Long long ago I read these books because of course dragons.
I was amazed, transported and loved the idea of a culture with dragons in it.
Now rereading I am less charmed by the mating 'process' and its effects on humans.
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Three books in one.

Dragonflight:

Pern is a planet once colonized by humans and long since abandoned or forgotten by Earth. The early inhabitants- explorers and scientists- genetically engineered an indigenous species to become the huge dragons, capable of breathing fire and forming a telepathic and emotional bond with human riders. Their importance is to save the planet from Threadfall- noxious acid spores that cross the gap of space from a satellite planet with an erratic orbit, when it approaches close enough. Thread destroys nearly everything it touches. Traditions and social rules built up to support the dragonriders who protect the planet, with Holds providing goods and supplies to the dragonmen who live in rocky caves on cliff faces (the Thread spores can’t harm rock).

In the setting of the story, four hundred years have passed since the last Threadfall. Civilization regressed to a medieval state, much technology and knowledge has been lost, and dragonmen are no longer honored, the common people chafe at having to support them. The Weyrs (where dragons and dragonmen live) have dwindled in number to only one. Many believe that Thread will never fall again, and the ancient warnings are just stories. When Thread does threaten there is a sudden desperate scramble for survival. One of the main characters is Lessa, last survivor of her bloodline living disguised as a kitchen drudge in her Hold which was taken over by an usurper. She is waiting for a chance to take revenge, but is suddenly whisked away to the Weyr by dragonmen searching for a strong-willed woman who can bond with the last remaining queen dragon. They need this dragon to repopulate the weyrs so they have enough numbers to fight Thread. Lessa is suddenly in a new environment, and nobody really explains anything to her including that when her dragon is taken in mating flight by F’lar’s dragon, she and F’lar will be compelled to become partners. When I was a teen reading this I breezed past mentions of the uneven relationship Lessa and F’lar have, more interested the details about the dragons and how people live on this alien world. Reading it now I’m discomfited by it- the society on Pern as a whole is very sexist. I had forgotten how much time travel became a crucial part of this story- the dragons can ‘wink between‘ to teleport- and Lessa accidentally discovers that if given the proper references, dragons can also move through time. It takes the characters a while to figure out how this can work to their advantage against Thread, though I saw everything a mile coming. Enjoyable regardless. While some of the writing and characterization feels a bit stiff, and the main romance (you can barely call it that) is objectionable, I remind myself how long ago this book was written.

Dragonquest:

What saved the day in Dragonflight was that Lessa travelled back in time to contact the weyrs that in her time had been empty for ages, and brought all those dragonmen forward to her own time to fight Thread. This worked well at first because at the point she travelled back to, the “Oldtimer” dragonmen had been done fighting Thread for a while and were feeling bored and antsy (the Red Star having moved on in its orbit). They were eager for action and to help out. But now, living in a new time, conflicts arise as the Oldtimers have different notions about everything. Traditions chafe with newer ways of thinking and innovation. Arguments and outrage spring up between everyday people, leaders and dragonmen alike. Discoveries are made of rooms in the back tunnels of weyrs with preserved instruments, one is a telescope which gives them a good look at the Red Star for the first time. Someone comes up with the preposterous idea of travelling to the Red Star’s surface on dragons to get rid of Thread at its source. Uh, no. Disastrous notion. But ordinary folk demand things be done, that they try. There’s another means of protection against Thread that turns out to be biological- and it’s not flaming dragons, but something much smaller that eats it. Nobody believes this, even when they see it. (I’m not sure I do, either.) There’s lots of tedious pages in the book of tiresome conversations and meetings and arguments between all sorts of characters I cared little about- but it’s all made bearable by the charm of the fire lizards.

Another new discovery- that these tiny indigenous creatures – which look exactly like miniature dragons and can also wink between– can form a similar bond with humans. Nobody knew because nobody could catch one before, because they always nervously disappeared on approach. But someone stumbles across a nest of fire lizard eggs as they’re hatching, and suddenly has a tiny gold companion (as well as his regular dragon, who views the little flying lizard with something like fond amusement). There’s a huge uproar over the fire lizards, which suddenly become popular and in-demand. Everybody wants one. Some just view them as pets (or annoyances), others think they could be trained to do useful tasks, like carry messages. And some of the dragonmen think that if commoners had fire lizard pets they’d understand the weyrs’ views on things better.

This is big stuff that happens in the book! Meandering through all that are smaller individual storylines- an insufferable man named Meron trying to control other people, a flirtatious nasty woman Kylara irritating everyone she meets, F’lar trying to placate everyone and find ways for the weyrs and holds to better communicate, F’nor getting injured and falling in love, a quiet self-effacing responsible woman Brekke finally getting something she deserves, then facing a terrible loss. There’s a young man who flaunts custom, people puzzling over old scientific instruments they don’t understand and figuring out new technologies, and a spectacular (and terrible) fight between two queen dragons. And that’s just a little bit of it all that I’m mentioning. It’s really quite a lot stuffed into just under 250 pages!

