When I first started contemplating this post a week or two ago I was nigh on angsting over it. As I write this tonight I’m wondering why I was making such a fuss.
Ordinarily I am a steadfast advocate of reading series in publication order rather than series-chronological order (e.g. The Magician’s Nephew is the SIXTH volume of the Chronicles of Narnia, NOT the first. It says so right on the cover of my copy!). Even if a prequel shows up at some point both the reader and the author are heavily influenced by all the information conveyed by the series up to that point. In a prequel a writer often doesn’t make the same effort to describe the setting or politics or magic or technology, etc. of their world from scratch because so much of that effort has already been spent in the books already published. Asking a neophyte to begin with a later novel, even if a prequel, risks confusing and discouraging that reader because they won’t have the same fluency in the series that a veteran reader would. I won’t say that this can’t be handled properly by a skilled writer but it is certainly a risk. In the same way a skilled writer should avoid writing a prequel with the neophyte as their sole anticipated audience because all the necessary scene setting and exposition that a neophyte frankly needs risks reading like a “Remedial [Series] for Dummies” to the veterans. Although, again, this unfortunate outcome can be averted by a skilled author.
Happily, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books fit together perfectly in publication order. It seems my angst was the result of misremembering that publication order before I started looking into it closely.
However! If I were to recommend an optimal order in which to read these marvelous books . . . Wait. What’s this “if” business? I AM recommending an optimal order! Ahem. I think it’s best to read this series in publication order but with TWO real exceptions and an option for the Harper Hall trilogy. This is because to my way of thinking there is the Main Sequence, the Harper Hall trilogy, and then everything else (which I’ll just call Ancillary here). So here we go! (I’ll update the links to the proper re-read posts as I continue this little project)
- Dragonflight (1968)
- Dragonquest (1971)
- OPTIONAL: Harper Halltrilogy -
- Dragonsong (1976)
- Dragonsinger (1977)
- Dragondrums (1979)
- The White Dragon (1978)
- The Renegades of Pern (1989)
- Exception (minor): Dragonsdawn (1988)
- All the Weyrs of Pern (1991)
Those are the books of the Main Sequence and the Harper Hall trilogy. Dragonsdawn is the odd duck in the list for two reasons, the more trivial reason being that it was published in the year before Renegades yet I think it fits better when read immediately after. More importantly, Dragonsdawn is a prequel. It is, in fact, the story of the very first humans to colonize the planet some twenty-five hundred years earlier in the timeline. It fits best between Renegades and All the Weyrs because Renegades ends with the discovery of the Landing site and the uncovering of a still-functional AI computer system. On the final page of Renegades the AI begins to recount the colonists’ early history to its awestruck audience . . . And finishes that retelling in the opening pages of All the Weyrs. Dragonsdawn is that story. When I read in this order it’s like watching a grand cinematic flashback before coming back to end the series with the bang that is All the Weyrs.
The Harper Hall trilogy was written and even takes place between the events of Dragonquest and The White Dragon and so can be read in this position. The reason I read these later is because to me they are their own self contained story. They are also explicitly Young Adult books written especially for McCaffrey’s teenage readership. I’d argue that a neophyte can also comfortably wait to read these after the Main Sequence with the only difficulty being the otherwise unexplained appearance of Menolly and Piemur (the protagonists of the trilogy) as Jaxom’s close friends in The White Dragon. I’ve even seen (and can almost agree with) the trilogy recommended as an alternate entry point for the series as a whole. The reason I say “almost” is because Dragonsinger comprehensively spoils the big climax of Dragonquest (F’nor and Canth’s jump to and from the Red Star). I think Dragonsinger is a brilliant reaction to that event from Menolly’s point of view but can take away from the impact if it’s the first version a reader encounters. Menolly only experiences that event at second or third hand, F’nor and Canth are the primary actors there and their story is told in Dragonquest.
Enough talk, on to the Ancillary books! First is the other exception to publication order:
- Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983)
- Nerilka’s Story (1986)
These two books take place in the Main Sequence’s past and tell the story of how the people of Pern had to come together to overcome a plague that was running rampant through Hold, Hall, and Weyr in the midst of a Pass of the Red Star. These events are referenced in the Main Sequence as the “Ballad of Moreta’s Ride” but are never fully described. My memory of these two is almost completely gone at this point because I didn’t revisit them near as often as the others.
And all the others:
- The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (1993) – a collection of short stories that take place in the years immediately after Dragonsdawn
- The Dolphins of Pern (1994)
- The Skies of Pern (2001)
There are at least a few others, including the books McCaffrey co-wrote with her son Todd, but they won’t be part of this re-read since I never got around to them in the first place.
I’ve also got two more books that I’m holding back as a surprise because they’re not Pern novels but they are two of my prized possessions. But you’re just going to have to wait for those!
