In Anne McCafferey's own words, it started out as a short story to put dragons in a better light (as opposed to evil being slayed by good knights). 2 million words later, the fans won't let her stop writing Pern stories. RIP one of the best fantasy/sci-fi authors ever.
@@patpowell6684It was my first as well. Hardcore Sci-fi all the way. My favorite Pern books are the Harperhall series. The Hapermaster of Pern tied into the other stories and unites them in a fresh coherent way. She did several other series toward the end, one was the Freedom series. It was four books about Earth being invaded and how human prisoners worked with the invaders to overthrow their masters. Most people don't seem to know about this. It left me wanting more. My favorite series she did was based on a short story called The Lady in the Tower. There are eight books spanning the history of the Talented. The Talented take psychic powers to a whole new level. They become the main transportation means connecting the universe. In the later books they also become the means of destroying the threat of an alien species that doesn't recognize any other species. I have had to buy many new used books when I have worn my other copies out. I would like to get hardcover books but apparently they were never popular enough to warrant hardcovers. I find that hard to believe. Out of all of her series, the Talented series would be the easiest to make into a series of movies. The first three books don't even mention the aliens and have 'pegasus' in the titles. They are a trilogy that sets up the background for the hiver (aliens) books. In addition to her many series she wrote many stand alone books as well.
When I heard of her passing I made the mistake of going online and someone wrote the below “Do you hear the dragons mourn? The first Queen has passed between” And I cried my eyes out.
Same. Enjoyed it in my teens. But also left it behind and never thought about it again. This video reminded me of it, but zero desire to go back again. It wasn't that good on many levels. And I don't think it influenced anything noteworthy.
Fun story, At Nellis AFB I was quizzing a fellow fan "Drummer, beat, and piper, blow Harper, strike, and soldier go" I was expecting him to complete the quote. Instead I heard a voice behind me saying "free the flame and sear the grasses Til the dawning Red Star passes. that's from the dragon riders of Pern series" I was a bit shocked, this guy is as big a nerd as me... Needless to say I married him 🥰
I found Dragon Song at a local library when I was 11yrs old. I hated reading, but the little dragons on the cover looked cool, so I checked it out. Anne McCaffery changed my life with that one book. She is the reason I am an avid d&d playing fantasy reader. Because of her, Lessa, and Menolly, I narrate audiobooks for a living. Thanks Anne for shaping my future ❤️.
That is so awesome you narrate books! I've wanted to do that but have zero skills with Audacity to screen out background noise. Congratulations to you on acquiring the skills!
@@debrobertson-positivedirec5898 If it's something you really want to learn don't give up. I use Adobe audition, and Izotope Rx10 for the technical issues when I have to, otherwise I outsource to an actual sound engineer. It takes time, patience to learn, but it can be very rewarding.
I really loved DragonSong and DragonSinger as a kid. Less so DragonDrums. They were an excellent YA retake on the world. So good in fact that I didn't realize I was reading a "kid's book."
I heard Anne McCaffrey speaking at a convention. She said that authors don't really have any control over cover art. The only one she liked was The White Dragon. She said it was realistic, especially the gear the rider was wearing. She said covers with women like Lessa wearing filmy silks while dragon riding were stupid.
She was right. Publishers catering for the lowest common denominator? To get away with wearing silk drawers and a cami, and silver high heeled mules you'd need to be a vain magic user with an efficient Keep Warm spell, which is a waste of magic power. A good set of thermal underwear and leathers makes much more sense!
@@lizlawley6680 so many mismatched dragon colors on covers -- authors didn't have much say in their covers back then. Publishers would often bulk order generic covers ("hot lady with big dragon") and just tack it on to whatever book. The illustrations are still beautiful, though!
Michael Whelan's PERN covers were the best. ALL book covers he did were the best. Unlike most cover artists he would read the entire book to select a scene he thought best represented the story, then he'd paint as accurately as possible what the author described. The floating city on his cover of Larry Niven's "The Ringworld Engineers" can be used as a map to follow the action in that part of the book. Other artists would've just done some fantastical sci-fi floating city and called it good enough. Whelan got the sizes, shapes, and relative positions of the building exactly as described.
On the timetravel aspect; The dragons can teleport, called "going Between", which is one of the core abilities that made them so effective as a means of protection. Travelling between requires a clear mental image of where the rider wants to go. It's basically a space-time jump from one location to another. A rider accidentally discovered that can include travelling back in time, based on their mental image, and the most accurate means to do this was the placement of the stars (and other physical features such as architecture). The tapestry mentioned had both, so the main character was able to travel back to that point in time with relative accuracy. I digress, but I do think it was solidly thought out and wasn't simply just shenanigans!
100%. It also explains why time jumps "don't modify reality". (Outside the basis of, if history was modified no one would know.) Most dragons and dragonettes have a natural feel for "where", improved with training, few have a natural instinct for "when". Ruth and Jaxom (White Dragon book) had enhanced natural skill and ability. Lessa and Ramoth were a mix of inborn ability and more than a bit of luck; something that would lose lesser dragon/rider teams.
Then my feet took off and my legs did too And my body was obliged to follow. Me with my hands and my mouth full of cress And my throat too dry to swallow. 😊
Menolly is legitimately one of my favorite characters of all time. A seriously inspiring journey through so many hardships and roadblocks. Even her faire of fire-lizards cuts both ways.
I'm of the opinion that animation is the ideal medium for fantasy movies and criminally underutilized for this purpose. Especially since it might help combat the "Animation Age Ghetto" problem we have here in the western world.
Animation or...hear me out.... Done in the style of "The Dark Crystal" though that might not be possible as it feels like so much practical / puppetry work of today has lost something Edit to add... Japanese Anime style animation might be cool too
@@RelativelyBest I mean, look at how good DC's animated work is, it brings the fantastical and over the top action of characters that are more akin to gods than men to life far better than live action usually does
I read those books on the 70s, and even met the author while she was walking on the campus where she was a guest speaker. I was so star struck, I bowed and said " sawadee" ( Thai, because I had lived there 3 years) and she totally did the same! Her Uncle had been to Bangkok...!! Wonderful chat.
Went to a talk she gave on campus (also in the 70s). We then all went to a pub with her and drank imported beer and whisky. A grand time was had by all.
My grandmother and I went to DragonCon '89 because Anne McCaffrey was there and I'm not sure who of us was the bigger fan... Grandmother was going to go, even if I couldn't. Anyway, the first day of the 'Con, Grandmother did a little bow when she met McCaffrey. By the end of the convention, they were using first names. (Nothing like being at a panel and hearing McCaffrey say "yes, Scott, what's your question?" Just to realize the Scott was your grandmother...)
I'm 66 years old and still a huge fan of McCaffrey and her incredible series. They've turned Tolkien's masterpieces into movies and TV shows, George R. R. Martins amazing tales were turned into successful television fantasy lore, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series is amazing in its "celluloid" form, and there are 5 or 6 (hundred?) fantasy, sci-fi, and sci-fantasy books that have been incredibly and successfully adapted to both the big and small screen, and yet this hugely, fantastically, amazingly incredible series has been left out, given absolutely none of the love and respect it should have been afforded... PLEASE, somebody, and I'm talking to you Spielberg, and you, Lucas, and you Jackson, please take these tomes, and turn them into the extraordinarily, legendary pieces of movie and television history the so deserve.
I too love her Dragonriders of Pern series (not so much when her son, Todd, took over writing) but I am pretty sure that I read somewhere (maybe it was Todd that said so) that she did not want her series turned into a movie. I do not recall her reason why but I hope people respect her wishes.
I am also 66 and a fan. Never thought about doing them as a movie. Also, these books had such an impact on me. When we were in the early 80s and people were creating there online personas, I used "Canth" and "Kildurin". Obviously to this thread the first one is known and the second is from Elizabeth Boyer's book.
@@JustAMan4you.....I've always thought that those that could create these movies were waiting for technology that wasn't created yet. I do believe that time is here!
I was very sick growing up (born in 1971) and have had 70 operations. I was a smart kid and read these books in grade school (I was home sick alot) and they helped save me. I will never be able to repay the debt I owed to Ms. McCaffrey. She was and will always be fantastic.
Yes and a big thumbs up that she didn't give up on the series, leaving us hanging like some other authors did. There's one series of the same era where the author gave up halfway thru his final book then never wrote the next.
I do hope you are healthier, sweetie. Being smart is such an asset. I can’t wish enough contentment and happiness in your life. Live long and prosper both in friendships and monetarily. :)✨🌈 ☀️🌷🌱
I love most of her series. Pern is definitely my favorite, but I enjoy the Talents books and the Crystal Singer books - plus The Ship Who Sang is great, too.
Dragonman, avoid excess. Greed will bring the Weyr distress. The tears I feel today I'll wait to shed tomorrow. Though I'll not sleep this night Nor find surcease from sorrow. My eyes must keep their sight: I dare not be tear-blinded. I must be free to talk Not choked with grief, clear-minded. My mouth cannot betray The anguish that I know. Yes, I'll keep my tears til later: But my grief will never go. Most of her poetry lives rent free in my head.
You seemed to have missed one rather large fan contribution. Harry and Marylen Alm contributed the maps of how threadfall would occur. Harry worked for NASA at the time and worked out the orbits for the 'red star" source of thread, and generated the maps.
Not just them! I believe there were quite a few aerospace folks contributing too, right? Plus Todd himself has a degree in aeronautics I think? It was incredible to see the kinds of fields putting their knowledge at her fingertips when she did the acknowledgments.
@@KnikGuy Ah, gotcha! I think I might've been remembering something from an interview or article that mentioned his experience with flying affecting some of the descriptions of dragons in flight. But it was ages and ages ago, so of course the details are much too fuzzy to do me much good
On a Saturday morning at 9am I sat down with a cup of coffee and the Drargonriders of Pern. When I went to take a sip of coffee, I was surprised it was cold. Then I looked at the clock. It was 4pm. I was hooked.
CGI was expensive as hell twenty years ago. It's only getting better and a hell of a lot cheaper. The biggest problem is using to much CGI and that is what makes it expensive. All things in moderation.
The most vivid scene I never have forgotten, is in The White Dragon where Jaxom becomes severely ill and is taken to a South Continent by Ruth, his dragon partner. The description of him shivering, then lying on a warm sand beach under the shade of trees; parched, then finally quenching his thirst with fruits. Especially every time I was sick, I was desperate to be on that beach! 🏝️
Ah yes, very scantily clad female dragonriders. Despite the writer very explicity describing them as wearing heavy leather garments and explaining why they are doing it. But sex sells better.
_The White Dragon_ cover is what made me look at art as more than just "scribblings". I had the chance to meet him when we was Artist Guest of Honor at a local convention. I'll never forget my first meeting him. I'm working in the Art Show (like I have for many years) and this lanky guy comes up to me and asks me, "So... where is my art supposed to go? And is it here already?" I'm about to tell him that attending artists are supposed to bring their own art in when I recognize the face (he's put himself in a few of his covers). I was good. I _immediately_ mentally slammed my inner fangirl into a box and directed him to where his art would be put up, and explained that it had arrived, but they hadn't brought out all the boxes with mailed art yet (we had just finished putting up the panels and had kept the art safely out of the way until that was done). I was _very_ good during the whole convention, though it was a challenge when we watched him create a loose but incredible piece in the space of an hour(!). At some point, though, I should probably apologize to his wife... she _did_ wind up talking to that inner fangirl at the end of the show. She was very gracious (their adult kids amused), but I'm still embarrassed at how much I gushed.
I love his work! He always included a symbol that could be seen as either an M or a W. I made a point to look for it. Kind of like spotting Stan Lee's cameos in the Marvel movies.
One item I heard about Anne Mcaffery and the Pern books: she was a huge equestrian horsey-person. She was *really* into horses. And thus the rider-dragon relationship in the books was her idealized version of the horse-rider relationship in the real world
She also was a parrot owner. Her pet cockatoo is in many of her author photos. Having grown up with parrots, there is a lot of inspiration coming from them. Pern dragons really are 'What if a parrot&horse were smashed together and given the skin of a dragon. And then also add horses 'Runner beasts' and parrots 'Firelizards' in anyway, as a treat
She had a whole horse driven mini story in one of her pern adjacent anthology books. Not to mention runner beasts featuring in prominently in many of the pern stories themselves
When I was stationed in Germany in the early 80’s, Anne stayed with stayed with us for a bit while she visited the local areas. She was also in the SCA and participated in some of our local events. Somewhere in storage, I have some of her books she personalized in calligraphy and some beautiful bookmarks she made. To say the least, she was a wonderfully interesting and thoughtful lady who didn’t hesitate to share her thoughts, experiences and talents freely with us and others.
I was already a confirmed McCaffrey fan before Pern, having first read her wonderful book, The Ship Who Sang. From the start of the Dragonriders of Pern, it never felt like fantasy, just really good world building. The sci-fi elements get added over time with successive books, so it's important to start with the DragonRiders books first, then the Dragonsong series. The premise does sound odd, but McCaffrey makes it work, and work well -- the books are real page-turners. But they're not giant tomes like so many authors seem to favor today; her plots are crisp and well-woven but not overly intricate, and don't require having a Pern atlas and character list at hand at all times. I could so see these books as a great Netflix series -- I don't know why no one has optioned them yet.
They've tried! But they didn't always "get" the stories. I remember an interview with McCaffrey in which she mentioned that they tried to rewrite things to be more in tune with the real world, and one line of dialog would have been, "Man, those dragons are freaky!" Try to imagine one of Pern's citizens saying that! I'm glad that whoever was working on that "adaptation" didn't succeed in destroying our beloved Pern!
@@hodgeelmwood8677 Absolutely! I'm glad that didn't happen. Looking at a lot of the sci fi and fantasy adaptations today, I guess it's probably best it stays in our imaginations!
