The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

This IS a science fantasy story. As such, not everyone will enjoy it. However, those that do like this genre of fictional story-telling will like this series of short stories. Lovers of the Pern series will be very pleased to have these side stories "explained".

I bought this book in kindle version and got much more than I expected. Not just the two parts of the story that I needed, but two other short stories to fill out the storyline. Anne McCaffrey has out-done herself once again.

The title is misleading! For Pern readers, it is a disappointment, as there is NO mention of the First Fall in any of the four short stories in this book. Other reviewers can tell you more info about the stories. As a reader of many of the Pern books, I found this one to be lacking. The Dolphin story is tedious. Do not chose this as your first entry into McCaffrey's writings.

My ratings reflect the number of stars I have chosen, Having to write a review in order to post this rating is bothersome and unnecessary. Now it seems it's required to even add a Headline, totally unacceptable.

Spent ~$10 extra on the "School & Library" binding, thinking I would get a durable hardback. Instead, what I got was a paperback edition glued into a cardboard cover.

Save your money and go for the paperback, or search used book sellers for a real hardcover edition.

Another fantastic book. This book contains several stories. It begins with the Survey team that discovers the planet, Pern. They mark this planet as habitable. It goes through what they discover on Pern and that it is much like the older Earth from their histories.

Then the story moves into the landing party and how they begin to move onto their new planet. It delves into the first Thread as it falls onto them killing many and destroying so much. You learn more about the dragonets and how they are used to create the Dragons that will protect them all from Thread. Then there is the active volcanoes which require the settlement to evacuate their current location in search of new areas of Pern to populate.

You learn of the first Hold that is created. Then as people settle into their lives, they want to yearn to spread out so that they are not as contained and crowded. You glimpse into the history of the new Holds that are created and how and who took the reins to go out and create these.

You get to witness the very first hatching of dragons and impressions. As they grow and get stronger they seem to be useless; not what they were created for. Then there emerges a leader who teaches them and makes them strong. He teaches them to fight as a unit. They learn to fly and fight thread and become useful. They become what they were created to be, The Dragonriders of Pern.

The stories are exciting. You are seeing the history of Pern and how it began and how it transformed into what you read later. Again, I would not recommend reading in the chronological order that I am reading these books in if you have never read the Pern series. I am really glad I am reading it like this after having read the series several times prior. I am enjoying these early histories more than I did when I read in the suggested order. However, as a new reader of Pern, reading in the suggested order is highly recommended.

This is such a fantastic world. It spawned my absolute love of dragons so long ago. I would highly recommend this series to any dragon and fantasy lover.

I have more Dragonriders of Pern universe books than any other, except Star Wars (and that's with multiple authors). But they are almost exclusively full-length novels. My review for Dragonsdawn extols all the virtues of Pern's origin story. These are just a little more padding on that start, but not much meat.

After this recent re-read, I discovered that Jim Tillek and Red Hanrahan's stories were the most interesting. The EEC survey team was eh and the return to Pern story was just bizarre. Seeing a mature Sorka and Sean leading the Weyr was fun, but I'd rather have a full-length dragon-filled novel than just a peek into their lives.

