A small group of settlers have risked everything on the information of a survey of Pern a hundred years or more before. They have traveled 15 years in deep sleep on older spaceships to reach the new planet and to start a whole new way of life. Some come because they want the chance to own their own land, others come for the adventure, others come for riches. When they first arrive on Pern, it truly feels like a paradise. The settlers choose a valley at the base of three inactive volcanoes to be their first settlement, which they call Landing. The settlers are eagerly experimenting with seeds and plants brought from other planets and trying to get animals settled and fertilized. Schools to teach [...]
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.,” “The Dolphin’s Bell,” “The Ford of Red Hanrahan,” “The Second Weyr,” and “Rescue Run.”
When the colonists first settled on the planet Daleer, there was plenty to support them all. However, as the population increased, Daleer’s resources were spread thin. Then a nasty virus spread through the people, killing mostly females who had born children. The women did not want to risk getting pregnant, so they did not have sex with the males. To combat this, the males created men with gorgeous physical beauty and shadra, a psychological talent that could give both exquisite pleasure and excruciating pain. When the population began to rise again, the people of Daleer split into two warring factions. One was led by Gemen, who believed that the men with the shadra formed an important part of life on the planet. The other, led [...]
Moreta is Weyrwoman at Fort Weyr with Sh’gall as Weyrleader. Moreta loves Orlith, her dragon queen, and would do anything for her, but she does wish that someone else had flown her during her mating flight. Sh’gall is a very able weyrleader in the air when fighting thread, but he does not do as well with people. Moreta is sure that they will go together to the Ruatha Gather, after all it is Lord Alessan’s first gather as a Lord Holder and everyone will be there. However, Sh’gall decides to go to the Telgar Gather and to see the strange cat that was captured in the ocean and put on display there. Desdra, Moreta’s anxious housekeeper insists that Moreta cannot go without Sh’gall and that [...]
Jim Marlowe barely remembers leaving Earth with his family many years ago. He considers himself a Martian Colonist and loves his life on Mars. He is not looking forward to going to school on Syrtis Minor, but he knows that he is of the age where he has to go. The only thing that he insists on is that his pet/friend, Willis, a “bouncer” or Martian animal that is round, furry and stick-out appendages when he wants to see or move around, come with him. His parents are forced to admit that there is nothing in the school rules that say he cannot take Willis, so Jim wins out.
Tarl Cabot is an Englishman who has recently moved to America to teach British History at a small US University. When he goes camping one weekend, he has no idea that his adventure is going to be more than he could ever imagine. It all starts with an unusual envelope that magically appears at Tarl’s campfire. When Tarl opens it, he finds a letter from his father, whom he never knew, asking him to bring a handful of earth with him when he comes. Tarl is not sure what is going on, but he knows that he wants no part of it. He tries to run away, but soon finds himself back at his campsite where he started. Resigned to the inevitable, he boards the [...]
Connal MacArren is one of the first of his world to leave the planet and travel through space. He would never have ventured out at all if it weren’t for his dratted kinsman, Garris, who left without telling anyone goodbye. All he left was a cryptic note saying that he was going to see the Dreamweaver Liandra Tavor. Liandra is an Asarian, one of a small race who can walk the dreamscape and find answers for people in dreams. She is sure that this Garris never made it to see her, though it is true that he may have been traveling to see her, but she cannot persuade Connal that she knows nothing of Garris’ whereabouts. Connal quickly tires of Liandra’s game of pretending not [...]
Preece is used to being alone. Everyone fears the tall warrior who always wear a black cape and cowl to cover his face. It is rumored that he can kill anyone, anywhere and he is called Preece the Warmonger or sometimes The Royal Blade. Yet Preece is tired of being a mercenary, tired of death. He takes jobs just to earn enough money to buy his own ship and sail off to an island paradise that his guardian, an old wizard, has long told tales of. He is eager to make his dream a reality, when the king forces him to agree to escort Moreya, orphaned daughter of one of the king’s most revered ambassadors, to her new fiancé, prince of a neighboring kingdom.
Lisane crashlands her spaceship on an unfamiliar planet when she is forced to flee for her life from the Enforcers on her home planet. She was the princess of her old world and destined to rule her people for the rest of her natural life, but all that is gone now. Lisane is not sure what to make of the new world and is slowly starving to death when Simon finds her. Simon is a wizard and a teacher at a school where other wizards are trained. He is unaware that Lisane is a girl and takes her to the school, where all the other students are boys. Lisane doesn’t exactly fit in on this new planet, but she refuses to let the others get [...]
Alex Mariltar, third son of the High Lord of Mariltar, was ready to live his dream. Long ago, the clans had all traded and lived in peace in the Crestar System, but jealousy, greed and war drove the great families apart. Alex has been made ambassador of Treaine, a beautiful planet with a new colony that will become the example of the peaceful harmony that the Crestar System will be able to enjoy once again – if Alex can get all of the other races to get along, that is. The one snag in his plan is that he must marry a woman of a race not his own. Alex did not care for any of the Coalition’s choices and didn’t really want to get [...]
Tess MacKenzie is trying her hardest to make it to the big time. She put her singing/songwriting on hold for years to help her parents run their business, but now it is her time to succeed. So when Cohl Travers, a sexy alien and his robot, Pitz, kidnap her, Tess is less than pleased. She can’t believe that Cohl needs her voice to find some amulet on a long deserted planet to save the life of his father. Things like this just don’t happen to her!
Dr. Kerra Telsier had just done the hardest thing ever asked of her – she destroyed her own research. She had actually discovered a way to correct neural damage and to make synthetic organics. She thought that her research would be used to heal people like her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s or to help regrow spinal cords or lost limbs. Kerra had no idea that the military was planning on growing human beings to become the perfect soldiers. She couldn’t let her research be used in that way so she deleted all of her files and used her knowledge from all of the romance books she read to escape.
