Customer Reviews

The Atlas of Pern

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anne McCaffrey paints word pictures of her imaginary world. Karen Fonstadt brings those pictures to graphic life with her maps, illustrations and explanations. I've often faulted McCaffrey's publishers for cover art that jarred with my mental images of her characters and their surroundings. Ms Fonstadt has managed to give a visual form to my imaginings that is completely consistent with my own ideas.

If you want the exact layout of the Benden Hatching Grounds, or Dunca's cot where Menolly spent many a lonely day, you'll find them here. There's even a complete "dragonwing anatomy", for those with a biology bent. Time-lines for the events in the Pern series are also there, though these do have a couple of discrepancies with the text, and are, by now sadly out of date with Ms McCaffrey's ongoing contributions to the series, and it would be so nice to see an upddated issue.

Today, I no longer even try to read the "Dragonriders of Pern" or "Harper Hall" series without this vital volume to hand. It contributes so much to my enjoyment of the books that it truly is the essential companion to Anne McCaffrey's Pern series.

If you participate in Pern fandom, this book is very valuable. It includes scaled drawings of many places on Pern, from the original colonists' time through "The White Dragon". Land use, climate, population, and spatial maps are also included. The only frustrating thing is that this is not a complete work - if the place hasn't been mentioned and described in detail in the Harper Hall trilogy, "Moreta" , or the original trilogy, then it's not mapped in this book. Igen Weyr, Telgar Weyr, High Reaches Hold, and Benden Hold are missing, to name a few. But Fonstadt has produced an excellent reference work.

Whether you're just a casual reader of a die-hard fan, the Atlas of Pern is a handy companion to Anne McCaffery's popular series. It's nice to be able to flip open a book and see an illustration of the world, trace the routes from one Hold to the next and back again. It adds a depth to the work.

It's also handy for those of us who do roleplaying on the Pern-based worlds; there are details within its pages not seen elsewhere. In my years of playing apprentices, holders, and dragonriders, I have often called on it for more information. I highly recommend it and the DragonLover's Guide to Pern to all Pern fans.

This book is constructed as a series of maps, but each map is followed by a little bit of related information from the novels. There are detailed drawings of the Weyrs, Holds, and Halls. Finally you can see how a Hatching ground is laid out

The only thing that could make this book better would be if it could be updated. I love maps and love the stories of Pern so I found this book to be a perfect combination. It answered so many questions and gave clear visualization to this magical world.

This is a very useful book, and a perfect companion for the Dragonlover's Guide to Pern. Not only does it show close up maps of where various Holds, Weyrs, and Crafthalls are located, but it also has maps of some of the events from the books, such as the path Moreta took, and F'lar's infamous battle with Fax. I'd highly recommend this book for any fan of Pern.

This book is wonderful in many ways. First of all, you get to see all kinds of details that aren't fully apparent in the Dragon series. Secondly, you see the timelines of the books available in one volume. The amount of time and research that went into it is apparent in nearly every page! The only way it could be better, would be if it could be redone to include the later volumes. Absolutely worthwhile.

This is an informative book, but looking at the copyright date of 1984 and the introductory note by Anne McCaffrey dated 1984 you have to realize that anything in the books after Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (published in 1983) will not be on the maps.

I looked at the map of the area around Ruatha Hold and did not see the ford which the party that populated the hold had to cross in order to get there from Fort Hold and which Ruatha Hold was named for (Rua Atha meaning Red's Ford after Red Hanrahan, a character in Chronicles of Pern: First Fall(1993) and one of the original colonists.)

Get the book if you want to see some of the earliest references of places on Pern, but do not expect all of the places mentioned in all of the books to be shown. A bit of a let down but to be expected considering the year it was published.

When I opened the package the first thing I noticed was the smell of burnt paper. When I pulled the book out the paper covering pulled apart. Over the next 3-4 hours first a corner of the outer layer of the hardcover just fell off and peices kept falling off for the few hours while reviewing several portions of the book. I have come to the conclusion that the book was submitted to a fire and wetting == very miminal but some damage was done. By the way there is not way this book could be considered a paperback!