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The Dolphins Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
01/02/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Corgi. 320 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-552-14270-0. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.booksattransworld.co.uk
This book is a slight tangent to events that took place in All The Wyrs Of Pern as well as progress things a little regarding the discovery and use of information from the settlers original artificial intelligence computer system Avias and the rediscovery that the shipfish are actually dolphins who, because of mentasynth, could speak English and were willing helpers to the humans who brought them to Pern.
As they lived mostly in the seas of the Southern Continent and could eat thread, the dolphins had stayed when the humans fled to the Northern Continent to escape the menace.
Into this mix is Readis, a fisherboy who develops, past his mother's hate of what he sees as his duty, into Pern's first Dolphineer.
McCaffrey seems to favour the basic plot of a lead character finding his goal in life. Others, like Menolly and Jaxom, are also featured although unlike Dragonsong / Dragonsinger and White Dragon, we don't see life solely through Readis' eyes or indeed, T'lion, a bronze dragonrider's and friend, eyes.
A lot of time is also spent in showing something of the lives of many characters that you should already be familiar with from reading the other Pern books.
Although some elements of this story could be considered predictable, what McCaffrey brings to this book is the knowledge and application of how useful dolphins are on Pern and maybe should be considered on our current day Earth. Seeing the dolphins being used as something akin to a CAT scan to locate tumours in humans easily springs to mind.
I probably wouldn't recommend this book to people who haven't had some familiarity with the Pern series, though McCaffrey's storytelling would probably still draw you in and curse for not reading the other books first.
GF Willmetts
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