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall is actually a collection of 5 short stories that take place around the time of Dragonsdawn. They are:
The Survey: P.E.R.N - This is the shortest story of the collection and it deals with the original surveyors who were mapping that part of the galaxy and recommended Pern for colonization. The reader is offered tantalizing glimpses of a bigger story behind the tension of the survey crew, but, at only 18 pages, this story doesn't allow a lot of time for any detail.
The Dolphin's Bell - This story takes place concurrently with the end of Dragonsdawn, but from the perspective of the dolphins and their caretakers. It was interesting to see the story from a different perspective and to experience what the colonists had to go through as they braved the treacherous ocean voyage to the northern continent. The story centers around Jim Tillek (of the later Tillek Hold), his love of the sea and his growing love for a courageous young woman named Theo.
The Ford of Red Hanrahan - After the colonists had settled in the Northern Continent at Fort Hold, there was plenty of room for their greatly diminished numbers in the cavernous space. However, after some time, space is getting tight and there are those who are ready to venture forth and create new holds. One of them is Red Hanrahan, whom readers will recognize from Dragonsdawn (as a character and as Sorka's father). He journeys quite a distance from Fort Hold and founds what will become known as the famous Ruatha Hold. This story was quite interesting because it addressed the history of the plague that took so many lives in Moreta's time and how the colonists started fostering their children out to live with other families.
The Second Weyr - Sean and Sorka have done a wonderful job training all of the other dragonriders and are the best weyrleaders that any dragonrider could hope for, but Fort Weyr just doesn't have enough space for them all! Torene, with her maturing queen, has dreams of settling a new weyr and has even found the perfect location, but is afraid to say anything to Sean. When Sean makes the surprise announcement that the dragonriders will be expanding into not just one weyr - but three! Torene is thrilled. She dreams of becoming new weyrwoman at one of the weyrs and waits in eager anticipation to see who will fly her queen in her first mating flight, for they will become the new leaders of the justly named Benden Weyr after their beloved leader who passed on. I have to say that this was my favorite story of the bunch, I just love to read about the dragonriders!
Rescue Run - When Lieutenant Ross Benden's ship comes upon a distress signal around the Rukbat system, he cannot help but think of his uncle, who set off 50 years previously to colonize a planet there. He cannot believe that his uncle, hero of so many battles, would have panicked and set off a signal for help, not 7 years after starting colonization. Still, he is duty bound to explore the area and see if there are any survivors. The biologist on board is fascinated by the organisms that seem to come from the Oort cloud circling so close to the planet. A small team leaves the ship to take a shuttle down to Pern and are surprised to encounter a small band of survivors: Stev Kimmer (whom readers will recognize from Dragonsdawn as being one of Avril's group) and Kenjo & Ito Fusaiyuki's (whom readers will also recognize as being the pilot killed by Avril to steal the plane) children. They insist that there are no other survivors and, though Benden does a sweep of the area, he has no other choice but to believe that his uncle is gone, killed in the Thread attack and leave with the few survivors that remain. This story was interesting because it explains why no one else has ever gone to Pern and why that area of space is simply avoided, as I always thought that someone must come to see the colony after so many hundreds of years.
I am not a big fan of short stories, as a rule, but I enjoyed this book. The stories are typically about 60 pages, except for the first one about the exploration team, which is only about 15. They are all well written and the characters are very interesting - almost too interesting for a short story because I wanted to know more about them! For anyone who has enjoyed the Pern series, I think that they will love the insights this book gives them into the history of Pern and its original colonists. Highly recommended for fans of science fiction & fantasy!

I don't know where the store.com gets its "Synopsis" information, but this set is NOT "Read by Marina Sirtis"...it is read by Meredith MacRae (at least the set I listened to by Dove Audio produced in 1993). And therein lies the rub: I would like to hear how Marina Sirtis would read this set of stories...I've never heard her read audio books. My problem is I've been listening to Dick Hill read _Renegades of Pern_ and _Dragonsdawn_ and I am spoiled. His pacing is impressive, his voices and inflections and dialects are exceptional (I even find Hill's Robinton as endearing as the one I heard in my head when I first discovered the Masterharper in _Dragonflight_). He brings characters to life, and his narration is lively and varied and moves the story along briskly. By comparison, Meredith McRae is flat; she makes no attempt to vary her voice for different characters, she seldom changes her pace and usually seems to read in 3-word phrases. She might be a good interviewer (as the jacket indicates), but her reading is better suited to non-fiction or children's literature than to a planet and people so full of vitality as P.E.R.N. :-) and the Pernese. Of course, I admit to bias: I think Anne McCaffrey's Pern stories are the best, and these are no exception, and they deserve only the best presentation in whatever form or medium they are made available. I can only express disappointment in Dove's choice of reader for these stories. I hate giving anything of Pern a rating as low as a 5, but that is what I have to give this book as presented on cassette tape by this narrator. The stories themselves are enlightening, but I think the experience of consuming them would be better left to reading than listening to Ms MacRae.

This was a fantastic book! In a nutshell, it tells you everything you didn't hear about yet, like how Pern was discovered, and what happened the eventful day that Landing was evacuated. The stories are all incredible, but my personal favorite is the story about the discovery of Pern. In it, we discover what PERN stands for, how fire lizards came to be known about, and how the Oort cloud was found and theorized about. I also liked the story about the Evacuation of Landing, an important event that set up the historical colonization of the Northern Continent. The dolphins evacuate everyone by pulling them along in boats. It's really a good story! I recommend it to anyone who likes Science Fiction, anyone who likes anthologies, or anyone who likes to read.

Although "The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall" did fill in some "gaps" in the history of Pern, not all the stories were that exciting. "Rescue Run" in particular dragged, and all the stories did not have that much happen in them. Be prepared, that each story is basically not related to any of the other stories in the book. I think "The Second Weyr" was the best story in there, especially b/c her other books had mentioned the famous Weyrwoman Torene, and here is finally the story about her (though much shorter than the justice she did to Moreta and even, for some reason, Nerilka!). Overall, a good book (but not Ms. McCaffrey's best) if you're a complete Pern series reader.