@@jeannineflores3623 I've read that her daughter has said that one of the problems has been the cost of doing that many dragons in CGI. Perhaps if the live action remake of How to Train your Dragon finds a way to do it, Pern's dragons might be able to fly, too. But I do worry about if the studios can adapt the story well, after some of the fiascoes we've seen lately...
I remember reading the prequel book and loving it. In all fairness to the original colonist they were (to my recollection) low on supplies, lacked the ability to bring themselves back up to an advanced society in a short span of time having planned to tech down so as to save on resources during the initial colonization, and needed an inventive solution within the next few years because they were getting very low on fuel. The fire-lizards, teleporting, flying, and spark breathing local lizards were already pretty good at destroying the Thread on the small scale and formed telepathic bonds with humans. The original colonist included a legendary geneticist among their number, so it was less that original command crew was drunk off their ass, and more they had extremely select resources to work with and scaling up the local fauna to massive proportions made a certain amount of sense in context.
The plan of the Pern colony was to be low-tech. We're not talking space Amish, but far below the Interstellar norms. That's why Pern was chosen as it didn't have the mineral resources to support a high-tech society.
Came here to say this- they couldn't go back, didn't plan on needing so much air flight fuel (I want to call them sleds? It's been a few years), and the dragons were right there.
seems odd they wanted to go low tech yet had a master geneticist who also had the means to do that kind of biological engineering. Doesnt that need really advanced industrial capabilities?
@@theliato3809 Keep in mind that a) she was elderly and this was effectively her retirement and b) they were high tech by our standards, but lacked the ability to maintain it especially with the pressure the Thread was putting on them. They had to mass evacuate an entire continent, carve out cities into mountain sides, and perform other major engineering projects to survive the initial Threadfall. So in the very short term they absolutely had super advanced industrial capabilities, but the planet was low on mineral resources and they had no ability to produce key components and fuel in the medium or long term. The dragons, while high cost in development, had the advantage of only needing a fertile male and female to produce successive generations meaning that no matter how much they lost in terms of technological knowledge as long as basic animal husbandry remained they were good to go. The original colonist had enough knowledge to predict that the Threadfall was going to be a long term repeating issue, and so planned accordingly.
I met Anne McCaffrey on the very last book tour she did, with her son, and took my boyfriend (now husband) to get a book signed. I had it all worked out in my head how I was going to tell her how her books were an inspiration to me as a writer, how they got me through high school, etc. All I managed to get out when face to face with her was "I love your books!" 🤦🏽♀️ My boyfriend was behind me and was like, "she really does, you're her all time favorite author and she really admires you." Bless him 😂 (Shout out to Kadazar Weyr, iykyk)
I’m a calligrapher and so is Anne. From the late 80’s to the early 90’s we were penpals. While I never met her in real life. She was very down to earth and we corresponded on a regular basis for many years.
I often recommend reading some of other Anne McCaffrey's books, "The Ship Who Sang" was a great book that (once I realized it took place in the same universe) really expanded my understanding of the Universe that Pern takes place in.
Do all of her books take place in the same setting? I read a horrifying story by her back in the day about a group of colonists who realized too late that they were eating the indigenous population that occasionally goes though a hibernation cycle and were then eaten as a result to recover their nutritional value, which was then enforced under international space law.
@BoutrosSP I don't think that the Decision on Doona and it's sequel were part of her overall cosmology. Primarily because of two big factors. 1) The story takes place in an "early space exploration Earth" time-line. They have FTL, but limited numbers of ships. 2) The alien race they encounter has *interstellar teleportation technology*! Admittedly, they have to fly there first to set up the platforms... but they can move an entire settlement at once. This race is only mentioned in one other short story specifically set in the time-line of these two books. Edit: I *think* the story you mentioned is referenced in Decision on Doona as the reason why the alien contact on Doona is such a problem.
@@BoutrosSP She had many story lines besides the Pern line, though that was her most popular and ran to the largest number of books. The ship who sang was the base of one such series. Another was The Crystal Singer. A Bridle for Pegasus was a third. She also wrote a lot of stand-alone novels and short stories.
Oddly enough I found her non-Pern books easier to read for some reason, maybe because they were written later in her career. I enjoyed her Rowan and "Freedom" books.
Robinton's death was probably the most heart-wrenching moment in anything Anne McCaffery wrote. The other thing that happened at the same time (if you don't know, you really should read the books) also made it that much more of a pivotal event in the series, which is brilliant writing when you consider how peaceful it was.
I am so pleased to see the response to this video. i am 69 and did not discover the series until I was in my late 50's. I have read the entire McCafferey series several times and the Harper Hall series even more. It is so rewarding to read so many of these responses and how it has had such a positive effect on so many diverse people. I was first introduced to Anne with "The Ship Who Sang" and went on to read most of her other stories. So glad to have an author who creates so many strong and capable women in her tales and who has done her homework in populating her stories with real science facts. The Pern stories time flow reminds me of my own parents journey though the last 100 years from growing up on farms with horses as the main motive source, to a human landing on the moon to our human ability to destroy the planet, all within a single lifetime. Anne wove these technological possibilities and changes throughout the Pern world and I wonder if future generations will make that connection. Keep on reading Pern Fans!
Moreta is one of my favorite characters from any series. I cry every time I read her story. I also cry reading about Robinton. I love those characters.
I read Moretas story when I was in middle school. I could not put the book down. I finished the book late at night, everyone was asleep. Big crying fit!
In my youth I got so attached to the characters in Moreta's story that I can't read the book again because I can't stand the heartache. Same reason I got to skip the chapter about Robinton's fated ship ride with his loved one in the Masterharper of Pern. That chapter hits so hard since I grew up in a fishing community I just can't take it.
I first read "The White Dragon" in High school, thought it was one of the best reads ever and had to read more about this place called Pern. I ended up owning the first Trilogy and the Harper Hall Trilogy as well. Great works.
The White Dragon read like a Shonen protagonist story. The other two books in the series were a more mature read which I found a little strange. The prequel novel was very much more scifi then fantasy.
I remember at uni waiting for the white dragon to be published. As a poor student I managed to save enough to buy the hardback and read it non stop that night!
Small correction about the green dragons. They were only infertile if they chewed firestone to breathe fire. They could reproduce if they didn’t but they only produced more greens. Only golds hatched all the colors. So greens weren’t desirable very often to reproduce cause they would flood the weyrs with more greens. But there’s a few times in the books greens are used to bump dragon populations back up to fighting force.
In 'Dragonsdawn' it is hinted that Kitti Ping Yung (the "creator" of the dragons) modified the genes of the two female dragons because she was a 'traditionalist'. The greens were made sterile, and the queens were made unable to use firestone. They could chew it, but they didn't produce flame. He is also leaving out a lot of information, and using the "why not" line a bit to much. Green dragons weren't always ridden by just males, the restriction started because of the worry of losing the women who were needed for maintaining population.
So, you watched this video I presume? I'm curious, because this channel stinks of AI, from the steady churn of uniform videos since its inception a couple years ago to the clearly AI voice, is this video actually a valuable reflection on Pern? As most here, fell in love in middle school, with rare memories from that time of excitedly going back to the little public library for the next book in the series. Which makes me this channel's target audience. I mean you took the time to comment so you can't have found it totally worthless, but what's your verdict?
Green dragons breeding didn't come into being until the much later books with Todd McCaffrey, whose greens *could* produce all colors including gold. It was much debated for decades whether greens were rendered infertile when dragons were engineered or if it was only the chewing of firestone that made them so.
Been reading Anne for more then half a century. I always considered her work more Sci Fi then Fantasy ! Her 1969 short story; "Helga, The Ship That Sang" is a masterpiece.
As someone who graduated way back when (1975) and an avid reader of any genre, I was hooked on The Dragon Riders series. All through school starting back in 1961 I lived for my weekly tips to the public library and as soon as 2nd grade it became multiple trips as the library was only about 8 blocks further than my school. And yes I am now retired but even though technology has made libraries nearly obsolete and I do have a vast library of books on my computer I still love going to the library and the feel of a good book in my hands.
Holy Maple Bacon Cupcakes, you are giving the OG Mother of Dragons - Anne McCaffrey - her due!!! Menolly and Mirrim were my #goals as a wee Blerd. I loved Robinton as well. Oh and F'nor and Brekke too!!! I really wanted Menolly to return to Half Circle and tell off her parents.
As a kid in the 80's, I loved this series. Those were the days long before social media and when she had a postal address in the books - so I wrote to Anne McCaffery not expecting a reply. Six months later, she took the time to handwrite a lovely 2 page response. That was pretty cool of her
@ mostly thanking me for a "real letter" and how grateful she was for people that wrote to her. I loved dragons as a 14yo and she talked about how much she loved writing about them + some promises of more adventures to come. Today with my own children, I often ponder how differently we treat young readers (or children generally) today. 14yo now have YA novels, without any of the threat or adult themes. Disneyfication?
The Pern novels have a special place in my heart. I loved the dragons, the world, and the characters. Yes, there were some things that in today's world look questionable, but there's also this weird trend right now where people think a character can never do wrong, and if they do, it should be explicitly pointed out that they've done wrong. That's not what fiction is for! Thank you for this overview of a series that took me out of the mundane world into the world of dragons and their bonded riders.
I was thrilled to see recognition for Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. When you look at her other series....the Ship Who series and collaborations, the Freedom Series, the Talent books, the Acorna series, the crystal Singer Trilogy.....(and these aren't all....) you see her world building was epic. She created universes and races and worlds and the sheer scope of it all is mind blowing. I actually got to meet her at Dragon Con in Atlants Georgia and she remembered me from an email I had sent her to try and win a signed book plate. She was such and incredible woman and I have spent a lifetime reading her works....repeatedly. A true genius and pioneer of the science fiction genre, my absolute hero.
I was at one Dragon Con she attended but I was in line past the 75 cut off point. Later I lost my con pass and had to go through registration again missing her the second day. I never met her. You are very fortunate you did. That is awesome.
I participated in a role-playing / group fiction Pern story years ago. I knew I wouldn't be able to stick with it long-term, so I created a character who was a youth who impressed a dragon hatchling and started training, but showed signs of being impatient and a little careless. Our story was set in an earlier Pass than the original trilogy, and there was mention in the original trilogy of discovering a very young rider and dragon embedded in stone in the middle of the cliffs the Weyrs were built in. Yup, while they were learning how to visualize their destinations properly, my character went *between* and never reappeared. The dragons knew and started keening their death cry. Lots of chance for other writers to show their characters' reactions!
Look Pern may be a smaller fandom these days, but it has a lot of heart. I love the series so much, its practically a legacy series for my family. My dad is a huge fan and my siblings and I read his books growing up, so it's a life long love. Hopefully we do get a good tv adaption of it eventually. I've always thought it would work as an animated show, that way we can see the dragons in all their glory.
There's some hope in that fan productions are beginning to apply a level of technical expertise in special effects that was once purely reserved for Hollywood. For an example - I would point to the fan series of 13 episodes of "Star Trek Continues" helmed and produced by fan favorite Vic Mignogna. He also does a pretty excellent job portraying Captain Kirk himself! (If you are an anime fan - you might recognize his voice-over work as the lead character in Full Metal Alchemist and the Dragonball Z character Broly.) The point being - all of the sets, lighting camera work etc - were meant to EXACTLY reproduce the styles that you would've seen in the original 60s TV series. And while all the space scenes with the Enterprise and other ships are all CGI work - they are, by some fan opinion - even better than CBS Star Trek remastered. And they VERY much succeeded! If not for the fact that the familiar characters are portrayed by different actors, you would think these were actual "Lost episodes"!! And back to my point about Draganriders of Pern - I think it won't be too long yet before cheap and affordable tech can produce - not just spaceship effects - but full on organic effects. Currently that's why Sci-Fi is easier than fantasy to do for a fan production. But sooner or later the type of tech that made the Avatar films and the current set of Godzilla films will filter down to stuff that will work off of standard PC computers. And THEN we'll see fan productions of the Pern books. Maybe haltingly at first. With unconvincing effects. But they'll get better as time goes on. That's my hope at least. And yes - a traditionally animated show might be the current best way to present it. Just have to convince the right studio in Japan that it's worth their time to do. That's the big hurdle.
luckley Anne stopped the WB offer. They wanted to do an animated series with pink dragons and other stuff the turned Anny off. She could have pocked a big chunk of $$$ but she stood her ground and refused. Thank you Anne!
Most of the fandom impetus is passing down through readers, rather than book stores and libraries. One or two books still on shelves. But a lot of us recommend whenever we get the chance.
My introduction to Pern was actually Dragonsdawn. I have nearly all of the books, and have had to re purchase many due to how many times i read them until they fell apart. I even own the cd of the music! I was devastated when Anne passed. One of my bucket list items is to visit Ireland and see Dragonhold. ❤
I was in my early 20’s when I discovered this world through a co-worker’s hubby. I’ve had a thing for dragons (and dinosaurs) since I was just a little kid and I’m a grandma now. Have all the books, and, like old friends, we visit regularly. Another author Pern fans might enjoy, is Andre Norton. She wrote similar fiction but with telepathic animals, mostly feline based, and was a prolific author as well. The series starts with “Moon of Three Rings”. I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation! Thanks. 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
Anne McCaffrey was one of my mom’s favorite authors and the book series was her favorite. My mom passed back in August and I still have her Pern books. That might be my next years goals to read them.
The dual defense they cooked up - dragons to burn thread out of the sky, and the grubs or worms to eat thread where it has landed, were not only cool (at least the dragons) but made sense within her story. The colonists had only the tech base they brought with them, and had always intended to live at a much lower tech level than the high tech that permitted their travel through the stars. It's entirely possible that a high tech society with an established high tech base for support might have been able to use machines instead of dragons, but they had not brought with them the machines needed to support a high tech society - on purpose - because they wanted to eschew the downsides of high tech societies (very high population density, ecological destruction, etc). Ironically, the last remaining high tech they could bring to bear on the problem - using genetic alteration to create dragons (and the forgotten worms), were the source of the much more amenable, self-sustaining biologic defenses.
