Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Dolphins of Pern
Dragonseye (U.S.), Red Star Rising (U.K)
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
Dragon’s Kin (with Todd McCaffrey)
Dragon’s Blood (by Todd McCaffrey—coming Jan. 2005)
Compilations
The Dragonriders of Pern (Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon)
On Dragonwings (Dragonsdawn, Dragonseye and Moreta)
A Gift of Dragons (short stories)
Related Works
The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern (ed. Jody Lynn Nye / Bill Fawcett)
The Atlas of Pern (by Karen Fonstad)
The People of Pern (a ‘portrait gallery’ by artist Robin Wood)
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