I read this on the heels of DragonsDawn (very good). I had a thirst for more tales about the settler characters and this book does include stories about what happened to Sean, Sorka, and others introduced in DragonsDawn. But as a collection of short stories the book skips across vast periods of time and does not delve deeply into each segment. The story of the survey of Pern was mildly interesting but really could have been a single paragraph explaining that Pern is an acronym based on the survey findings. The story about the Dolphins did not engage me and I probably won't read Dolphins of Pern. The stories do tie up some loose ends within the greater Pern narrative, such as what happened to the homing beacon set off in DragonsDawn - which was entertaining but leads to something of a dead end storywise. All in all, entertaining but you won't miss too much if you skip this book.

No one should start reading the Pern stories with this book. It is a "foundation laying" book that was written after the Pern trilogy, "The Dragonriders of Pern". It's a collection of stories to explain more of the history of pern. I think Anne McCaffrey did about as well as possible with this premise, but this book is really just for readers who are dedicated to the Pern series. As such, it's not bad. The original trilogy is vastly more interesting.

I liked the historical perspective of this book. The author did a wonderful job of setting the stage for the Dragonrider series with the collection of stories in this novel. I loved her rich use of English language (and her masterful development of the infant Pernese language) as well as the fact that there is much descriptive terminology setting up the action and describing the characters personalities and motivation. After having read so much about Paul Bendon & all the other ancients, it was great to get some of my unanswered questions about them cleared up. I particularly liked the story about the intelligent dolphins who helped with the evacuation and the story about evil Drake,who held the murdered Japanese pilot's wife captive for years after the evacuation and his interaction with the spaceship pilot (a great grand-son of Paul Bendon, coincidentally) who rescued Drake & his captives. The book is a good read, but you should read the other books first, in the order they were written to get the right perspective to enjoy this collection.

Anyone who has opened an Anne McCaffrey book knows what I am saying. She is the writers version of chips - you can't read just one. This is a tale at the begininng of a saga that goes through three books. In this book you meet all the main characters and become very invested in the problem they have. It is wonderful for any age and anyone with a love of dragons.

Although "The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall" did fill in some "gaps" in the history of Pern, not all the stories were that exciting. "Rescue Run" in particular dragged, and all the stories did not have that much happen in them. Be prepared, that each story is basically not related to any of the other stories in the book. I think "The Second Weyr" was the best story in there, especially b/c her other books had mentioned the famous Weyrwoman Torene, and here is finally the story about her (though much shorter than the justice she did to Moreta and even, for some reason, Nerilka!). Overall, a good book (but not Ms. McCaffrey's best) if you're a complete Pern series reader.

I read this on the heels of DragonsDawn (very good). I had a thirst for more tales about the settler characters and this book does include stories about what happened to Sean, Sorka, and others introduced in DragonsDawn. But as a collection of short stories the book skips across vast periods of time and does not delve deeply into each segment. The story of the survey of Pern was mildly interesting but really could have been a single paragraph explaining that Pern is an acronym based on the survey findings. The story about the Dolphins did not engage me and I probably won't read Dolphins of Pern. The stories do tie up some loose ends within the greater Pern narrative, such as what happened to the homing beacon set off in DragonsDawn - which was entertaining but leads to something of a dead end storywise. All in all, entertaining but you won't miss too much if you skip this book.

No one should start reading the Pern stories with this book. It is a "foundation laying" book that was written after the Pern trilogy, "The Dragonriders of Pern". It's a collection of stories to explain more of the history of pern. I think Anne McCaffrey did about as well as possible with this premise, but this book is really just for readers who are dedicated to the Pern series. As such, it's not bad. The original trilogy is vastly more interesting.

I liked the historical perspective of this book. The author did a wonderful job of setting the stage for the Dragonrider series with the collection of stories in this novel. I loved her rich use of English language (and her masterful development of the infant Pernese language) as well as the fact that there is much descriptive terminology setting up the action and describing the characters personalities and motivation. After having read so much about Paul Bendon & all the other ancients, it was great to get some of my unanswered questions about them cleared up. I particularly liked the story about the intelligent dolphins who helped with the evacuation and the story about evil Drake,who held the murdered Japanese pilot's wife captive for years after the evacuation and his interaction with the spaceship pilot (a great grand-son of Paul Bendon, coincidentally) who rescued Drake & his captives. The book is a good read, but you should read the other books first, in the order they were written to get the right perspective to enjoy this collection.

Anyone who has opened an Anne McCaffrey book knows what I am saying. She is the writers version of chips - you can't read just one. This is a tale at the begininng of a saga that goes through three books. In this book you meet all the main characters and become very invested in the problem they have. It is wonderful for any age and anyone with a love of dragons.

Anne McCaffrey is the quintessential writer of fantasy books pertaining to dragons. These books are always wonderful, well written, and perfectly characterized. All of her series are great but the ones that take place on Pern are the best of all.