The Dragonriders of Pern (Pern: The Dragonriders of Pern)

I first read this trilogy of books years ago and have reread it probably a dozen times since then. I was happy when the trilogy was offered at such a low price and I could get it in digital format.The world building is superb and over the course of the 3 books and many subsequent books, the abilities of the dragons is well explained in a logical, non-supernatural manner. Briefly, when men settled on the planet of Pern thousands of years ago, the presence of a wandering planet was noted but not explored. As a result, after the colony had been there for several hundred years, the wandering planet, named the "Red Star" by the Pernese, came close enough to Pern to have some of its native life forms travel the distance between the worlds and fall from the skies of Pern as "Thread", a deadly life form that resembles silver threads and which sears through everything it touches that isn't metal, clay or stone. The original colonists altered and enhanced the DNA of "fire lizards", a native life form that resembled small dragons, who had the ability to travel vast distances in the blink of an eye by going "Between" and who further had rudimentary telepathic skills. Over the millenniums, the dragons increased in size until by the time the stories in the books take place, they could grow to over 120 ft. for the largest, the golden Queen dragon.***POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD***The first book, Dragonflight, opens with Lessa, the last of the "Blood", i.e., a direct descendant of the Lord (owner) of Rautha Hold on the planet of Pern, being found by the dragonriders who are on search for a candidate for the queen egg that's waiting to hatch. Although the author has given Lessa several paranormal gifts in this first book, they aren't focused on too much and not at all in subsequent books.When the dragonriders found Lessa, her aim had been to claim their assistance to take back the Ruathan Hold which had been taken over by an ambitious lord, Fax, who slew all who had even a shred of Rauthan blood. She had hidden in the lair of the watchweyr and had avoided discovery. She causes the head dragonrider, F'Lar, to challenge Fax to a duel, but afterwards ends up relinquishing her hereditary rights to Jaxom, the newborn son of Fax and Gemma, a distant Rauthan kinswoman, while she travels to Benden Weyr to hopefully become the head Weyrwoman. When the dragon eggs hatched, the dragonets found a suitable partner from among the candidates by "Impressing" with their choice. The bond thus established was lifelong and extremely close, with the partners sharing both thoughts and emotions.Thread had not fallen on Pern for over 400 years, instead of the usual interval of 200 years. F'Lar, the leader of Benden Weyr was instinctively sure that Thread was due to fall soon and wanted a strong Weyrwoman who would be up for the coming challenge. There were 6 Weyrs on Pern, but 5 of them had been abandoned for hundreds of years and no one knew why. In addition, the previous Queen rider was lazy and the Queen dragon matched her; therefore, the size of the clutches of eggs had not been increasing like they should have been. He hoped that a Queen impressed by Lessa would be strong and would be flown by a strong bronze (hopefully, his bronze dragon) so that the Queen would have larger clutches and one or more queen eggs in each clutch.***END OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS***So this sets the stage for the story, although I have included information that you'll actually discover later in the book so I could more easily describe the current situation. What follows are 3 books that describe actions that take place in a rapidly changing environment. There are fights among dragonriders (a no-no because if a rider dies, his dragon goes Between and never comes back), exciting discoveries of items used by the "Ancients", lost knowledge that has been discovered and recovered, showdowns between differing factions and puzzles posed for Lessa that she has to solve.Each book in the series has action, drama, comedic situations, love and moving situations that call forth emotions that may cause you to shed a tear or two. Once you read these 3 books, you may well want to read the rest of the stories written by Anne. Her son Todd has also written several Pern novels, although I didn't like them as well as Anne's books.Finally, I'll be writing a separate review for books 2 (Dragonquest) and and 3 (The White Dragon) that you may want to refer to as well. Enjoy!

Dragonriders of Pern is a series to read over and over again. The world's of Ms. McCaffrey make you believe in the future on flying through space to a new world. And in Dragons!

I started reading this series way back when. It was the 6os, and fell in love with the dragons. They were smart and loyal to their impressed dragorider they had picked. Today I turn 70 and started reading it again.

Read everything she writes they are all intertwined and everything has meaning. The way she writes is so amazing that I feel like I would go mad trying to keep it all straight in my head. I don't know how many books by Anne McCaffrey I have read 30 to 40 I think and I loved them all most I have reread multiple times and I will read them again. ❤️

I first read these books twenty or thirty years ago, and unlike other books I've re-read years later, these drew me in just as they did way back then.This omnibus contains the first three books in her Dragonrider series. Set on the planet Pern in a well thought out world, where humans bond with dragons bio-engineered from a local species to protect the planet from a space born parasite that threatens the planet whenever the "Red Planet" (a comet?) swings by close enough on his long trip around the system to have them rain from the sky.While that is an exciting premise, the real strength of these stories lies in the humanity of the characters as they struggle with the social, economic, and environmental challenges they are presented with.Well worth the read.

