A wonderful companion book for existing fans of Pern. In prose reminiscent of an encyclopedia, it explains the world of Pern, including its customs, history, locations, and, of course, the care of dragons. Good drawings and limited maps accompany. Also included is "The Impression", a short story of average quality.

Younger readers may be disappointed by the lack of color in the art, which was a result of the limitations of the original publication era. Map lovers may wish for both more and more detailed maps.

Those new to Pern may wish to abstain from reading this until they have read the first 8 books, in publication order, as there are spoilers within this guide. ( )

A wonderful addition to help a Pern reader fill in blanks and answer questions and remember details.

I bought and read this book for the short story "the impression", which is ok but not fantastic. Overall the book isn't really my thing -- its mostly a potted history of Pern and a nearly exhaustive coverage of the various weyrs, holds and craft halls that inhabit the planet. To be honest, I'd rather learn that stuff as I read the series, instead of reading a summary. Overall I think this book isn't particularly great, although its nice to have read the short story at the right time in the sequence.

Having just read Dragonsdawn, there are also some inconsistencies which grated a little (the use of HNO3 for example, and how much knowledge of the Oort cloud the survey team had string to mind as examples).

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Anne_McCaffrey/The_Dragonlovers_Guide_to_Pern.html ( )

All things Pern up to 1989 ( )

Dragonlover's Guide to Pern is a fairly exhaustive reference for the history and culture of Pern. If you ahve read the books and short stories, there is little that is new. There are recipies for bubbly pies, and klah, but beyond that there is little new. In fact, the story stops with the end of The White Dragon. There are some details from the Moreta stories and Dragon's Dawn, but the details of the founding of various Holds and Wyers don't match the stories in First Fall-The Chronicles of Pern.

The writing is uneven--probably because it was written by several people. Also, the edition I have has no maps. Given the ubiquity of the maps in the other books, this was a surprising omission. And there were several typos. ( )