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Five fascinating scenes from Anne McCaffrey's world-famous Chronicles of Pern.
Product Description
Here are five gripping episodes of early Pern -- from the very first space survey recommending colonisation, to the last, where the early world, its young dragon culture undetected, is condemned to be isolated in space.
Here is the saga of the mass evacuation from the volcanic southern continent, an entire group of people moved across the dangerous seas, guarded and guided by a flotilla of dolphins. Here, too, is the story of the creation of Ruatha Hold -- a mammoth undertaking in the early days of Pern.
And here is one of the most fascinating dragon tales ever written by Anne McCaffrey, when Fort Weyr was the only weyr, and when dragonriders and dragons were overcrowded to danger point. As the news broke of three fresh weyrs to be established, a young girl, Torene, came to realize that her dragon could be the next Queen of the newly formed Benden Weyr.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Chronicles of Pern (First Fall) is an interesting overview in short stories of parts of the history of Pern brushed over in other, longer books of the series.
The stories of Pern, which are arguably Anne McCaffrey's centre-piece work, are set on a colony world of the distant future, which is recommended for colonisation on a very quick survey (The P.E.R.N. Survey) owing to the fact that several members of the survey team have fallen to accidents on earlier planets in the tour.
Many years later, when the planet is colonised by a mixed bag of notables wishing to escape the high-tech, post-war civilisation of the inner planets, the briefness of the survey comes back to haunt them. Marooned by lack of fuel, the colonists have no means of escape from the periodic menace brought to fall on their planet by the wanderer planet in the system, the Red Star, a menace which devours anything and everything carbon-based upon which it falls. No big deal? Think again.
To add to the colonists' troubles, they are forced to evacuate their key settlement in the South by a major volcanic eruption, achieving the huge evacuation with massive amounts of help from the colonising dolphins (The Dolphin Bell).
Eventually, the vast majority of the colonists settle in a large cave system on the Northern continent, safe in rock from the Thread, as they have called the invading menace, but reliant on the bio-engineered 'dragons' to defend them. The dragons are expanding and multiplying to fulfill this role, but the colonists, with their waning technological knowledge, are less able to defend themselves against the other consequences of living so crammed together, such as disease, and very soon, other 'holds' as the cave systems are named, must be opened up.
The story of 'The Ford of Red Hanrahan' follows the beginnig of one of them.
These new Holds force the dragonriders to protect ever-expanding landmasses from their central base, and eventually Sean Connell, the original leader and one of the earliest dragonriders, decides that they must expand to keep on fulfilling their duties (The Second Weyr). The story follows the history of the Weyr's expansion from the viewpoint of Torene, one of the newest queenriders.
The final story in the book, 'Rescue Run' is the follow-up on the attempt by one of the colonists, Ted Tubberman, to escape Pern by sending off the emergency homing device, against the wishes of the majority. A good two centuries after the colonisation, a warship in the area sends a team to investigate the unapproved cry for help, but lands on the Southern continent, now long abandoned by the main colony. Ross Benden, a distant relative of Admiral Paul Benden, the charismatic leader of the colony, is in charge of the investigation. Rescue Run follows his journey to Pern and what he discovers there.
All in all, this collection of short stories is worth reading if you have already read the rest of the Pern series. On its own it is not one of her better books as the short story format does not allow you to get to grips with the characters so briefly introduced, but to fill in gaps left by the longer books it is very much worth reading, especially 'The Second Weyr'.
The stories of Pern, which are arguably Anne McCaffrey's centre-piece work, are set on a colony world of the distant future, which is recommended for colonisation on a very quick survey (The P.E.R.N. Survey) owing to the fact that several members of the survey team have fallen to accidents on earlier planets in the tour.
Many years later, when the planet is colonised by a mixed bag of notables wishing to escape the high-tech, post-war civilisation of the inner planets, the briefness of the survey comes back to haunt them. Marooned by lack of fuel, the colonists have no means of escape from the periodic menace brought to fall on their planet by the wanderer planet in the system, the Red Star, a menace which devours anything and everything carbon-based upon which it falls. No big deal? Think again.
To add to the colonists' troubles, they are forced to evacuate their key settlement in the South by a major volcanic eruption, achieving the huge evacuation with massive amounts of help from the colonising dolphins (The Dolphin Bell).
Eventually, the vast majority of the colonists settle in a large cave system on the Northern continent, safe in rock from the Thread, as they have called the invading menace, but reliant on the bio-engineered 'dragons' to defend them. The dragons are expanding and multiplying to fulfill this role, but the colonists, with their waning technological knowledge, are less able to defend themselves against the other consequences of living so crammed together, such as disease, and very soon, other 'holds' as the cave systems are named, must be opened up.
The story of 'The Ford of Red Hanrahan' follows the beginnig of one of them.
These new Holds force the dragonriders to protect ever-expanding landmasses from their central base, and eventually Sean Connell, the original leader and one of the earliest dragonriders, decides that they must expand to keep on fulfilling their duties (The Second Weyr). The story follows the history of the Weyr's expansion from the viewpoint of Torene, one of the newest queenriders.
