The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern

Pern (Chronological Order)

by Jody Lynn Nye, Anne McCaffrey

An indispensable companion guide to the wonderful world of Anne McCaffrey and her dragons Guaranteed to enrich every armchair traveler's journey into McCaffrey's legendary world, this illuminating guide leaves no stone in Pern unturned! Both faithful fans and newcomers will relish the fascinating history and lore of . . . THE How they developed from little fire-lizards into the huge telepathic creatures that carry human riders and fight Thread THE How they live, the clothes they wear, the food they eat THE What to see and do in individual Holds and Weyrs Its appearance and behavior, the threat it poses, and ways to combat it UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE RENEGADES OF PERN, ALL THE WEYRS OF PERN, THE CHRONICLES OF FIRST FALL, AND THE DOLPHINS OF PERN.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dragons, Fiction, Reference, Science Fiction Fantasy, Art

178 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 1997

About the author

Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as ‘spoiling cats.’ When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories.

Before breaking away from gainful employment to write full time, Jody worked as a file clerk, book-keeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant and costume maker.

For four years, she was on the technical operations staff of a local Chicago television station, WFBN (WGBO), serving the last year as Technical Operations Manager. During her time at WFBN, she was part of the engineering team that built the station, acted as Technical Director during live sports broadcasts, and worked to produce in-house spots and public service announcements.

Over the last twenty-five or so years, Jody has taught in numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published at science-fiction conventions. She has also spoken in schools and libraries around the north and northwest suburbs. In 2007 she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago. She also runs the two-day writers workshop at DragonCon, and is a judge for the Writers of the Future contest, the largest speculative fiction contest in the world.

Jody lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with her husband Bill Fawcett, a writer, game designer, military historian and book packager, and three feline overlords, Athena, Minx, and Marmalade.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK I love McCaffrey's Pern books. I am also a giant history buff so here I get a book that combines these 2 loves into one. Great art and write ups of all the awesome places of Pern. Very well written and researched. Very recommended

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this for Christmas at the height of my Pern obsession, so . . . maybe 1992? 1993? I pored over every page. I memorized the banners of every hold. If you love Pern, you must have this!

[Clarence Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

ReedIII Quick Review: Clear visualization of the magical world of PERN that that fills out the details. Great for all PERN fans to read as a companion book and a reference book.

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Pern series when I was a kid (still do, in fact) and it was one one of my go-to feel-good series for many years. This slim volume bought back many happy memories of the books (only reread a couple of years ago) as well as filling in some gaps I never knew existed.

Before I go much further, I should point out that I have a ridiculous love for source books such as this: if done well, they illuminate and enhance the source material, rather than just rehash tired bios and stories. I have been known to keep source books for series that I no longer have much interest in simply because they are beautiful artifacts that make me feel fondly towards something that may have been improved by the writer devoting more time to their writing rather than their worldbuilding.

In hindsight, I've often thought of the Weyr/Hold society as a post-scarcity quasi-mediaeval utopia (because while I dislike labels in general, I love snappy, sound-bitey pop-psych labels for things I have a ridiculously heavy interest in). This confirms it as we learn more about the screening process for the original colonists, which shows that characters such as Fax and Meron were aberrations and also why most of the "villains" of the series are more antagonists than actual baddies (I've loved this sort of retconning ever since I found out about the "Heisenberg compensators" built in to the transporters in Star Trek: The Next Generation). It also discusses the "adrenaline junkie" problem that the Oldtimers had which made them so agreeable to coming forward in time and being party to one of the more bizarre time loops in SF: Lessa goes back in time to bring the needed dragonriders forward because there are too few dragonriders in her time... because she went back and got them, thus creating the shortage...

The tone of the book is friendly (99% of people reading it are going to be fans already, right?) but not overly fannish (YMMV, of course) and it generates discussion and questions and a closer examination of the original texts (Sorry about all these brackets). It also allows you to look at characters in a new light which makes it a little more substantial than some other source books I've read in the past. It suffers from trying to make the information about crafthalls and holds more interesting than many readers might think (this one, anyway) but it does give you a glimpse into the wider society of Pern which was necessary for a book of this scope.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually bought this book recently, because it has a short story in it, that I couldn't get anywhere else: The Impression.

