I just saw the news (in EW, of all places) that there’s finally going to be a Dragonriders of Pern movie. I am thrilled, elated, and scared.
This series is one of my most beloved in the sci fi realm – I started reading it in my early teens, and fell in love with it.
My mom had this bookshelf in our third bedroom, next to where the dogs were crated at night. The shelves went up and up and up to the ceiling in the tiny home, and about in the middle were her two shelves of sci fi and fantasy books.
It was my own personal reading library, and it was where I first discovered Pern.
I have very personal memories of these books. For Christmas when I was 17, I asked for (and got) “Moreta”, one of my favorite Pern books. My Dad had no idea what it was about, but bless him, he bought it for me anyhow, and I read it that night, cover to cover.
As a closeted teenager, I also secretly thrilled to the fact that there were gay dragonriders = it was one of my first exposures to gays in fiction.
I even envisioned a trip to McCaffrey’s home in Ireland to knock on the door of the great writer, to sit at her feet while she told me stories of how she came up with this amazing world.
So as I said, it is with great trepidation and great excitement that I contemplate a movie based on these books. I know how each character looks (in my head). I know how they sound. Will the movie be true to the books? Will it match what’s in my head?
Did you love these books as much as I did? What do you think?
All I can say is we’ll see! My personal favorite was actually Menolly’s stories. A dragon, wowser, but a bunch of cute little dragon-like critters like the fire lizards? Totally cool concept, and they had such personalities.
I have to confess I have mixed feelings about the Pern books. While I loved, loved, loved the universe and the concepts, I got furious, white hot with anger at the heroines. I was angry with them because they were all incredible, strong, amazing women whose brains all turned to mush and dribbled out their ears the moment they fell in “lurve”. That’s how I felt in the 80s. I haven’t revisted them in years, but I suspect I would find them impossible to read now – my ire on that score only increasing over the years. On the other hand, I got some bragging rights when it comes to Ms McCaffrey. I was fortunate to meet her in the 80s when she was a guest at Keycon, Winnipeg’s annual science fiction and fantasy convention. Very cool lady. She was one of the judges at the costume contest (the only time I ever entered one at a convention. We didn’t call it cosplaying back in the day). I was an Elfquest elf. My version of my character a la EQ. I remember she had these cool streaks of purple in her hair, which was greying at the time, and she said she really liked my costume. heheheh.
I’m glad they have waited. CGI is just about capable of making believable dragons. But I’m still a bit peeved that she skimmed over the whole “all Dragon riders are male, green dragons are female with male riders, green dragons are ‘flown’ the same way gold dragons are’ situation apart from a few sly comments. I can’t see Hollywood addressing the situation either and I’m past writing fan fiction :(