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language: English
country: USA
year: 1993
form: short fiction
genre(s): science fiction
series: Dragonriders of Pern
dates read: 12.12.24-17.1.25
Anne McCaffrey’s The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall is one of two collections of Pern short fiction, collecting five stories from the early ’90s, three of which were published separately (“Rescue Run” in 1991 and “The Survey: P.E.R.N.(c)” and “The Dolphins’ Bell” almost contemporaneously with the collection in 1993) and two of which are exclusive to the collection. the stories serve as companions to Dragonsdawn: a prequel, an interquel, and three sequels. they are…fine.
the most interesting story in the collection is probably the last, “Rescue Run”, which appears to have been written mainly because McCaffrey felt the unpleasant Stev Kimmer, one of Avril Bitra’s co-conspirators in Dragonsdawn, didn’t Get What He Deserved. the story is narrated from the perspective of Ross Benden, a nephew of Paul Benden, leader of the colony, whose team responds to a distress beacon launched from Pern fifty years previously, in the middle of Dragonsdawn. they find a small group of survivors a bit of gothic horror: patriarchal violence (beyond the baseline level of patriarchy that permeates Pern’s space future), physical and emotional abuse, the unconfirmed specter of incest. Stev Kimmer is a deeply unpleasant man, and when he finally disappears from an open airlock nobody is sorry to see him go.
even “Rescue Run” suffers, however, from McCaffrey’s obsession with heavy-handed dramatic irony. rather than letting Stev Kimmer die his ignominious death and having that be that, McCaffrey goes through an elaborate and difficult to accept attempt to explain why the rescue team didn’t find any signs of life on the Northern Continent, only to undercut this by having a little interlude where a fisherman from Fort Hold sees the rescue team’s shuttle taking off. not to write the fake, good version of Pern that lives in my head, but this would have been way more interesting if the rescue team had found the colonists and Stev Kimmer’s family had had another option. nonetheless, the tone is effective and disturbing, and Ross Benden is an engaging main character.
“The Survey: P.E.R.N.(c)” could and should have been an email, which is to say rather than being a rather plotless attempt to create some dramatic irony that undercuts itself by spending a bunch of time extolling the virtues of Pern, it should have been a 5-page survey report, which could have concisely conveyed the dramatic irony without suffering for lack of plot.
“The Dolphins’ Bell” is a perfectly pleasant, though a bit weirdly horny about the Dunkirk evacuation, narrative about crisis management and disaster mitigation. I liked it! I’d put it on par with “The Smallest Dragonboy”: enjoyable in a bland way. unlike “The Smallest Dragonboy”, though, it is, unfortunately, marred by some racism — par for the course with the prequel era.
“The Ford of Red Hanrahan” is mostly world-building filler. overall it’s fine, but it tries to convince me that the early Holders (like Red Hanrahan, founder of Ruatha) aren’t just feudal manor lords while nonetheless making it clear that, actually, they are. you can’t sleight-of-hand your way out of this one.
given the dramatic irony problem in “Rescue Run”, I think “The Second Weyr” is probably actually the best story here. it’s a pretty standard coming-of-age romance story: the young queen rider Torene becomes the first Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr. the story begins just as the dragonriders get permission to establish new Weyrs and ends with Torene’s queen’s first mating flight — pretty standard in a Pern context! it’s got some weird POV switches, but other than that it’s engagingly written, if not mind-blowing, and the ending is satisfying. it feels like some of my Pern fanfiction, frankly, except straight. I don’t hate it!
all in all: it’s fine. nothing worth going out of your way for, but if you’re reading all of Pern there’s some stuff you may enjoy well enough.
moods: adventurous, dark, hopeful, horny