I am so glad I bought it, now, as I've just read through the whole thing, and it had details about Pern, and all who live on it, that I hadn't known about before.

It is a cornucopia of details - about dragons, their riders, the Weyrs, the Holds, the Craft Halls, the support structures needed for all of them, the training of Apprentices, Journeymen, and even Masters, and everything else, down to the knitting patterns used for different Holds, and even various recipes of foods mentioned in the books - including Bubbly Pies! Lol

I thoroughly enjoyed learning so many more details about the people and places of Pern, and will keep this book as the treasure that it is!

So, now on to the next Pern book: The White Dragon.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book if you are really into the Pern novels, as it really explains many of the traditions and the history that is only referred to in them. It has songs, recipes, a guide to the flora and fauna, and other interesting compliments to the novels. If you aren't really in to the series, its probably boring, but if you are obsessed, its nice to have everything in one place.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

tegin kord inventuuri kõigist McCaffrey Perni-raamatutest ja selgus, et olen need enamvähem kõik läbi lugenud - st kõik Anne'i enda omad, siis kõik kättesaadavad lühijutud, siis poja Toddiga kahasse kirjutatud romaanid ja siis ühe Toddi üksikirjutatu ka... mille järel ma otsustasin, et siin on nüüd piir, Todd ei osutunud just heaks kirjanikuks. no ja siis tuli välja, et olemas on veel selline Anne'i enda osalusel loodud... entsüklopeedia, millele otsustasin võimalusel võimaluse anda. ja siin ta mul nüüd on.

ilmselgelt olen sihtgrupp, sest see lugu siin läheb kohati ikka väga detailseks - nii Perni avastamis- ja asustamisloo, lohede anatoomia kui iga üksiku koja, weyri ja tsunfti kirjelduse osas. ikka suht palju peab see maailm meeldima ja huvi pakkuma, et see kõik läbi närida. ja samas esineb üsna palju sisurikkujaid kogu selle saaga oluliste sõlmpunktide osas, nii et kindlasti ei soovita kellelegi, kes pole vähemalt "Lohelendu", aga parem ka kui veel vähemalt paari-kolme hilisemat raamatut lugenud.

kahju on sellest, et illustratsioonid on must-valged (kõik need weyrid ja vapid ja õlasõlmed näevad täpselt ühesugused välja niiviisi!) ja et kuigi Perni kaarte on raamatus mitu, igasuguse obskuurse andmestikuga a la kuidas maandus esimene asustajate kosmoselaev, pole ühtegi sellist, kus "tänapäevane" (Ninth Pass) asustus peal oleks ja sellist tuleb ikka veebist kõrvale vaadata. no ja siis olin veel pettunud, et lohede ja loheratsanike suguelust üldse ei räägita, ses mõttes, et... see on ikka selle ühiskonna väga oluline tahk ju! aga no eks seda tuleb siis raamatutest endist juurde lugeda. ahjaa, ja kui me siin juba norime, siis ühelt graafikult leidsin konkreetselt vea ka. aga võibolla see on sihilik, et paremini ehtsat teatmeteost matkida?

nojah, igatahes Perni lohede suur austaja võiks tahta selle raamatuga tutvuda küll, aga kui pole teda parajasti käepärast, siis naba paigast ka ei pea tõmbama, et hankida, võib lugeda neid raamatuid, mis on käepärast!

[Book2Dragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reference guide to Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, at the beginning of the series up to 1997 when this was published.
You will need this (2nd edition) to keep the many characters and dragons and Weyrs and Holds straight, especially after the first book or two. In fact, the appendix (Dr agons and Their Riders) is 25 pages, with 12 additional pages for fire lizards, dragons, riders and hatchlings. This is just covering the first 14 of 31 books.
This organizes the history of Pern, the organization of the Weyrs, Holds and even the knots designating craft and Hold. It is complicated, but in the end (especially in the early books) well worth the effort. Artwork is good too.

