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about Pern...
I've read most of the books, excepting the latest. They were a mainstay of my childhood. It's weird though, how much I loathe most the characters these days. Like, Gazoo spare me from Menolly, Sebell and friends. Spare me too from all the rebellious women who just freaking fell in line.
Pern stories I'd be interested in:
- F'lar and Lessa's planned transition to post-thread Weyrs. How do the Weyrs fit into the Pernese economy when the justification for tithing is actually gone?
- Mirrim as reluctant mentor to a new generation of women dragonriders. Fights between gold and greenriders over propriety, the role of women in the Weyr, leadership and sexuality.
- Further technological development. The feudal order very neatly contained technological development so as to minimize social disruptions. What happens when it gets beyond their ability to control? Like, how do they deal with truly mass production, cheap mass communication etc.?
- The spread of holdless populations in a post-Thread world. Settlements are very quickly going to crop up in areas that were previously uninhabited, or low traffic. No thread + techonological revolution = a population unlike any Pern has before? How do Holders maintain their grip on power? Or not.
- Armed conflict. The first trilogy dealt with armed conflict plenty, but its something that fell by the wayside in later books. It's as though Holders no longer maintained security forces with thread around... so again, what happens post Thread? There are plenty of ambitious Holders and would be Holders. The Weyrs (and thread) were key to maintaining peace. Will they still be interested in being the threat that keeps Holders in line?
And... other stuff. Why can't Pern stories be more to my taste? *whiiiiines*
Pern stories I'd be interested in:
- F'lar and Lessa's planned transition to post-thread Weyrs. How do the Weyrs fit into the Pernese economy when the justification for tithing is actually gone?
- Mirrim as reluctant mentor to a new generation of women dragonriders. Fights between gold and greenriders over propriety, the role of women in the Weyr, leadership and sexuality.
- Further technological development. The feudal order very neatly contained technological development so as to minimize social disruptions. What happens when it gets beyond their ability to control? Like, how do they deal with truly mass production, cheap mass communication etc.?
- The spread of holdless populations in a post-Thread world. Settlements are very quickly going to crop up in areas that were previously uninhabited, or low traffic. No thread + techonological revolution = a population unlike any Pern has before? How do Holders maintain their grip on power? Or not.
- Armed conflict. The first trilogy dealt with armed conflict plenty, but its something that fell by the wayside in later books. It's as though Holders no longer maintained security forces with thread around... so again, what happens post Thread? There are plenty of ambitious Holders and would be Holders. The Weyrs (and thread) were key to maintaining peace. Will they still be interested in being the threat that keeps Holders in line?
And... other stuff. Why can't Pern stories be more to my taste? *whiiiiines*
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(Why is everybody suddenly talking about Pern? You aren't on the Dresden meme, are you? Anyway, yes, just last night I randomly sat down and wrote out a list of a) things I still like about Pern and b) things I hate about Pern, and at the top of list b) were "everything related to Pern that has been published since 'Renegades'" and "all of the characters, except maybe some of the fire lizards.")
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I'm not sure I like the idea of dragons being commonplace. Seriously, they need a viable occupation as much as the riders do. They're intelligent beings whose time should be occupied productively and enjoyably... unless they make places for dragons within the crafts, or people start doing primary and secondary jobs... But maybe I just need ~time to adjust. ;)
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They would have to get integrated into the crafts and trades, yeah. But they would have to anyway, wouldn't they, without Thread as a purpose? I visualize a post-9th pass Pern as looking a lot more like Dinotopia, or Temeraire's China (if you've read either of those books) - Dragons doing everything from basic transport and manual labor and soldiering to fine craft work to art and design. (I've always loved the idea of a dragon glassblower, myself.)
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I LOVE the idea of crafter dragons and a dragon glassblower. Thinking back to the Aivas days, some dragons were a little more curious than others, weren't they? Wouldn't it be interesting to see what kind of art and science dragons could come up with, if they had tools designed for their bodies and minds? They had to really shift terms to communicate the plans for shifting the Red Star. And you know, their native ability to teleport and move between times would necessitate a different way of seeing things. I really dig stories about non-human intelligences that try to explore what that means. I always wished the Pern books would delve more into dragon pov.
I thought the greens were engineered sterile as per Dragondawn, or am I misremembering...?
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(And yes, strong-willed women turning to Kleenex once they find a manly-man to dominate them has long been something that ticked me off about McCaffrey-crafted worlds.)
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Personally, I think she was doing great until she started trying to explain everything "scientifically." :(
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