The final story in the book, 'Rescue Run' is the follow-up on the attempt by one of the colonists, Ted Tubberman, to escape Pern by sending off the emergency homing device, against the wishes of the majority. A good two centuries after the colonisation, a warship in the area sends a team to investigate the unapproved cry for help, but lands on the Southern continent, now long abandoned by the main colony. Ross Benden, a distant relative of Admiral Paul Benden, the charismatic leader of the colony, is in charge of the investigation. Rescue Run follows his journey to Pern and what he discovers there.
All in all, this collection of short stories is worth reading if you have already read the rest of the Pern series. On its own it is not one of her better books as the short story format does not allow you to get to grips with the characters so briefly introduced, but to fill in gaps left by the longer books it is very much worth reading, especially 'The Second Weyr'.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Whilst definitely able to stand on it's own, this book provides the reader of the rest of the Pern books with an excellent insight of how the history of the planet came about. Thoroughly recommended both to those who have read the other books and those who are looking to "get into" an excellent series.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I thoroughly enjoyed these stories! Well all except "Rescue Run" which was a very good story but extremely frustrating for me! I wanted them to be found so badly. Not to be rescued mind you but to get the recognition they deserve and to absolve Admiral Benden of any connection with Tubberman's mayday capsule.
"The Survey PERNc" tells the story of the much maligned Exploration and Evaluation Team and helps explain the circumstances surrounding their less than complete evaluation.
"The Dolphins' Bell" shows the relationships with
Dolphins in much the same way as David Brin's Startide Rising. It is exactly how I would imagine it would be... and will be very disappointed if it doesn't come to fruition someday. We have the story of the "second crossing" and meet Theo and Jim Tillek which is very interesting if you have already read "Dolphins of Pern" and if you haven't read it you will!
"The Ford of Red Hanrahan" was somewhat slow reading but has some very enlightening incidents take place that give more hints as to what happened to isolate the Pernese from their history, each other and the dolphins. The practice of "fostering" begins.
"The Second Weyr" was somewhat predictable but was good reading all the same. Definately left me wanting to read more about Mihall and Torene and the first turns in Benden Weyr!
Keep it coming Anne!
"The Survey PERNc" tells the story of the much maligned Exploration and Evaluation Team and helps explain the circumstances surrounding their less than complete evaluation.
"The Dolphins' Bell" shows the relationships with
Dolphins in much the same way as David Brin's Startide Rising. It is exactly how I would imagine it would be... and will be very disappointed if it doesn't come to fruition someday. We have the story of the "second crossing" and meet Theo and Jim Tillek which is very interesting if you have already read "Dolphins of Pern" and if you haven't read it you will!
"The Ford of Red Hanrahan" was somewhat slow reading but has some very enlightening incidents take place that give more hints as to what happened to isolate the Pernese from their history, each other and the dolphins. The practice of "fostering" begins.
"The Second Weyr" was somewhat predictable but was good reading all the same. Definately left me wanting to read more about Mihall and Torene and the first turns in Benden Weyr!
Keep it coming Anne!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another start
This is the second of the re-buys that i have made. the book is in good condition and arrived very promptly. Read more
Published 23 days ago by rovert
Decent short stories, but can't stand on its own
This is a collection of four novellas and one short story. The four novellas cover a period of about 40 years starting roughly at the moment that Dragonsdawn leaves off, and the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by D. R. Cantrell
Uninspired and lazy.
I've always liked reading of the fortunes of the Dragonriders of Pern, since their first appearance in Dragonflight and Dragonquest. Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by Robin Monks
Pern for the devotee
Much as I have hugely enjoyed the evolving story of Pern over the last three decades, there is something profoundly unsatisfying about Anne McCaffrey's short stories. Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2005 by DocMartin
Review of Chronicles of Pern : first fall, a terrific book
This book is great. It contains several stories about the early days of Pern. It contains the first landing on perns surface (v. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 1999
The dragon are very powerful.
This book is very intresting about the planet of Pern.They have Dragon Riders to perteck the planet from other Dragon Riders. Read more
Published on 20 April 1999
good book but not best
Every story but "Rescue Run" were really good. "Rescue Run" was very frustrating I want them to find the people in the north. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 1999
Excellent collection of short stories!
This book is very hard to put down. I liked all the stories in this book, and as a fan of McCaffrey's work, I recommend this book to any other Anne McCaffrey fan. Well Done!!
Published on 9 Aug 1998
A GREAT BOOK MUST READ
If you have read McCaffrey's work it is a great work of fantasy you will stay up in the late ours on this book
Published on 15 Feb 1998
Disappointingly mediocre
One of the biggest let-downs of all time. Anne's intentions are laudable; the book tries to set the scene for many of the incidents and factors that emerge in the later (Pern... Read more
Published on 26 Dec 1997
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