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really great addition to your Pern library. It has a ton of information about the Weyrs and the land, but it's a lot less complicated (if that's the word to use for a book about a fictional place) than The Atlas of Pern.



Rather than read like a... well an atlas... it's more like a history book. But (I like to think because of the fact) it's a fictional place, it's a lot easier to read than say, your history book from High School. Plus, this is something that you're purchasing to add to your collection, you're obviously a great lover of the Pern novels, so this is something great, too, to have as a reference, especially if you take a break in between them like I did (the Anne/Todd McCaffrey gap).

[Jargon Jester · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has a lot of information about Pern. It is well organized and nicely presented. Some things are more interesting than others. I do not suggest reading it cover to cover. From start to the beginning of covering Holds and Weyrs, everything is good basic background information that anyone would want to know. The details afterwords are expansive. I could see it being useful as your reading the series and come across a region, to read through that specific section. I've had the book for over 25 years, it shows a lot of wear-and-tear, and I'm glad to have it. When it completely falls apart, I will look to replace it.

[Gail Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad reference book for those who have read the books by Anne McCaffrey about the planet Pern; but if you read the Atlas of Pern then some things are a bit different between the two books... now if they ever make a movie series from the books I'm sure that much will change depending on the budget and none will look the way the reader imagined it.
I know that I messed up with the location of Southern Weyr and Southern Hold, I had them opposite of each other than the maps showed... but it still was a good imaginary tale and read.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I got this book as a kid despite not having actually read any of the Pern books. But I loved it at the time even though there were a lot of things which didn't make much sense due to my general lack of context for the series as a whole. So, I'm probably not the best judge for this book's quality as a companion to the Pern series, but I seem to recall enjoying the information provided here and the included stories as a stand-alone experience at the time. This is something I'll have to revisit after reading some of the primary Pern novels.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have owned a copy of this book for years and years. It tends to live in my kitchen cookbook cupboard because I have made Klah over the years and also Bubbly Pies. I cannot tell you how many people have wowed over the Bubbly Pies.

I love love love this book.

I cannot believe I hadn't added it to my virtual library previously.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty much a must have if you want to make sense of most of McAffrey's world, but even then it either includes information that has either since been retconned or is contradictory. A lot of it is unorganised, too: information on some of the flora, for example, is under the Fort Hold's recipe for klah, which also includes information on Bakercraft. It's a good reference book on the whole, though.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a guide to the world of Pern with explanations of how the Holds, Weyrs and crafthalls were established and how the people lived, the plants and animals they brought with them and other facets of life on Pern. A useful addition for anyone who enjoys the world of Pern that Anne McCaffrey imagined.

[Arlith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is made to be a suppliment to the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Its a nice book to dig a little deeper into the world, but not necessary to enjoy the series.

[LeeAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have for the lovers of Pern!

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have in my opinion. I reference thus book while reading to get a better understanding of what's going on.

[Shawna Clawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for any reader of the Pern books!

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit out of date but a nice data book for the early Pern stories with lots of additional background and info not easily noted in the books themselves as you read them.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good reference!! Includes all sorts of explanations of minor story points to flesh out the world of Pern.

[Jessica Patzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any nerd who loves Pern and wants to know more about it in detail, The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern is the book for you. Do be warned, if you haven’t read through the series, there are spoilers for pretty much all of it in these pages. It also does read mostly like a text-book, so be aware of that.

I vaguely remember a bunch of info from this book, so I must have read it, or one of the other text-book-like Pern books when I was in college (that’s when I last tried to read a bunch of Pern books). I really liked a good number of the illustrations, especially those of specifically Pernese origin.

The main reason I’m reading this book ( ya know, other than loving Pern) is to review the short story, “Impression.” So here’s that:

A very sweet story. Really hammers home how Impression feels. F’lessan and Golanth are adorable. I kind of liked the little detail about the Candidates being barefoot during the Hatching. Little weird, but a bit of world-building I’d never even thought about. I also appreciate the description of Golanth’s hide.

