Pern

As I write this, the United States is at some early point in the COVID-19 pandemic. We are living in Ohio and the governor has closed most everything in the state. None of us have any idea where things will end up, but we hope for the best!

This got me to thinking about pandemics and books that were about pandemics or revolved around a pandemic. This lead me to the name of this post, which also happens to be the name of a planet that exists in the Dragonriders of Pern series that was written by Anne McCaffrey.

One of the books, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, deals with a pandemic on Pern. It is a great story and highly recommended! But, what I want to discuss, about the whole series, isn’t pandemics (luckily), but the social structure of Pern. You see, Pern is basically made up of fiefdoms with the Dragonriders being protective knights. More or less. There are also traders and a Harper Hall and tradesmen and more but the main “lords” of the planet are huge landowners.

This all works well for the series, but seems odd when considering how Pern was founded. You see, this is a story set in the far future. It is the story of a group of people settling a new planet, making it their own and then covering what happens over the next few thousand years.

My point is, why would a group of settlers to a new planet, choose a society that is a fiefdom vs. choosing a society where everyone that settled the planet was equal meaning no royalty or “royal families? This has always bugged me about this series.

Don’t get me wrong, this is one of my favorite series of books. It just feels like the society doesn’t match what the characters in the books are striving for, which is freedom from a great oppressor.

Bottom line, most of the characters are “high society” meaning a sort of royalty, especially for the non-Dragonriders. There are exceptions, of course but I guess it just rubs me the wrong way when I read about dredges and servants and common workers and they appear to be treated as less than human.

With that said, one of the dredges becomes, arguably, the most powerful person on Pern, a Dragonrider. So there is that!

This could be a much longer discussion as I’m sure the author chose this social structure as a way to make an interesting story. Plus, she didn’t go into the founding of the planet until much later in the series. So, maybe I’m just full of it!

In any event, all the books are highly recommended and a good distraction from what our own world is going through right now.

Enjoy and be safe out there!