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Title | Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
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Author | Anne McCaffrey
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Cover Art | Michael Whelan
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Publisher | Del Rey - 1984
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First Printing | Del Rey - 1983
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Title | Nerilka's Story
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Author | Anne McCaffrey
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Cover Art | Edwin Herder
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Publisher | Del Rey - 1987
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First Printing | Del Rey - 1986
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Category | Science Fiction
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Moreta, Orlith, Nerilka, Alessan |
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Main Elements | Dragons
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Website | ---
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 Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Panic on Pern
An air of pleasant anticipation hung so thickly over the Halls, Holds and Weyrs of Pern that it had affected even the businesslike ways of Moreta, the Weyrwoman of Fort Weyr, where her dragon, Queen Orlith, would soon clutch.
Then without warning, a runnerbeast fell ill. Soon myriads of holders, craftsmen, and dragonriders were dying, and the mysterious ailment had spread to all but the most inaccessible holds. Pern was in mortal danger. For, if dragonriders did not rise to char Thread, the parasite would devour any and all organic life it encountered.
The future of the planet rested in the hands of Moreta and the other dedicated selfless Pernese leaders. But of all their problems, the most difficult to overcome was time.
Nerilka's Story
A deadly epidemic was sweeping across Pern!
Everyone, holder and dragonrider alike, pitched in to help - except Nerilka's father, who refused to share Fort Hold's bounty with the other Hold's. So, ashamed of her family and determined to do her part, Nerilka packed up medicines and supplies and sneaked off to aid her people.
Her quest to help wherever she was most needed led her finally to Ruatha Hold, where Lord Alessan was frantically preparing the precious serum needed for mass inoculations against the dread plague.
Nerilka had long ago abandoned the hope of marriage and a home of her own. Now she found happiness in being useful and appreciated - first the Healers and then Alessan made very clear that they were grateful for her help.
She had no idea that her new path would change the course of her life forever.
Make sure you have a tissue box handy, and not just for the first book in this pair of novels set in the middle area of Pern's chronology. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Here McCaffrey brings us back in time to see the historical events that the ballad Moreta's Ride was based on. Pern is afflicted by a highly contagious and fast spreading plague and even though the dragons are immune their riders are not. And no dragon lives when his rider dies. I'm not a huge plague story fan, reading about sickness unerves me, but I instantly fell in love with the characters of Moreta and Alessan and Orlith, as well as some of the blue riders who don't get much of a chance to feature in any of the stories.
We also understand more why, in the future of Pern, they have lost so much knowledge of their past. After so many died before being able to share their knowledge with the next generation. And when knowledge of the fact that dragons can time travel, leads to a great disaster, one may decide that it might be best forgotten and never used again (at least until Lessa rediscovers it by mistake). We also find out why the Southern Contient becomes not just forbidden, but downright terrifying, and why no one returns for centuries to come.
Nerilka's Story is more of a novella, told from the point of view of Fort Lord Holder's daughter who is skilled in healing but due to her father's paranoia is not permitted to help the afflicted. She sees the same events as in the previous novel, but from a very different point of view, and through her we find out what happens to the characters whose stories didn't quite wrap up in the other book.
The one downside...I'm not entirely convinced it is that easy to make a vaccine, and certainly they are not instantly effective, I know our modern day flu vaccine takes a couple weeks before it starts working. And if there are so few surivors of the plague, is there enough blood to go around to make enough vaccine for those who still need it, runnerbeast and human alike? And frankly, given time travel solves a lot of problems, the end of the story should never have happened, just jump back in time a day, grab a nap, and then continue. (And why not jump back a week before everything got so bad? Though that would definitely cause a paradox). But then that's the tragedy, sometimes all it takes is one stupid mistake...
Since the beginning of the year I've read 8 Pern books in three months and I haven't gotten bored of it yet which is not something one can say of most series. They are exciting to read, with amazing world building and characters you grow extremely attached to. How McCaffrey managed to keep the quality going is an amazing feat. I'm looking forward to keep going with the next book which brings us back even further in time to the origins of Pern and the arrival of the colonists.
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