My notes:
- The ships look quite interesting, based on the drawing of the Yokohama. Not at all what I ever pictured.
- Crawlers give me distinct alien vibes, though I cannot for the life of me remember the particular alien I’m remembering.
- Wherries remind me of gryphons.
- The grubs honestly look very silly… and not like any grubs I imagined. Too furry.
- This Wher illustration honestly looks like a very muscly man in a suit.
- I found the “Training and Fighting Dragons” chapter really neat. Todd Johnson/McCaffrey’s writing style is really on show here.
- Robinton’s retconned wife is not mentioned in the blurb about him… or rather, it’s said he never married.
- Harper sand-tables are neat!
- Well that’s a lovely little paragraph… “The Healercraft doesn’t have the technology to sustain defective humans. After twenty-five centuries on Pern, the race has been bred clean of most defects.” Uhm… gross.
- I like the little biographies/stories we get about rando Pernese people throughout this book. Makes the world feel more complete and lived-in.
- Wow, let’s pretty much word-for-word repeat how the buildings at Landing looked not even a whole page later…
- If you are ever interested in just how much information authors have about their worlds that will probably never make it into the books, I beg you to take a look at the list of Dragons and their Riders contained in this book. It’s a lot.

[Jessi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chronological read through: https://www.howtoread.me/dragonriders...

Previously: Dragondrums
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Alright, I won't sit here and claim I read this cover to cover because I didn't. I read "The Impression" and otherwise just flipped through. The pictures are nice, but the recipes are kinda uninspired (sorry but cinnamon nutmeg mocha for klah and blueberry pie for bubbly pie seem just normal). As for "The Impression," it's a cute little tale about Felessan's impression.

Yea, I liked it.

Wanna know something really weird Anne McCaffrey said? There's this blurb from her inside the short story and she says the kids would orgasm during impression if they were older.

I'll just leave now.

Next:
"The Smallest Dragonboy"
"The Girl Who Heard Dragons" both in A Gift of Dragons
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Janell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was definitely a comprehensive guide to much of Pern through the books that had come out when it was published - and definitely contains spoilers for those books, which shouldn't be a problem so many years later. It desparately needed a good map. Some of the illustrations were interesting, some needed more labels, and some felt "wrong," compared with the mental images I had built up, but that's probably true of any book. It was nice to have a new short story included in it. The heraldry was ... interesting, but definitely uses color rules that are unlike those on Earth. Which is fair, I suppose. I want to try out the recipe for bubbly pies. This book does show how much detailed worldbuilding has gone on regarding Pern, to make it feel so much like a real place to all of its devoted fans.

[Blake Altman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took a slight detour in the Dragonriders of Pern series to check out The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern. Serving as a sort of lore encyclopedia for the planet Pern, it's mostly full of useless little details about the book's setting that has no effect on the novels themselves. The closest approximation I can think of would be if someone collected an entire archive of fan-edited wiki pages and put them all in a book. It DOES contain an original Dragonriders story written by Anne McCaffrey herself, but it's an absolute nothing of a tale about a boy Impressing a dragon.

There's almost nothing in this book that isn't already discussed in the novels, but the few things that are new to this book provide nothing of substance to the series. I can't recommend this to anyone, not even for Pern superfans who are obsessed with the economy of the Northern Continent.

[Emilou · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting things in this guide, but most of the information can be found in the books. Much of it wasn't new or even needed. There would be excess of information about some things and not enough detail for others. I also disliked how they would have pictures of buildings or areas, and nothing would be labeled. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. It was poorly put together. I wished there were more pictures since Pern is such an interesting place.

Basically, this book seemed like it was put together for the Pern geeks and those who want to write fanfiction since its a great reference book. But for regular readers who just want to be entertained, it's unnecessary.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really neat companion book for anyone who loves the world-building and characters in McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. It provides an overview of the society and ties together all of the "eras" of Pern, from the original settling space colonists to Moreta's day and into Lessa's Ninth Pass. There is also a very short story called The Impression that follows Felessan.

[Barb J · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was flawed, poorly edited with whole sections repeated and sorely lacking in maps. Only for the true completist.

[Jamin Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 book would read again

[Nancy Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. More an index that a narrative. Was hoping for detailed maps and a chronology, and an association of books according to where they fit in the overall history of Pern.