Dragonriders of Pern


Dragonriders of Pern is a science fantasy series written primarily by American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning in 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 24 novels and two collections of short stories. The two novellas included in the first novel, Dragonflight, made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo Award for writing fiction as well as the first to win a Nebula Award.

Overview

Humans have colonized the planet Pern in the Rukbat star system, but have lost much of their technology and history due to periodic onslaughts of Thread, a mycorrhizoid spore that voraciously consumes all organic material, including humans and their crops, given the opportunity. Thread comes from the Red Star, actually another planet. The Red Star has a 250-Turn elliptic orbit around Rukbat, and when its orbit brings it close enough, Thread rains down on Pern at predictable intervals over about 50 Turns.
The Pernese use intelligent firebreathing dragons to fight Thread. A human rider has a telepathic bond with their dragon, formed by Impression at the dragon's hatching. The bonding instantly creates a very close, lifelong relationship – the dragon almost invariably commits suicide at the rider's death, and a rider whose dragon has died bears a deep emotional wound which can never be fully healed. Later books deal with the initial colonization of Pern and the genetic modification of small native animals into creatures capable of carrying humans in flight.
The Pernese live in a pre-industrial society, with lords, holds, harpers, and dragons, with occasional examples of higher technology. There are four basic social classes: Weyrfolk who live in Weyrs, Holders who rule Holds, Crafters, and the Holdless who have no permanent home. The society resembles feudal Europe, but with some significant differences – especially, farmers are organized in their own guild, independent of the Holders – rather than being serfs as in historical feudal societies. Also, there is no formal religion and nothing like the Medieval Church, the closest equivalent being in fact the Dragonriders, who have a planet-wide organization and to whom a tithe is due – though they are in no way sworn to celibacy.
The series as a whole covers over two and a half millennia.

Publications by the McCaffreys

There are 24 Dragonriders of Pern novels and two story collections, the latest published in 2018. 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 2,500 years after landing. 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 after 2002, has specialized in an early time period.

Original trilogy

These stories take place immediately before and during the Ninth Pass, about 2,500 years after landing :
The trilogy was released 1978 in an omnibus edition titled The Dragonriders of Pern by Nelson Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club.

Harper Hall trilogy

These stories take place immediately before and concurrently with those depicted in Dragonquest and The White Dragon.
The Harper Hall trilogy was released 1984 in an omnibus edition titled The Harper Hall of Pern by Nelson Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club. Dragonsong was subtitled "Volume One of The Harper Hall Trilogy" on the front cover of the Bantam Spectra edition, March 1986.

Other fiction by Anne McCaffrey

"On Dragonwings", an omnibus containing Dragonsdawn, Dragonseye and Moreta, was published in 2003.

Books by Todd McCaffrey or both

Since 2003, Anne McCaffrey and her middle child Todd McCaffrey have developed the history immediately before and during the Third Pass, about 500 Turns after landing :
"Weyr Search" won the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1968 and "Dragonrider" won the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1969. 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.
YearAwardCategoryRecipientResult
19681967 Nebula AwardsBest Novella"Weyr Search"Nomitated
19681968 Hugo AwardsBest Novella"Weyr Search"Won
19691968 Nebula AwardsBest Novella"Dragonrider"Won
19691969 Hugo AwardsBest Novella"Dragonrider"Nomitated
19721972 Hugo AwardsBest NovelDragonquestNomitated
19721972 Locus AwardsBest NovelDragonquest
19781978 Locus AwardsLocus Award for Best [Science Fiction Novel|Best SF Novel]Dragonsinger
19791979 Hugo AwardsBest NovelThe White DragonNomitated
19791979 Locus AwardsBest NovelThe White Dragon
19791979 Ditmar AwardsBest International FictionThe White DragonWon
19791979 Gandalf AwardsBest Book-Length FantasyThe White DragonWon
19801980 Locus AwardsBest SF NovelDragondrums
19801980 Ditmar AwardsBest International FictionDragondrumsNomitated
19841984 Hugo AwardsBest NovelMoreta: Dragonlady of PernNomitated
19841984 Locus AwardsBest SF NovelMoreta: Dragonlady of Pern
19871987 Locus PollBest All-Time Fantasy NovelDragonflight
1989John W. [Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel|1989 John W. Campbell Memorial Award]Best SF NovelDragonsdawn
19891989 Locus AwardsBest SF NovelDragonsdawn
19921992 Hugo AwardsBest NovelAll the Weyrs of PernNomitated
19921992 Locus AwardsBest SF NovelAll the Weyrs of Pern
19941994 Locus AwardsBest CollectionThe Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
19951995 Locus AwardsBest CollectionThe Girl Who Heard Dragons
19951995 Locus AwardsBest SF NovelThe Dolphins of Pern
19961996 Seiun AwardsBest Translated Long FormThe Renegades of PernNomitated
20022002 Seiun AwardsBest Translated Long FormAll the Weyrs of PernNomitated

