The Skies Of Pern

Rating:
Summary: Still Tops
Review: I haven't got much patience with the readers who are busy picking nits instead of enjoying the book! I've read all the other Pern books and found this one utterly enjoyable, too, after a slightly slow start. The great radio serial writer Csrlton E. Morse ("One Man's Family", "I Love a Mystery")once told me that he figured he didn't need to worry too much about detailed consistency as long as he made each episode absorbing. McCaffrey is a terrific storyteller, and her ability to absorb the reader in what she is telling is clearly displayed in this, the 16th book in the Pern series. If you read while commuting, be warned that McCaffrey's narrative can transfix you at some points and make you miss your stop! This is not the first book to read for newcomers to Pern because there are references that won't be readily understood; newcomers should begin with "Dragonriders of Pern" (available from Amazon!) and read one or two of the others before coming to "Skies." I agree that another book in the series is clearly indicated at the end of this one, and I can hardly wait for it to appear!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent addition to the Pern Series
Review: Paraphrasing the dragon, Golanth, whose rider F'lessan is this volume's prime focus, 'Born of author Anne McCaffrey, hatched in the Dragonrider series, Skies of Pern is worthy of that great pairing.' McCaffrey's first books dealt with the Benden Weyrleaders, Flar and Lessa and their contemporaries and involved a reawakening and marshalling of the resources of Pern and its people to combat a new threat from their ancient enemy - thread. Succeeding books focused on the next generation and the plan to eradicate the menace once and for all, a plan that saw its successful culmination in _All the Werys of Pern_. Although many of the older characters did then and still do play a major part in the saga, it is this younger generation of Dragonriders along with non-riders from hold and craft who now take center stage. Maturing into adult responsibilities including marriage and children, they spread out to repopulate the other continents on the planet and bring about the society the colonists envisioned before that first threadfall interrupted their plans. Yet the very eradication of the ancient menace left a huge question behind. What will Dragons and their riders do once thread disappears from the Skies of Pern? This installment to my immense delight begins to answer that question. Now in his mid-thirties, the carefree, amiable wingleader who dallied with queen and green riders while ducking the responsibilities of Weyr leadership has matured into the thoughtful, forward-looking caretaker of ruined Honshu. His interest in green rider Tai gives the book a wonderful romance while detailing the current state of technology and telling about the emergence of a surprising new talent for the dragons. When an attack by a group of felines nearly kills Golanth and destroys F'lessan's future as a thread fighter, he accepts that fate and embarks on the development of a suitable new future for himself and his dragon - a future that ensures a permanent place in Pern society for dragons and riders. I hope that Ann McCaffrey will continue the saga, so that, as F'lessan says at the end of this volume, "there will always be dragons in the Skies of Pern."

Rating:
Summary: Exactly what I hoped for--and more
Review: Not everyone liked this book, apparently, but I did. I thought that Ms. McCaffrey's (and, to an extent, F'lessan and Tai's) solution to the "What will dragons do now?" problem was original and it made wonderful sense. I thought that it ranked high up there, along with the rest of the Pern series. If you're a Pern fan and you've been waiting to see what will/would happen after "All the Weyrs of Pern", then read this.

I had one disappointment. The whole gang of familiar characters returned (with the exception of Robinton, of course, but it's obvious he's missed), even Jayge at one point, but what happened to Piemur and Jancis? I was dying to know what happened to the two of them, where they settled down, that sort of thing (or maybe they mentioned it somewhere and I forgot). Oh well, F'lessan is one of my favorites, and Tai's a great character with an interesting situation, and the book is well worth the twenty bucks for the hardcover version. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the rest ...
Review: I was so excited when I heard this book was comming out. I got it as soon as possible, and ran home to read it. It was not as good as her earlier works. Having solved the major PERN hazzard, Thread, in the last novel, she had to come up with a new problem. To me it was unclear how a possible random astroid would cause the planet's people to contine to pull together, and I did not feel that she answered her own delimas completly.

If you love the PERN novels, by all means read this one. But I recommend borrowing it from the library, this is not one you will want to re-read numorous times.

