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Summary: DRAGONS, DRAGONS, DRAGONS!!!! Keep all the dragons coming!!
Review: A definite winner!! In my opinion this is one of McCaffrey's best ever!! From seeing in the settlers eyes as they look at their new home for the first time to the first flying battle of Thread from the dragons point of veiw, you're kept on the edge of your seat all the way through!! A stry of the pioneers of the 1800's in a story happening hundreds of years later, only this time going from Earth to Pern, the third planet of Rukbat where they, as a struggling colony with believable problems, face a disaster noone could imagine would accur... Let dragons RULE!
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Summary: Let there be DRAGONS!
Review: The book that tells us how the Pernese and dragons came to be. EXCELLENT from start to finish. Anne does it again with her attention to detail. She draws you in and makes you feel a part of Pern with her brilliant characterizations. Aside from being unique storylines, her stories are insights into the nature of man and woman. We all strive toward a future full of hope, change and exploration of the heavens. Anne not only gives us these she shows us what can happen when necessity drives us to seek new answers to seemingly insurmountable problems. In Dragonsdawn she begins with the colonization of Pern and tells us what necessitated the genetic development of DRAGONS and how it was accomplished. The prequel to end all prequels. Thank you Anne
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Summary: Dragonsdawn, aptly named as it is about the dawn of Pern.
Review: Dragonsdawn, a story about the beginnings of the settlers of Pern. As very good story, it practically explains everything
that you might wonder about in relation to the culture of Pern. Everything from where they get the names of the Holds
to how the magestic dragons came about. A very good story as well as a definite must see for anyone who has read any other of the Pern series.
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Summary: Dragonseye is excellent
Review: Dragonseye is quite possibly the most well-written novel Anne McCaffrey has ever written. Certainly the most well-written Pern novel, bar none. Well-formed characters. Good plot. A villain you love to hate. Believeable heroes. And, of course, Thread. Also an interesting look at the craft system while it's still developing from its origins into its look in the Ninth Pass, or even in Moreta's time.
I know I hope that she'll come back to the Second Pass with more stories.
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Summary: An account of the first settlers of Pern.
Review: This book explains how people got to Pern, and tells the history of the dragons and the dragonriders of Pern. There's birth and death in this book, showing all aspects of the new planet. Tells of the first fall experienced by the settlers too. A must read for all
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Summary: This book was very challenging with the adult vocabulary.
Review: I am 13 years old and my brother is 11 years old, I have read the book completely, and my brother has just started the book, I was challenged by the adult vocabulary in the book, and my favorite characters were Sorka and Sean. Sorka finds Sean, and he is determined not to show Sorka he is not afraid of landing when he is really scared to death. Sorka and Sean fall in love at the ages of 18 and 20, and then they are chosen as dragonriders of Pern
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Summary: Good, but Too Many Loose Ends
Review: First, I'm impressed with the technical thought that went into this book. The merging of space technology with a basically primitive planet could not have been easy, and I think it was done well. The plot that's weaved in and among these details, as a group of people from an advanced civilization try to make a new home on a world nothing like the one they left, quickly drew me in and kept me reading.
My biggest problem with this book, though, is the number of things that were started, but never finished. Some of them are important, and some of them aren't, but there are enough to make me wonder. Perhaps they're answered in other books I haven't read; but if so, the author must surely understand that not everyone has read every book in the series.
This book is a must for die-hards, but can be taken or left for others.
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Summary: A great beginning to an awesome series!
Review: After you get past the beginning techno stuff, you will have trouble putting down this book.
Dragonsdawn is about the colonists who came to Pern. They settle in at Landing and start building houses for families and Crafthalls to set up apprentinceship.
Soon young Sorka and Sean find miniature dragons who come to be called firelizards. Their friendship blossoms soon after they get firelizards of their own.
Unexpected danger comes all too soon in the form of mindless silver worms that fall from the sky to eat anything organic in it's path. Thread!
