Talk:Dragonriders of Pern
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We need guidelines as to what information should be in Dragonriders of Pern, and what information should be in Pern. Tentatively, I'll suggest that Dragonriders of Pern should be about the events in the books, and analysis of the series as fiction, while Pern should be about the planet itself, as "fact". Bluap 16:08, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I agree with Bluap. Indeed, what we really need is a WikiProject for Pern and the Dragonriders books. -Acjelen 19:32, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Spoiler Tag
I reluctantly added the spoiler tag to the list of characters as the resolution and one death from Dragonsblood are now given. It may need to be added to the top of the article, but I scanned through and found only a few vague hints about the situation following The White Dragon. -Acjelen 19:42, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Wartime aspect
Has any writing/exploration been done to engage the similarities between the dragonriders and the fighter pilots of the modern world's air forces? ~ Dpr 22:45, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
- The connection is intentional. Anne McCaffery has written that she used such divisions as bombers and fighters in developing the dragons - Nik42 00:11, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Fictional Universes not belong in Wikipedia?
See: Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)#How_about:_Sectioning_off_of.2Fpossible_banning_of_Fictional_Universe_articles. I hope I am not in violation of WP:SPAM by informing talk pages of some Fictional Universes about this thread. Perhaps some other fan can pass the word to other relevant interests, or perhaps there ought to be some NPOV template at top of the talk pages. User:AlMac|(talk) 14:46, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
- Doubt they'll do anything. Plus, DroP has a very large fanbase to be notable. Plus, there is the Dune series, Warhammer /40k, Star Wars... Disinclination 06:08, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
- Update: At present (November 7, 2006), that link no longer takes the user to the discussion in question. When we find where it has moved (presumably archived), we should post the new link here. Lawikitejana 14:46, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Order of the List of books
Currently the article lists the books in chronological order of events. I think this is a bad idea. First, it's confusing to someone who wants to start at the beginning and therefore ends up reading the ninth novel published. Furthermore, in my opinion, it diminishes the enjoyment of the series -- while Dragonsdawn is a good novel, part of its charm is in learning the true origins of what you've already read about. And I think Todd McCaffrey's Dragonsblood is great, but it's much more powerful if you've already read Dragonsflight and Moreta so you know what a big problem disease and lack of dragons would be to Pern. I propose reordering the list to reflect when the books were written/published. --Apascover 20:05, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
- Seeing no objection, I'm making the change. --Apascover 19:38, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
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- I agree that publishing order is useful (mostly because the Author herself has requested this). However, there should also be a sub article on the Dragonriders of Pern timeline (with a link to it from here) with references to the books for those trying to keep straight the order of events in the storyline. Jon 16:44, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Miscellaneous
In passing the article states that dragons have no vocal chords. I don't htink that's correct; dragons are incapable of human speech, of course, but they bugle constantly. --Apascover 03:27, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] An observation on dragon size
Under 'Economic considerations' the dragon Ramoth is listed as being fory-five feet in length. This is inaccurate, as The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern lists her as forty-five meters in length. Other size comparisons in this book and the actual novels support this.
[edit] Religion on Pern
Coming from reading the Religious Considerations section, shouldn't it be stated somewhere why religion was never taken to the new planet? I believe there was a very large war (I forget the name sorry), that involved many of the original Pernese that came over, had decided not to involve religion because that was one of the many reasons that the War started. I'll have to find my references. Disinclination 06:12, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Fire lizards
Various articles (particularly the ones about the Harper Hall Trilogy) mention fire lizards, but they aren't in this main article. We need to add a line or two to the most relevant articles so that this topic is covered. I haven't read through them recently enough — most all my fiction collection has been in storage for the last couple of years while my career's on hold — but the information definitely needs to be there for the uninitiated. Lawikitejana 14:49, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Added title - A Gift of Dragons
While the short stories contained are mentioned, the title is not. To bring it in line with Chronicles, I added the second anthology's title. Can it be added to the Dragonriders infobox? I am not sure how to do this. Pejorative.majeure 05:06, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Consistency needed: SF or Fantasy?
I've noticed that some articles on the Pern series classify it as a fantasy series (e.g. the page on Robinton is classified as a fantasy-related stub) while others class it as science fiction and some (like this article) are calling it fantasy/science fiction. I'm new here and don't know all the ropes yet, but I'd suggest we ought to clean that up. (I'm willing but it might be a long time before I have a chance to get to it, plus I still have to figure out how, so I thought I'd mention it here in case someone else wants to "bite"!) I'd have to argue that there are really no grounds for calling it fantasy. The "dragons" were created by genetic manipulation, and despite its medieval-type guild system and low-tech culture during most of the series, Pern is not an alternate reality but rather a colonized planet which hides a supercomputer in its ruins and artificial sattelites in its night skies. Telepathy, teleportation, and time travel are common SF elements, and while mostly left unexplained here, that's not really unusual in the genre. Overall, Pern's inhabitants definitely have a "scientific" viewpoint on the world: they look for causes and effects, they (re)invent machinery and (re)discover natural processes, etc. I'd suggest that we need to standardize to "science-fiction series" and "science-fiction stub" and so on. Hierophany 22:31, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
- The SF or Fantasy debate is a popular one, but general consensus seems to be that it is SF (for example in this article at the Science Fiction Hall of Fame). Anne McCaffrey herself has also stated that the Pern series is SF rather than Fantasy (e.g. there is no magic), but I can't find an online reference for that right now. tameeria 15:01, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Separate page for Pern Fandom?
Hi all, I was wondering if Fandom should be a separate page? I saw that there are Wiki pages e.g. for Harry Potter Fandom or Tolkien Fandom for example, and Pern Fandom and its several decades long history certainly is old and large enough to warrent its own page. If so, should the page be "Dragonriders of Pern Fandom", simply "Pern Fandom", or more general "Anne McCaffrey Fandom"?
Also, a large part of McCaffrey Fandom are discussion forums, but apparently having links to forums in my attempt to expand the fandom section has triggered a bot to revert it with the comment that such links are not wanted. However, the fandom section already contains a link to a discussion board (Pern MU*). Should that link be taken out when re-editing? Or are these links considered valuable in this case? I saw that there are similar links on other fandom pages as well, simply because, well, that's where most fan interaction can be found.
tameeria 14:41, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
- Well, has the fandom been discussed in reliable sources, like newspapers and science-fiction magazines? If the only people talking about how large the Pern fandom is the Pern fandom themselves, it's probably not enough.
- As far as links go, they should pass the external links guideline, and forums are almost certainly going to violate this. They provide no additional reliable information to an article, and in the end are just more places for social networking. Encyclopedias aren't really for social networking. ColourBurst 01:19, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
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- Pern fandom has been discussed in newspapers. I remember an article from the Wall Street Journal quoting Meg Cabot, author of "The Princess Diaries", that she started her writing career as a Dragonriders of Pern fan-fiction writer. There have been some quarrels over fan pages being shut down due to copyright issues which got newspaper coverage. So I would assume it certainly meets the notability criteria. Its been 40 years now since the first Pern story was published, so enough time for a notable fan base to develop. - tameeria 01:33, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
