A Different Kind of Hero

Every world needs a hero. Every land needs a legend to encourage people during hard times, to serve as a standard against which we all measure ourselves. Moreta is that standard for Anne McCaffrey's Pern.

Originally published in 1983, Moreta:Dragonlady of Pern serves as a prequel to the Dragonflight and Dragonsinger miniseries of the Pern saga. The story begins some 1400 turns after Landing*, toward the end of the sixth Pass*. Moreta, Fort's Weyrwoman* and rider of gold Orlith, is something of a sportswoman. Much to the horror of all the proper lords and ladies about, she enjoys runner* races. So, when Lord Alessan of Ruatha Hold throws a Gather* and invites her to attend the races (and visit the runner beast hold), Moreta scandalously agrees.

In one of the latter races, a runner beast mysteriously collapses. No one can seem to pinpoint a cause. Meanwhile, the Gather continues.

People at the Gather begin to succumb to an unknown illness. Fever, headache, chills and sometimes unconsciousness run rampant through Ruatha. Drum messages go out to all who can hear, only to be returned with tidings of the same frightening malady in other areas of the country. Citizens - crafter, holder, weyrbred, everyone - begin dying by the handful. Pern is in the grips of a pandemic. Campian, the MasterHealer*, calls for a quarantine while he tries valiantly to find a cure, yet, of course, a few Lords Holder and Weyrleaders refuse to listen.

Of utmost importance to the development and dissemination of a cure is needlethorn (a plant that produces natural needles), but the season is wrong for harvesting and the people of Pern face devastating losses without it. Moreta, knowing the dire need of her planet, and risking her own life, as well as the life of her dragon, travels in time again and again to get the supplies her people so desperately need. Sick, and tired, and past the point of human endurance, she makes one final trip…and rides forever into the pages of Pern's history.

Fans of the series will have noted mention of Moreta during the original trilogy (The Ballad of Moreta's Ride). It was, after all, her famous ride that inspired Lessa (the heroine of that miniseries) to go back in time and bring forward the other Weyrs to help destroy thread during her Pass.

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern is of the same caliber as the other early Pern books. The characters are very well drawn, the story is captivating. Moreta, in particular, is not the usual sort of heroine. She is a full-fledged adult (around 40 years old) when her story begins, and, while not ecstatically happy, she is living a life she chose for herself - Moreta is nobody's victim. Many of the other prominent characters are quite human, rather than paragons of virtue or devils in disguise. Some of the dialogue does come off as a little chintzy, " Nothing will change yesterday. So now you must deal with today," but we all encounter such offerings every once in a while, so their occasional presence here should prove no real barrier to reading the book. McCaffrey's vision is still fresh in this Hugo Award nominated novel, and does not suffer from the been-once-too-often-to-the-well syndrome of her last few Pern installments.

Overall, Moreta, though not often highly favored by fans of the series, is well worth the investment and a must read for any Pern aficionado.




*****
Vastly abridged, unofficial dictionary for the Pern uninformed:
Gather - a kind of large, community party often lasting for days
Landing - the date the original colonists from Earth landed on Pern
MasterHealer - kind of the Surgeon General of Pern
Pass - Pern has a Red Star (a comet) which orbits the planet erratically. A pass consists of those years when the comet passes close enough to the planet to throw off parasites which eat anything organic.
Runner - something like a horse
Turn - a Pernese year
Weyr - the place where dragons and their riders live, usually caves
Weyrwoman - the female co-leader of a Weyr (the male counterpart is called simply weyrleader)