Beyond Reality discussion

We got a little distracted in the November what are you reading thread so I thought I'd move the Pern discussion over here!

You are making me want to reread these books, and I have too many unread books to want to spend that much time rereading, but we’ll see.

I love Pern. What's not to love about dragons and fire lizards? And the Harper Hall appeals to the musician and archivist in me. This series is exactly why I think the term "speculative fiction" is more appropriate (even if it is kind of clunky).

Another book similarly on the edge between SciF and Fantasy is Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre.

There seems to be a lot of energy here, perhaps we should nominate a Pern book in the next round.

We could read Pern, when we are finished The Expanse.

Kathi wrote: "You are making me want to reread these books, and I have too many unread books to want to spend that much time rereading, but we’ll see."

Exactly as I do and I feel I'm running out of time. Still I want to re-read old favorites.

Chris wrote: "I love Pern. What's not to love about dragons and fire lizards? And the Harper Hall appeals to the musician and archivist in me. This series is exactly why I think the term "speculative fiction" is..."

I remember heated discussions about whether Pern is Fantasy or Sci-Fi. Each side had advocates who knew they were right. And then Anne Mccaffrey came out and said they were Sci-Fi. Which did not really clairy the discussions.

I decided for myself that the Pern novels started out as epic fantasy and became Sci-Fi after the amazing discoveries on the southern continent which helped explain the earlier books. 'Speculative fiction' certainly describes the several series.

Even though they are in the gray zone between the 2 genres, they feel more like fantasy to me.

If my memory is correct, at the start of the first book there is some text that actually explains that this is a planet inhabited by colonists from earth and similar. I'll have to see if I can dig out my copy from whatever black hold it currently occupies.

It is Science Fiction and was from day 1. Its just a society who went through a period of various disasters and a bit of dark ages and have lost a lot of the knowledge and tech they once had. Which is certainly not helped by the fact that metals are much more rare on Pern than they are Earth.

These books were so formative to me as a young reader. I used to re-read then every year around this time....I’d read some again I think.

But I didn’t like the ones with her son very much - anyone else?

In my mind, the Pern books were always a bit more fantasy than SF, but yes, I understood the people of Pern came from elsewhere and then, the tech discoveries confirmed the SF angle. But the feel of the books, at least the first several that I read, was fantasy. I started with Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums, which, in the overall chronology of the series, take place quite late.

I started with the Harper Hall trilogy as well, and it made more sense once I went back and read the original Dragonriders trilogy. Jaxom and Ruth are favorite characters of mine :)

I just re-read Dragonsdawn and now I'm feeling like I need to go back and read some of the others when I'm done with Good Omens. I really love All the Weyrs of Pern!

I haven't read the more recent books - should I?

Shel wrote: "I started with the Harper Hall trilogy as well, and it made more sense once I went back and read the original Dragonriders trilogy. Jaxom and Ruth are favorite characters of mine :)..."

I liked Jaxom and Ruth as well. I read them as they were published by the SFBC which started with the original Dragonriders trilogy and then the Harperhall series IIRC. I also agree that the ones with her son are less interesting.