Pern stands for "Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible". They didn't have the metals and other resources necessary to establish and maintain a high-tech society even if they wanted to, which they didn't.
The books established that the colonists were actually refugees from a supernova landing on the only planet they could reach. A volcano destroyed their original tech base with a second hit from the “thread”.
The first dragons weren’t even as big as Ruth. One of the genetic engineering parameters from the start was “trait amplification” - each successive generation would be bigger and better.
@@shadowwynd6641 what many people missed was the fact that Tuberman himself was also Eridani trained, just not to the same extent as Kitti Ping Young, but had MORE training than Wind Blossom. While it is never explicitly mentioned in the books, I'm 100% positive that Tubberman had the assistance of Young to create both the grubs and the cats.
I agree McCaffery does worldbuilding with rare skill. My favorite aspect of her writing is that it always feels like I meet her characters, in her stories they become 3 dimensional, living, breathing people. The internal inter-book consistency is shaky sometimes, but I think that's offset by the sheer charisma of her OC's. Moreta is one of my personal favorite fictional characters I've gotten to know. :) _Moreta :Dragonlady of Pern_ became one of my comfort rereads during 2020. IYKYK Thanks for this thorough examination of a most beloved series! I'd bet Anne herself would be a bit irritated at the rise of romantisy, she'd tried to cashgrab softcore scify back in the 60s ( _Thorns of the Catterni_ if you're curious) I have the impression she would have wanted to be successful there as a pioneer of the genere. _Dragonriders_ walked so _Iron Flame_ & _ACOTAR_ could run.
I think there was a lot of action! Fighting, flying, arguing, time travel, Gathers (fairs or festivals), pranks, mean girls, music, Thread, exploration, sex. I never, ever thought it was info dumps or talking heads. And the thread wasn't the only enemy. There are a lot of rivalries, jealousies, evil people and violence. Some of it centered AROUND thread, but there are plenty of people to get upset with and hate. And plenty to love and wish they were real! The gradual change from the feudal, low/no tech fantasy world to finding of hidden/lost scientific bits and pieces and the merging of the two worlds is quite fascinating, also.
Well said; from the first book there's complicated people mixes galore. The implementation of the science aspect is nicely gradual and intriguing. I guess I need to read again.
With the early timeline Pern novels, the reason for the dragons and other things is that they didn't have a TON of resources (Fun fact, the planets name is an acronym for Parallel Earth, Resources Negligent) and where the people heading there were, essentially, wannabe space amish. The dragons and other things were developed as a way to not required a lot of technology for it and self propagating. Same reason for a lot of the social structure that develops over it. There are also a lot of theories that the Pern books are set in the same universe as Anne's other stuff.
I could've sworn the acronym was "Parallel Earth, Resources Nominal?" Shoddy memory... Edit: apparently the acronym is Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible.
Very definitely a shared universe. The Pern colony developed out of an EEC Survey, and the EEC was also a major factor in the Dinosaur Planet and Planet Pirates books. I believe it was also connected with the PTB series
I was dyslexic as a child. As a Young Adult I used the Pern Books (in part) to re-teach myself to read (along with books from Heinlein, Asimov, and several others; sci-fi, fantasy, and westerns mostly). I went from reading being like pulling out my own teeth to addicted so that I could not be without a book or series of books at any time. If I had five minutes to kill~ book was in hand. I went from a 3rd grade reading level to passing a reading comprehension test with a 95+% to get into a state college (I had never taken SATs) in a 4 year period.
same for my friend who got me into the books! Her mom loved books, and bought the audiobooks for her to get her into reading. Her mom would come in sometimes and fast forward through the story. So we'd turn down the big 90s stereo and put our ears close to listen, and heard all the risque dragon sex lol
The rural area I lived in had a bookmobile that would come around. Checked out Dragonsong one day and was instantly hooked. With regard to dragon names ending in "th", I read that someone asked Anne about that. She said, "Dragons have forked tongues, so they lisp!"
I was first introduced to Pern with the short story where Lessa choose to use the Dragon Riders to get her revenge on Flax who killed her family when he invaded her holding to extend his power. I think this short story was the start of the series. Her manipulation of the Riders backfire when she joins them instead of being able to reclaim her holding as she had planned. This plot twist was one of the things that hooked me on the series. I enjoyed most of the books in the series later finding the Harper Hall ones, a spin off of sorts as good as the Dragon Rider novels. When Lessa went from kitchen drudge who was preforming small acts of sabotage over the years as she plotted her revenge to instead taking on a totally different role in the world was an interesting take as often real life will do much the same to people who think they are charting one path only to find another is the one they are destined for. Good world building, interesting characters and good writing..an excellent series overall.
Yeah, Weyr Search was the first thing published, and was later combined with another novella (if you're very careful, you can overlook the seam) to form the first two thirds or so of Dragonflight (the final third is a third, unpublished, novella). I've not read the original novellas myself to compare, but I'm told pretty much nothing was changed from Weyr Search nor Dragonrider. I don't suppose you know whether the "this is actually SF really" introduction was present for Weyr Search? By the time Dragonflight was published, it had the whole thing about colonising the third planet of Rukbat and calling it Pern.
@@rmsgrey Weyr Search was a short story included in the anthology "The Hugo Winners" that I read in the late 70s, I am not sure if the other novella was then added in later years as I only later read the much expanded novel Dragonflight. "The Hugo Winners" had a number of short stories I later believe influenced other sci fi. For example "Arena" from "The Hugo Winners" was much like the Star Trek episode where Kirk fought the Gorm. Authors such as Anne McCraffrey, I suspect, were influenced by earlier authors like Andre Norton who wrote both sci fi and fantasy such as "Witch World" series from the 1950s thru the 1970s. I suspect if you like Anne McCraffrey's work you would also enjoy Andre Norton's books and recommend Witch World, Three against the Witch World, Warlock of the Witch World & The Jargoon Pard as she mixed family, romance, world building, etc much like McCraffrey did in her Dragon World Novels.
She gave her family hold to the son of that invader because the boy was related to her and they were of Ruathan blood. That meant they were related to the first dragon leaders of Pern, mainly because of Sorka from Dragon Dawn, she had many little brothers and *possibly* sisters, and one of them became the next lord of Ruatha after her father.
@@gortgnut9461I LOVE ANDRE NORTON!! My first was “Star man’s Son”. I found it in my elementary school library. It took me a looong time to read. We couldn’t check out books and we only had library class once a week. My favorite books after that is Judgement on Janus and Victory on Janus.
@@whitewolf3051 After a couple of thousand years, anyone on Pern is going to be descended from all of the colonists who have any living descendants. How much descent is going to vary, but if anyone alive is descended from Red Hanrahan, everyone is.
back in the 90's I was flying "back home" ... during one of the switching plane intervals I looked up from "The Dolphins of Pern ... to see a woman reading "The White Dragon" .... we nodded, grinned, and went back to Pern.. 😄😎
I started reading Pern (and McCaffrey in general) because of a well-loved copy of The White Dragon on my 9th grade English teacher's bookshelf. The sheer creativity of her ideas and worldbuilding was foundational to much of what we saw in later decades. Truly one of the greats.
My first book read from this world was Dragondrums. RIP Anne McCaffery. Dragonriders of Pern is my favorite series of all time. Thank you for allowing us into your world of Pern. I even have the ones by her son Todd and Anne herself.
The book series that time forgot. I loved these books when I was young. 40 years ago. It covered so many topics fantasy and scifi had to offer. But mainly there were interesting characters, and engaging stories to be had. It was not dark and gloomy, it was enthusiastic and optimistic. The future was bright and the characters cared for each other. Sure there were egoistical characters as well, but the threat (and the thread) was external! Humanity fought against something, together mostly. And telepathic dragons were on our side this time!
@ I love the white dragon so much! I read it at a very formative time for me, and the conflict of jaxom wanting to be his own man while not wanting to disrespect those who helped and looked after him really resonated with me. Plus Ruth is/was/will be adorable and awesome in equal measure. I want one!
@@exitsexamined As someone who grew up with the series, may I make a reply to your comments at the 10:45 mark. What you see as characters acting differently, I saw a reflection of people in my every day life. Everybody has bad days where they snap your head off, and others where they very kind & loving. At work I have to be a bit tough as a team leader, and yet when a co-worker is in real trouble, I also have to be a shoulder for support. As for my favorite book, I would say two together - Dragonsong/ Dragonsinger. I must have re-read them a dozen times.
@@gregorybiestek3431 I, too, am not sure what he's talking about. There is instances where Lessa for instance is stand offish and too cool as leader of the dragons which contrasts with her appearance in the first book. But it's understandable; and applicable, no one by. that stage had had experience with many dragons, with running a weir, coordinating many weirs, getting dragons and riders to mate properly with out un-aliving any one. Of course her personality changed. And many others were written this way too.
Man i remember reading the pern novels when they were being published, and getting to that twist reveal about the colony ships and what it meant for the story as a whole. It blew my kid mind so hard! It was great! Loved that series.
@@georgeharris6851 were those added long after the initial publication? because I don't recall any mention of that when i first read those as a kid back in the 80s.
@@happyninja42 - I'm pretty sure that the prologues have been in there the whole time. But they are very science oriented and not as easy to read as the rest of the book. I don't have a first printing of Dragonflight or Dragonquest, but I'm pretty sure it was in the first printing of The White Dragon. I was a little surprised the first time I read TWD, but went back, and it was there.
I fell in love with all Anns stories except her love story, the way she would write about the totally paraplegic children encapsulated to be ships and cities and how they felt sorry for the so called normal people, and her Crystal singer books, she really took you there to every adventure, when she passed we lost a great lady, she also wasn't frightened to bring in other good writers, I even read Todds books he tries to emulate his mother but has his own style and followers, but Anne was the best there has ever been. Jim from Scotland
I am right there with you Jim! Should we ever get to meet we should remember Anne over a hot cup of klah. I had the singular pleasure of meeting her once at Dragon Con (her very last visit) she was a remarkable lady!
I owned a copy of the board game signed by McCaffrey and others, dear friend was editor at Mayfair Games in the late 80s and early 90s. Game was stored safely I thought, but a plumbing incident destroyed it. 😢
Oh so sad I lot mine to a flood after evacuating from a hurricane lost alot of my books too could re place the books but the game was first addition so no go there.@@suzettehenderson9278
Wow..... I started reading these when Dragonflight and Dragonquest were the only two.... I remember being so thrilled when white dragon came out. Now I need this series again...
You had my full, undivided attention as soon as I saw Pern. I absolutely love The Dragons of Pern and their humans. I can't tell you haw many times I've read the books.
And now I might have to go back an re-read the Pern novels, just to find out what happened "when man first discovered the star Rukbat, in the Sagittarean sector..."
I think the most important are the first trilogy, the harperhall trilogy, and the Masterharper of Pern. Of course I love the traders and dolphineers (the Lilicamps have their own trilogy in my mind). 😎
My intro to Pern was the short story "The Smallest Dragonboy," which I read in elementary school way back in the 70s. I read the initial trilogy and the Harper Hall trilogy (Dragonsinger is my favorite). I don't remember how many of the series I read beyond that; a fair number but a lot of them were pretty standalone and none of them had the same impact on me as the earlier books. I had the opportunity to hear Anne McCaffrey speak when I was in college. One quote I remember was her response to people who offered unsolicited criticism of the world she had built: "It's MY planet."
Delighted this came into my feed. No idea how you managed to present the series in such a comprehensible way. I loved reading the books and now feel I should read them all again. Thank you.
From about 10 years old to 17, I would be constantly be rereading this series. There wasn't a world I didn't want to live in more than Pern, even with Thread. I wanted a dragon _and_ a fire-lizard! The publishing of All the Weyrs of Pern coincided very neatly with my waning interest in the series. It gave a sort of definitive "happy ending" where I could retire the series. I did continue to collect the later books but soon stopped when Todd McCaffrey took over. Not because I didn't like his writing (honestly can't remember if I did or not) but it just made a logical stopping point. But Dragonriders of Pern shaped so much of how I judge world-building, characterization, story-telling, etc. Also I wrote my first fan mail (snail mail!) to Anne McCaffrey and she replied! So there is that, too.
@@exitsexamined I was twelve, so it wasn't like my letter was remotely interesting 😄 but she did answer my questions and I appreciated that she wasn't condescending or tried to "talk to my level" (ie a kid). My dad was a filmmaker so I remember asking if Dragonriders of Pern was ever going to be made into a movie, and she told me that there was interest but they turned F'lar and Lessa into muscle-bound bikini-wearing sword-wielding warriors and Robinton into a Gandalf-type complete with long white beard. So she was pleased when that didn't go anywhere. She said she had since become very protective of her work (which probably explains why she was so against fanfic and online rpg at the time).
While the science fiction aspects were definitely present in the setting (development of dragons etc) the primary value beyond just seeing the plots unfold, was looking at the society they set up, and how it gets tested through the perturbations of the plot. You get to see this at a personal level based on the characters.
I was thinking about shadowrun during the intro as well. It also had an interesting cycle of popularity, decline & rebirth which might make a good episode.
@@Dayshan I loved all three games. The gameplay is great but I set the difficulty on medium because I am more invested in the story. I have played all three and replayed both dragonfall and hong kong repeatedly to get the different endings. I think dragonfal has a better variety of endings than Hong Kong.
Fantasy, but not high fantasy. It's more Fritz Leiber style adventuring for dollars through the dirty streets than Tolkien style cross the continent to save the world and ride on eagles back home.
@@perfectallycromulent I never heard of Fritz Lieber so I looked him up and Im surprised that I am learning of him now. I will definately read up on him.
Met Todd. He was very nice to me and signed my books and we talked a bit about his mom, books, life, but mainly he was encouraging me to write as an adult.