Only fire, water or stone will stop the Thread, but the sleds that the colonists brought with them weren't for often use and soon they weren't adequate to protect the people, but there is one hope. Those little firelizards that Sorka and Sean found can teleport themselves and breathe fire. They protect things from the Thread.
If only they were big enough to hold a rider. Kitti Ping genetically engeneers dragons and her granddaughter tries to keep on where Kitti left of, but fails with breeding a watchwher, a dragonlike animal who is sensitive to the light and is very protective of those it knows.
Soon, the volcano near Landing erupts and everyone is driven out to live elsewhere and leave a lot of technology behind.This book is the basis for some of the themes in other later books such as The White Dragon and All The Weyrs of Pern.
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Summary: Only for those who truely love the world of Pern
Review: I fell in love with the first 3 books in the Pern series when I was in high school. Dragonsdawn takes you back to when Pern was first inhabitated and the first encounters with thread and the creation of the dragons. It is and adequate read and certainly anyone who loves the stories of Pern would find it interesting enough. It is just not of the same standard as the first 3 books in the series.
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Summary: The beginning of an amazing trilogy
Review: A small group of settlers have risked everything on the information of a survey of Pern a hundred years or more before. They have traveled 15 years in deep sleep on older spaceships to reach the new planet and to start a whole new way of life. Some come because they want the chance to own their own land, others come for the adventure, others come for riches. When they first arrive on Pern, it truly feels like a paradise. The settlers choose a valley at the base of three inactive volcanoes to be their first settlement, which they call Landing. The settlers are eagerly experimenting with seeds and plants brought from other planets and trying to get animals settled and fertilized. Schools to teach children about their new life are quickly organized. Charter members of the group get first pick of land and set out exploring and claiming their small holdings. Others are content to live in Landing and to wait for their turn to spread out. All seems to be perfect... Eight years later, the settlers notice an unusual cloud formation and think that there is a storm coming in. But when silver thread-like things start falling from the sky and devouring anything organic that can be found, paradise turns into a kind of living hell. The only bright spot that can be found in the whole tragedy is that the fire lizards seemed to know when the thread was coming and warned their owners to get inside where it was safe. The colony hopes that the thread-fall was a one-time occurrence, but then they notice the star with the irregular orbit that has slowly gotten closer to the planet and they realize that the thread is going to keep coming back. Many colonists despair and demand that the leaders send out the homing beacon to bring help from earth, but that could take 10 years or more, if help comes at all. Others turn to the fire lizards for answers. Finally, in one desperate action, they ask a geneticist to manipulate the genes of fire lizards to build something bigger - something more dragon sized that would be more effective against the thread. With time running out, all of Pern's hopes rest on the project of one woman... This book is a stand-alone in the Pern series in that you don't need to be familiar with any other background before you read it, but there are many things that won't really make sense or won't seem important if you are not familiar with Pern's later history. Dragonsdawn answers questions such as how the dragons came to be, how they got their mental connection with their riders, how watchweyrs are different from dragons and why, how the colonists ended up in caves on the northern continent instead of the southern continent where they first settled, how the grubs were developed that ate thread, where the cat came from that caused a plague that decimated the population during Moreta's time, who the first dragonriders were and why they named the Holds and Weyrs what they did. The only complaint that I had was that the story was told from so many different points of view and contained so many characters that you really had to be on your toes while you read it. At the first part of the book, it wasn't so bad. McCaffrey refered to people by their first and last names and many of them were familiar to me because they had holds, weyrs and natural landmarks named after then such as Paul Benden, Emily Boll, Sallah Telgar, etc. Then the last names were dropped and we were left with the first names. After a while I got used to it, but then we had those long stretches of time where everyone got older all of a sudden and there are children and other people to deal with. Good thing there are plenty of references in the book to help you keep track of everyone! Although this book could technically be considered the first in the Pern series as far as chronology goes, I think that it is helpful to read the books in the order that Anne McCaffrey wrote them so that you can fully appreciate the detail of the world that McCaffrey has so painstakingly created. This book is a wonderful blend of science fiction and fantasy and I think anyone would thoroughly enjoy it as there really is something for everyone!
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