The Renegades of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern

By: Anne McCaffrey

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

As long as the people of Pern could remember, the Holds had protected them from Thread, the deadly silver strands that fell from the sky and ravaged the land. In exchange for sanctuary in the huge stone fortresses, the people tithed to their lord Holders, who in turn supported the Weyrs, whose dragons were Pern's greatest weapon against Thread.

But not everyone on Pern was part of that system of mutual care and protection, particularly those who had been rendered holdless as punishment for wrongdoing. And there were some, like Jayge's trader clan, who simply preferred the freedom of the roads to the security of a hold. Others, like Aramina's family, had lost their holds through injustice and cruelty. For all the holdless, life was a constant struggle for survival.

Then, from the ranks of the criminals and the disaffected, rose a band of renegades, led by the Lady Thella. No one was safe from Thella's depredations, and now her quarry was Aramina, reputed to have a telepathic link with dragons. But when Thella mistakenly vented her rage on Jayge's family, she made a dangerous enemy. For Jayge was bent on revenge - and he would never let her have the girl who heard dragons!

©2005 Anne McCaffrey (P)2005 Brilliance Audio

one of my favorite authors

This series is very good, but definitely don't read this one first. I would suggest going by book publication date, which is not the same as chronological by the story line. There are a lot of "a-ha!" moments, especially at the end of the series, as Ms. McCaffrey tells the same story from different people's viewpoints. All I can think of as a description is that it is a rich tapestry of a story.

I've read most of the books twice, and look forward to listening to them many times again.

Interesting

This book was interesting. It started out telling the stories of those without a hold to live in but branched out so much it felt like a collection of short stories bound together loosely by a single theme. While it was nice to hear some of the side events of the previous books, I do not think it flowed well together. I did enjoy hearing the continuation of the larger story of Pern, even if it was only a taste. This book is interesting for those like me who love Pern and want to be a dragon rider too.

Spoiled by poor Audio quality and bad narration

The audio production in this title is very poor, and at times the sound is fuzzy and distorted.

The narrator's voice is not very expressive, and he has some odd pronunciation choices, including "ha-MOCK" for hammock. Characters' accents and voices are not consistent throughout the book. Jaxom has an Irish accent in some parts and not in others, for example.

Not my favorite Pern book

I like how it fills in the characters but skip lots of parts when I read the series again.

Same Plot, no WOW Factor

If you read the summaries on all of the Pern books, you find they often talk about Thread is due to fall, but it has been so long, the people are not prepared or believe it actually will not happen. This is a good plot for one book, but AM uses it over and over.

I like some of AM's books, such as Dragon Flight, Dragons Dawn, The Rowan and Damia, but often her writing seems lack luster, as if she is just going through the motions. I have been watching a lot of America's Got Talent and Howie Mandel likes to mention that a certain act has no WOW Factor. This book has no WOW Factor.

I also love books about dragons, but McCaffrey's dragons could be replaced with Dogs or Unicorns and it would make no difference. One of the great things about most dragon books, is the attitude of the dragons. They are usually arrogant and deadly beast. Anne has domesticated them and it has killed there character.

McCaffrey wants her readers to start and read the series in the order that she wrote the books. I would suggest you start with Dragon's Dawn. It has more science and tells the story about how it all began.

Dick Hill is one of my favorite narrators, but he could not save this one.

Always a good story

I've always enjoyed Anne's stories. This one too. Perm is a sprawling planet and tying lives across the landscape works.

Started out great..... then wrong book kicks in.

The first few chapters were great, but then a totally unrelated book kicks in, and that’s all there remainder of the audiobook!

What happened to the end?!

Ended right in the middle of a sentence, Really!, middle of a huge moment I sure hope the next book starts right there. Ugh talk about cliff hung

Loved the books them and now.

I loved these books as they were coming out. I loved them when I was younger and I love that I can get these books again.

Very good book!

Really enjoyed listening and filling in blanks in storylines. I look forward to listening again!