The Chronicles of Pern

By: Anne McCaffrey

Narrated by: Meredith MacRae

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Travel back to the earliest days of Pernese history in this first-ever Dragonriders of Pern short story collection. Join the original survey team as they explore Pern and decide to recommend it for colonization. Share the terror of the evacuation from the Southern Continent as a flotilla of ships, aided by intelligent, talking dolphins, braves the currents of the Pernese ocean. Learn how the famous Ruatha Hold was founded, and thrill with the dragonriders as they expand into a second, then a third Weyr. And discover a secret lost in time - the rescue of some of the original colonists before the planet was cut off forever.

Building a new life on a distant world, braving the dreaded Thread that falls like silver rain from the sky only to destroy every living thing it touches, flying heroically on the wondrous dragons - The Dragonriders of Pern!

Anne McCaffrey suggests The Chronicles of Pern should be followed by The Dolphins of Pern.

©1993 Anne McCaffrey (P)2002 Fantastic Audio, an Imprint of American Audio Literature

Good stories, poorly read.

A collection of short stories raking place in the early years of Pern, including the initial survey of the planet, First Fall is a good listen overall. Unfortunately, the reader, Meredith MacRae, is bland and lifeless. All of the stories feature multiple characters and MacRae's reading and lack of inflection or characterization makes it difficult to follow who's who. Likewise, it's very difficult to differentiate between male and female characters as MacRae fails to alter her vocal pitch at all.

The stories themselves are well written, but the actual reading makes for a difficult and distracting listen.

14 of 14 people found this review helpful

Poor reading ruins this

I couldn't even finish listening to part one. I only gave it one star because I believe the story has to be better than the reading. While a perfect and clear English speaker, the reader makes no effort to make any character voices whatsoever, and inflection is limited to basic grammar-based emphasis (like lilts for questions, and emphasis for exclamations). Grade wouldn't even be above a "D" for a public speaking class, let alone as a book narrator. She makes me drowsy. Choose a different reader, or a printed book over this disappointment!

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

I enjoy Dick Hill as narrator best.

The few women that have narrated just can't pull off the right tone.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Great history on How Pern was settled

This is great for those who want to know how it all started. MacRae is not a good narrator, though. It was very difficult to follow her as she read - she runs the sentences together so it is hard to tell when there is a new sentence starting. I only stuck with it to know the history.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Dreadful Narration!

What would have made The Chronicles of Pern better?

Having Dick Hill continue his narration from "Dragonsdawn" and the "Dragonriders" trilogy. I only rated this so low across the board to drive down the overall four star rating. I enjoyed the stories and Anne's writing is impeccable once again, this just could have been better if either Dick Hill or Mel Foster had read it.

Has The Chronicles of Pern turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not at all.

Would you be willing to try another one of Meredith MacRae’s performances?

Absolutely not!

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Great story and depth. Makes me love the characters.

Any additional comments?

Just want to reinforce that all my one stars were simply to drive down the overall average and emphasize that the narration ruined the audiobook as a whole.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

The narration wasn't as bad as some reviews state.

Each story nicely fills in a back story hole. Thanks narration, however could be better. The most difficult part was when she moves from one sentence to the next with barely a pause. It can also, sometimes, be difficult to tell when switching between characters in the dialog sections.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Chronicles of Pern

Another fantastic book. This book contains several stories. It begins with the Survey team that discovers the planet, Pern. They mark this planet as habitable. It goes through what they discover on Pern and that it is much like the older Earth from their histories.

Then the story moves into the landing party and how they begin to move onto their new planet. It delves into the first Thread as it falls onto them killing many and destroying so much. You learn more about the dragonets and how they are used to create the Dragons that will protect them all from Thread. Then there is the active volcanoes which require the settlement to evacuate their current location in search of new areas of Pern to populate.

You learn of the first Hold that is created. Then as people settle into their lives, they want to yearn to spread out so that they are not as contained and crowded. You glimpse into the history of the new Holds that are created and how and who took the reins to go out and create these.

You get to witness the very first hatching of dragons and impressions. As they grow and get stronger they seem to be useless; not what they were created for. Then there emerges a leader who teaches them and makes them strong. He teaches them to fight as a unit. They learn to fly and fight thread and become useful. They become what they were created to be, The Dragonriders of Pern.

The stories are exciting. You are seeing the history of Pern and how it began and how it transformed into what you read later. Again, I would not recommend reading in the chronological order that I am reading these books in if you have never read the Pern series. I am really glad I am reading it like this after having read the series several times prior. I am enjoying these early histories more than I did when I read in the suggested order. However, as a new reader of Pern, reading in the suggested order is highly recommended.

This is such a fantastic world. It spawned my absolute love of dragons so long ago. I would highly recommend this series to any dragon and fantasy lover.

Great Series

every book in the Pern series is a great read. and listening to the book brings it even more to life.

Not for me.

I could not get interested. Finally just quit listening and returned. Maybe this should not have been the first one I listened to in the series! I followed suggested order on Wikipedia.

a+

loved it
always on point
narration was on point
will all to collection
A+ .

Let down by narrator

I really enjoyed these stories as part of the Pern series but the narrator was terrible. Hardly any emotion in her voice and some really odd pauses mid-sentence.