It was the Pern books that got me into sci-fi and fantasy. I remember my middle school librarian suggesting one, either White Dragon or a harpers’, and I pretty much devoured the rest of the genre books in the library. I think I got in at a good time in the mid-90s, so I was able to read almost all of the core books and its “ending” without waiting.
You always pick the best Exits to review dude - my school library was pretty sparse on fiction growing up but for some reason they had pretty much the entire Pern series. To this day lives rent free in my head and I've had no one to talk about it with. We're subbing the Patreon with this one boys, thank you for the high quality content - Happy Holidays! 🐲🤝🎄
Hey thanks so much for the kind words, just so cool there's people out there into the same series as me haha. Honestly if your school library was going to have any series in their entirety there are much worse ones than this! Thanks so much for the Patreon, seriously means the world to me! I'll get your name up on the next video. If there's ever any suggestions for sereis you want me to cover in the future let me know!
If you follow Scott Manley's channel (big spaceflight youtuber), on his shelf in his videos is a copy of The Dragonriders of Pern. He was a technical advisor to McCaffrey for The Skies of Pern. Making sure the terminology and physics of the asteroid impact on Pern were correct. The book was Anne's gift to him as thanks.
I haven’t thought of Pern in years, then TH-cam said, hey you might like this! Now I’m planning on picking up the audio books and rereading the series.
The Dragonriders stories first appeared in the SF magazine Analog - first story was "Weyr Search", roughly half the first book. Analog, under legendary editor John W. Campbell, only published "hard SF"; spaceships, blasters, etc. The story goes that Campbell and McCaffrey argued over dragons in SF, and Campbell said if she could write a story that convinced him dragons had a place in SF, he'd publish it. She did, he did, and he kept on publishing her stories. (I had a subscription back then and was delighted to find a new Pern story when the latest edition arrived.)
the Pern/Dragon books were barely science fiction. the only science in them was the discovery of Pern,the bioengineering of the fire lizards,and AIVAS and the colony ships engines used to alter the Red Star's orbit. the vast majority of the book is fantasy.
How interesting that this shows up in my recommended as I have just started reading one of the Pern books. I first discovered the Dragonriders of Pern in my early 20s and absolutely fell in love with them. Many years later and I still have a stuffed white dragon hanging from the ceiling that is called Ruth. For years I have wished someone could bring this series to the big screen. At least the first book, anyway. And after seeing the dragons in Game of Thrones , oh man I've wanted it more! Maybe someday it will get made. I can always hope.
Mercedes Lackey, would be a good video. I feel like her and Anne were around the same time period. The Valdemar is a big series, with horses that talk to companions. There was also Patricia A McKillip, but I don't think here books were as big as Anne's or Mercedes.
Pretty much Anne and Mercedes were my two favourite authors as a teen. I still get the Valdemar books even now, and her collab books are pretty good too.
@@exitsexamined I started with the Valdemar: Heralds of Valdemar. It starts with Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight and the last is Arrow's Fall. It was published in the 80's. The world of Valdemar is vast, and she has written so many books. She has the Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles which is the founding of the Heralds and it was written in the 2000's. I haven't read these yet.
@lemonpop6251 not to say you will have this experience, but I really didn't enjoy the Collegium books as much as the ones concerning Selenay and Elspeth. I know it's up to preference, but while they have decent worldbuilding they decent characters they tended to drag a lot more plot wise than a lot of her earlier books. If Exits ever does a video on Valdemar I hope he mentions Brightly Burning though! That book is a standout in the series.
What a thoughtful video! I learned a lot, too. Thank you for all of the research and the MEMORIES…“Dragonsong” is probably my favorite, to this day. Ahh, sweet nostalgia…
Producer : "We need a kick ass fantasy female hero" Lessa : "I"m h..." Writer : "What about a story about Galadriel cutting trolls in half and falling in love with Sauron ?"
Thank you for this. I loved that series so much. Always wished for movies to be made. I particulary liked the stories that integrated music, but really everything captivated me. Stated reading them in the seventies and just kept going.
One minor correction about Thread: It starts as a space-faring egg-like object. It doesn’t change into its lethal filament form until it reaches the atmosphere of Pern.
I started reading these in the 80’s & kept up until The Skies of Pern. I had no idea these fandom things existed, never thought to look for them. I liked the way she blended Sci-fi into her story & it has influenced my own writing. I still remember that the riders & people on the ground used canisters of “agenothree” to burn any Thread that made it past the dragons (it can’t burrow through rock & drowns in the rivers & oceans where fish etc eat it). Then I learned with them that original colonists used HNO3 to kill the Thread; the current folk didn’t understand what they were using, just knew how to make it & use it. Then you mentioned the guides & the atlas & I had to double-check that my copies had survived a flooding in my house! (They did.) I loved the books & the guides; that was the only series I ever got guides for. I’ve even read most of the Dragonlance books! lol
Wow....I hadn't thought of this series/world in forever. I remember reading the 1st six books over and over Middle School through High School and a handful of the others (Dragon's Dawn) in college and just beyond. I didn't know the stories had continued beyond the late 80's early 90's. I didn't know about the robust fandom. But I remember I used to make up my own Pern stories (in my head) all the time....long before I ever heard the term fanfic. Few other worlds have grabbed me like that. Interesting.
I found the Harper Hall trilogy at a yard sale when i was in college. I bought all 3 books and was hooked. That was in the late 80s. I've read all the Oern books including Todd's. I have several of the accompaning books you mentioned. I love having the maps and songs and even recipes from Pern. I have the game you said was a rare find. And yes i got it at a yard sale. I never got to meet her but she is my all time favorite author. She built so many amazing worlds. I also loved the Talent books and Acorns books. Thank you for making this video. I'm so glad it popped up un my feed. Have you done a video about Terry Brooks Shanara series?
Actually it was a "Long Interval" namely twice as long as a normal Interval, and for the last several Turns (years) there was Long Interval followed by a Short Pass, followed by a second Long Interval. Followed by 5 Weyrs disappearing within a few months when the Short Pass (Threadfall) ended. Hence some Holders wanted to end their supporting the Weyrs. Lesa figured out the "Answer" to the "Question Song"....
They did say that if a rider had a committed partner, they could just have that partner present during the mating flight, and the other dragon's rider could have the partner of their choice with them. In other words, activity was almost mandatory but it didn't have to be with the other dragon's rider.
The only time 'stand ins' are mentioned in Anne canon are some female green rider weyrlings speculating because some blue rider is gay and one of the girls has a bronze rider boyfriend. Nowhere else in canon is that even talked about, let alone depicted. The concept came about because readers realized that mating flight sex would mean their 'only hetero, super macho' brown and bronze riders would in fact be having sex with male green riders
Its always a delightful double take to see Pern pop up on my feed at random. My dad had so many of the books, i didnt read many before they were packed up save for Dragonsong which i enjoyed, and Moreta. I remember that one distinctly, particularly because of Covid and thinking to myself "Moreta didn't lose herself to the Between for you chuckleheads to not get vaccinated" with no trace of irony However my general experience was through the Dragonlover's book that my dad had. I lost the dust jacket a long time ago and actually purchased the updated second edition a few months ago. I spent way more time reading the informational texts than i did the novels so all the questionable things that came up in them i just completely missed 😂
Was it? because you’re right about there not being sci fi in it for a while except it seems like the glossaries always mentioned the Dawn Sisters or whatever the three stars that were actually orbiting starships were called. It would be a really strange thing to do if she hadn’t always had that idea in the back of her mind.
Here's a tip. Write grammatically and precisely. For example, when you mean to say 'It would be great to see your take on 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donaldson', write exactly that. Otherwise someone might waste their time scouring youtube and specifically the videos of this youtuber looking for a FUCKING NON EXISTENT VIDEO, which they would have liked to have seen, if it had ever been made.
I read these books when they were new. The storyline is compelling and unforgettable. I’m so glad they may come back with interest in dragons. These are the first books to make dragons the main characters. Love’em.
Thanks for showing the gorgeously intricate British edition covers as well as the Whelan covers. I had the original U.S. paperbacks but left them at my Mom's house when I got stationed in England. I missed them and went to a local bookstore near the base, hoping to find the books. I know that the depictions of the dragons did not agree with that in the books, but they were so beautiful. I still have them, as well as my American paperback editions, even all these decades later.
Wonderful review, touching on many of the ups and downs of the fandom through the years. I’ve been huge fan since the early 90’s when my uncle recommended the series, my entry was Dragonsdawn. In 1999 I found online there was a tv series in development and I tracked down the contact information for the production company (anlliance/atlantis) and call them to try get an audition or details to send an audition tape to. I’d go on to study acting as a career intent, always following the development of the announced Pern projects hoping I could find a way to be in it whoever was doing it. I even studied abroad in Ireland in college, then stayed for two additional years and managed to get invited to visit Anne at her home in 2007 which was an incredible experience wherein Anne McCaffrey herself recounted the summarized tale of “After the Fall is Over” which, was largely a retread in tone and tension to The Skies of Pern and even a bit sadder than the ending of All the Weyrs in terms of saying goodbye to long beloved characters. If ever I win a mega millions, you can bet there’ll be a Pern project soon after.
I read alot of old Golden Age Sci Fi in the late 60's and 70's. "Haunted" used book stores. I remember when Dragonriders first came on the scene, and anxiously waiting for each next book in the series. We didn’t know about the "Colony" background, we just thought it was straight fantasy at the time. And then I discovered her other series... and fell in love with her writing all over again. I collected as many of her books as I could. Still have them all.
In Anne McCafferey's own words, it started out as a short story to put dragons in a better light (as opposed to evil being slayed by good knights). 2 million words later, the fans won't let her stop writing Pern stories.
RIP one of the best fantasy/sci-fi authors ever.
Anne died in 2011, i followed her writings from 1969 till her death
@@nickislade5533. So did l…my first Anne book was….The Ship who Sang…still to this day my favourite book.
@@patpowell6684It was my first as well. Hardcore Sci-fi all the way. My favorite Pern books are the Harperhall series. The Hapermaster of Pern tied into the other stories and unites them in a fresh coherent way.
She did several other series toward the end, one was the Freedom series. It was four books about Earth being invaded and how human prisoners worked with the invaders to overthrow their masters. Most people don't seem to know about this. It left me wanting more.
My favorite series she did was based on a short story called The Lady in the Tower. There are eight books spanning the history of the Talented. The Talented take psychic powers to a whole new level. They become the main transportation means connecting the universe. In the later books they also become the means of destroying the threat of an alien species that doesn't recognize any other species. I have had to buy many new used books when I have worn my other copies out. I would like to get hardcover books but apparently they were never popular enough to warrant hardcovers. I find that hard to believe.
Out of all of her series, the Talented series would be the easiest to make into a series of movies. The first three books don't even mention the aliens and have 'pegasus' in the titles. They are a trilogy that sets up the background for the hiver (aliens) books.
In addition to her many series she wrote many stand alone books as well.
When I heard of her passing I made the mistake of going online and someone wrote the below
“Do you hear the dragons mourn? The first Queen has passed between”
And I cried my eyes out.
@@joannaglasby2596 you are not alone in that.
I read Dragonflight in middle school and fell in love with Pern instantly.
Thou shalt not anger Lessa of Ruatha!
Master Harper Robinton 🥰
F'lar managed to handle her well enough.
@@DarkPegasus87 MOST of the time. He knew when to run away.
Same
Same. Enjoyed it in my teens. But also left it behind and never thought about it again. This video reminded me of it, but zero desire to go back again.
It wasn't that good on many levels. And I don't think it influenced anything noteworthy.
Fun story, At Nellis AFB I was quizzing a fellow fan "Drummer, beat, and piper, blow Harper, strike, and soldier go" I was expecting him to complete the quote. Instead I heard a voice behind me saying "free the flame and sear the grasses
Til the dawning Red Star passes. that's from the dragon riders of Pern series" I was a bit shocked, this guy is as big a nerd as me... Needless to say I married him 🥰
That made me smile. Good on you. Wonderful story and congratulations.
See, this is the kind of relationship I want to find!
I found Dragon Song at a local library when I was 11yrs old. I hated reading, but the little dragons on the cover looked cool, so I checked it out. Anne McCaffery changed my life with that one book. She is the reason I am an avid d&d playing fantasy reader. Because of her, Lessa, and Menolly, I narrate audiobooks for a living. Thanks Anne for shaping my future ❤️.
Amazing and congratulations!!🕊️❤️
@@Kate-f1n 😊👍
That is so awesome you narrate books! I've wanted to do that but have zero skills with Audacity to screen out background noise. Congratulations to you on acquiring the skills!
@@debrobertson-positivedirec5898 If it's something you really want to learn don't give up. I use Adobe audition, and Izotope Rx10 for the technical issues when I have to, otherwise I outsource to an actual sound engineer. It takes time, patience to learn, but it can be very rewarding.
I really loved DragonSong and DragonSinger as a kid. Less so DragonDrums. They were an excellent YA retake on the world. So good in fact that I didn't realize I was reading a "kid's book."
I heard Anne McCaffrey speaking at a convention. She said that authors don't really have any control over cover art. The only one she liked was The White Dragon. She said it was realistic, especially the gear the rider was wearing. She said covers with women like Lessa wearing filmy silks while dragon riding were stupid.
She was right. Publishers catering for the lowest common denominator?
To get away with wearing silk drawers and a cami, and silver high heeled mules you'd need to be a vain magic user with an efficient Keep Warm spell, which is a waste of magic power. A good set of thermal underwear and leathers makes much more sense!
She was right!
@@lizlawley6680 so many mismatched dragon colors on covers -- authors didn't have much say in their covers back then. Publishers would often bulk order generic covers ("hot lady with big dragon") and just tack it on to whatever book. The illustrations are still beautiful, though!
The master harper had the best cover my sister painted it on her wall.
Michael Whelan's PERN covers were the best. ALL book covers he did were the best. Unlike most cover artists he would read the entire book to select a scene he thought best represented the story, then he'd paint as accurately as possible what the author described.
