posted
There is no first Pern book. Anne McCaffrey has been writing them as long as the universe has existed, and she will continue writing them until the universe ends.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
::giggles:: I should really know this as I just read them for the first time as few months ago but I've honestly forgotten. Sorry. Posts: 1548 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
do you want to read them in the order she wrote them or in the order of the history of the planet? There's a big difference. Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
There is, in fact, a HUGE difference. If you read them in timeline order, rather than in publication order, you will be eaten by rabid weasels.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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The first ones in reading order are generally acknowledged to be Dragonsong, Dragonsinger and Dragondrums.
First chronologically is Dragonsdawn (except for a short story, of which I don't remember the name), but as TomDavidson says, beware the rabid weasels.
posted
The first written book was Dragonflight. The story that begins the book, Weyr Search, was a Hugo award winning novella. The second book is Dragonquest. Then, the three books about Menolly were written (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums). Dragonsong, in the timeline, starts shortly after Dragonflight. Dragonsinger is about the same time as Dragonquest. Dragondrums takes place between the time of those two books and The White Dragon (I made the mistake of reading The White Dragon first back in 1979-yes, the books are that old) and got all confused). After that, read The White Dragon. Reading them in the order they were written, rather then their chronological order, will give you better insight into the characters.
If you do wish to read them in Chronological order, Dragaonsdawn is first.
posted
Yes, Dragonflight was really written first.
Your misconceptions may have to do with marketing. They marketed one group of books to high school boys as adventure novels (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, THe White Dragon) and another to high school girls as romance novels (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums). THe bad part is that you don't understand the whole thing without all six books.
Posts: 279 | Registered: May 2004
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Romance novels? um... I've never heard them marketed that way (and they shouldn't be).
They're good though, and I think it really doesn't matter what order you read them in, you either really like the first one you read and then go out and read the rest, or you're wicked confused and you don't read another one.
posted
I think you should start with Dragoncrap, Dragontrite, and Dragonrerun, and then move on to Dragonhack, Dragonthisseriesneverends, and finally, the crowning achievement in the series, The Dolphins of Pern. The only thing better than books about intelligent, telepathic, teleporting, time-jumping dragons is a book about dolphins that can talk.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I wanted to start reading the series, but couldn't figure out which one to start with. My mom thinks some of them are "inappropriate" for me to read, too.
So which ones are ok?
(btw Aerin, I love your screen name! )
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Jon_boy - is that a chip I see on your shoulder?
I like them - have them all - bought my first ones in the US when on holiday and it was the three aimed at schoolboys in one set! Don't think any of its really inappropriate but that might be selective memory! OK so they're not the most thought provoking books and don't cover deep concepts like OSCs work but they're good to relax with - sometimes heavy reading is not wanted!
Posts: 394 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
OK I copied this from a previous thread and all credit should be given to Papa Moose (I think!)
DragonFlight, 1969 DragonQuest, 1971 DragonSong, 1977 DragonSinger: Harper of Pern, 1977 The White Dragon, 1978 DragonDrums, 1979 Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, 1983 Nerilka's Story & The Coelura, 1986 DragonsDawn, 1988 The Renegades of Pern, 1989 All the Weyrs of Pern, 1992 The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall, 1993 The Dolphins of Pern, 1994 Red Star Rising: The Second Chronicles of Pern(UK), 1996; published as DragonsEye (USA), 1997 Masterharper of Pern, 1998 The Skies of Pern, 2001 Dragon's Kin, 2003
She's also written a selection of short stories based on Pern too.
I think they're best read in the order published - she develops characters in later book who are only briefly mentioned in earlier ones. It makes more sense this way too.
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