Rating:
Summary: An Epilogue for the Pern Saga
Review: In All the Wyers of Pern Anne McCaffrey concluded the saga of the "modern" descendants of the colonists who settled the far-off planet Pern. There was a nice, neat finish. With the red planet successfully diverted to another orbit, never again to bring "thread" into the skies of Pern after the current "fall" is over, the original colonists' artificial intelligence computer had completed its last program as assigned by the colonists before they fled the landing site for safer lands in the north. Knowing that the current residents of Pern needed to find their own way now that the AI had helped them recover their lost history and helped them to start their own renaissance, the AI turns itself off, leaving only an appropriate quote from Ecclesiastes on the screen. MasterHarper emeritus Robinton realized what had happened and laid down his own burdens, after serving for many years as the grand old man of Pern, and responsible for much of the good things that had happened on Pern throughout the series. A most satisfactory ending. In the acknowledgments for The Skies of Pern McCaffrey notes that she was encouraged to "keep to the 'real' story line" rather than "go off on tangents because there are so many people on Pern." Indeed, McCaffrey's stories, filling in gaps in the history and fully developing some of the "minor" characters have been most enjoyable. I have considered these to be the potatoes to enhance the meat of the main story line. Returning to the main line, however, McCaffrey has provided us with an excellent epilogue. A meteor strike on the prison hold of Crom results in the escape of one of the conservatives who attempted earlier to destroy the Aivas He organizes an active, but still covert, rebellion against the "abominations" brought on by the new learning. Another, large meteor strike causes large scale damage, mitigated by the dragon riders and the new astronomers, largely dragon riders, who used information from Aivas to project the impact areas. The younger generation of dragon riders are active in this novel, and they establish themselves and their future after the end of threadfall. All in all, a most satisfactory epilogue.

Rating:
Summary: Each new Pern novel is like visiting home:
Review: I love Pern, love the characters and always enjoy the chance to revisit them. I've watched Pern deal with the Thread, learn about their past...this book gave me the opportunity to look toward Pern's future. An excellent read, by one of my favorite authors.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Before Pern were Jack Vance and Michael Moorcock, both of whom wrote about sentient dragons working in harness with humans. Neither author sentimentalized their subject. This stuff seems like pony books dressed up as science fiction. Maybe if I hadn't read the Great Originals first I might have gotten more out of this, but these don't strike me as adult books at all. Maybe there are more substantial books in the series but I kinda doubt it. If you want great dragons try Vance or Moorcock's latest Dreamthief's Daughter. This is soft-core fantasy. The best you get from it is a sugar high. This girl prefers her romance full-blooded!

Rating:
Summary: The Skies of Pern
Review: This was a wonderful book! I love all the Pern books (I have THEM all!!)

It was a great followup and included the dolphins and honshu's landing!

I can't wait for the next one!!

Rating:
Summary: Fun only if you're a Pern fan
Review: I was glad I got the book from our local library instead of buying it. I sat and read it through in less than a night, not because it was that gripping but because I could skim a lot of it. The main drama is buried under a lot of visiting with 'old friends' that really doesn't have much to do with the plot. And when the drama hits, it is quickly solved with something that is suddenly tossed in as an "oh, here's the answer, something that just suddenly appears, now let's go back to socializing". An interesting subplot gets introduced, then left hanging at the end of the book, so she obviously (hopefully) plans to solve it in the next one.

I figure I needed to read it to know what goes on in the next one; but it's not one I'm putting on my shelf, not even as paperback, unless someone buys it as a gift for me or I get it in a sale. And I'm certainly waiting on buying any more until I check them out at the library to make sure they're worth paying for.

Rating:
Summary: Another star in her sky!
Review: Anne McCaffrey does it again! Her latest novel "The Skies of Pern", explores the many questions of what the Dragonriders will do after the this pass is over. Her writing as always is quality, with the exception of maybe one or two pages in which the story there seems to drag just a hair, other than that it's a wonderful book. Warning, if you are a fan of Pern and AM, it is advised to have a box of tissue on hand as there are at least two to four chapters that are tear jerkers! Wonderful work! Thank's Anne for another wonderful installment with our favourite characters on Pern!