The floating city on his cover of Larry Niven's "The Ringworld Engineers" can be used as a map to follow the action in that part of the book. Other artists would've just done some fantastical sci-fi floating city and called it good enough. Whelan got the sizes, shapes, and relative positions of the building exactly as described.
On the timetravel aspect; The dragons can teleport, called "going Between", which is one of the core abilities that made them so effective as a means of protection. Travelling between requires a clear mental image of where the rider wants to go. It's basically a space-time jump from one location to another. A rider accidentally discovered that can include travelling back in time, based on their mental image, and the most accurate means to do this was the placement of the stars (and other physical features such as architecture). The tapestry mentioned had both, so the main character was able to travel back to that point in time with relative accuracy. I digress, but I do think it was solidly thought out and wasn't simply just shenanigans!
100%. It also explains why time jumps "don't modify reality". (Outside the basis of, if history was modified no one would know.) Most dragons and dragonettes have a natural feel for "where", improved with training, few have a natural instinct for "when". Ruth and Jaxom (White Dragon book) had enhanced natural skill and ability. Lessa and Ramoth were a mix of inborn ability and more than a bit of luck; something that would lose lesser dragon/rider teams.
Got to meet Anne at Dragon *Con several times. A incredible lady, we shall miss her.
@mikep490 but it is physically draining if you are "too many times" in a given day.
time travel
I remember in the White Dragon and the attempted in-between to the Thread Planet.
I still remember reading about Menolly of Half-Circle Sea Hold outrunning Threadfall.
an iconic moment!
I used to walk the beach hoping for fire lizard clutches for months after I read it. Sadly, never found any.
Me too, admittedly that was a fortnight ago for me
Then my feet took off and my legs did too
And my body was obliged to follow.
Me with my hands and my mouth full of cress
And my throat too dry to swallow.
😊
Menolly is legitimately one of my favorite characters of all time. A seriously inspiring journey through so many hardships and roadblocks. Even her faire of fire-lizards cuts both ways.
Whenever someone mentions that the amount of cgi required would be too much, I'm just standing over in the corner with a sign that says "animation"
I'm of the opinion that animation is the ideal medium for fantasy movies and criminally underutilized for this purpose. Especially since it might help combat the "Animation Age Ghetto" problem we have here in the western world.
Right? Absolutely perfect medium for adapting so many of these series!
@@RelativelyBest Yeah there are a lot of fantasy movies that would be much better off animated.
Animation or...hear me out.... Done in the style of "The Dark Crystal" though that might not be possible as it feels like so much practical / puppetry work of today has lost something
Edit to add... Japanese Anime style animation might be cool too
@@RelativelyBest I mean, look at how good DC's animated work is, it brings the fantastical and over the top action of characters that are more akin to gods than men to life far better than live action usually does
I read those books on the 70s, and even met the author while she was walking on the campus where she was a guest speaker. I was so star struck, I bowed and said " sawadee" ( Thai, because I had lived there 3 years) and she totally did the same! Her Uncle had been to Bangkok...!! Wonderful chat.
Went to a talk she gave on campus (also in the 70s). We then all went to a pub with her and drank imported beer and whisky. A grand time was had by all.
I met her at an autograph party for the publication of The White Dragon in Santa Monica, CA. She was very nice and gave off wise mother vibes.
Lucky.
My grandmother and I went to DragonCon '89 because Anne McCaffrey was there and I'm not sure who of us was the bigger fan... Grandmother was going to go, even if I couldn't.
Anyway, the first day of the 'Con, Grandmother did a little bow when she met McCaffrey. By the end of the convention, they were using first names. (Nothing like being at a panel and hearing McCaffrey say "yes, Scott, what's your question?" Just to realize the Scott was your grandmother...)
I'm 66 years old and still a huge fan of McCaffrey and her incredible series. They've turned Tolkien's masterpieces into movies and TV shows, George R. R. Martins amazing tales were turned into successful television fantasy lore, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series is amazing in its "celluloid" form, and there are 5 or 6 (hundred?) fantasy, sci-fi, and sci-fantasy books that have been incredibly and successfully adapted to both the big and small screen, and yet this hugely, fantastically, amazingly incredible series has been left out, given absolutely none of the love and respect it should have been afforded... PLEASE, somebody, and I'm talking to you Spielberg, and you, Lucas, and you Jackson, please take these tomes, and turn them into the extraordinarily, legendary pieces of movie and television history the so deserve.
Yes indeed, I'm 60 years old and have always wondered why they haven't.
I agree.
I too love her Dragonriders of Pern series (not so much when her son, Todd, took over writing) but I am pretty sure that I read somewhere (maybe it was Todd that said so) that she did not want her series turned into a movie. I do not recall her reason why but I hope people respect her wishes.
I am also 66 and a fan. Never thought about doing them as a movie. Also, these books had such an impact on me. When we were in the early 80s and people were creating there online personas, I used "Canth" and "Kildurin". Obviously to this thread the first one is known and the second is from Elizabeth Boyer's book.
@@JustAMan4you.....I've always thought that those that could create these movies were waiting for technology that wasn't created yet. I do believe that time is here!
I was very sick growing up (born in 1971) and have had 70 operations. I was a smart kid and read these books in grade school (I was home sick alot) and they helped save me. I will never be able to repay the debt I owed to Ms. McCaffrey. She was and will always be fantastic.
Yes and a big thumbs up that she didn't give up on the series, leaving us hanging like some other authors did. There's one series of the same era where the author gave up halfway thru his final book then never wrote the next.
I do hope you are healthier, sweetie. Being smart is such an asset. I can’t wish enough contentment and happiness in your life. Live long and prosper both in friendships and monetarily. :)✨🌈 ☀️🌷🌱
I love most of her series. Pern is definitely my favorite, but I enjoy the Talents books and the Crystal Singer books - plus The Ship Who Sang is great, too.
I hope you are stable.
Hope you are well now.
Honor those the dragons heed, in thought and favor, word and deed; worlds are lost and worlds are saved, by those dangers dragon-braved!
:) part of the essence of the books 🐉🌷🌱
Dragonman, avoid excess. Greed will bring the Weyr distress.
The tears I feel today
I'll wait to shed tomorrow.
Though I'll not sleep this night
Nor find surcease from sorrow.
My eyes must keep their sight:
I dare not be tear-blinded.
I must be free to talk
Not choked with grief, clear-minded.
My mouth cannot betray
The anguish that I know.
Yes, I'll keep my tears til later:
But my grief will never go.
Most of her poetry lives rent free in my head.
Ha! Haven't heard that in 30 years - the last time I read the books. Bummed me out how Robinton got done dirty by a collection of asswipes 😢
You have the album too - Duty Song.
You seemed to have missed one rather large fan contribution. Harry and Marylen Alm contributed the maps of how threadfall would occur. Harry worked for NASA at the time and worked out the orbits for the 'red star" source of thread, and generated the maps.
Not just them! I believe there were quite a few aerospace folks contributing too, right? Plus Todd himself has a degree in aeronautics I think? It was incredible to see the kinds of fields putting their knowledge at her fingertips when she did the acknowledgments.
Maps are epic!
That so cool!
@Beryllahawk Todd has an ME degree, but worked as a programmer when I knew him. He does have a private pilot's license and knows a lot about flying.
@@KnikGuy Ah, gotcha! I think I might've been remembering something from an interview or article that mentioned his experience with flying affecting some of the descriptions of dragons in flight. But it was ages and ages ago, so of course the details are much too fuzzy to do me much good
On a Saturday morning at 9am I sat down with a cup of coffee and the Drargonriders of Pern. When I went to take a sip of coffee, I was surprised it was cold. Then I looked at the clock. It was 4pm. I was hooked.
CGI was expensive as hell twenty years ago. It's only getting better and a hell of a lot cheaper. The biggest problem is using to much CGI and that is what makes it expensive. All things in moderation.
The most vivid scene I never have forgotten, is in The White Dragon where Jaxom becomes severely ill and is taken to a South Continent by Ruth, his dragon partner.
The description of him shivering, then lying on a warm sand beach under the shade of trees; parched, then finally quenching his thirst with fruits.
Especially every time I was sick, I was desperate to be on that beach! 🏝️
Oh, those Michael Whelan covers!
Bless Whelan, his covers are always excellent. His Elric covers are favourites of mine
Ah yes, very scantily clad female dragonriders. Despite the writer very explicity describing them as wearing heavy leather garments and explaining why they are doing it. But sex sells better.
_The White Dragon_ cover is what made me look at art as more than just "scribblings". I had the chance to meet him when we was Artist Guest of Honor at a local convention. I'll never forget my first meeting him.
I'm working in the Art Show (like I have for many years) and this lanky guy comes up to me and asks me, "So... where is my art supposed to go? And is it here already?" I'm about to tell him that attending artists are supposed to bring their own art in when I recognize the face (he's put himself in a few of his covers). I was good. I _immediately_ mentally slammed my inner fangirl into a box and directed him to where his art would be put up, and explained that it had arrived, but they hadn't brought out all the boxes with mailed art yet (we had just finished putting up the panels and had kept the art safely out of the way until that was done).
I was _very_ good during the whole convention, though it was a challenge when we watched him create a loose but incredible piece in the space of an hour(!).
At some point, though, I should probably apologize to his wife... she _did_ wind up talking to that inner fangirl at the end of the show. She was very gracious (their adult kids amused), but I'm still embarrassed at how much I gushed.
❤ Definitely. I think he was McCaffrey's favorite illustrator of her books
I love his work! He always included a symbol that could be seen as either an M or a W. I made a point to look for it. Kind of like spotting Stan Lee's cameos in the Marvel movies.
The Harper Hall books are my favorites. As a nerd in the 70's and 80's I felt an like an outcast and Menolly's struggles felt personal.
Oohhhh same! I still have a ratty paperback set of those books. They literally saved my life in the late 90's ❤
Yep, mine too! Though the last one...I can't stand Piemur. He's such a brat. 🙄🙄🙄😡
@@User_Un_Friendly come on, Piemur pretty much redeemed himself in Dragon Drums.
SAME! If there was ever some place in Pern I wanted to be, it'd be there. Just stick me in the Archivists.
I'm about to introduce my 12 yr nephew to the Pern series and am starting with these... just as they were my first books introduced to Pern.
One item I heard about Anne Mcaffery and the Pern books: she was a huge equestrian horsey-person. She was *really* into horses. And thus the rider-dragon relationship in the books was her idealized version of the horse-rider relationship in the real world
She also was a parrot owner. Her pet cockatoo is in many of her author photos. Having grown up with parrots, there is a lot of inspiration coming from them. Pern dragons really are 'What if a parrot&horse were smashed together and given the skin of a dragon.
And then also add horses 'Runner beasts' and parrots 'Firelizards' in anyway, as a treat
She had a whole horse driven mini story in one of her pern adjacent anthology books. Not to mention runner beasts featuring in prominently in many of the pern stories themselves
She went to Spain and observed the connection between rider and horse.
Fizzaroli: *YOU'RE STILL ON TGE HORSE THING?!*
@@petercarioscia9189I think she wrote a story about the invention of horseshoes for an anthology at one point
When I was stationed in Germany in the early 80’s, Anne stayed with stayed with us for a bit while she visited the local areas. She was also in the SCA and participated in some of our local events. Somewhere in storage, I have some of her books she personalized in calligraphy and some beautiful bookmarks she made. To say the least, she was a wonderfully interesting and thoughtful lady who didn’t hesitate to share her thoughts, experiences and talents freely with us and others.
Ah, SCA. Good times.
I was already a confirmed McCaffrey fan before Pern, having first read her wonderful book, The Ship Who Sang. From the start of the Dragonriders of Pern, it never felt like fantasy, just really good world building. The sci-fi elements get added over time with successive books, so it's important to start with the DragonRiders books first, then the Dragonsong series. The premise does sound odd, but McCaffrey makes it work, and work well -- the books are real page-turners. But they're not giant tomes like so many authors seem to favor today; her plots are crisp and well-woven but not overly intricate, and don't require having a Pern atlas and character list at hand at all times. I could so see these books as a great Netflix series -- I don't know why no one has optioned them yet.
They've tried! But they didn't always "get" the stories. I remember an interview with McCaffrey in which she mentioned that they tried to rewrite things to be more in tune with the real world, and one line of dialog would have been, "Man, those dragons are freaky!" Try to imagine one of Pern's citizens saying that! I'm glad that whoever was working on that "adaptation" didn't succeed in destroying our beloved Pern!
@@hodgeelmwood8677 Absolutely! I'm glad that didn't happen. Looking at a lot of the sci fi and fantasy adaptations today, I guess it's probably best it stays in our imaginations!
McCaffrey herself shot down all proposals and attempts at filming the series. She would never sell the rights to any production company.
@@jeannineflores3623 I've read that her daughter has said that one of the problems has been the cost of doing that many dragons in CGI. Perhaps if the live action remake of How to Train your Dragon finds a way to do it, Pern's dragons might be able to fly, too. But I do worry about if the studios can adapt the story well, after some of the fiascoes we've seen lately...
I loved the stories about the brain & brawn ships, too. So different from the Pern-books, but so similar in how the characters were written.
I remember reading the prequel book and loving it. In all fairness to the original colonist they were (to my recollection) low on supplies, lacked the ability to bring themselves back up to an advanced society in a short span of time having planned to tech down so as to save on resources during the initial colonization, and needed an inventive solution within the next few years because they were getting very low on fuel. The fire-lizards, teleporting, flying, and spark breathing local lizards were already pretty good at destroying the Thread on the small scale and formed telepathic bonds with humans. The original colonist included a legendary geneticist among their number, so it was less that original command crew was drunk off their ass, and more they had extremely select resources to work with and scaling up the local fauna to massive proportions made a certain amount of sense in context.
The original dragons weren't so large, they were engendered to grow larger with each new generation.
The plan of the Pern colony was to be low-tech. We're not talking space Amish, but far below the Interstellar norms. That's why Pern was chosen as it didn't have the mineral resources to support a high-tech society.
