The Skies Of Pern (Hardcover)

by Anne McCaffrey (Author) "Since it was not at all unusual for dragonriders to be found poring over the volumes in the extensive Aivas archives, F'lessan, rider of bronze..." (more)
Key Phrases: fresh klah, healer hall, klah pot, Cove Hold, Lord Holder, Harper Hall (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Anne McCaffrey's Pern series has been running successfully for so long that most of the Dragonriders' original problems have been solved. In The Skies of Pern, she confronts her standard cast of characters with the consequences of those solutions, consequences that are a whole new set of problems. Now that the Red Star has been pushed to another orbit, there will only be a few more ravenous Threads descending from it for them and their dragons to fight--and what role will that leave for them? They have successfully reclaimed Earth's lost technology--and suddenly everyone with a craft that might be outmoded, or who is phobic about surgery, is on the rampage, sabotaging and smashing and making up rumors. These fundamentalist Abominators are sure that something terrible will happen if the old ways are not gone back to--and sure enough, fire descends, on cue, from the skies.

Anne McCaffrey's tales of genetically engineered dragons and a lost colony that has declined into feudalism are ultimately SF rather than fantasy because they are about finding solutions to problems, solutions that involve working with what you are given to start off with; The Skies of Pern is all about elegant solutions to credible problems. --Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller McCaffrey's first Pern novel in three years returns to the world of her most popular series, Dragonriders of Pern, reprising almost all the best-loved Pernese characters. In earlier episodes, hero and heroine F'lar and Lessa summoned the captivating dragons and their riders from the remote past to save Pern from a devastating rain of Thread, while the later discovery of Aivas, the artificial intelligence that guided Pern's original human settlers, brought technological marvels like printing to Pern and helped shift the Thread-producing Red Star from its lethal orbit before it self-destructed. Now neo-Luddite Abominators are bent on destroying all of Aivas's gifts and returning watery Pern to its primitive state, while the Dragonriders struggle to find new purpose in a Threadless world. F'lar and Lessa uneasily contemplate second careers or horrors! retirement, while their genteel and amorous son F'lessan and perceptive green rider Tai arrive at both a dragon-assisted romance and a whole new role for the telepathic and telekinetic dragons. McCaffrey's various themes traditionalism vs. technology, the necessity of societal change, feminist commentary on draconian psychology are at times awkwardly integrated. And her slightly watered-down villains seem peripheral to the action, merely a means to showcase familiar personalities performing during crises. Nonetheless, as all her Pern novels amply demonstrate, McCaffrey's sexy and cunning dragons carry the day and the novel with impeccable, irresistible panache. (Apr. 3) Forecast: A likely genre bestseller, but some younger Pern fans may be put off by the emphasis on retirement, unable to appreciate the angst of inexorably approaching age.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st edition (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345434684
• ISBN-13: 978-0345434685
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #379,378 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 16 in The Dragonriders of Pern Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth every penny!, April 3, 2001

By	Robert Shepard Jr. (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a long-time major fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, I gleefully pounce on them the moment they appear in hardback. In fact, they're the ONLY novels I'll routinely shell out so much money for. In the case of "The Skies of Pern", I managed to get my hands on the UK version...

Was it worth it? Definitely! I'd've downed it in one marathon sitting were it not for having to go to work and earn a living. And I reread it the following week. All 450 pages of it!

Once again Ms. McCaffrey visits our old friends in the Ninth Pass, picking up where "The Dolphins of Pern" leaves off. We get to see how they deal with the perils of anti-technology fanatics ("Abominators"), the uncertainties of the role dragons will play in a Thread-free world and Lord Toric's endless greed and conniving. A major new threat faces Pern from above, and the dragons have to come up with a novel and surprising way of dealing with it. A way hinted at in earlier books, particularly "All the Weyrs of Pern".

Along the way, Ms. McCaffrey does her usual excellent job of developing characters both old and new. Be prepared for a real tear-jerker toward the end.

So, if you're a Pern fan, this one is a must! While you're waiting for this one to arrive, you might want to dust off your copy of "All the Weyrs" and "Dolphins" just to refresh your memory and whet your appetite.

My only hope is that the next installment comes soon.

74 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well... at least it takes us back to Pern!, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

I love Pern. I've loved Pern since the first books have come out. I've read and re-read every book so many times that I have a list of all the typos and chronological "boo-boos" in each one. But I still love Pern and the wonderful dragons.

The Skies of Pern is a fair book. It takes me back to Pern and I get to meet all my old friends again. See how they've grown, what new changes are taking place. It's like going home again.

But there are some major descrepancies that just cannot be ignored. For these four serious blunders I have to give only three stars instead of five.

