Dragonriders of Pern

The Dragonriders of Pern is a series of science fiction novels by Anne McCaffrey with more recent contributions from her son Todd. The novels are set on the planet Pern, which has a low-tech feudal society divided into three main factions: Holds, Halls, and Weyrs.

Holds
Pern's Holds are like medieval manors. Each Hold is run by a hereditary Lord or Lady Holder. Minor holds look to their main Hold for government and support in times of crisis. The main Holds on the Northern Continent during 9th-Pass (or present-day) Pern are:


 * Benden
 * Crom
 * Fort
 * High Reaches
 * Igen
 * Ista
 * Keroon
 * Lemos
 * Nabol
 * Nerat
 * Ruatha
 * South Boll
 * Telgar
 * Tillek

Halls
The Halls are similar to medieval craft guilds. Each Hall is autonomous and led by a Mastercrafter, who is elected by his or her fellow craftmasters. Crafters begin as apprentices at about the age of 12, become journeymen after a period of training, and may choose to continue their studies and become masters. Important Halls in 9th-Pass Pern are:


 * The Harper Hall
 * The Healer Hall
 * The Smith Hall

Weyrs
The Weyrs are where the dragons live. At full capacity, each Weyr can house around 400 dragons and their riders as well as a considerable support staff. Each Weyr is autonomous and led by a Weyrwoman and a Weyrleader. The Weyrwoman is the rider of the most senior gold dragon, or queen. The Weyrleader is the rider of whichever bronze dragon catches the queen in her mating flight(s). There is only one inhabited Weyr at the beginning of the 9th Pass--Benden Weyr--but there are six total on the Northern Continent:


 * Benden
 * Fort
 * High Reaches
 * Igen
 * Ista
 * Telgar

The Dragons
Pern's sentient, telepathic, telekinetic, fire-breathing dragons are what makes the world special. At its hatching, each dragonet bonds with, or Impresses, one human rider. From then until death, the two share a telepathic bond. The rider is responsible for the care and feeding of the dragon, and in return the dragon provides unswerving love and devotion. There is no closer bond than that between dragon and rider.

The dragons come in five colors. In order of size:


 * Gold dragons (38-42m) are the egg-layers of the Weyr. They do not breath fire, as they are incapable of processing the phosphate-bearing firestone. Golds are very intelligent, but they are haughty and possessive of their mates. They Impress girls only.


 * Bronzes (35-38m) are the largest males, which is why they are usually the ones to catch the queens in flight and lead the fighting Wings. They are very intelligent, but sometimes vain. They Impress boys only.


 * Browns (30-35m) are middle-sized males. Occasionally a large brown is a contender for leadership positions, but mostly they are lieutenants, or wingseconds, to bronze wingleaders. Browns are often credited with having the most sense of all the colors. They Impress boys only.


 * Blues (25-30m) are small, sturdy males. With greens, they make up the bulk of the Wings. They are too small to fly the golds, but their riders can hold leadership positions such as Weyrlingmaster, Weyrharper, etc. Blues also tend to have the best sense for which humans are most likely to Impress. They Impress boys only.


 * Greens (20-25m) are small, agile females. They breath fire and are infertile, which is fortunate, because they rise often to mate. They are the most numerous dragon color with the number of greens equaling the number of all the other colors combined. They can be temperamental, but their dexterity in the air makes them the best Threadfighters. They Impress boys and girls.

Fire-lizards
Smaller and less intelligent, fire-lizards are the dragons' ancestors. Kitti Ping, a geneticist with the original colonists, genetically engineered the dragons from fire-lizards to provide a renewable fighting force to protect the colonists from Thread (see below). They are indigenous to Pern and come in the same gendered colors as dragons, but only grow to about the length of a man's forearm.

In the wild, fire-lizards go in groups called "fairs," led by a gold. Gold fire-lizards are attentive mothers, and a whole fair will often attend a hatching and provide their gold's hatchlings with food items. Hungry hatchlings may devour their clutchmates in desperation. Green fire-lizards lay clutches, mostly containing greens, but they are often careless with their nests and have poor survival rates.

Fire-lizards can be Impressed like dragons and are often kept as pets by people lucky or high-ranking enough to obtain an egg. They possess limited telepathic abilities, transmitting mostly images and feelings to their owners. It is impossible to tell the color of a hatchling still in the egg, even a gold, and anyone can Impress any color. The most fire-lizards ever owned by one person was ten, and they belonged to Harper Menolly. (In fanfic, possessing more fire-lizards than Menolly is a charge.)

Thread
The dragons exist to fight Thread, which threatens Pern's existence every 250 Pernese years, or Turns, when the Red Star's elliptic orbit brings it within planetary spitting distance of Pern. Thread is actually a mycorrhizoid spore picked up by the Red Star as it passes through the Oort cloud on the edge of the solar system. When the Red Star passes near to Pern, there is a 50-Turn period (a Pass) during which the spores fall through Pern's atmosphere, where their protective coating melts off, releasing the long, silver spores. Thread eats any organic material it touches, but it drowns in water and is consumed by fire.

Each Weyr, with its contingent of fire-breathing dragons, protects the Holds nearest to it. Every Threadfall, the Weyrleader leads the fighting Wings to meet Pern's enemy in the air. Each Wing is responsible for a certain portion of the Fall. Each rider in the Wing takes his or her direction from the wingleader, who in turn takes his direction from the Weyrleader. Even the gold dragons rise to fight Thread, aided by flamethrowers carried by their riders. They fly below the Wings and mop up any Thread they might have missed.