Came here to say this- they couldn't go back, didn't plan on needing so much air flight fuel (I want to call them sleds? It's been a few years), and the dragons were right there.
seems odd they wanted to go low tech yet had a master geneticist who also had the means to do that kind of biological engineering.
Doesnt that need really advanced industrial capabilities?
@@theliato3809 Keep in mind that a) she was elderly and this was effectively her retirement and b) they were high tech by our standards, but lacked the ability to maintain it especially with the pressure the Thread was putting on them. They had to mass evacuate an entire continent, carve out cities into mountain sides, and perform other major engineering projects to survive the initial Threadfall. So in the very short term they absolutely had super advanced industrial capabilities, but the planet was low on mineral resources and they had no ability to produce key components and fuel in the medium or long term. The dragons, while high cost in development, had the advantage of only needing a fertile male and female to produce successive generations meaning that no matter how much they lost in terms of technological knowledge as long as basic animal husbandry remained they were good to go. The original colonist had enough knowledge to predict that the Threadfall was going to be a long term repeating issue, and so planned accordingly.
I met Anne McCaffrey on the very last book tour she did, with her son, and took my boyfriend (now husband) to get a book signed. I had it all worked out in my head how I was going to tell her how her books were an inspiration to me as a writer, how they got me through high school, etc. All I managed to get out when face to face with her was "I love your books!" 🤦🏽♀️ My boyfriend was behind me and was like, "she really does, you're her all time favorite author and she really admires you." Bless him 😂 (Shout out to Kadazar Weyr, iykyk)
What does iykyk mean?
@aliceDarts "if you know, you know"
@mzfreddie ohh! I get it. Thanks... happy holidays!
I’m a calligrapher and so is Anne. From the late 80’s to the early 90’s we were penpals.
While I never met her in real life. She was very down to earth and we corresponded on a regular basis for many years.
"Kadanzer Weyr" 😊
I often recommend reading some of other Anne McCaffrey's books, "The Ship Who Sang" was a great book that (once I realized it took place in the same universe) really expanded my understanding of the Universe that Pern takes place in.
Do all of her books take place in the same setting? I read a horrifying story by her back in the day about a group of colonists who realized too late that they were eating the indigenous population that occasionally goes though a hibernation cycle and were then eaten as a result to recover their nutritional value, which was then enforced under international space law.
@BoutrosSP I don't think that the Decision on Doona and it's sequel were part of her overall cosmology.
Primarily because of two big factors.
1) The story takes place in an "early space exploration Earth" time-line. They have FTL, but limited numbers of ships.
2) The alien race they encounter has *interstellar teleportation technology*! Admittedly, they have to fly there first to set up the platforms... but they can move an entire settlement at once.
This race is only mentioned in one other short story specifically set in the time-line of these two books.
Edit: I *think* the story you mentioned is referenced in Decision on Doona as the reason why the alien contact on Doona is such a problem.
@@BoutrosSP She had many story lines besides the Pern line, though that was her most popular and ran to the largest number of books. The ship who sang was the base of one such series. Another was The Crystal Singer. A Bridle for Pegasus was a third. She also wrote a lot of stand-alone novels and short stories.
The ship Wo Sang was the first Anne McCaffrey book that I read. I loved it! Then I read The White Dragon and I was hooked.
Oddly enough I found her non-Pern books easier to read for some reason, maybe because they were written later in her career. I enjoyed her Rowan and "Freedom" books.
When Master Robinson died I lost a lot of the impetus to keep reading the stories. I really loved those stories when I was younger.❤❤
Robinton's death was probably the most heart-wrenching moment in anything Anne McCaffery wrote. The other thing that happened at the same time (if you don't know, you really should read the books) also made it that much more of a pivotal event in the series, which is brilliant writing when you consider how peaceful it was.
🥲🥲🥲🥲
Master Robinson was so beloved! I cried & cried over his death.
I am so pleased to see the response to this video.
i am 69 and did not discover the series until I was in my late 50's. I have read the entire McCafferey series several times and the Harper Hall series even more. It is so rewarding to read so many of these responses and how it has had such a positive effect on so many diverse people. I was first introduced to Anne with "The Ship Who Sang" and went on to read most of her other stories. So glad to have an author who creates so many strong and capable women in her tales and who has done her homework in populating her stories with real science facts. The Pern stories time flow reminds me of my own parents journey though the last 100 years from growing up on farms with horses as the main motive source, to a human landing on the moon to our human ability to destroy the planet, all within a single lifetime. Anne wove these technological possibilities and changes throughout the Pern world and I wonder if future generations will make that connection.
Keep on reading Pern Fans!
The Ballad of Moreta's Ride will never not make me cry. Loved everything about the Harper's Hall too!
Makes me cry every time, too!
The only book i have cried at
Moreta is one of my favorite characters from any series. I cry every time I read her story. I also cry reading about Robinton. I love those characters.
I read Moretas story when I was in middle school. I could not put the book down. I finished the book late at night, everyone was asleep. Big crying fit!
In my youth I got so attached to the characters in Moreta's story that I can't read the book again because I can't stand the heartache.
Same reason I got to skip the chapter about Robinton's fated ship ride with his loved one in the Masterharper of Pern. That chapter hits so hard since I grew up in a fishing community I just can't take it.
I first read "The White Dragon" in High school, thought it was one of the best reads ever and had to read more about this place called Pern. I ended up owning the first Trilogy and the Harper Hall Trilogy as well. Great works.
The White Dragon read like a Shonen protagonist story. The other two books in the series were a more mature read which I found a little strange. The prequel novel was very much more scifi then fantasy.
I remember at uni waiting for the white dragon to be published. As a poor student I managed to save enough to buy the hardback and read it non stop that night!
Small correction about the green dragons. They were only infertile if they chewed firestone to breathe fire. They could reproduce if they didn’t but they only produced more greens. Only golds hatched all the colors. So greens weren’t desirable very often to reproduce cause they would flood the weyrs with more greens. But there’s a few times in the books greens are used to bump dragon populations back up to fighting force.
The children of greens were also smaller and not naturally built for fighting thread
In 'Dragonsdawn' it is hinted that Kitti Ping Yung (the "creator" of the dragons) modified the genes of the two female dragons because she was a 'traditionalist'. The greens were made sterile, and the queens were made unable to use firestone. They could chew it, but they didn't produce flame. He is also leaving out a lot of information, and using the "why not" line a bit to much. Green dragons weren't always ridden by just males, the restriction started because of the worry of losing the women who were needed for maintaining population.
So, you watched this video I presume? I'm curious, because this channel stinks of AI, from the steady churn of uniform videos since its inception a couple years ago to the clearly AI voice, is this video actually a valuable reflection on Pern? As most here, fell in love in middle school, with rare memories from that time of excitedly going back to the little public library for the next book in the series. Which makes me this channel's target audience. I mean you took the time to comment so you can't have found it totally worthless, but what's your verdict?
@@JeffreyGoddin It wasn't totally worthless, but it leave A LOT to be desired.
Green dragons breeding didn't come into being until the much later books with Todd McCaffrey, whose greens *could* produce all colors including gold. It was much debated for decades whether greens were rendered infertile when dragons were engineered or if it was only the chewing of firestone that made them so.
Been reading Anne for more then half a century. I always considered her work more Sci Fi then Fantasy ! Her 1969 short story; "Helga, The Ship That Sang" is a masterpiece.
As someone who graduated way back when (1975) and an avid reader of any genre, I was hooked on The Dragon Riders series. All through school starting back in 1961 I lived for my weekly tips to the public library and as soon as 2nd grade it became multiple trips as the library was only about 8 blocks further than my school. And yes I am now retired but even though technology has made libraries nearly obsolete and I do have a vast library of books on my computer I still love going to the library and the feel of a good book in my hands.
The smell of books is something I love and it can't be replicated on a computer. There's a lot to be said for holding and reading a physical book.
Holy Maple Bacon Cupcakes, you are giving the OG Mother of Dragons - Anne McCaffrey - her due!!! Menolly and Mirrim were my #goals as a wee Blerd. I loved Robinton as well. Oh and F'nor and Brekke too!!! I really wanted Menolly to return to Half Circle and tell off her parents.
Preach!!
Robinton will forever be the best Master Harper ever. The best character arc I've ever read. ❤
@@kiralee2012 I loved him and Silvina ♥️.
Ruth was one of my favorite dragons
I’ve wanted a gold for decades.
Ruth always knows when he is!
Sweet sweet white dragon.
The phrase "I am thinking of my other stomach." 😐
has lived rent-free in my head for decades.
As a kid in the 80's, I loved this series. Those were the days long before social media and when she had a postal address in the books - so I wrote to Anne McCaffery not expecting a reply. Six months later, she took the time to handwrite a lovely 2 page response. That was pretty cool of her
Whoa that's so cool! She was really good (mostly) with her fans. What did she say?
@ mostly thanking me for a "real letter" and how grateful she was for people that wrote to her. I loved dragons as a 14yo and she talked about how much she loved writing about them + some promises of more adventures to come.
Today with my own children, I often ponder how differently we treat young readers (or children generally) today. 14yo now have YA novels, without any of the threat or adult themes. Disneyfication?
The Pern novels have a special place in my heart. I loved the dragons, the world, and the characters. Yes, there were some things that in today's world look questionable, but there's also this weird trend right now where people think a character can never do wrong, and if they do, it should be explicitly pointed out that they've done wrong. That's not what fiction is for! Thank you for this overview of a series that took me out of the mundane world into the world of dragons and their bonded riders.
You’ve expressed my thoughts almost exactly.❤❤❤
I was thrilled to see recognition for Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. When you look at her other series....the Ship Who series and collaborations, the Freedom Series, the Talent books, the Acorna series, the crystal Singer Trilogy.....(and these aren't all....) you see her world building was epic. She created universes and races and worlds and the sheer scope of it all is mind blowing. I actually got to meet her at Dragon Con in Atlants Georgia and she remembered me from an email I had sent her to try and win a signed book plate. She was such and incredible woman and I have spent a lifetime reading her works....repeatedly. A true genius and pioneer of the science fiction genre, my absolute hero.
I was at one Dragon Con she attended but I was in line past the 75 cut off point. Later I lost my con pass and had to go through registration again missing her the second day. I never met her. You are very fortunate you did. That is awesome.
I'd love to see her Brainship and Crystal Singer series on the big screen.
YES!!!!
I really enjoy the Brainship series!
I would too!
Those are two series I have not thought about for a long time.
I loved the crystal singer series. I reread it often
I participated in a role-playing / group fiction Pern story years ago. I knew I wouldn't be able to stick with it long-term, so I created a character who was a youth who impressed a dragon hatchling and started training, but showed signs of being impatient and a little careless. Our story was set in an earlier Pass than the original trilogy, and there was mention in the original trilogy of discovering a very young rider and dragon embedded in stone in the middle of the cliffs the Weyrs were built in. Yup, while they were learning how to visualize their destinations properly, my character went *between* and never reappeared. The dragons knew and started keening their death cry. Lots of chance for other writers to show their characters' reactions!
@@CritterKeeper01 There are still a few fan games out there should you have more time, and the inclination still, to join one now. ☺️
Look Pern may be a smaller fandom these days, but it has a lot of heart. I love the series so much, its practically a legacy series for my family. My dad is a huge fan and my siblings and I read his books growing up, so it's a life long love.
Hopefully we do get a good tv adaption of it eventually. I've always thought it would work as an animated show, that way we can see the dragons in all their glory.
Yeah, unfortunately, Anne's kids didn't really share her writing talents
There's some hope in that fan productions are beginning to apply a level of technical expertise in special effects that was once purely reserved for Hollywood. For an example - I would point to the fan series of 13 episodes of "Star Trek Continues" helmed and produced by fan favorite Vic Mignogna. He also does a pretty excellent job portraying Captain Kirk himself! (If you are an anime fan - you might recognize his voice-over work as the lead character in Full Metal Alchemist and the Dragonball Z character Broly.)
The point being - all of the sets, lighting camera work etc - were meant to EXACTLY reproduce the styles that you would've seen in the original 60s TV series. And while all the space scenes with the Enterprise and other ships are all CGI work - they are, by some fan opinion - even better than CBS Star Trek remastered.
And they VERY much succeeded! If not for the fact that the familiar characters are portrayed by different actors, you would think these were actual "Lost episodes"!!
And back to my point about Draganriders of Pern - I think it won't be too long yet before cheap and affordable tech can produce - not just spaceship effects - but full on organic effects. Currently that's why Sci-Fi is easier than fantasy to do for a fan production. But sooner or later the type of tech that made the Avatar films and the current set of Godzilla films will filter down to stuff that will work off of standard PC computers.
And THEN we'll see fan productions of the Pern books. Maybe haltingly at first. With unconvincing effects. But they'll get better as time goes on.
That's my hope at least.
And yes - a traditionally animated show might be the current best way to present it. Just have to convince the right studio in Japan that it's worth their time to do. That's the big hurdle.
luckley Anne stopped the WB offer. They wanted to do an animated series with pink dragons and other stuff the turned Anny off. She could have pocked a big chunk of $$$ but she stood her ground and refused. Thank you Anne!
Most of the fandom impetus is passing down through readers, rather than book stores and libraries. One or two books still on shelves. But a lot of us recommend whenever we get the chance.
My introduction to Pern was actually Dragonsdawn. I have nearly all of the books, and have had to re purchase many due to how many times i read them until they fell apart. I even own the cd of the music! I was devastated when Anne passed. One of my bucket list items is to visit Ireland and see Dragonhold. ❤
Yes, at this point I say "Ah, who needs covers?" and "Wheres my wide, clear tape?"
I was in my early 20’s when I discovered this world through a co-worker’s hubby. I’ve had a thing for dragons (and dinosaurs) since I was just a little kid and I’m a grandma now. Have all the books, and, like old friends, we visit regularly. Another author Pern fans might enjoy, is Andre Norton. She wrote similar fiction but with telepathic animals, mostly feline based, and was a prolific author as well. The series starts with “Moon of Three Rings”.
