The Dolphins of Pern

By: Anne McCaffrey

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

When the first humans came to settle the planet Pern, they did not come alone: intelligence-enhanced dolphins also crossed the stars to colonize Pern's oceans while their human partners settled the vast continents. But then disaster struck.

The deadly silver spores called Thread fell like rain from the sky, and as human colonists' dreams of a new, idyllic life shattered into a desperate struggle for survival, the dolphins were forgotten.

Now, centuries later, as the dragonriders of Pern prepare to complete the momentus task of ridding their world of Thread forever, T'lion, a young bronze rider, and his friend Readis, son of the Lord Holder of Paradise River Hold, make contact with the legendary "shipfish." And as the dragonriders grapple with the end of an era, T'lion, Readis, and the dolphins face the start of a new one: reviving the bond between land- and ocean-dwellers - and resurrecting the dreams of the first colonists of Pern.

More in the Dragonriders of Pern series.

©1995 Anne McCaffrey (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

A bit dissapointed

Would you try another book from Anne McCaffrey and/or Mel Foster?

The story is not quite what I expected from one of the Pern books over all so far. At least from what I remember of them though it has been some years since I read my last one. The real problem is, and I do hate to put one down, but the narrator for this book is.. To put it nicely, not so great. H was looking forward to starting to listen to the Pern books while I am doing things that leave me unable to read, like house work, but if they all are narrated by the same one I do not think I will be able to do so.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

RIP Anne McCaffrey

I read this long ago. I recently picked up a large collection of McCaffrey hardback (many first edition) novels. I felt somehow in Her presence as I was about halfway through this book when she passed to 'between.'

This is not my favorite book of the Pern novels, but it ranks very high. I am passionate about dolphins and swimming... and dragons. But at times I wished for more of Readis's life than the life of the 'politicians' of the planet. I wished for more science discovery. There was a lot of that, but I wanted more. But I know these are the threads of the next books and the evolving of Pern, so I shouldn't complain.

Though I have the hardback, I now prefer to read on Kindle where it doesn't hurt my eyes. And at times I need the audio version to listen to when my eyes get tired. Since the text to speech tool didn't work on this novel I downloaded the Audible version. Hearing a human voice narrating is always preferable to the computerized versions, anyway.

Mel Foster's interpretation was different than what I expected. I think, knowing that Anne McCaffrey is of Irish descent, I expected a brogue to come from the sea holds rather than what sounded a southern drawl. But that was Mel's interpretation and I soon adjusted. He did a decent job keeping the character's voices dissimilar enough to know who was talking when.

I look forward to 'worming' my way through all of Anne's books, those I have read and those I haven't yet. I hope I can afford to use Audible/Kindle help to do this. R.I.P. to my most favorite author.

Let the all humans, firelizards, dolphins and dragons keen:

Drummer, beat and Piper, blow
Harper, strike and Soldier, go
Free the flame and sear the grasses
As the dawning Red Star passes...

Until eternity passes

For Anne McCaffrey

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

pern at its best

wonderful, a great read, will read again, grandkids love all the dragons & dolphins thnx

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not one of her best....

The Pern books are a fun and imaginative merging of science fiction and fantasy elements. However, in this instance I think Anne McCaffrey has fallen victim a little too excessively to the "cute-factor" of Dolphins. Plot-lines, not directly involving the dolphins, are the typical well-constructed and executed exploration of interpersonal relationships and merging of science and imagination. Alternatively, the delphinid characters are the stereotypical 2-dimensional caricature of loving, short attention-spanned jokers that is so common in popular culture. They are at times unrealistically and even painfully cute. All-in-all not a bad offering from Anne McCaffery and the reading quality is above average. However, it is more of value as a tying up of some loose ends to someone familiar with the full series rather than as a first read of the dynasty.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Awesome

This story weaves thru many of events of the last fall, but adds so much closure to the overall story. Excellent for repeat listening

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Poor Sing-Song Reading Detracts From Story

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The reader uses a sing-song voice throughout. Though better than a monotone, it has no relationship to the way real people speak, and sounds very artificial. I found it very distracting.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

No much excitement here

No twists, no action - far too tame for my liking

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

enjoyable in the series

The book is an enjoyable addition to the dragonrider series, though not central to the story line. Kind of light and fun. The narration is however a little annoying, the wording was soooo sloooooow at times. Almost insulting actually. Were they trying to make the book last longer? The characterization also wasn't accurate - as an example Fandarell did not have a whiny high pitched voice but a large booming one. The tenor of his voice was ok, just the delivery could have been better. If it were available with another narrator I would have chosen it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I loved it!

I loved this..it was very imaginative.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

For 10 year olds

I believe this book was meant for 10 year old kids. To teach them about biology. I only got through about 10 chapters. There was no plot, only cuteness. If you have not read AM before then start with Dragon's Dawn, it is well written and gives the whole background for the whole series. Anne wants you to read them in the order she wrote them, but I believe the prequel is the best place to start. If you are not in love with the series stay away from this book. I prefer the Rawn series.

14 of 24 people found this review helpful

just like revisiting old friends. marvellous.

I found the Dragons of Pern many years ago. So glad to catch up with them.

excellent but for major error

This is an excellent book, continuing the Pern series and linking in nicely with other later novels in the timeline. My biggest quibble however, and something to be very aware of is that it is not broken down into chapters on the file, it is just one long running book. This is maddening if you, like me. listen in the car or train and you need to continue where you left off.! If anyone does know how to break up the file into chunks which are searchable I would like to know!

Id would therefore highly recommend the book, just be aware of the foiballs!

Great book, terrible narrator

Love all the Pern stories, but the narrator is so bland - he speaks like a computer!