In a departure from reality, Rukbat is a class G ( yellow ) star in the series ; the real Rukbat is a blue, class B star — although it could be that the star Pern orbits is simply a solar-type star that is near the real Rukbat which was given the brighter star's name for convenience.

* Dragonriders of Pern — with a list of works in order published

* List of Pern books — books and short fiction in Pern historical order

Pern is a fictional planet created by Anne McCaffrey for the Dragonriders of Pern series of science fiction books.

Thread is brought to Pern by another planet in its solar system, the inexactly named Red Star.

Thread can reach the planet Pern for about 50 Turns while the Red Star is at perihelion.

Benden Weyr is the second of eight ( by the end of the 9th pass ) Weyrs on the planet of Pern in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern fantasy novel series.

As of June 2011 there are two collections of Pern stories and twenty-two novels, some written jointly or solely by Todd McCaffrey, the series creator's son.

The Atlas of Pern ( 1984 ), a companion book produced by Karen Wynn Fonstad in consultation with McCaffrey, provides geographical detail for a region extending that extends further south and east.

Pern was explored and cleared for colonization by an Exploration and Evaluation Corps team, two hundred years before the actual colonization commenced.

In the novel, Dragonsdawn, Pern was colonized by settlers originally from Earth, First Base on the Moon, and the colony at Alpha Centauri.

A genetically altered breed of dolphins, subsequently called shipfish by the native population ( due to their tendency to follow ships ), accompanied humans to Pern.

While the dolphins were forgotten about by the humans, the dolphins remembered the contract between the two species ( made when the two species originally arrived on Pern ), and continued to help sailors in distress, and returning lost cargo to shore, awaiting the day when humans would remember and again honour the old contract.

At a Gather, Pernese from Weyrs, Crafthalls and Holds may mingle and enjoy various entertainments, including runnerbeast racing ( enjoyed by the title character of Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern ) and physical competitions such as boxing and wrestling ( All the Weyrs of Pern mentions the use of " Gather champions " as guardsmen, and a supporting character of The Renegades of Pern is shown being rendered Holdless for repeated use of deadly force in Gather competition ).

Another way the traders serve the rest of Pern is by allowing Craft Journeymen or Masters to travel with them so that these talented men and women do not have to take the long and sometimes dangerous journey by themselves.

Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967.

* Dragonflight 1968, by Anne McCaffrey ( 1968 ; composed in part of McCaffrey's first two Pern novellas, Weyr Search and Dragonrider, originally published in 1967 )

The trilogy was released 1978 in omnibus edition titled The Dragonriders of Pern by Nelson Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club.

The Harper Hall trilogy was released 1984 in omnibus edition titled The Harper Hall of Pern by Nelson Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club.

* Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey ( 1983 ; both this and Nerilka's Story are set at the end of the Sixth Pass, centuries before the events in Dragonflight )

* Dragonsdawn, by Anne McCaffrey ( 1988 ; first in chronological order, depicts the colonization of Pern, the First Fall of Thread, the creation of the dragons, and the colonists ' move north.

*" The Impression ", by Jody Lynn Nye and Anne McCaffrey ( 1989 ; short story original to The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern )

* Renegades of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey ( 1989 )

* All the Weyrs of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey ( 1991 )

Pern periodically experiences Threadfalls, in which this deadly organism rains down from the sky.

In the Dragonriders series, Pern is subject to periodic incursions of Thread, a voracious and deadly space-borne organism that devours any organic matter it touches.

* Thread ( Pern ), a spore in the science fiction novels Dragonriders of Pern

The people of Pern live in caves and ride genetically engineered flying reptiles (" dragons ") capable of incinerating the spore in midair.

Pern is host to a number of invertebrate species, including the insect-like trundlebugs, rollers ( analogous to a woodlouse ), VTOLS ( a type of fly ), springs ( a type of parasite ), and spider-like creatures called spinners ( in the very first story, Weyr Search, they were referred to as crawlers ).

# redirect Pern # Thread

However, as Thread drowns in water, Pern has a much more populous and thriving aquatic ecology.

As the Red Star approaches perihelion, gravitational perturbations and outgassing from the Red Star's interior launch Thread on trajectories that impact Pern.

In 1983, Epyx released a video game " Dragonriders of Pern " for the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 in which the player could battle Thread and engage in diplomacy on Pern.

On Pern, knowledge and cultural practices regarding Thread must persist for 200-year Intervals ( see below ) – a period of time nearly as long as the United States has existed – without the immediate presence of the organism to prompt remembrance.

The agrarian idealism of Pern, however, is marred by the constant reality of Thread.

The destruction of Thread, a goal sought after by the Dragonriders and the peoples of Pern, forces a radical rethinking of the role of dragons in a post-Thread world.

In Dragonsdawn, the race was intentionally engineered to fight Thread after it first caught the human colonists on Pern unawares, with devastating results.

As the primary line of defense against the Thread, dragons are a requirement for the survival and prosperity of humans, not to mention other forms of land life, on Pern.

F ' lessan and Golanth are the first to create a Weyrhold-specifically Honshū Weyrhold-where dragons and their riders can live in smaller groups once Thread no longer falls on Pern, without relying on tithes.

# REDIRECT Pern # Thread

In McCaffrey's first Pern novel, Dragonflight, the dragonriders of Pern are concerned that they are not sufficiently numerous to fight the imminently arriving Thread.