I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation! Thanks. 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
Anne McCaffrey was one of my mom’s favorite authors and the book series was her favorite. My mom passed back in August and I still have her Pern books. That might be my next years goals to read them.
Go for it, you won't regret it!
Go for it, I doubt you will regret it
My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckle; the rest is subject to change without notice. Anne McCaffrey
Go for it. You'll regret bits of it, but probably enjoy more.
You definitely should, they are a really great read!
The dual defense they cooked up - dragons to burn thread out of the sky, and the grubs or worms to eat thread where it has landed, were not only cool (at least the dragons) but made sense within her story. The colonists had only the tech base they brought with them, and had always intended to live at a much lower tech level than the high tech that permitted their travel through the stars. It's entirely possible that a high tech society with an established high tech base for support might have been able to use machines instead of dragons, but they had not brought with them the machines needed to support a high tech society - on purpose - because they wanted to eschew the downsides of high tech societies (very high population density, ecological destruction, etc). Ironically, the last remaining high tech they could bring to bear on the problem - using genetic alteration to create dragons (and the forgotten worms), were the source of the much more amenable, self-sustaining biologic defenses.
Pern stands for "Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible". They didn't have the metals and other resources necessary to establish and maintain a high-tech society even if they wanted to, which they didn't.
The books established that the colonists were actually refugees from a supernova landing on the only planet they could reach.
A volcano destroyed their original tech base with a second hit from the “thread”.
@@allangibson8494that is wrong. They weren't "refugees" from a natural event. Instead people who wanted to leave behind such advanced technology.
The first dragons weren’t even as big as Ruth. One of the genetic engineering parameters from the start was “trait amplification” - each successive generation would be bigger and better.
@@shadowwynd6641 what many people missed was the fact that Tuberman himself was also Eridani trained, just not to the same extent as Kitti Ping Young, but had MORE training than Wind Blossom.
While it is never explicitly mentioned in the books, I'm 100% positive that Tubberman had the assistance of Young to create both the grubs and the cats.
I agree McCaffery does worldbuilding with rare skill. My favorite aspect of her writing is that it always feels like I meet her characters, in her stories they become 3 dimensional, living, breathing people. The internal inter-book consistency is shaky sometimes, but I think that's offset by the sheer charisma of her OC's. Moreta is one of my personal favorite fictional characters I've gotten to know. :) _Moreta :Dragonlady of Pern_ became one of my comfort rereads during 2020. IYKYK
Thanks for this thorough examination of a most beloved series! I'd bet Anne herself would be a bit irritated at the rise of romantisy, she'd tried to cashgrab softcore scify back in the 60s ( _Thorns of the Catterni_ if you're curious) I have the impression she would have wanted to be successful there as a pioneer of the genere. _Dragonriders_ walked so _Iron Flame_ & _ACOTAR_ could run.
_Restoree_ was also part of her "softcore period" if I remember correctly.
I really am going to have to dig out my collection, aren't I?
I loved "The ship who sang". It pulled me into the mesmerising world of Anne McCaffrey
Anne herself said the books were always science fiction and never fantasy. This is a really great overview of the series, thanks!
In my head, the difference between sci fi and fantasy is that sci fi uses, well, science, and fantasy uses magic. So yeah, solidly sci-fi.
@@cathipalmer8217Exactly - Anne McCaffrey's dragons aren't magical creatures; they're alien lifeforms that have been genetically engineered
I think there was a lot of action! Fighting, flying, arguing, time travel, Gathers (fairs or festivals), pranks, mean girls, music, Thread, exploration, sex. I never, ever thought it was info dumps or talking heads. And the thread wasn't the only enemy. There are a lot of rivalries, jealousies, evil people and violence. Some of it centered AROUND thread, but there are plenty of people to get upset with and hate. And plenty to love and wish they were real! The gradual change from the feudal, low/no tech fantasy world to finding of hidden/lost scientific bits and pieces and the merging of the two worlds is quite fascinating, also.
Well said; from the first book there's complicated people mixes galore. The implementation of the science aspect is nicely gradual and intriguing. I guess I need to read again.
With the early timeline Pern novels, the reason for the dragons and other things is that they didn't have a TON of resources (Fun fact, the planets name is an acronym for Parallel Earth, Resources Negligent) and where the people heading there were, essentially, wannabe space amish. The dragons and other things were developed as a way to not required a lot of technology for it and self propagating. Same reason for a lot of the social structure that develops over it.
There are also a lot of theories that the Pern books are set in the same universe as Anne's other stuff.
Later books makes it very clear that the Pern books take place in the same setting/timeline as The Ship Who Loved books.
Moreta meets Acorna
Not a theory. There were the short stories that showed Brainships, using Ballybran Crystals and the telepaths all connected to the Dragons and Pern.
I could've sworn the acronym was "Parallel Earth, Resources Nominal?" Shoddy memory...
Edit: apparently the acronym is Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible.
Very definitely a shared universe. The Pern colony developed out of an EEC Survey, and the EEC was also a major factor in the Dinosaur Planet and Planet Pirates books. I believe it was also connected with the PTB series
I was dyslexic as a child. As a Young Adult I used the Pern Books (in part) to re-teach myself to read (along with books from Heinlein, Asimov, and several others; sci-fi, fantasy, and westerns mostly). I went from reading being like pulling out my own teeth to addicted so that I could not be without a book or series of books at any time. If I had five minutes to kill~ book was in hand.
I went from a 3rd grade reading level to passing a reading comprehension test with a 95+% to get into a state college (I had never taken SATs) in a 4 year period.
Pretty much the same for me.
same for my friend who got me into the books! Her mom loved books, and bought the audiobooks for her to get her into reading. Her mom would come in sometimes and fast forward through the story. So we'd turn down the big 90s stereo and put our ears close to listen, and heard all the risque dragon sex lol
I LOVE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN! i read it 40+ years ago and have reread it several times.
The rural area I lived in had a bookmobile that would come around. Checked out Dragonsong one day and was instantly hooked. With regard to dragon names ending in "th", I read that someone asked Anne about that. She said, "Dragons have forked tongues, so they lisp!"
Lessa of Pern was my first hero, ever!
Mine too. And an important female hero.
From her first appearance ... she just rocks the full blooded hero status!!
I saw the cover of 'The White Dragon' and got hooked.
One of my favourites is 'The Dolphins of Pern'.
Epic series of books.
That IS a really gorgeous cover!
I was first introduced to Pern with the short story where Lessa choose to use the Dragon Riders to get her revenge on Flax who killed her family when he invaded her holding to extend his power. I think this short story was the start of the series. Her manipulation of the Riders backfire when she joins them instead of being able to reclaim her holding as she had planned. This plot twist was one of the things that hooked me on the series. I enjoyed most of the books in the series later finding the Harper Hall ones, a spin off of sorts as good as the Dragon Rider novels. When Lessa went from kitchen drudge who was preforming small acts of sabotage over the years as she plotted her revenge to instead taking on a totally different role in the world was an interesting take as often real life will do much the same to people who think they are charting one path only to find another is the one they are destined for. Good world building, interesting characters and good writing..an excellent series overall.
Yeah, Weyr Search was the first thing published, and was later combined with another novella (if you're very careful, you can overlook the seam) to form the first two thirds or so of Dragonflight (the final third is a third, unpublished, novella).
I've not read the original novellas myself to compare, but I'm told pretty much nothing was changed from Weyr Search nor Dragonrider.
I don't suppose you know whether the "this is actually SF really" introduction was present for Weyr Search? By the time Dragonflight was published, it had the whole thing about colonising the third planet of Rukbat and calling it Pern.
@@rmsgrey Weyr Search was a short story included in the anthology "The Hugo Winners" that I read in the late 70s, I am not sure if the other novella was then added in later years as I only later read the much expanded novel Dragonflight. "The Hugo Winners" had a number of short stories I later believe influenced other sci fi. For example "Arena" from "The Hugo Winners" was much like the Star Trek episode where Kirk fought the Gorm. Authors such as Anne McCraffrey, I suspect, were influenced by earlier authors like Andre Norton who wrote both sci fi and fantasy such as "Witch World" series from the 1950s thru the 1970s. I suspect if you like Anne McCraffrey's work you would also enjoy Andre Norton's books and recommend Witch World, Three against the Witch World, Warlock of the Witch World & The Jargoon Pard as she mixed family, romance, world building, etc much like McCraffrey did in her Dragon World Novels.
She gave her family hold to the son of that invader because the boy was related to her and they were of Ruathan blood. That meant they were related to the first dragon leaders of Pern, mainly because of Sorka from Dragon Dawn, she had many little brothers and *possibly* sisters, and one of them became the next lord of Ruatha after her father.
@@gortgnut9461I LOVE ANDRE NORTON!! My first was “Star man’s Son”. I found it in my elementary school library. It took me a looong time to read. We couldn’t check out books and we only had library class once a week. My favorite books after that is Judgement on Janus and Victory on Janus.
@@whitewolf3051 After a couple of thousand years, anyone on Pern is going to be descended from all of the colonists who have any living descendants. How much descent is going to vary, but if anyone alive is descended from Red Hanrahan, everyone is.
back in the 90's I was flying "back home" ... during one of the switching plane intervals I looked up from "The Dolphins of Pern ... to see a woman reading "The White Dragon" .... we nodded, grinned, and went back to Pern.. 😄😎
I started reading Pern (and McCaffrey in general) because of a well-loved copy of The White Dragon on my 9th grade English teacher's bookshelf. The sheer creativity of her ideas and worldbuilding was foundational to much of what we saw in later decades. Truly one of the greats.
My first book read from this world was Dragondrums. RIP Anne McCaffery. Dragonriders of Pern is my favorite series of all time. Thank you for allowing us into your world of Pern. I even have the ones by her son Todd and Anne herself.
The book series that time forgot. I loved these books when I was young. 40 years ago. It covered so many topics fantasy and scifi had to offer. But mainly there were interesting characters, and engaging stories to be had. It was not dark and gloomy, it was enthusiastic and optimistic. The future was bright and the characters cared for each other. Sure there were egoistical characters as well, but the threat (and the thread) was external! Humanity fought against something, together mostly. And telepathic dragons were on our side this time!
One of my all time favorite series! So glad you did an episode on this!
It's my pleasure it was fun to dive back into them, what's your favorite book from it? They are all so different!
@ I love the white dragon so much! I read it at a very formative time for me, and the conflict of jaxom wanting to be his own man while not wanting to disrespect those who helped and looked after him really resonated with me. Plus Ruth is/was/will be adorable and awesome in equal measure. I want one!
@@exitsexamined As someone who grew up with the series, may I make a reply to your comments at the 10:45 mark. What you see as characters acting differently, I saw a reflection of people in my every day life. Everybody has bad days where they snap your head off, and others where they very kind & loving. At work I have to be a bit tough as a team leader, and yet when a co-worker is in real trouble, I also have to be a shoulder for support. As for my favorite book, I would say two together - Dragonsong/ Dragonsinger. I must have re-read them a dozen times.
@@gregorybiestek3431 I, too, am not sure what he's talking about. There is instances where Lessa for instance is stand offish and too cool as leader of the dragons which contrasts with her appearance in the first book. But it's understandable; and applicable, no one by. that stage had had experience with many dragons, with running a weir, coordinating many weirs, getting dragons and riders to mate properly with out un-aliving any one. Of course her personality changed. And many others were written this way too.
one of the greatest authors and series i've ever found. i collected Everything pern and lost it all when a severe storm destroyed my storage shed.
My people! I have finally found you! 😊 One of the best stories told. Thank you for this wonderful reminder.
Man i remember reading the pern novels when they were being published, and getting to that twist reveal about the colony ships and what it meant for the story as a whole. It blew my kid mind so hard! It was great! Loved that series.
Same here
The prologues to all the books mention that Pern was colonized.
@@georgeharris6851 were those added long after the initial publication? because I don't recall any mention of that when i first read those as a kid back in the 80s.
@@happyninja42 >
@@happyninja42 - I'm pretty sure that the prologues have been in there the whole time. But they are very science oriented and not as easy to read as the rest of the book. I don't have a first printing of Dragonflight or Dragonquest, but I'm pretty sure it was in the first printing of The White Dragon. I was a little surprised the first time I read TWD, but went back, and it was there.
I fell in love with all Anns stories except her love story, the way she would write about the totally paraplegic children encapsulated to be ships and cities and how they felt sorry for the so called normal people, and her Crystal singer books, she really took you there to every adventure, when she passed we lost a great lady, she also wasn't frightened to bring in other good writers, I even read Todds books he tries to emulate his mother but has his own style and followers, but Anne was the best there has ever been. Jim from Scotland
I am right there with you Jim! Should we ever get to meet we should remember Anne over a hot cup of klah. I had the singular pleasure of meeting her once at Dragon Con (her very last visit) she was a remarkable lady!
My parents have been huge Pern fans since the 60s/70s and we even have a copy of that very rare Pern board game.
I owned a copy of the board game signed by McCaffrey and others, dear friend was editor at Mayfair Games in the late 80s and early 90s. Game was stored safely I thought, but a plumbing incident destroyed it. 😢
Oh so sad I lot mine to a flood after evacuating from a hurricane lost alot of my books too could re place the books but the game was first addition so no go there.@@suzettehenderson9278
I have the game, and I Knew Darwin & Trella at Mayfait.
I'm pretty sure that my sister also has the game squirreled away somewhere. We both loved the series.
Wow..... I started reading these when Dragonflight and Dragonquest were the only two.... I remember being so thrilled when white dragon came out. Now I need this series again...
You had my full, undivided attention as soon as I saw Pern. I absolutely love The Dragons of Pern and their humans. I can't tell you haw many times I've read the books.
And now I might have to go back an re-read the Pern novels, just to find out what happened "when man first discovered the star Rukbat, in the Sagittarean sector..."
