Home
/
Fiction
/
The Chronicles Of Pern: First Fall
The Chronicles Of Pern: First Fall
Nov 13, 2025 6:16 AM

Author:Anne McCaffrey

The Chronicles Of Pern: First Fall

Let Anne McCaffrey, storyteller extraordinare and New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author, take you on a journey to a whole new world: Pern. A world of dragons and other worldly forces; a world of mighty power and ominous threat. If you like David Eddings, Brandon Sanderson and Douglas Adams, you will love this.

'Anne McCaffrey, one of the queens of science fiction, knows exactly how to give her public what it wants' -- THE TIMES

'Mesmerising and totally unputdownable' -- ***** Reader review

'Staggeringly good' -- ***** Reader review

'Another story of Pern I simply couldn't put down' -- ***** Reader review

'Just brilliant!!!' -- ***** Reader review

***********************************************************************************

Here are five gripping episodes of early Pern -- from the very first space survey recommending colonisation, to the last, where the early world, its young dragon culture undetected, is condemned to be isolated in space.

Here is the saga of the mass evacuation from the volcanic southern continent, an entire group of people moved across the dangerous seas, guarded and guided by a flotilla of dolphins.

Here, too, is the story of the creation of Ruatha Hold -- a mammoth undertaking in the early days of Pern.

And here is one of the most fascinating dragon tales ever written by Anne McCaffrey, when Fort Weyr was the only weyr, and when dragonriders and dragons were overcrowded to danger point. As the news broke of three fresh weyrs to be established, a young girl, Torene, came to realize that her dragon could be the next Queen of the newly formed Benden Weyr...

Reviews

One of the most admirable and enthralling literary novels of the year

—— Daily Mail

Extraordinary

—— Guardian

Superbly poised between the magic of innocence and the melancholy of experience

—— The Economist

Michael Ondaatje's impressive new novel, containing dreams and fantasy between a ship's flanks...is, in the most etymological way, a wonderful novel: one full of wonders

—— Philip Hensher , Daily Telegraph

Atmospheric, elegiac and at times, like Ondaatje's most famous novel, The English Patient, unbearably poignant

—— Sebastian Shakespeare , Tatler

I love this book: the boys running wild on the long sea voyage, the slow revelation of the adult world they don't fully understand, the loss of the past and the beginning of the future, and even a sort of thriller in there! And the beauty of the sentences. Perfection

—— Salman Rushdie

Wondrous

—— Financial Times

Part memoir, complete masterpiece... Written with tenderness, wisdom and sharp emotional recall, this is an exuberant elegy to innocence

—— Maggie Fergusson , Intelligent Life

Grave and playful at the same time, beautifully written and moving

—— The Times

It's impossible to explain through any discussion of plot and character the hypnotic brilliance of The Cat's Table. The joy of boyhood and the darkness at its edges are conveyed in sense of extraordinary imagination... It is entirely...well, Ondaatje-esque

—— Kamila Shamsie , Guardian, Books of the Year

Vividly follows the passage from Ceylon to England of an 10 year-old boy on a line full of eccentric, mysterious passengers

—— Ann Saddlemyer , Irish Times, Books of the Year

Ondaatje's prose, flawless as ever, deals with loneliness, friendship and pre-pubescent love

—— Christine Dwyer Hickey , Irish Times, Books of the Year
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved