The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

Anne McCaffrey

1993 • 336 pages

Ratings22

Average rating3.6

Let the queen of dragons herself take you back to the earliest days of Pernese history as Anne McCaffrey brings to life events that shaped one of the most popular worlds in all of science fiction, in this first-ever Pern short-story collection.

Generally the stories are about the relocation and reorganization of the southern colony in response to the "First Pass" of the "Red Star"—an erratic planet that periodically brings a biological menace, in the form of falling thread. The twelfth Dragonriders of Pern book, First Fall shares its early setting only with one previously published book in the series, Dragonsdawn (1988). MacCaffrey places Dragonsdawn and First Fall in a perspective of the ancient history of Pern.

Genres

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Series

21 primary books28 released books

#11.5 in Pern

Pern is a 28-book series with 21 released primary works first released in 1968 with contributions by Anne McCaffrey, Karen Wynn Fonstad, and Todd McCaffrey.

#0.1

The Ascent Of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard Science Fiction

Series

24 primary books40 released books

#2 in Pern (Chronological Order)

Pern (Chronological Order) is a 40-book series with 40 released primary works first released in 1967 with contributions by Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey, and Karen Wynn Fonstad.

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Kent archie

I clearly haven't read enough Pern books. I am very familiar with the first 3-4 of the main books
as well as the Dragon Singer books.
But I had trouble understanding the time line in this book.
There were only a few things that I newly learned that I cared about.
A couple of the stories just seemed like things that happened, like the establishment of new holds and weyrs, but I didn't see how they were significant in the history of the colony.
I have several Pern books piled up around here that I haven't read, maybe I should get started on them.

July 17, 2019

Kat

The history of Pern was pretty thoroughly sketched out in the original books; honestly I don't think there's enough to say about it to make it much of a story. The (sadly) usual dose of weird sexism and kind of not-exactly-consensual sex made me grit my teeth through some parts.

October 1, 2014