The Dolphins of Pern (1994)

Another view of Pern, starting around the middle of "All the Weyrs of Pern" and ending somewhat later. Short and simple compared to some of the other books, but advances the overall Pern plot. Definitely a rehash of the Menolly tale, but poorly motivated, showing the somewhat appealing protagonists of previous books to be real losers. Also, what all the women mostly seem to do, except for Lessa, is be pregnant, which is not really all that women should be doing in a novel like this. I'll keep on reading, though, just one more to go. ( )

There was a little bit of the "same story from a different point of view" that she has been doing on and off - which irritates me. But, it went far beyond All The Wyers of Pern and had little to do with much that happened in the other book. I really liked it. I've ordered the rest of the series from Amazon as soon as I finished this book, so I would have to say that I am a "Pern fan". ( )

I read the early Pern novels but got out of touch with the continuations of the series. This one takes place after the dragonriders have been revived to defeat the Threads and humans are spreading out into regions which had been abandoned. They encounter human-intelligent dolphins who had been part of the original colony from earth and still pass down memories of their earlier cooperation with humans. ( )

After all the exciting things happen--after the settlers land on Pern, and are nearly destroyed by Thread, and discover dragons, and set up Weyrs and Holds and Halls, all the while devolving into a sexist&rigidly hierarchal medieval society, and eventually Jaxom bonds with Ruth, and Menolly finds her firelizards and transforms Harpers, and they rediscover their computer and figure out how to end Thread-fall once and for all, and all manner of social changes start being forced through--after all that, this incredibly prosaic, boring little story takes place.

A number of people realize (practically simultaneously) that the "shipfish" of Pern are actually dolphins who travelled from Earth with the first settlers. They were engineered to have human speech and increased intellects, and even generations after humans stopped remembering them, they still remember humans. They're thrilled to have contact with humans again. One boy, Readis, runs away from home to form a Dolphin Hall. Meanwhile, a Holder is plotting to settle the Southern Continent against the Weyr-leaders' advice. And there's a big storm that doesn't actually do anything. That's pretty much it! Even famous characters like Leesa, Menolly, Mirrim or Jaxom are colorless and personality-free here.

This was easily the most boring Pern book I have ever read in my life. I would much rather read another book about the brave-flame-haired-fiesty-girl fighting against sexist-evil-old-dude and psychically bonding with a dragon; as trite and wish-fullfillment-y as that is, at least there's something there. This was just empty of all inspiration, emotion, plot, or character. ( )

Readis of Paradise River, and his Uncle Alemi are rescued when their boat is swamped in a sudden squall by dolphins. The dolphins have long been known as shipfish because of their constant presence around the fishing fleets over many turns. But it is Readis and Alemi who realize that the dolphins can speak and have been trying to lead ships away from dangers and to the best fishing spots.

Their story is playing out in the midst of the excitement surrounding the promise of overcoming thread once and for all with the information and technology being provided by Avis, an Artificial Intelligence left behind by the original founders of Pern. ( )