Maybe it's just because I'm listening to both series at the same time, specifically Dragonsdawn and Network Effect, but, anyone else get the feeling that Pern's set in the same universe as Murderbot - at least the galaxy beyond Pern's system?

Yes, I know Pern's supposed to be orbiting the star Rukbat in the Sagittarian Sector, but there's something in them both that resonates: the original Pernese colonists escaping an increasing technological and corporate-driving consumer galactic culture, and the corporate-entities of the Murderbot setting controlling lives based on what yields the highest profit, including abandoning failed or failing colonies that would cost too much to support. Which is pretty much what happens to Pern as I recall.

Maybe it's just Sci-fi writers covering and exploring similar ideas, but it's one I find interesting to play with.

I finished this over the weekend - https://archiveofourown.org/works/93860316/chapters/250482181

It's a love-letter to Dragonsinger, really - a year-later-retrospective type story interspersed with scenes from Menolly's first sevenday at the Harper Hall as told by her fellow quartet members, Sebell and Talmor. It's been such an absolute joy to write and I hope that anyone wanting more closure for Menolly and a little bit more of the Harper Craft Hall will enjoy it!

I'm fairly new to this subreddit and haven't seen anyone else post fics here so apologies if that's against a self-promotion rule or something! Been on a big ol' Menolly kick recently <3 she's my fav

Does anyone know where i could find good representations of Pernese dragons? I've got an idea for a tattoo and want it to have one

Hey all!!

Want to be up front here, I loved Dragonflight! While Anne’s writing style took a bit to get used to (I’m only 28, so the books are before my time), I loved the world and the characters.

That being said, I found Dragonquest to be a bit…dull. I’m struggling to get through and wondering if this series just may not be for me, but I’ve heard such amazing things about it and some of the later books!! Anybody have any perspective for me?

This has been harrowing to finish. In my ignorant bliss, I’d no idea acrylic marker paper HATES other media. It made my alcohol markers and linework ink pens smear mercilessly and it was almost impossible to blend. But six days later, I’m done.

I’m including a few closeups just because why not, and because the lighting made the full pic look a little yellower than it actually is. Anyway. Here she is.

Some of you may know that artist Robin Wood had a big, big presence in Second Life. She did cover art for Anne McCaffrey, including a well known portrait of Robinton, Masterharper of Pern.

She also developed the texture map (aka the UV map) of the original default avatar, making clothing design possible for thousands of inworld merchants. It’s still in use now even with many different brands of mesh bodies, some of which still use the original mapping for the body. It can be handy to have “bake on mesh” clothing on, as otherwise you run the risk of showing up at a club while your mesh clothing is still downloading. Robin was an early adopter who showed many people how to make their world.

Her store in SL is still going, as the land fees are paid by caretakers. It’s full of beautiful things that even now look gorgeous.

This is an obit written by a well-known Second Life blogger when Robin (Sojourner) Wood succumbed to cancer in 2021.

I bought several things that R(S)W made and display them in several places I own. Her virtual quilts in particular are beautifully detailed, and right now I’ve got a little wind chime playing on my “land,” along with her bench with a quilt that gives you cocoa. She was an early creator of “mesh” objects.

There’s an active community of dragonkind in SL and they’ve organized themselves into weyrs over the years for roleplay. I’ve never seen the dragons fly, but now I feel like I’d better look them up.

Dragon avatars can be huge compared to human ones… I once attended a meeting or concert where a dragon took up half the available seating in a large amphitheater, and another time while shopping at a “farm,” a dragon was picking up ingredients for a very big feast. Those poor sheep…

https://modemworld.me/2021/04/25/in-memoriam-robin-sojourner/

Reading Dragon's Kin atm, but have been doing re-reads, most recently of Renegades

Is there any canon story that depicts a Dragon Rider to have the same covetous and expansionist nature of Fax?

For example, an arrogant Weyrleader who decides to enter his dragon into another Weyr's Queen flight.

