Subject: Shappe's Review:_The People of Pern_ Date:

From: [email-masked] (Michael Scott Shappe)

2 Nov 88 01:49:27 GMT

Shappe's Review: _The People of Pern_ Text by Anne McCaffrey Art by
Robin Wood

Warning The following post may contain important information regarding
Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" stories and characters.  Anyone who feels that
their enjoyment either of the reviewed work or related works would be
destroyed by continuing should bug out now.

The author assumes no responsibility for spoilt appetities.



I had just come down off of my _DragonsDawn_ high.  I had just stopped
dreaming of dragons at night.  Then, I walked into B. Daltons, and
WHAMMMO, there it was, all over again, as bad as before, for there,
sitting on the shelf, was _The People of Pern_, by Anne McCaffrey and
Robin Wood.

_TPoP_ is primarily an art book.  The book contains a large number of high-
quality paintings and sketches of the characters of McCaffrey's first eight
Pern books, accompanied by Anne's own descriptions of the characters.  Anne
had a large hand how her characters were represented, so these visions can
be considiered "canonical" -- particularly those of Master Harper Robinton and
Menolly, both of which are based on the same real people the characters
were based on.

Speaking of Master Robinton -- the portrait in the book is what convinced
me to buy the book, and apparently part of what convinced Anne to have
the book done, and rightly so.  It is absolutly beautiful, as are all its
companions.  Robin Wood, who's previous Pern fame relates to the
Mayfair games version of /DragonRiders of Pern/, clearly has a feel for
Pern.

Also of interest are the small spoilers Anne gives for future books (yes, there
are more on the way -- that she divulges not-so-subtly in her introduction).
Whether Anne actually plans to write into Pern's "future" (that is, the time
after _White Dragon_) or not, she definitely appears to have thought up 
interesting additions to the dimensions of several characters, including
F'nor, Brekke, T'gellan, Mirrim, and Jaxom.

My ratings:
Uninitiated Types: Read the books first!!!!! THEN get this.
Casual fans: May want to wait for the paperback or the SFBC edition, if
             nothing else becase the thing runs $19.95
Slobbering junkies like me: Get it.  Get it NOW!!!!!!

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Copyright (c) 1988 Michael Scott Shappe.  All Rights Reserved.  This copyright
is not intended to infringe upon those legitimately held by any other
other individual or group.