The Characters
Pern is chock-full of interesting people. The most important ones of the 9th Pass are as follows. This is by no means a comprehensive list.

Holders

 * Lord Asgenar of Lemos Hold
 * Lord Fax, tyrant Lord of many Holds and father to Jaxom
 * Lord Groghe of Fort Hold
 * Lord Jaxom of Ruatha Hold, also rider of white Ruth
 * Lord Warder Lytol of Ruatha Hold, caretaker of Jaxom, formerly L'tol, rider of brown Larth
 * Lord Meron of Nabol Hold
 * Lord Toric of Southern Hold
 * Yanus, Holder of Half-Cirle Sea Hold in Nerat, father to Menolly

Crafters

 * Andemon, Masterfarmer
 * Sebell, Masterharper after Robinton and husband to Menolly
 * Fandarel, Mastersmith
 * Idarolan, Masterfisher (retires)
 * Menolly, harper, Impresses nine fire-lizards
 * Nicat, Masterminer
 * Oldive, Masterhealer
 * Petiron, masterharper, father of Robinton, teacher of Menolly
 * Piemur, harper, explorer of the Southern Continent
 * Robinton, Masterharper of Pern
 * Wansor, Master Starsmith
 * Zurg, Masterweaver

Dragonriders

 * Brekke, rider of gold Wirenth, junior weyrwoman at Southern Weyr and F'nor's weyrmate
 * C'gan, rider of blue Tagath, Weyrsinger at Benden Weyr
 * D'ram, rider of bronze Tiroth, former Oldtimer Weyrleader of Ista, then Southern Weyrleader
 * F'lar, rider of bronze Mnementh, Benden Weyrleader
 * F'nor, rider of brown Canth, F'lar's half-brother and wingsecond
 * F'lessan, rider of bronze Golanth, F'lar and Lessa's son
 * Kylara, rider of gold Prideth, Southern Weyrwoman
 * Lessa, rider of gold Ramoth, Benden Weyrwoman
 * Mirrim, rider of green Path, the first girl to Impress a green in the 9th Pass
 * N'ton, rider of bronze Lioth, Fort Weyrleader
 * R'gul, rider of bronze Hath, Benden Weyrleader before F'lar
 * T'bor, rider of bronze Orth, Southern, then High Reaches Weyrleader
 * T'kul, rider of bronze Salth, former Oldtimer Weyrleader of High Reaches
 * T'ron, rider of bronze Fidranth, former Oldtimer Weyrleader of Fort

The Books
The original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy is as follows:


 * Dragonflight (1968)
 * Dragonquest (1970)
 * The White Dragon (1978)

Chronologically, between Dragonquest and The White Dragon is the Harper Hall trilogy:


 * Dragonsong (1976)
 * Dragonsinger (1977)
 * Dragondrums (1979)
 * According to Anne McCaffrey's introduction in the portrait book The People of Pern, Dragondrums technically occurs between the second and third chapters of The White Dragon. Unless you are extremely obsessed with reading things in exact chronological order, however, it's best to simply read it right after reading Dragonsinger.

Other novels and anthologies:


 * Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983; both this and Nerilka's Story are set at the end of the Sixth Pass, centuries before the events in Dragonflight)
 * Nerilka's Story (1986)
 * Dragonsdawn (1988; first in chronological order, depicts the colonization of Pern, the First Fall of Thread, the creation of the dragons, and the colonists' move north.)
 * "The Impression" (1989; short story included in The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern)
 * The Renegades of Pern (1989)
 * All the Weyrs of Pern (1991)
 * The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (1993, anthology set mostly after Dragonsdawn)
 * "The Survey: P.E.R.N." (originally published in 1993 as "The P.E.R.N. Survey")
 * "The Dolphins' Bell" (originally published in 1993)
 * "The Ford of Red Hanrahan"
 * "The Second Weyr"
 * "Rescue Run" (originally published in 1992)
 * The Dolphins of Pern (1994)
 * Red Star Rising (1997) (called Dragonseye for U.S. release; set at the beginning of the Second Pass)
 * The Masterharper of Pern (1998; prequel to Dragonflight and the other works of the Ninth Pass)
 * "Beyond Between" (1999 short story in Legends II: Short Novels By the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Robert Silverberg, ed.; presumably set after the events of Moreta)
 * The Skies of Pern (2001)
 * A Gift of Dragons (2002 anthology collecting previously published stories and a new story)
 * "The Smallest Dragonboy" (1973; short story later earlier collected in Get Off the Unicorn)
 * "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" (1986; short story collected in both The Girl Who Heard Dragons and A Gift of Dragons)
 * "The Runner of Pern" (1998 novella set, like The Masterharper of Pern, some time before the events of Dragonflight; collected in Legends and A Gift of Dragons)
 * "Ever the Twain" (2002 short story original to A Gift of Dragons; time period unclear)

Novels with or by Todd McCaffrey:


 * Dragon's Kin (2003, with Todd McCaffrey; set prior to the Third Pass)
 * Dragonsblood (2005, written by Todd McCaffrey; primarily set several years after Dragon's Kin)
 * Dragon's Fire (2006, with Todd McCaffrey)
 * Dragon Harper (December 2007, with Todd McCaffrey)

Agents Native to Pern

 * Agent Derik