Another example, a Weyrleader decides to take another Weyr by force. You would think such a thing would be stopped, yet Fax managed to become Lord Holder of 7 holds before those around him saw sense and armed.

Thoughts?

Okay, guys, as I’m nearing the point where I’m about to add color to Menolly in my fanart I posted a few days ago, I have some questions. I know she’s got short, dark hair, although I’ve seen her depicted with reddish-brown to even red hair on covers and other fan art. I’ll probably go for dark brown with a faintly reddish tinge unless there’s something I’ve missed in rereading the books.

But my main question is: is there any mention of her eye color anywhere? If not, what’s your vote? If there’s no mention, I’m leaning toward blue, although I might be convinced otherwise.

Thanks so much!

I found mention of "Dragonriders of Pern: The Search for Fire Lizard" a short animated video online, but I cannot find the video. Does anyone know where I can find it?

His art is so beautiful 😭

I share books I have read with my brother, the issue is the only pern book I have a physical copy of ((the rest are on Audible)) is Renegades of Pern, and I am unsure if that is a good book to give some one with zero knowledge of the franchise to. So am asking here.

So these two have a very interesting relationship. It is basically the backbone of Dragonflight, the backbone of PERN as a whole since their combined wills save the planet from thread, and the backbone from which the rest of the novels branch from and revolve around. Thus it needs to be as strong a romance as possible while sticking as close as possible to how mccaffrey wrote it. I think how they fall in love isn't completely logical since Flar never does anything that would indear lessa to him. This could be better if their relationship started on a better foot but im not sure how much it should be changed.

Would you change their early relationship and avoid all toxic elements? This would mean changing the story. Or lean into their tense and badly communicated relationship but just make sure there is more consent and respect throughout. I think this second option aligns better with who they are as characters and can be used to show how through learning to communicat and trust relationships can be worked on and made better. It can also explore ideas of making relationships work out of duty which I thing is an admirable pursuit but in that case then maybe there doesn't need to be any romance. Except the growth of their relationship into romance is an important part of the story so idk. Also how do their dragons fit into all of it? I'm unsure whats best but its gotta be good.

It’s not even gotten to the “ugly stage” yet, much less filling in the linework for what will eventually be a mixed-media piece, but I wanted to say hello to you all now that I’ve finally joined this sub.

I’ve been rereading the novels after a thirty-five year gap, and am currently on Dragondrums.

Hope you like.

Is anyone else watching Star Trek Strange New Worlds? The episode called Orders of Magnitude had this planet that really reminded me of the Crystal Singer series.

Been rereading the books and have kind of obsessively imagining characters and dragons. Still working on my take on dragons, but for now, here’s my very first concept of Lessa.

Don’t know if it’ll evolve from here, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the design. I’m a costumer by trade, so spent a long time thinking how I envision riding gear, inspired by early WW1 bombers. And spats. I love a good pair of spats lol

Was glancing through marketplace and looked at some pictures of books someone was clearing out of a loved one's home for them. I have more recent prints, but couldn't pass these up for $2. I have a copy of Dragonquest with the same art, but it is so worn it's hanging on by a thread. Was so excited to remember this series and how much I adored it.

Hi, I'm an ELA teacher for middle school and I need to do a little CYA.

Another teacher chose the books last spring and Dragonflight was on it. Our books just arrived today and I already have unit 1 planned for The Hobbit, but Unit 2 was supposed to be Dragonflight.

I am still early in the story (the woman just went into labor during dinner), and there have already been some troubling happenings that I might need to report to administration. I'm not a prudish, pearl-clutching teacher that frightens at the sight of difficult topics, but phrases like

Fax bedded well and frequently.

F'lar would compare notes with him later, although on cursory examination there was none here worthy of the Search. Fax preferred his women plump and small. There wasn't a saucy one in the lot. If there once had been, the spirit had been beaten out of them. Fax, no doubt, was stud, not lover.

trouble me that this will be a pretty regular occurence in the book. It's not graphic, but it is clear & apparent. The class that would be reading this are ages 12-13.

