Great Dragon Lit Like Eragon
The Inheritance Books by Christopher Paolini weren’t the first books to explore the possibility a telepathic bond between dragons and humans. The Pern series by Anne and Todd McCaffrey did it first and did it very, very well.
Eragon and Eldest take flying dragons to new heights, but there's more to Dragon Lit than Paolini. Read these great Pern novels for your school book report or book club.
Eragon and its sequel Eldest, both by Christopher Paolini and both optioned to be movies, have been described as Tolkien meets George Lucas. Nevertheless, these books and their yet-unnamed trilogy finale have been hailed as the work of a Mozart-like prodigy of fantastic literature. If you like these two books and are awaiting the third with bated fire-breathing-dragon breath, try this other fantasy literature series.
The Dragons of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey and Todd J. McCaffrey is another series about riding flying dragons. It is ostensibly science fiction, as the series takes place on another planet, Pern, and magic is not a factor. There are no lithe elves or grumpy dwarves. All physics are Newtonian.
In the series, Pern has lost contact with Earth or whatever other planets had been colonized by then and has retreated into a medieval-style age, complete with guilds and iron or steel-age technology. After colonization and the loss of contact, a terrible threat appears in the form of “thread,” a dangerous substance that laces Pern’s solar system like a belt of malicious, linear asteroids and periodically falls on the planet’s surface, lancing through anything in its path. Thread falls are like thunderstorms, in that they arise and subside over a limited area. Several inches of solid rock can shield one from a fall of thread, but little else. Thread falls every few decades for a short time, then the planet moves past the band and all is well for a few decades.
Dragons are indigenous to the planet Pern and have evolved a defense mechanism for defending themselves from the deadly thread: burning it by breathing fire. The stranded humans form a partnership with the dragons to survive.
The partnership between dragons and humans is a personal treaty. A young person bonds with a hatchling dragon by Impressing them upon their birth, and thus they form a lifelong, symbiotic relationship. The author Anne McCaffrey says on her website that it’s “rather wonderful to have an intelligent partner that loves you unconditionally. Who wouldn’t like a forty-foot telepathic dragon as their best friend?”
This extensive series is ongoing, which means there’s a lot to read now, and there’s more coming. I enjoyed this series as a tween and teen, and it’s still fun to read.
One thing that I like about the Pern series is the significant number of dynamic major female characters. There is no overt feminist agenda, just an abiding recognition that girls and women compose half of society and are more than items to be rescued. I like that in fiction. Too much fiction has a subtle sexist undercurrent because men have written and still write the majority of what is considered serious literature. Most male authors don’t even realize they’re doing it. They just write the way they see the world, from their own male-centered point-of-view. Even women authors have been influenced by reading male-dominated fiction. My own book has two male and two female point-of-view characters. I tried to balance it without tipping the scales too far backward, but my forthcoming novel doesn’t have any dragons in it, a sad oversight on my part, but it certainly has monsters. Read more about where I get ideas for my own fiction in this Suite 101 Blog Post.
The series of Pern books in chronological order (from Pern’s point-of-view):
- The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall – Short stories. Read Survey P.E.R.N., then the next book Dragonsdawn, then the other four short stories.
- Dragonsdawn
- Dragonseye
- Dragon’s Kin
- Dragonsblood
- Dragon’s Fire
- Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
- Nerilka’s Story
- Dragonflight
- Dragonsong
- Dragonquest
- A Gift of Dragons – Short stories
- Dragonsinger
- Dragondrums
- The Masterharper of Pern
- The White Dragon
- The Renegades of Pern
- The Girl Who Heard Dragons – Short stories
- All the Weyrs of Pern
- The Dolphins of Pern
- The Skies of Pern
The Pern series is a great addition to any fantasy bookshelf. If you like fantasy, try these books while you're waiting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
