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Anne McCaffrey - Dragon Riders of Pern Series

Meadow337

Former Moderator
In chronological order:

Before Landing

The planet Rukbat 3 was surveyed about 200 years before settlement.

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (1993 collection)
"The Survey: P.E.R.N."

First Pass
These stories are set just before and during the First Pass, from landing on Pern until about fifty years after landing (0 to 50 AL).

Dragonsdawn (1988)
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (1993 collection)
"The Dolphins' Bell"
"The Ford of Red Hanrahan"
"The Second Weyr"
"Rescue Run"

First Interval
Just after the First Pass, 58 years after landing.

Dragonsblood (2005, by Todd McCaffrey) – set partly in 58 AL, primarily in 508 AL; see Third Pass

Second Pass
Just before and during the Second Pass, about 250 years after landing.

Red Star Rising (1996) (called Dragonseye for US release)

Third Pass
Just before and during the Third Pass, about 500 years after landing.

Dragon's Kin (2004, Anne & Todd McCaffrey)
Dragon's Fire (2006, Anne & Todd McCaffrey) – part one during Dragon's Kin
Dragon Harper (2007, Anne & Todd McCaffrey)
Dragonheart (2008, Todd McCaffrey) – frame during Dragonsblood, mainly in its past
Dragonsblood (2005, Todd McCaffrey) – most events; see also First Interval
Dragongirl (2010, Todd McCaffrey)
Dragon's Time (2011, Anne & Todd McCaffrey)
Sky Dragons (2012, Anne & Todd McCaffrey)

Sixth Pass
Late in the Sixth Pass, about 1550 years after landing.

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983)
Nerilka's Story (1986) – coincident with Moreta
"Beyond Between" – short story in Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy (2003)

Ninth Pass
Just before and during the Ninth Pass, about 2500 years after landing.

The Masterharper of Pern (1998) – set 55 years before the Pass until the first part of Dragonflight
"Runner of Pern" (1998) – novella later collected in A Gift of Dragons
Dragonflight (1968) – first novel written, a fix-up of two previously published stories
"The Smallest Dragonboy" (1973) – short story later collected in A Gift of Dragons
Dragonquest (1970)
Dragonsong (1976) – during Dragonquest, closing almost simultaneously
Dragonsinger (1977) – during seven days following Dragonsong
Dragondrums (1979) – closing before the end of The White Dragon
The White Dragon (1978) – incorporating the short "A Time When" (1975)
"The Impression" (1989) – short story by Jody Lynn Nye and Anne McCaffrey in The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern
"The Girl Who Heard Dragons" (1986) – novella later collected in A Gift of Dragons – early during Renegades of Pern
Renegades of Pern (1989)
All the Weyrs of Pern (1991)
The Dolphins of Pern (1994) – during and immediately after All the Weyrs of Pern
The Skies of Pern (2001)

After the Fall is Over (in progress 2011) – set after the Ninth Pass in "New Era Pern"

I have not read all the books in the series but certainly most of them. If you like books that blur the boundary between sci-fi and fantasy - they are survivors of a exploratory mission to find new habitable worlds whose ship went off course and crashed who have created a new pre-technological society (some of the books deal with how the first survivors set up the society to survive the end of the technology that they brought with them) in a very hostile environment - these are brilliant. Highly recommended.
 
I thoroughly enjoy them. I have most of them in my collection. I just need to sit down and read them in order, because I have read them 1 here and 1 there in totally random order which isn't the best way to fully appreciate a series.
 
I was reading voraciously by then, I was 8 years old. I still have that first set of McCaffreys, they are unreadable now as they are falling apart. I finally replaced them all with hardcover and reread them frequently.
 
its very sad when that happens to a much loved set of childhood books. Actually I think there might be a thread about those childhood treasures.
 
I find myself a little fussy about the series. Some of the books I like better than others. Not because they aren't as well written but because they just almost seem like another series contained with the same universe.

The books set in the First Pass are much more 'hard' science fiction and I like them for that, but they don't feel quite the same as some of the other books which feel far more like a true fantasy. Master Harper of Pern for example as one that reads far more like a Fantasy novel than hard science fiction.
 
The stories were always Fantasy, until I read "The Survey: P.E.R.N." I was excited to see they were indeed science fiction and I enjoyed the stories much more. But then, I love stories of human survival after a disaster takes them back to the basics and how they cope. And the story behind the creation of the Dragons from indigenous fire lizards made it more fun for me.
 
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