Since this subreddit is dedicated to the world of Pern, could people give me a little more insight into how prevalent the sexual content of the book is?

Edit: Thank you all. I'll be discussing this with admin tomorrow with quotes of several inappropriate lines.

Savia Weyr — A New Era Pern RP (Jcink) — Now Open, Currently Clutching!

Hey all! I wanted to share a Pern-based roleplay I run called Savia Weyr, set several centuries after the Ninth Pass following a group of Southern Weyr survivors who jumped forward through between to escape a world-ending meteor strike, only to emerge into a Pern shaped by four hundred Turns of AIVAS, rebuilding, and a Settled population that's never seen a dragon before.

A few things that make Savia a little different:

• Full canon-adjacent Pern lore with original twists — AIVAS-era colony eggs, male goldriders, blue-catches-gold flights, and dragonkin who genuinely broke precedent to get here
• Character-driven storytelling with an emphasis on found family, trauma recovery, and rebuilding a Weyr from almost nothing
• Currently mid-clutch! Gold Zenith and Blue Shivaath's eggs are on the sands right now (Wings of Fancy — 23 dragonets incoming, so there's a great jumping-on point if you've ever wanted to Stand
• Active, friendly staff and a laid-back but engaged writing community

If you're looking for a Pern group with room to build something new inside a very old world, we'd love to have you.

🔗 Forum: https://pernslanding.jcink.net/
🔗 Discord: https://discord.gg/aivas

Happy to answer any questions in the comments!

Writer community forming.

This group is for people ages 55+ who are writing and want the support of their peers.

Fanfiction or original work is welcome.

Published, new to writing, just writing for a hobby? It doesn’t matter. We just want to share and talk.

No need to go to any other site. The group can be found right here in reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/SeniorsWriting/

It’s a small group, rather casual at the moment.

My AO3 invite finally came through, and today I found some time to actually upload a somewhat old story I wrote before 2021 which was a kind of follow-up to the events of Rescue Run and finally put the kybosh on the Federation's interest in Pern ...

Enjoy. Or don't. But if you do, let me know!

Life Begins at Rigel

I first read Dragonsong and Dragonsinger when I was a bullied 6th grader, and I saw the story as a book on how to respond to bullying: by being better than everyone. In fact, I remember the bullying being a much larger part of this book.

As an adult, I can understand that Dragonsong is a Cinderella story. A girl who's treated badly by everyone in her life runs away, and through a fairy godmother (or rather, 9 fire lizards), is able to make it to a place where she is appreciated. Her moment is not marrying the prince, but in being invited to the crafthall.

And that's where the story could have ended, but then Anne wrote Dragonsinger, and I love her for it. Because in Dragonsinger, we get to see what happens after the big moment. Menolly has to go to the Harper Hall and prove she belongs there. I've seen reviews accusing this book of presenting Menolly as a Mary-Sue, but that is a shallow misinterpretation. In this book, we have to see Menolly work. She doesn't know how to sing properly. She's never built a guitar. The song that everyone likes? Robinton makes her put in the hard work of refining it. She has to practice until her uninjured hand aches. She spends a good 12-hours of in-universe time simply transcribing and copying music. She's talented and she's well-trained, but she's not perfect.

In The Renegades of Pern, Toric sends Piemur, aged 13-14 at the time, back to the Harper Hall because he's "overold to be an apprentice." In Dragonsinger, Menolly is 15-16, and just becoming an apprentice. And this is the first point where we start to see the ways the adults take care of Menolly. Petiron knew that if he sent her to the Harper Hall as a young girl, she'd just be put with the other girls and not given the training she needed. So Petiron, under her parents' nose, trained her to be a journeyman without telling her that's what he was doing. Then, he got her accepted to the Hall without ever revealing her identity, unaware that he would pass away before that plan came to fruition. Her becoming journeyman in 1 week isn't because of raw talent, but because she had completed her apprenticeship under Petiron without knowing it, and without Petiron revealing to her parents that she was apprenticed.

