Subject: Anne McCaffrey: "First Fall"

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 1994 03:37:42 GMT

Anne McCaffrey's "The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall" tells a story that
didn't really need telling, and tells it badly.  Several stories, in fact.

She should have left well enough alone:  Pern was settled by colonists who
were unaware of the Red Star and its thread, and contact with the home
worlds was lost for reasons unknown.  In providing more specific answers,
McCaffrey has given us a collection of labored, unconvincing, and
uninteresting stories.

The first story, "The Survey", tries to explain why the original survey
team failed to spot the danger, but ignores the more serious organizational
stupidity:  It makes sense to have a small team do a quick initial survey,
but you'd think that if habitable planets are uncommon, a thorough followup
survey would be conducted before sending in ten thousand colonists.  (We're
not talking here about "It looks great, but let's be cautious," from the
original survey; we're talking about "We don't know what killed so much of 
the plant and animal life, but aside from that it looks great.")

The last story, "Rescue Run", tries to explain why contact was never
resumed:  A mission finds a few survivors in the south and, after a
cursory exploration, takes their word for it that nobody else survived.
It doesn't occur to anyone to check the other continent.  A far more
serious failing is that it doesn't occur to anyone to orbit a camera and
computer-scan Pern, rather than try to physically search it in five days.

Three other stories cover the early years of threadfall.  "The Dolphin's
Bell" is the story of the evacuation of the southern continent.  By and
large, the story could as well have been about an evacuation of Long Island.
(There's even a main character who knows a lot about twentieth-century
history and nothing about nineteenth or twenty-first century history -- a
failure of verisimilitude to which McCaffrey is particularly prone.)

"The Ford of Red Hanrahan" tells of the settling of the third northern
Hold.  It's particularly dull.  "The Second Weyr" -- the tale of the
establishment of Weyrs at Benden and elsewhere -- is the best story of
this poor lot but, like 'Ford', it's still mainly begats:  This is how 
the name was chosen and this is how the location was picked and this is 
how such and such custom arose and here are the names of the original 
leaders, etc.

Writing stories to fill in the backstory of a favorite story or series is
a common passtime among fans, and such fan fiction can be fun for the
writers and the readers.  It's almost always a mistake, though, for
authors to write their own fan fiction.

If you must read this book, get it from the library, for it is not
worth the $3 that used book stores will eventually ask for it.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

   "You have the reputation of being one of the nicest guys in the field.
    We both know you're a hyena on its hind legs.  How have you fooled
    everyone?"  "By keeping my mouth shut when I read garbage" -- Gene Wolfe