The Renegades of Pern

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful link between "White Dragon" and "All the Weyrs"
Review: Anne McCaffery's "Renegades" is a perfect link between "The White Dragon" and "All the Weyrs of Pern." An added feature is Sharra's side of "Dragondrums" and the history of Pern as seen from the Holdless-honest and dishonest alike. Add to that a cover by Michael Whelan and you have a perfect gift for any Pern fan anywhere.

Rating:
Summary: A Little Choppy, But Still a Good Read!
Review: As long as the people of Pern could remember, dragons had fought Thread and kept people alive. Everyone lived in strong stone fortresses or caves because Thread wouldn't eat through stone. However, it had been hundreds of years since Thread had fallen on Pern and there were many who did not like to live behind stone walls, beholden to the Lord of the area and forced into careers that they did not want. Some, like Jayge Lilcamp's clan were traders. They traversed the length and breadth of Pern, bartering and taking messages to other holds. They were always welcome at holds, especially ones that were out of the way. However, when they ignored the warning that Thread was once again falling on Pern, his trader caravan was decimated. Instead of being independent, they were now forced to accept whatever charity they could from the last hold the visited. Jayge couldn't bear it and set out on his own.

Thella, sister of Telgar Hold's Lord, was bitter that she had not even been given the chance to become a Lady Holder. She knew that she could do a better job than her brother. Since she was passed by, she found her own hold and gathered together as many Holdless men as she could. Then she set about robbing and plotting her revenge. The only thing that was holding her back was the dragonriders because she could not risk being seen and tracked adragonback. She found the solution to her problem in Aramina (seen in The Girl Who Heard Dragons short story), who could hear all dragons. But Aramina escaped from her and was safely ensconced at Benden Hold. However, Thella was not about to give up so easily...

The Renegades of Pern is, like Nerilka's story, a retelling of familiar events from unfamiliar points of view. I highly recommend reading Dragonquest, The White Dragon, and The Girl Who Heard Dragons before reading this one because it will make a lot more sense than reading this one first. It was interesting because all of the other books in the Pern series have been about someone who has a definite place in life on Pern: holder, dragonrider, harper, etc., but Jayge did not. He could do a little bit of everything and was very resourceful. I enjoyed hearing how Aramina made out in the end, even though I was very surprised at what ended up happening. Although Jayge, Aramina, and Thella were what I would call the "main" characters, there was also quite a bit about Piemur and Toric, Holder of the Southern Continent, and the explorations and events taking place in at Southern, which was interesting. My main complaint with the book was the huge number of multiple viewpoints. It really made the book choppy and I know that I really wanted to find out what happened to a certain character and then was suddenly switched to someone else, which is kind of frustrating. Still, The Renegades of Pern is very informative and it was interesting to see things from a very different point of view. Recommended for readers of the Pern series - if you are new to the series, this is NOT the book to start with!

Rating:
Summary: A Little Choppy, But Still a Good Read!
Review: As long as the people of Pern could remember, dragons had fought Thread and kept people alive. Everyone lived in strong stone fortresses or caves because Thread wouldn't eat through stone. However, it had been hundreds of years since Thread had fallen on Pern and there were many who did not like to live behind stone walls, beholden to the Lord of the area and forced into careers that they did not want. Some, like Jayge Lilcamp's clan were traders. They traversed the length and breadth of Pern, bartering and taking messages to other holds. They were always welcome at holds, especially ones that were out of the way. However, when they ignored the warning that Thread was once again falling on Pern, his trader caravan was decimated. Instead of being independent, they were now forced to accept whatever charity they could from the last hold the visited. Jayge couldn't bear it and set out on his own.

Thella, sister of Telgar Hold's Lord, was bitter that she had not even been given the chance to become a Lady Holder. She knew that she could do a better job than her brother. Since she was passed by, she found her own hold and gathered together as many Holdless men as she could. Then she set about robbing and plotting her revenge. The only thing that was holding her back was the dragonriders because she could not risk being seen and tracked adragonback. She found the solution to her problem in Aramina (seen in The Girl Who Heard Dragons short story), who could hear all dragons. But Aramina escaped from her and was safely ensconced at Benden Hold. However, Thella was not about to give up so easily...