Blunder No. One: Lady Lessa. Lady?? Since when is Weyrwoman Lessa called Lady? She is not a Holder's wife. She gave up the right to be Holder of Ruatha at Jaxom's birth. Aivas called her Lady once and was trounced quickly as to her real title and rank. She is Weyrwoman or Ramoth's Rider. This is a very serious mistake. How can Anne not remember the titles and ranks of her own characters??

Blunder No. Two: Golly. The noble bronze dragon Golanth is called "Golly"? In Dragon's Dawn the first dragons clearly let it be known that they will not tolerate nicknames. The dolphins might shorten a name due to pronunciation, but for the humans to pick up on it and follow along is wrong. It demeans the dragon.

Blunder No. Three: Mirrim. OK, to be honest here, I can't stand Mirrim. I didn't like her in DragonQuest, I tolerated her in Dragonsong, and I wished she had been banished to the Far Reaches in White Dragon. But she keeps popping back up like a really bad penny. I like Toric more then Mirrim. But besides all that. What is she doing being a weyrleader? She is only a green dragon rider. Where is the Queen Dragon of Eastern? Who is the Queen dragon of Eastern? Where does this bizarre menage a trois start? Have I missed a short story somewhere where all this is explained?

Blunder No. Four: When did the Runners Guild become a player? Seems to me that we should have had some inkling of them back in the very first book. They might have come in handy when F'Lar was trying to figure out a way to communicate with all the holds before Thread started falling. At least in Renegades of Pern, Anne started the Traders Guild back at the beginning and slowly brought them forward with the rest of the story. But in Skies of Pern we are thrown in with a very major guild and left to wonder who they are??!

I loved the book for the fact that it did take me back to Pern. But there were some major "wrongs" that I just can't ignore. So I stand by my assessment of Three out of Five stars.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good but a bit too conveient, August 10, 2006

By	E. L Wagner (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Skies of Pern (Mass Market Paperback)

This book deals with the question of how Dragonriders would continue to play a role in Pernese society once thread is gone and Takes up more or less where All the Weyrs of Pern had left off. The dragonriders had made sure that they staked out a huge chunk of the southern continent for their future needs so that they would not be dependent on holders after the last pass ends. Still, there are hints that things could be dicey for them in the future as Pernses society evolves. Certainly, many dragonrides in earlier books have been capable of greed and meglomania. Could future generations of dragonriders be drawn into the disputes of holders as Pern fills up and industrializes and the threat of thread no longer requires everyone to (mostly) stick together? Will dragons' fertility decline the way they did in long passes and eventually dwindle to nothing? Could future generations of dragonriders fight with holders or even each other for resources once usable land starts to run out? Will Pern begin to experience some of the environmental issues that Earth had once Pern begins to industrialize somewhat (and cut down its tropical rainforests)and its population is no longer constrained by the need for thread protection? Is it possible that Pernese could eventually try to go back to the stars or perhaps become industrialized ebough that they could be rediscovered by spacefaring humans? Could dragonkind be of assistance to space travelers as they were in All the Weyrs of Pern and would greedy and unscrupulous people from elsewhere perhaps want to exploit draconic abilties? Could all this lead to new opportunities? It's occurred to me that any or all of these questions could make excellent future novels that could depart somewhat from the patterns of earlier noves (potential spoiler follows).

But very conveniently, a comet splashes down on Pern. Dragonriders are able to mitigate much of the tragedy thanks to draconic abilities. Now future generations of dragonriders have a uniting purpose that will be as compelling as thread...watching the skies for meteors or comets and using draconic abilites to deflect them. Although the story is suspenseful and well enough plotted, this is a bit too pat for me (comets are few and far between and if dragonriders grew indolent and the holders forgetful during long intervals, then surely the erratic and even longer intervals between comet or meteor srikes would cause interest in these projects to lose steam quickly). I suppose it does not forsestall the possibility of the issues mentioned above still being raised in a future novel.

The most interesting aspect of this book was the development of F'lessan's character at last. Despite being the biological son of Lessa and F'lar (though not raised by them), he was always a minor character in earlier novels (though the subject of one short story). He was likeable but a bit "feckless". In this story he grows up, finds love and suffers (though how even 2 large bioengineered tigers could seriously injure a dragon the size of a L10-11 jet and his rider is a bit of a puzzler). Tai is a nice introduction as she is an interesting character. At last, young women are being allowed to impress the green dragons again (it was never explained fully why homosexual or effeminite men can impress greens (and presumably the blues and browns who often fly them) and are available in such large numbers on Pern but homosexual or emmasculate women never end up with blues or browns, even as an occasional accident). Green dragons, somewhat looked down upon in previous books, turn out to have interesting abilities after all.

Recent McCaffrey dragonrider novels are collaborations with (or written by) her son Todd and focus on the time around the second pass. The skies of Pern had a too-convenient comet and left the dragonriders with a purpose, but it ended kind of abruptly and left enough questions about the future of Pern that I find myself hoping that maybe there will be at least one more novel set in the 9th pass (and possibly the time afterwards).