The world Anne McCaffrey built is nice, but her view on women (the most positive example is of an indipendent resourceful woman who also happens to be very *manipulative* and revengeful), their subservient role to males, how men always know best, bug the hell out of me. I don't know if that's because she wrote those books in the late 60s and 70s or cos her POV is kind of old-fashioned regarless of the time she grew up in, but whatever the reason, I cringed quite a lot, especially while reading D More...

Wow, this takes me back. Loved this book when I read it. Bought it knowing nothing about it, as part of my membership bundle in The Science Fiction Book Club. Ahh, the Days of Yore. Looking back, at the beginning the characters seem stiff and cliche, but it loosens up as it goes along. The sensibilities of a different generation are seen in the attitudes and personalities of the characters, which seem a bit archaic by modern thinking. The start of a epic series of books well worth reading.

OK, st More...

This book took me from earth to 3000 years in the future where some humans escaped earth's planetary warfare to a planet called Pern. Pern is a planet scientifically much like our own except for the erratic red planet that passes by every few hundred years which thrusts a silvery carbon eating menace called thread. The settlers befriend creatures called firelizards which breathe fire on the thread destroying it before it destroys every living thing living on Pern. Through genetic modification la More...

When going through a list of all the classic fantasy/science-fiction novels, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series never gets forgotten. And while I can see in a sense why McCaffrey's works are included on the list of modern "musts," I myself would not be the first to delve out a recommendation.

I will admit it has been some time since I have read any of Anne McCaffrey's books, whether it is in this original trilogy, or any of her other Pern novels. Nonetheless, I feel like I remember this More...

Amazon.com Review

Anne McCaffrey's Pern is one of the most memorable worlds in science fiction and fantasy. Humans and their flying dragon companions live in fear of thread, a caustic, deadly material that falls sporadically from space. But when the thread doesn't fall for a long time, people become complacent, forgetting that it is the brave dragonriders who can save them from the periodic threat. But when the thread falls, human and dragon heroes must fight the scourge. This edition encompass

More...

Pern is a fascinating world that features a delightfully novel mixture of science fiction and fantasy. Reading these novels I really feel like I've been given a window into another world, one that has been diligently and thoroughly considered.

The first novel features a somewhat generic narrative arc as we follow the rise of our heroine from downtrodden youth to saviour of the land. I did appreciate the female lead, and I felt that this was a relatively strong instance of this kind of story, plea More...

This book was a very huge disappointment. This series is what led me to detest Anne McCafrey. The dialogue was poor and contrived, the diction was everywhere, ornate one second, and layman's the next second. Throughout all three books, I did read them all sadly, there was no growth whatsoever. The people didn't change, no one got better. Even the sentient "dragons" were stagnant from birth in action and character. There was little plot besides the "worms" eating crops, and the discovery of a pla More...

The three-volumes-on-one Dragonriders of Pern is hard to grade. For someone without a special place in their heart for fantasy novels, I’d rate it mediocre. For someone who enjoys a nice, fluffy read, a daydream come to elaborate life, it can be quite enjoyable. I found myself on the edge of dropping it a number of times but the book engaged my highly developed sense of the daydream enough that I read it through, enjoying a fast, fun read.

That’s not to say the volumes are not without many flaws. More...

The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCafferty
Recently YA fantasy has become quite popular (think Harry Potter, Narnia and Twilight) and this makes me very happy. YA fantasy includes all of the adventure and imagination that makes the genre wonderful without the sexuality (usually) and strangeness that seems to pop up in some adult fantasy. McCafferty is one of the most prolific and well known of the fantasy genre so I was very disappointed when Dragonriders did not meet my expectations. Some of th More...

Awhile back I picked up a used copy of The Dragonriders of Pern, which encompasses the first three novels in the series by Anne McCaffrey. I looked up the original publication date, and the first came out in 1968, so these have been around a long time and the reviews on Amazon are mostly glowing.

Looking at it from a 1968 point of view (the same year as the first book in Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy I might add), it is an original plot with interesting premises - really a mix of science fiction and More...

Can't believe it took me so long to read this book!!!
Majorly distracted is my only defense. I really enjoyed it. It has been so long since I read it --- maybe 30 years --- that this was like reading the series for the first time. I didn't remember anything of The White Dragon at all. It could be that I was so busy with college work that it did not make that great an impression on me.
But for whatever reason, it is a great feeling to read an old book and have it seem completely new again!

I actually enjoyed reading the beginning of this trilogy and those parts which were more concerned with the planet, its colonization and its periodic interplanetary crises. As it when on, however, it became increasingly a fantasy, rather than a science, fiction. Not only was it just a fantasy, but it was a rather typical one, employing over-used dragon themes and idealized mediaeval social structures. By the completion of page 750, I was thoroughly bored.

Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels were among the books that I grabbed off of my sister’s bookshelf to read when I was in junior high. Over the past years, I’ve gone back and re-read many of my sister's old books – and it’s shocking how many of them haven’t stood the test of time. For the most part, that doesn’t bother me.

But I loved Pern! If these novels hadn’t stood up, I was going to be very disappointed.

So I’m happy to report that I still love them (the original trilogy, at least) even over a deca More...

Here in one volume are the first two novels--and in my opinion the best three--of McCaffrey's Pern series: Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon. They often wind up on best fantasy lists, though technically they're science fiction about a lost colony of Earth. The dragons were bred from native dragonettes and bonded to human riders who imprint them at hatching. They were created and maintained to fight an inimical spore that comes from space. The setting has the feel of medieval or Rena More...

Rated 'M' for 'Meh.'

Never really took too well to this series...Seems to have come out around that time when genre fic writers started saying, "Hey, I could make even more (tiny little, dwindling) royalties by turning every idea I have into a multi-book series.