First off, I have to say that I love Anne McCaffrey's works. I have read almost all of her books, and the "Dragon Riders of Pern" trilogy is right at the top of my list of her best work. I have re-read them so many times that this is actually the 4th copy I have purchased. I have worn out 2 sets of the original, individual paperbacks, and one copy of the first combined volume, which is what this book is."The Dragon Riders of Pern" is actually a collection of the first 3 novels in a large body of work by Ms. McCaffrey telling the stories of people on the planet Pern. These 3 novels are; "Dragon Flight", "Dragon Quest" and "The White Dragon". Anne McCaffrey knows ... well knew (you are sorely missed, Anne) how to tell a story! Even after reading these books numerous times, she can still make me laugh or bring tears to my eyes or get my heart pumping with excitement."Dragon Flight" and "Dragon Quest" focus primarily on two Characters; Lessa who is found on "search" and brought to the Weyr to "impress" (to become psychically attached to) the new-hatching Queen dragon. And of F'Lar who is the rider of a Bronze dragon and finds Lessa and brings her to the Weyr. The dragons protect the planet Pern from a periodic "attack" by a mindless spore which drifts to Pern from a red planet that comes around every few hundred years. These spores are called "Thread" and destroy any organic material they come into contact with. "The White Dragon" revolves primarily around the character of Jaxom who inadvertently impresses a small, and rather special, white dragon and how the two of them become pivotal in the battle against Thread.While the story involves the battle against Thread, it is driven by the characters and their stories. There is frustration as Lessa and F'Lar have to wait for Lessa's Golden Queen dragon, Ramoth, to mature before F'Lar can move forward with what he knows must be done. There is ... well, I don't really want to give very much away and there are plenty of synopses available if you want to read them. Instead, I highly recommend getting this book and reading it.As I said in the headline, the printing/typographical errors are not as numerous as the previous single volume book had. The prior release (which shows the original cover art from the individual books) did have quite a few, rather glaring, typos. As I had read the original books several times before I got that one, the errors, while annoying, didn't detract much from the story. This volume seems to have been re-edited to at least some extent and has fixed most the typos. A few remain, but again, don't detract from the story.The typos are are one of the things that brings this book from a 5-star to 4 for me. However, this is an excellent story by a superb writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy and I highly recommend it.

Any book by Anne McCaffrey is guaranteed to hold you fascinated and keep you engrossed the entire length of the novel. Her characters are feisty and engaging, her craftsmanship superb, her plotting skillful, and her sci-fi world descriptive.

This item arrived a lot earlier than I expected and the book (despite having 3 separate parts included) is not too heavy or too thick. The condition of the book was very good. There is some evidence of it being read and used often, but the cover and pages are well preserved. I have not had a chance to read it yet but I have heard great reviews from my friends about this particular series. I cannot wait to start it.

My wife has been looking for this book for a while.It completes her collection.The cover was worn, but not excessively, so someone has really read it.Book was in very good condition and well packaged.

wonderful

A VERY SPECIAL RELATIVE RECOMMENDEDTHIS WEIGHTY TOME (BOOK )TO ME ,-BUT THEY DID NOT SAY BEWARE AS YOU ARE A STRAIGHT FORWRD EASY ON THE EYE READER,-- I.E. C.S.FORESTER HORNBLOWER NOVELS ,--BECAUSE THIS ONE IS "WILD" THE CHARACTERS ARE WELL-- WIERD--ODD NAMES TO BEGIN WITH AND ONE GETS CONFUSED BETWEEN THE PERSON AND THEIR DRAGON,-- AND THE PLACES ARE HARD TO IMAGINE,- BUT IF YOU CAN GET THROUGH A THOMAS HARDY TOME I.E. "fAR FROM THE MADDING GROWD" THIS WILL PLEASE YOU,--i WILL NOT GIVE A FULL RECOMMENDATION BECAUSE I AM STILL TRYING TO GET THROUGH THE EARLY CHAPTERS

Unmittelbar nach dem Lesen eines Buches sollte man ja nicht gleich eine Rezension dazu verfassen, weil man dann dazu neigt, etwas zu emotional zu bewerten. Besonders natürlich, wenn man sich sehr darüber geärgert hat. Gut, ich hätte jetzt nicht unbedingt 8 Jahre damit warten müssen, aber so kann ich jetzt mit ordentlichem Abstand sagen: das ist der größte Mist, den ich je gelesen habe! Dabei hat mir der Anfang recht gut gefallen, in dem ein Mädchen zur Drachenreiterin ausgebildet wird. Ich konnte mich gut in die Protagonistin und ihre Welt hineinversetzen, die von kosmischen Sporen, dem Thread, bedroht wird. Die Verteidigung wird zwar ausgebaut, ist aber ziemlich spät dran.Spoiler: sie schaffen es nicht, der erste Thread fällt, bevor man bereit ist. Wie löst man das Problem? Deus Ex Machina, Drachen können durch die Zeit reisen. Man kann also einen Monat in der Zeit zurückreisen, sich selbst besuchen und sagen: was du da gerade tun willst, wird nicht funktionieren! Außerdem kann man Thread nun auch in der Vergangenheit bekämpfen, hat also immer genug Ressourcen.Damit wird jegliche Logik der Handlung zerstört, alles wird paradox. Das hat mir jegliche Freude an dem Buch genommen.Neben den inhaltlichen Mängeln hat mich auch der Schreibstil sehr angestrengt. Die Autorin verwendet gelegentlich einen sehr überraschenden Satzbau mit unkonventioneller Wortwahl. Obwohl man die meisten dieser Wörter in besser bestücken Wörterbüchern auffinden kann, hilft das oftmals nicht weiter, da keine der angegebenen Bedeutungen im Kontext irgendeinen Sinn ergeben.Somit taugt das Buch also weder zum Englisch lernen noch zur Unterhaltung. Ich habe es schon vor Jahren auf einem Flohmarkt verscherbelt.