The Renegades of Pern is, like Nerilka's story, a retelling of familiar events from unfamiliar points of view. I highly recommend reading Dragonquest, The White Dragon, and The Girl Who Heard Dragons before reading this one because it will make a lot more sense than reading this one first. It was interesting because all of the other books in the Pern series have been about someone who has a definite place in life on Pern: holder, dragonrider, harper, etc., but Jayge did not. He could do a little bit of everything and was very resourceful. I enjoyed hearing how Aramina made out in the end, even though I was very surprised at what ended up happening. Although Jayge, Aramina, and Thella were what I would call the "main" characters, there was also quite a bit about Piemur and Toric, Holder of the Southern Continent, and the explorations and events taking place in at Southern, which was interesting. My main complaint with the book was the huge number of multiple viewpoints. It really made the book choppy and I know that I really wanted to find out what happened to a certain character and then was suddenly switched to someone else, which is kind of frustrating. Still, The Renegades of Pern is very informative and it was interesting to see things from a very different point of view. Recommended for readers of the Pern series - if you are new to the series, this is NOT the book to start with!

Rating:
Summary: Its got EVERYTHING
Review: Hm, its kinda disappointing to see how low others rated this book. This is definetly Annie's best book. It has elements of everything: suspense, character building, and an excellent plot.

Annie starts the book out from many different angles (and while some say its confusing) it is sooooooo awesome to see how everything comes together. The story arouses your emotions (hate for Lady Holdess Thella and love for Armania and Jayge) and keeps you reading

Seriously you WILL NOT regret reading this book as it contains all the elements of what has made the Pern series so lovable.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side of Pern
Review: I always wondered where the 'bad guys' were on Pern. In that regard, it's quite refreshing to find that there are in fact truly unsavory characters abounding the planet. Lord Fax aside, Thella is the most ruthless, evil character of McCaffrey's tales. Read this to fill in knowledge of Pern and the Dragonriders Series as a change of pace. Like 'All the Weyrs', which this is a prerequisite to reading, this is only another good book. Within the context of the larger whole, a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side of Pern
Review: I always wondered where the 'bad guys' were on Pern. In that regard, it's quite refreshing to find that there are in fact truly unsavory characters abounding the planet. Lord Fax aside, Thella is the most ruthless, evil character of McCaffrey's tales. Read this to fill in knowledge of Pern and the Dragonriders Series as a change of pace. Like 'All the Weyrs', which this is a prerequisite to reading, this is only another good book. Within the context of the larger whole, a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: I enjoyed this book, yet again another of Anne McCaffrey's great Dragonriders of Pern books. Having read the series in order, I found it hard to jump back into the story after having read stories from another time frame. So, certain storyline aspects were a little fuzzy to me. However, I found that the book was able to update readers on what had already happened in other books, and it was like being in the know on an inside joke when I actually remembered a key point from another book that impacted this book. While I enjoyed the first three books of the series better than this one, I still enjoyed this read. It's a fine addition to the Dragonriders of Pern series.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty decent continuation
Review: I enjoyed this book, yet again another of Anne McCaffrey's great Dragonriders of Pern books. Having read the series in order, I found it hard to jump back into the story after having read stories from another time frame. So, certain storyline aspects were a little fuzzy to me. However, I found that the book was able to update readers on what had already happened in other books, and it was like being in the know on an inside joke when I actually remembered a key point from another book that impacted this book. While I enjoyed the first three books of the series better than this one, I still enjoyed this read. It's a fine addition to the Dragonriders of Pern series.

Rating:
Summary: Not Her Best Work . . .
Review: I found that the Renegades of Pern was good for filling in the blanks left by McCaffrey's other books but little else. The storyline was less than engaging and it was confusing the way she would write for a few pages and then skip ahead three years. Like I said, it filled in the blanks. This is not McCaffrey's best work at all. I have read many of the Pern books and I felt that they were a far better read than this one. You wouldn't want to read The Renegades of Pern if you hadn't read just about every other Pern book before it because you would get lost very, very, very quickly. Look into getting your hands on this if you are curious about some of the lesser characters but don't expect an exciting read.

Rating:
Summary: A poor revisitation of the White Dragon
Review: I found this book a complete and total dissapointment. It had very little in the way of original material, mostly just containing a recap of The White Dragon. I was very surprised and dismayed at this fact, and feel it is well below McCaffrey's writing ability