Okay, a bit cynical, but still. I wouldn't call this craft writing...It's better than a lot of the stuff that writers are pumping out by the truckload now; most of it written on a 5-6th grade reading level.

I grimace every time I see one of More...

Addictive series, and one of the few where I think I've read every single book related to the world. The writing's light and engaging, the world-building doesn't overwhelm the storytelling, and -- well, telepathy and dragons. No wonder it hooks teenagers.

There's a little bit of politics, a little bit of looming doom, and a lot of personal discovery in these three books. And technically I guess romance, which is why I tagged this review like I did... Maybe romance. I don't know, you sort of have More...

Okay so I have been meaning to read Anne McCaffery for a while because she is a classic fantasy author. Unfortunately she did not live up to my expectations. The world she builds around her characters is rich and inviting with a deep history that the characters slowly uncover. Her version of dragons and thier relationships with humans is creative and the best I have read probably but this is where it all stops.

She writes her plotline like she was making it up as she went along. foreshadowing hap More...

This is comfort reading for me . . . needed something known and loved so I started reading the Dragonriders of Pern series again. Got it on my nook.

Dragonflight Volume 1 : Just re-read this book . . . Anne McCaffrey was my favorite author when I was a teenager. I still love the world of Pern. Lessa, the main character, is one of my favorite characters from the series. I totally enjoyed reentering the series. October 25, 2011

Dragonquest Volume 2: Love the story of F'nor and Brekke . . . Brekke lo More...

This had been on my list to read for sometime, so when the opportunity to check it out from the library was upon me, I took it.

It took me less than 2 weeks of reading the three books. I really enjoyed the setting of the place of Pern, and the intial characters of the book, though a bit stereotypical, had interesting relationships. The best part of the 1st book was problems, and the imaginative way the author came up with solutions to for the characters to solve the problems. The 2nd book was an More...

Reading any of the books Anne McCaffrey has written about Pern is a wonderful experience. The pacing is great. She writes so that the descriptions flow with the story so that as you read it's like you're seeing the story unfold in a mind's eye movie. Her use of humor and tragedy combine to make you believe the characters are real people. While reading The Dragonriders of Pern, I laughed and cried. The interactions between F'lar and Lessa were quite entertaining. Every dragon's death brought home More...

This is an absolutely wonderful series of books. If you enjoy Fantasy, don't miss this one!!!

From Widipedia:
There are 22 Dragonriders of Pern novels and two collections of short stories through June 2011. Anne McCaffrey once requested reading the works in the order they were written.[citation needed] That differs greatly from Pern historical order, for several reasons. The McCaffreys have published stories set in several different periods of Pern's history from initial exploration to more than More...

Anne McCaffrey was one of the ground-breakers in Sci-fi/Fantasy, the first woman to win a Hugo and Nebula awards. I read the Dragonriders series when it first came out. It was one of the first books to feature a heroine who wasn't always likable, but strong and determined. The story very much reflected the time in which it was written, when women were still trying to gain even a modicum of equal rights within society.
Even beyond that, it is still a great series of novels about the Dragonriders o More...

The Dragonriders of Pern is a collection of the first three books of McCaffrey's Pern series. Her world is AMAZING. I had read these books years ago, and had forgotten how much I loved them until I picked them up again. Her descriptions are so colorful that you feel you can picture the world in its entirety, her action scenes take your breath away - both in how simply they're written (making it easy to follow the action) and in their content. The intimate scenes, while never written graphically, More...

This was a great read! I was intrigued from the very beginning, which started with a very science fiction-like prologue that quickly turned into a more fantasy-type read for the rest of the book (at least in my opinion--I know many people consider this scifi with all the time traveling and star gazing and whatnot, and that's fine with me).

The Dragonriders of Pern starts with Volume I: Dragonflight, which I think was my favorite part of this book because, as a reader, this is where you first get More...

A bit of a change from my typical read...but loaded these on my Kobo from a limited public library selection before heading on vacation - good choice! Didn't realize until now that these books are older than I am, but the stories felt fresh and exciting as I was reading them. Each book follows a separate story arc based on different characters but keeps early characters involved as well. Time travel is also involved, often a plot device that can be hard to keep straight, but luckily is not overu More...

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3...

I picked this up at a yard sale, remembering I liked it as a teenager, with the plan to read and release under BookCrossing. I hoped to read it quickly but it seemed to drag on at the end. There are 3 novels in this collection: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. The first two go together fairly well but the third is really the adult conculsion (ish) to the the Harperhall Triology. New characters appear in it with no explanation of who they ar More...

I really enjoyed the first three books of this series. I was totally caught up in the world of Pern and all of the dragonriders' lives for about 2 weeks. Everything was so exciting and I really fell in love with the characters. Some of my favorites are F'lar, Lessa, F'nor, Brekke, Menolly, Jaxom, Shara, and Master Robinton. I loved the invention angle of it and how the characters all seemed very real even if some of them were dragons. One thing that was a little weird for me was how a boy dragon More...

The setting is amazing. Full of detail, realistic, convincing.

...But that was about it. My feeling was that the characters are different in name only; they all behave and think exactly alike.
The plot, too, felt empty. The plot of the first book was still okay (though simple and not very developed), but books two and three were a sheer drop. I'm not even sure book three even HAD a plot.

Then again, maybe the setting is all people are looking for in McCaffrey's books. If so, I'll repeat that the se More...

I have read this series over and over starting in 6th grade. Then all I could dream about was having a dragon of my own. In college all I could see was how anti-feminist the book was. I just read them again finishing them last week. As an adult, I recognize the difference between their world and our world and see that judging the male/female roles through 21st Century lenses is wrong. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these books and just with my son would read them. If you are looking for something whimsical More...