Anne McCaffrey

[Patti L.]

Are you kidding?  I don't just want an escort, I want to impress one.  Back in days of old, when covered wagons & dinosaurs thundered across the plains, when Ricardo Montelban hosted the original Fantasy Island, I thought that would be a really cool fantasy for someone to request there, around the edges of the 2 main stories for the week.

[charmed]

I remember that show, I used to watch it. That was befiore I read McCffrey however. I would like to impress a dragon but don't really want to fight thread. I'm a wimp. 

[Patti L.]

I remember that show, I used to watch it. That was befiore I read McCffrey however. I would like to impress a dragon but don't really want to fight thread. I'm a wimp. 

Ditto.  Let's arrive either in an Interval, or after the Red Star's been moved so it doesn't haul the stuff out of the Oort cloud any more, eh?
Although, the one reason that wouldn't have been a good fantasy in retrospect, is the incredible sadness of losing your dragon when the fantasy ended.

[Zealith]

Actually, depending on the length of the Pernese year vs. the Terran one, not so long as that.  The colony ship may have taken as much as a couple of centuries to get the colonists in hibernation to Pern (although I think it was more like a couple of years), & the Pernese year/Turn undoubtedly differs in lenght, but is it longer?  1500 +/- Turns could be no more than 900 Terran years, although it's probably fairly congruent.  The drift wasn't bad when that follow up vessel showed up about a generation, generation and a half after their first Threadfall.

I think there was about a month more in a Pernese year. (Month ~ 30, 24 hour, days)

[Patti L.]

Thank you, Zealith.  Still, assuming I'm right about the length of the hibernation, 30 days x 1500 years = gosh, I blanked out on math, 150 extra years?  120?  Considering how much Pern lost, but regained when they rediscovered the AI, how much technical gap would there be?

[Zealith]

I would imagine quiet a lot. Also, I think that there was enough problems with accepting the tecnology AVIS gave them. What sort of danger would the people who came to Pern be in?

[Patti L.]

You mean an expidition from outside?  Hard to say.  I don't think the Pernese would be automatically hostile, but if the outsiders came in like Europeans to North America, ready to rape the planet & ignore the inhabitants & their rights, they'd be formidable, I expect.  Even though the AI had wiped it's personality/memory, the facts were still there, even if the concensus seemed to be that they should continue to limit their dependence on tech.

[charmed]

Yeah, the Pernese population as a whole is not keen on technology. Actaully, except for the glaring omission of religion, they remind of the Amish and other religious groups who have strong views on technology.

I agree that they would defend their planet against any visitors who they believed to be unfriendly, threatening or otherwise problematic. Having said that, I think that if new arrivals wanted to stay and settle they'd be welcomed, provided of course that they abided by Pernese law and cusotm.

[Patti L.]

And that would provide some interesting stories, I'd imagine.  Maybe (dubiously) enough for a book.

[Zealith]

Interesting fanfiction at the least.

[charmed]

Maybe an anthology of short stories by different authors? It would be interesting to see other writers take on Pern.

[Zealith]

I would like to see that. There have been so many different worlds that when they were opened up to other authors  were really added to.

[charmed]

Yup yup yup.

[Patti L.]

um.  It's already happened in a limited way.  Fifteen years or so ago there were, or maybe was a, 'choose your own adventure' book(s) about Pern.  The one I recall involved Robinton as a young, travelling Harper.

[charmed]

  NO!!! Really? I missed that entirely. I still like my idea better.