From: cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows)
Subject: Pern Dates vs. AD Dates
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 19:09:55 GMT


Many of Anne McCaffrey's stories (Pern, Crystal Singer, Planet Pirates)
seem to be set in the same universe, the one with the Federated Sen-
tient Planets and coldsleep.  However, for Pern, the operative ques-
tion is when?  There are some clues in DRAGONSDAWN.

The Federated Sentient Planets is around.  Of course, it was around
long before humanity joined it (unless I misread Planet Pirates),
but what is significant is that humanity is a member.

Humanity has slow FTL travel.  Slow, because it took 15 years to get
from where they started (was it First Centauri, or was that just a bat-
tle in the previous war?  Haven't read DD in too long; will do so shortly.
Even the FTL message capsules, which, it can be assumed, are much faster
than the big colony ships, take five years to reach FSP HQ.  But in
Planet Pirates, it never takes more than a few months (I believe) to get
anywhere.

The EEC (Exploration and Evaluation Corps) mentioned in Planet Pirates
was around two hundred years prior to colonization of Pern.  This is
significant because we now know that FTL travel has been around for 
at least that long.

The human colonists have no moral qualms about eating meat.  This is
VERY significant, since the rejection of meat-eating as "part of 
humanity's barbaric past" played a major part in Planet Pirates.  This,
and the slower FTL speeds, help to place Pern's colonization BEFORE 
Planet Pirates.

Those are the major factors that have helped me date Pern's colonization.
As for when it might be, I would estimate probably somewhere around
2400 to 2600 A.D.  Planet Pirates takes place mostly in the 2800s,
I think.  This would give humanity a good amount of time to stop
eating meat, and would allow a pretty good leeway for man to have
discovered FTL travel sometime between now and the 2200s.

I really would like to know just which of McCaffrey's works fit into
this future universe she's created.  The "Pegasus in Flight" and
"Decision at Doona" books, for example, and how about "The Ship Who
Sang"?  Does anyone have an official chronology (like that of Heinlein) 
for when all the stories that DO fit together took place?  I would 
LOVE to see such a thing, or a historical essay, by Anne McCaffrey.
It would help the books fit together, in my mind, and would perhaps
shed some light on what will happen to Pern in the years to come 
after ALL THE WEYRS OF PERN concludes.

That chain of thought, by the way, brings to light some interesting
questions.  How could Pern have been entirely and completely forgotten
about?  Perhaps I'll find out in RESCUE FLIGHT.  Perhaps the question
of the chronology will be answered then, too.  It's too bad that Lunzie
or Sassinak couldn't come to Pern...it would be interesting to see Lunzie's
reaction to the dragons.  Unfortunately, however, I don't think that 
anyone could survive a thousand-year deepsleep, and even if they could,
there'd be no reason for taking one.  *shrug*  Oh, well, it probably
wouldn't work out anyway.

What must technology be like in the rest of the galaxy at the time
AtWoP is taking place?  That's hundreds of years after Lunzie's time.
We'll probably never know, I guess.

Enough babbling...now to send this message and wait for replies...

--
Chris Meadows  | Editor of Robotech: The Misfold; author of other               
CHM173S@SMSVMA | Robotech/Rifts stories; DEFENDER of PALLADIUM BOOKS!!!         
CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU   | "Computer, you and I need to have a little             
CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | talk..." --Chief O'Brien, DEEP SPACE NINE              
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