The White Dragon:

The main character is Jaxom, who’s in training to become a Lord Holder but impressed a small white dragon when he’s not supposed to. The dragon Ruth is a runt, everybody thinks it will die and so Jaxom takes Ruth back to his Hold instead of staying in the weyr where dragonriders live. Ruth not only survives, he thrives, even though he remains smaller than all the other dragons- which happens to fascinate all the fire-lizards- they swarm him wherever he goes. Jaxom knows his duty to learn how to manage the Hold and eventually take his place in charge, but he chafes at not being able to do what other dragonriders do: fight Thread. At first, he’s not even allowed to go between on his little dragon. He teaches Ruth to fly against Thread in secret, until being caught out, is put into a weyrling class for his own safety, but soon finds that boring as well. He shamelessly uses a common girl’s infatuation with him as a ruse for going places on his dragon alone, and ditches her when it suits him. As events progress through the book, Jaxom ends up on the Southern continent, involved in explorations there, privy to meetings between higher-ups on Pern trying to settle conflict between all those who want Southern land (and still dealing with the Oldtimers there), and eventually finding ruins from the ancients which give glimpses into Pern’s past, and might give them knowledge they seek. That should have been more exciting than it was. Jaxom takes some stupid risks, gets deathly ill as a result, has to convalesce in the South, falls in love with his nurse, and stands up to her brother who objects to their union.

Through it all, I found Jaxom himself rather boring. In fact, all the people were. The only character I really liked was Ruth, in spite of the difficulty he put Jaxom in when it turns out he will never mature sexually. Lots of other characters mock Ruth’s stunted growth, and Jaxom feels guilty about enjoying women in ways he knows his dragon can never share (as they have a telepathic link). He does eventually come to terms with this. Many characters from the previous books make repeat appearances- in fact quite a few chapters are told from other perspectives, which also made me less interested in the story, somehow. Menolly was still an appealing person, everyone respects Robinton, Piemur was alternately cocky and bragging, then avoiding everyone’s company. I don’t get why they all despised Mirrim. I remember puzzling over this before, when I first read this books- and this time I read the scenes that included her several times over, and it just wasn’t conveyed to me, why everyone found her manner so offensive. Oh well. ( )

Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels were among the books that I grabbed off of my sister’s bookshelf to read when I was in junior high. Over the past years, I’ve gone back and re-read many of my sister's old books – and it’s shocking how many of them haven’t stood the test of time. For the most part, that doesn’t bother me.

But I loved Pern! If these novels hadn’t stood up, I was going to be very disappointed.

So I’m happy to report that I still love them (the original trilogy, at least) even over a decade later! Some of the interpersonal sexual politics between the characters is bit dated, but that was true even when I was in junior high…

It’s all too easy for people to assume that these books are fantasy novels because they’re about dragons. I think that’s what my sister did, as her bookshelf back then was full of Dragonlance and David Eddings books.

These are not fantasy! They’re actually hard SF novels. The world of Pern is extrapolated from scientific premises. The books feature FTL/teleportation, time travel, hostile alien life, genetic engineering, and astronomy is essential to everything about the world and the story – all standards of hard SF, transposed into a pre-technological society with dragons. There’s no magic – everything that people can do in this world is achieved through experimentation, observation, the derivation of general principles: the same kind of scientific method that led to our own Industrial Revolution.

I do have one major complaint about the omnibus edition of the first Pern trilogy. I originally read these novels separately and I remember how delightful it was for the history of this world to be slowly revealed in bits and pieces. The backstory of Pern is the central mystery of these books – as the characters made new discoveries, I as the reader discovered with them.

When they published this omnibus edition, someone (idiotically) decided that it needed a Prelude to introduce it. The Prelude gives away the entire backstory of Pern before you even get to the first line of the first novel! It completely destroys the delight and reward of discovering these things as you go!

If this is your first time reading McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and you’re reading this omnibus – do yourself a tremendous favor and skip the Prelude! You’ll have a far more rewarding reading experience! ( )

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This is the 'original' Science Fiction Book club 3 in one edition of the first 3 (by publishing order) Pern novels. Of these, I like the first and the third best. The first one, without too much explanation, jumps right into the story. Humans and dragons live on Pern and are periodically invaded by 'Thread' falling from space, which will devour all life if not burned to death first. How they survive the experience and how humans got to Pern is further explored in books 2 and especially book 3. I like the action and the characters in these books and the scifi/fantasy feel of them. Very well written and very enjoyable. ( )