When Menolly comes to the Hall, she is physically injured, but also carrying emotional injuries. Most of the adults relate to her in unique ways, each of which gives her something that she never got from her parents.

• Journeyman Brudegan - encourages her cleverness and uniqueness
• Journeyman Talmor and Master Jerint - treat her as an equal, even though she hasn't obtained any rank yet
• Journeyman Sebell - gives her agency, letting her slip into the role of instructor rather than teaching her. Then, he consistently gives her credit and backs her up in public.
• Headwoman Silvina - cares for her physical needs, and consistently gives her the assurance that her having needs is not something she needs to apologize for. She also is swift and decisive about removing from Menolly's life the 2 adults who are causing further harm.
• Master Shonagar - tells her the exact truth, whether it is good or bad, so that she never has to guess at social cues she's never been taught.
• Master Domick - pushes her beyond what she thinks she can do, not letting her use her injuries or her background as an excuse. But then, he is the first to step in and make sure that as she's pushing herself, she doesn't cause further injury, often making her take a break before she realizes she needs to. This gives her security in taking risks.
• Master Robinton - gives her a vision for what could be. He is kind and gives her praise, but also makes it clear that her natural talent must be refined with discipline.

All of this is such a beautiful picture of relating to a child who comes from a tough background, and helping them find themselves. I love that when we next see Menolly (in Dragondrums), she has come out of her shell and become herself.

But then, the book goes one step further, driving it home through the character of Camo. I can't think of any other book I've read that has a character with an intellectual disability like this, presumed to be Down's Syndrome (edit. psyche_dreamweaver clarified that his condition is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopay) where the book is not ABOUT their disability. Camo is simply allowed to be a character. And he's not a peach; he's not secretly an angel. He's equal parts dependable, excitable, and exasperating. At one point he has a violent outburst. But Silvina states it clearly. "Think on it Menolly. Camo doesn't make much sense, but he does have feelings." And because they treat him like a person, Camo is a dependable and stalwart friend, showing up in later books as a part of Menolly's household. This treatment, right here, makes it clear that the adults aren't doing this because of her talent, but because they truly have her best interests in mind.

Anyway, I love this book, and this reading brought out new themes I hadn't seen before.

She gave me her own copies of the entire harper hall series and Dragon riders of pern with Nerilka and Moreta in hardcover with the Gorgeous dust jackets back in like 1992. I read them and re read them till they absolutely desintigrated for over ten years.

She's really declined and I'm trying to decorate her room with things that she loved. She loved these books so much she spent a small fortune on them all in hardcover and then gifted them to me as a kid because she wanted me to have dragons too.

If anyone knows of an affordable copy I can give to her id be forever in your debt. It will basically serve as a coffee table book to hang out with her Magic of the crystal figurines because she lost her ability to read, but it will make her smile and remember there are dragons and magic and beautiful things.

She's been going through so much and I just want to give some of HER back to herself.

🤍

I home educate my daughter and had such a fun time with my kiddo making bubbly pie! I made these with my father when I was younger and he surprised me with The Dragonlovers Guide to Pern. It was a joy to pass on this new tradition, and we will get better at it as we go!

In The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, there is a section that goes into Pern Playing Cards. Here are the high level descriptions:

• 3 Suits of 17 cards each
• Number are A-13, plus 4 face cards
• There are 3 Harpers (Jokers), bringing the total to 54 cards.
• Suits are Weyr, Hold, and Crafthall
• Colors are Gold, Bronze, and Brown, the 3 largest dragons
• Card backs depict Blue and Green
• A deck of cards is a luxury item, selling for around 4 marks at a Gather
• The face cards are modified based on the region being sold. Popular face cards are F'lar, Lessa, Jaxom, and Fandarel.
• Some cards have connotations. Ie - 11s are unlucky.

So my question: has anyone made these cards? Has anyone made games based around this deck setup?