Masterharper of Pern is an absolute requirement if you're going to run through the whole main timeline.
I think the most important are the first trilogy, the harperhall trilogy, and the Masterharper of Pern. Of course I love the traders and dolphineers (the Lilicamps have their own trilogy in my mind). 😎
My intro to Pern was the short story "The Smallest Dragonboy," which I read in elementary school way back in the 70s. I read the initial trilogy and the Harper Hall trilogy (Dragonsinger is my favorite). I don't remember how many of the series I read beyond that; a fair number but a lot of them were pretty standalone and none of them had the same impact on me as the earlier books.
I had the opportunity to hear Anne McCaffrey speak when I was in college. One quote I remember was her response to people who offered unsolicited criticism of the world she had built: "It's MY planet."
The Smallest Dragonboy teared me right up!
Delighted this came into my feed. No idea how you managed to present the series in such a comprehensible way. I loved reading the books and now feel I should read them all again. Thank you.
0:50 " *EXTREMELY* questionable sexual relationships." That's an understatement of the Riders if I've ever heard of one. xD
From about 10 years old to 17, I would be constantly be rereading this series. There wasn't a world I didn't want to live in more than Pern, even with Thread. I wanted a dragon _and_ a fire-lizard! The publishing of All the Weyrs of Pern coincided very neatly with my waning interest in the series. It gave a sort of definitive "happy ending" where I could retire the series. I did continue to collect the later books but soon stopped when Todd McCaffrey took over. Not because I didn't like his writing (honestly can't remember if I did or not) but it just made a logical stopping point.
But Dragonriders of Pern shaped so much of how I judge world-building, characterization, story-telling, etc. Also I wrote my first fan mail (snail mail!) to Anne McCaffrey and she replied! So there is that, too.
That's so cool, I love it when authors take the time to respond to fans it means the world to them. What did she say?
@@exitsexamined I was twelve, so it wasn't like my letter was remotely interesting 😄 but she did answer my questions and I appreciated that she wasn't condescending or tried to "talk to my level" (ie a kid). My dad was a filmmaker so I remember asking if Dragonriders of Pern was ever going to be made into a movie, and she told me that there was interest but they turned F'lar and Lessa into muscle-bound bikini-wearing sword-wielding warriors and Robinton into a Gandalf-type complete with long white beard. So she was pleased when that didn't go anywhere. She said she had since become very protective of her work (which probably explains why she was so against fanfic and online rpg at the time).
While the science fiction aspects were definitely present in the setting (development of dragons etc) the primary value beyond just seeing the plots unfold, was looking at the society they set up, and how it gets tested through the perturbations of the plot. You get to see this at a personal level based on the characters.
Shadowrun is another good example of a story that successfully fuses high fantasy with science fiction.
I was thinking about shadowrun during the intro as well. It also had an interesting cycle of popularity, decline & rebirth which might make a good episode.
Definitely, absolutely love Shadowrun: Hong Kong
@@Dayshan I loved all three games. The gameplay is great but I set the difficulty on medium because I am more invested in the story. I have played all three and replayed both dragonfall and hong kong repeatedly to get the different endings. I think dragonfal has a better variety of endings than Hong Kong.
Fantasy, but not high fantasy. It's more Fritz Leiber style adventuring for dollars through the dirty streets than Tolkien style cross the continent to save the world and ride on eagles back home.
@@perfectallycromulent I never heard of Fritz Lieber so I looked him up and Im surprised that I am learning of him now. I will definately read up on him.
Met Todd. He was very nice to me and signed my books and we talked a bit about his mom, books, life, but mainly he was encouraging me to write as an adult.
It was the Pern books that got me into sci-fi and fantasy. I remember my middle school librarian suggesting one, either White Dragon or a harpers’, and I pretty much devoured the rest of the genre books in the library. I think I got in at a good time in the mid-90s, so I was able to read almost all of the core books and its “ending” without waiting.
You always pick the best Exits to review dude - my school library was pretty sparse on fiction growing up but for some reason they had pretty much the entire Pern series. To this day lives rent free in my head and I've had no one to talk about it with. We're subbing the Patreon with this one boys, thank you for the high quality content - Happy Holidays! 🐲🤝🎄
Hey thanks so much for the kind words, just so cool there's people out there into the same series as me haha. Honestly if your school library was going to have any series in their entirety there are much worse ones than this!
Thanks so much for the Patreon, seriously means the world to me! I'll get your name up on the next video. If there's ever any suggestions for sereis you want me to cover in the future let me know!
If you follow Scott Manley's channel (big spaceflight youtuber), on his shelf in his videos is a copy of The Dragonriders of Pern.
He was a technical advisor to McCaffrey for The Skies of Pern. Making sure the terminology and physics of the asteroid impact on Pern were correct. The book was Anne's gift to him as thanks.
I haven’t thought of Pern in years, then TH-cam said, hey you might like this! Now I’m planning on picking up the audio books and rereading the series.
The Dragonriders stories first appeared in the SF magazine Analog - first story was "Weyr Search", roughly half the first book. Analog, under legendary editor John W. Campbell, only published "hard SF"; spaceships, blasters, etc.
The story goes that Campbell and McCaffrey argued over dragons in SF, and Campbell said if she could write a story that convinced him dragons had a place in SF, he'd publish it. She did, he did, and he kept on publishing her stories. (I had a subscription back then and was delighted to find a new Pern story when the latest edition arrived.)
the Pern/Dragon books were barely science fiction. the only science in them was the discovery of Pern,the bioengineering of the fire lizards,and AIVAS and the colony ships engines used to alter the Red Star's orbit. the vast majority of the book is fantasy.
That was where I got hooked!
I read Weyr Search in The Hugo Winners, which was the first book I got from the Science Fiction Book Club.
How interesting that this shows up in my recommended as I have just started reading one of the Pern books.
I first discovered the Dragonriders of Pern in my early 20s and absolutely fell in love with them. Many years later and I still have a stuffed white dragon hanging from the ceiling that is called Ruth. For years I have wished someone could bring this series to the big screen. At least the first book, anyway. And after seeing the dragons in Game of Thrones , oh man I've wanted it more! Maybe someday it will get made. I can always hope.
Mercedes Lackey, would be a good video. I feel like her and Anne were around the same time period. The Valdemar is a big series, with horses that talk to companions. There was also Patricia A McKillip, but I don't think here books were as big as Anne's or Mercedes.
Pretty much Anne and Mercedes were my two favourite authors as a teen. I still get the Valdemar books even now, and her collab books are pretty good too.
She looks really interesting! Is there a specific book series you would recommend starting with for her?
@@exitsexamined I started with the Valdemar: Heralds of Valdemar. It starts with Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight and the last is Arrow's Fall. It was published in the 80's. The world of Valdemar is vast, and she has written so many books. She has the Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles which is the founding of the Heralds and it was written in the 2000's. I haven't read these yet.
I agree I still read every Mercedes Lackey book that comes out.
@lemonpop6251 not to say you will have this experience, but I really didn't enjoy the Collegium books as much as the ones concerning Selenay and Elspeth. I know it's up to preference, but while they have decent worldbuilding they decent characters they tended to drag a lot more plot wise than a lot of her earlier books.
If Exits ever does a video on Valdemar I hope he mentions Brightly Burning though! That book is a standout in the series.
What a thoughtful video! I learned a lot, too. Thank you for all of the research and the MEMORIES…“Dragonsong” is probably my favorite, to this day. Ahh, sweet nostalgia…
I found Dragon Riders of Pern when I was about 9 years old; that's over 60 years ago . Loved ever since
I am a HUGE nerd for this series, and I was so excited to see a recent video on this! Thank you so much for sharing this!
I'll never not stop for a video about Pern.
Producer : "We need a kick ass fantasy female hero"
Lessa : "I"m h..."
Writer : "What about a story about Galadriel cutting trolls in half and falling in love with Sauron ?"
IKR??? And HBO has given us believable dragons. We could def do this!!
Thank you for this. I loved that series so much. Always wished for movies to be made. I particulary liked the stories that integrated music, but really everything captivated me. Stated reading them in the seventies and just kept going.
One minor correction about Thread: It starts as a space-faring egg-like object. It doesn’t change into its lethal filament form until it reaches the atmosphere of Pern.
People vs Nature is my _preferred_ conflict (if there has to be an overarching conflict at all). To me, that is a huge plus for the Pern series.
I started reading these in the 80’s & kept up until The Skies of Pern. I had no idea these fandom things existed, never thought to look for them.
I liked the way she blended Sci-fi into her story & it has influenced my own writing. I still remember that the riders & people on the ground used canisters of “agenothree” to burn any Thread that made it past the dragons (it can’t burrow through rock & drowns in the rivers & oceans where fish etc eat it). Then I learned with them that original colonists used HNO3 to kill the Thread; the current folk didn’t understand what they were using, just knew how to make it & use it.
Then you mentioned the guides & the atlas & I had to double-check that my copies had survived a flooding in my house! (They did.) I loved the books & the guides; that was the only series I ever got guides for.
I’ve even read most of the Dragonlance books! lol
Wow....I hadn't thought of this series/world in forever. I remember reading the 1st six books over and over Middle School through High School and a handful of the others (Dragon's Dawn) in college and just beyond. I didn't know the stories had continued beyond the late 80's early 90's. I didn't know about the robust fandom. But I remember I used to make up my own Pern stories (in my head) all the time....long before I ever heard the term fanfic. Few other worlds have grabbed me like that. Interesting.
Close to my own experience, except I was much older.
I found the Harper Hall trilogy at a yard sale when i was in college. I bought all 3 books and was hooked. That was in the late 80s. I've read all the Oern books including Todd's. I have several of the accompaning books you mentioned. I love having the maps and songs and even recipes from Pern. I have the game you said was a rare find. And yes i got it at a yard sale. I never got to meet her but she is my all time favorite author. She built so many amazing worlds. I also loved the Talent books and Acorns books. Thank you for making this video. I'm so glad it popped up un my feed. Have you done a video about Terry Brooks Shanara series?
Actually it was a "Long Interval" namely twice as long as a normal Interval, and for the last several Turns (years) there was Long Interval followed by a Short Pass, followed by a second Long Interval.
Followed by 5 Weyrs disappearing within a few months when the Short Pass (Threadfall) ended.
Hence some Holders wanted to end their supporting the Weyrs.
Lesa figured out the "Answer" to the "Question Song"....
They did say that if a rider had a committed partner, they could just have that partner present during the mating flight, and the other dragon's rider could have the partner of their choice with them. In other words, activity was almost mandatory but it didn't have to be with the other dragon's rider.
The only time 'stand ins' are mentioned in Anne canon are some female green rider weyrlings speculating because some blue rider is gay and one of the girls has a bronze rider boyfriend. Nowhere else in canon is that even talked about, let alone depicted. The concept came about because readers realized that mating flight sex would mean their 'only hetero, super macho' brown and bronze riders would in fact be having sex with male green riders
Its always a delightful double take to see Pern pop up on my feed at random. My dad had so many of the books, i didnt read many before they were packed up save for Dragonsong which i enjoyed, and Moreta. I remember that one distinctly, particularly because of Covid and thinking to myself "Moreta didn't lose herself to the Between for you chuckleheads to not get vaccinated" with no trace of irony
However my general experience was through the Dragonlover's book that my dad had. I lost the dust jacket a long time ago and actually purchased the updated second edition a few months ago. I spent way more time reading the informational texts than i did the novels so all the questionable things that came up in them i just completely missed 😂
Was it? because you’re right about there not being sci fi in it for a while except it seems like the glossaries always mentioned the Dawn Sisters or whatever the three stars that were actually orbiting starships were called. It would be a really strange thing to do if she hadn’t always had that idea in the back of her mind.
oh my GOD. Moreta
Love what you are doing here. Great to see your take on 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donaldson
Here's a tip. Write grammatically and precisely. For example, when you mean to say 'It would be great to see your take on 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donaldson', write exactly that. Otherwise someone might waste their time scouring youtube and specifically the videos of this youtuber looking for a FUCKING NON EXISTENT VIDEO, which they would have liked to have seen, if it had ever been made.
I read these books when they were new. The storyline is compelling and unforgettable. I’m so glad they may come back with interest in dragons. These are the first books to make dragons the main characters. Love’em.
Thanks for showing the gorgeously intricate British edition covers as well as the Whelan covers. I had the original U.S. paperbacks but left them at my Mom's house when I got stationed in England. I missed them and went to a local bookstore near the base, hoping to find the books. I know that the depictions of the dragons did not agree with that in the books, but they were so beautiful. I still have them, as well as my American paperback editions, even all these decades later.
Wonderful review, touching on many of the ups and downs of the fandom through the years. I’ve been huge fan since the early 90’s when my uncle recommended the series, my entry was Dragonsdawn. In 1999 I found online there was a tv series in development and I tracked down the contact information for the production company (anlliance/atlantis) and call them to try get an audition or details to send an audition tape to. I’d go on to study acting as a career intent, always following the development of the announced Pern projects hoping I could find a way to be in it whoever was doing it. I even studied abroad in Ireland in college, then stayed for two additional years and managed to get invited to visit Anne at her home in 2007 which was an incredible experience wherein Anne McCaffrey herself recounted the summarized tale of “After the Fall is Over” which, was largely a retread in tone and tension to The Skies of Pern and even a bit sadder than the ending of All the Weyrs in terms of saying goodbye to long beloved characters. If ever I win a mega millions, you can bet there’ll be a Pern project soon after.
I read alot of old Golden Age Sci Fi in the late 60's and 70's. "Haunted" used book stores. I remember when Dragonriders first came on the scene, and anxiously waiting for each next book in the series. We didn’t know about the "Colony" background, we just thought it was straight fantasy at the time.
And then I discovered her other series... and fell in love with her writing all over again.
I collected as many of her books as I could. Still have them all.
Watching the addition of 'science' to the fiction created an incredible world to be in.