Other works

Gamebooks and companion books

In 1991, Dragonflight, the first Pern book published, was released as a set of three graphic novels by Eclipse Books of Forestville, California. The story was adapted across all three graphic novels by Brynne Stephens. The first two graphic novels were illustrated by Lela Dowling and Fred Von Tobel, the third by Lela Dowling and Cynthia Martin.

Music of Pern

There are two CDs of music relating to the Teaching Ballads and the works of Masterharper Robinton and Menolly.
The Masterharper of Pern was made in 1998 by Anglo-Alaskan duo Tania Opland and Mike Freeman in collaboration with Anne McCaffrey at her request, and features the music of Robinton. The 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 fans of the series worldwide.
The second CD pertaining mainly to the work another Pernese harper, Menolly, was completed in December 2008. Entitled Sunset's Gold, this features Opland and Freeman with other musicians, and comprises twelve tracks of music recorded from 2006 to 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 had never been seen or published before.
Songbooks are also available containing the music from the first CD, with a similar book for the second in the works.

Television and film adaptations

Prior to 1995, the motion picture and ancillary rights to the literary property were optioned by various entities, including Robert Mandell and Kerry Skogland.
In 1996, McCaffrey sold the motion picture rights to an Irish company, Zyntopo Teoranta, who entered into a co-production agreement with Alliance Atlantis, covering development including advanced 3-D animation and compositing effects for television budgets. Distribution pre-sale efforts failed, and Zyntopo Teoranta entered into an agreement with Ronald D. Moore as showrunner to present the project to Warner Brothers Network.
In 2002, Warner Brothers Network and writer Ronald D. Moore had completed sets and casting for a pilot episode, and were within a few days of filming. Moore had sent the pilot episode to Warners for final approval. It was returned with so many changes to the basic structure of Pern - making it more like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess - that it no longer much resembled the world created by Anne McCaffrey. As a fan of the Dragonriders of Pern series, Moore refused to continue. Filming was canceled, and rights ownership remained with Zyntopo Teoranta's assign, Kua Media Corporation.
In May 2006, rights to the entire Dragonriders of Pern series were optioned by Copperheart Entertainment. In April 2011, Copperheart signed David Hayter as screenwriter and Don Murphy as executive producer for a film version of Dragonflight; the production was expected to begin in 2012.
In July 2014, Warner Bros. optioned all 22 volumes of the series for a feature live-action film. Later in November, Warner Bros. hired author-screenwriter Sarah Cornwell to adapt the first installment of the series.

Games

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 1984, Gallimard published Dragonriders of Pern: The Book Game, a game in which two players use illustrated books to resolve aerial engagement against the "threads".
  • In 1983, Epyx released the video game Dragonriders of Pern for the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64 in which the player could battle Thread and engage in diplomacy on Pern.
  • In 2001, a video game Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern was created by Ubisoft for the PC and Dreamcast under license from Zyntopo Teoranta, the Irish corporation which owns the motion picture, gaming and ancillary rights. 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.
McCaffrey threatened legal action against unauthorized text-based, online, role-playing game communities based on the Pern world. She approved of strict rules for the communities that cleared some of these MUDs. In the 1990s, PernMUSH was one such community. The community's rules discouraged straying out of character from the Pern world.

Fandom

The Pern fandom consists of a large variety of fan communities. The largest part of the 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 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. For example, no new fan-created MU* games were allowed while the game rights were licensed to Ubisoft for the development of the Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern computer game.
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 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 was WeyrFest, held yearly at Dragon*Con beginning in 1992. Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey were frequent attendees at WeyrFest, offering fans a chance to meet the authors in person. Anne was originally scheduled to attend the 2011 Dragon*Con, but had deferred her appearance until the 2012 event due to heart problems, just a few months before her death in late November of that year. In 2013, Weyrfest was folded into Dragon*Con's Fantasy Literature track, along with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.