Nerilka's Story (Dragonriders of Pern Series)

I'm really glad Anne McCaffrey wrote this book because I was wondering how Nerilka got to Ruatha in Moreta. It's a really sad book of the classic story of the unappreciated younger daughter. You have to read this if you read Moreta.

I had read reviews for Nerilka's Story most of which gave the impression that Ms. McCaffrey's time and effort had been wasted writing the book. I however beg to differ. This book told a truely unique story of a girl who is nothing speicial other than the fact that she is the Lord Holder's daughter. Nerilka is a middle daughter of a large family and she has no one who really cares for her except her mother and a few siblings. When her mother dies and her father takes his mistress for a wife she is pressed into labor for a woman she despises, sewing dresses for her stepmother. She finally runs away to help the over worked healers fighting the Great Plauge. Her journey leads her to Rautha Hold where Lord Alessen is trying to salvage his distruaght hold. She works for a month making serum to innoculate all the people and animals of Pern when a devistating thing happens, making Lord Alessen more miserable, to the point when she agrees to make him a cup of poison after leaving a heir to Hold Ruatha. With her loving patience she is able to salvage a life, make a distraught man tentativly happy, and create a place for herself in a world where her father didn't even know her name.

Nerilka is a hardworking rather plain daughter of the Lord Holder of Fort Hold. She spends most of her summers gathering and laying up medicines and other stores. She spends the rest of her time helping in the kitchens and sewing or whatever other work needs doing. When her father decides to take some of her younger, unmarried sisters to the Ruatha Gather in hopes of snaring Lord Alessan as a husband, she believes that she will get to go too, but her father leaves her behind. Nerilka thinks that this is very cruel because her best friend was Lord Alessan's first wife before she was killed in a tragic runnerbeast accident and she used to write to Nerilka about Ruatha. Nerilka would give just about anything to see it.

When Fort Hold hears the terrible news about the sickness spreading across Pern, Nerilka immediately takes as many stores to the Harper Hall as she can, knowing full well that her father would never give them anything. Her father forces one of the dragonriders to bring him back to Fort Hold, flagrantly disobeying the rule of the Masterhealer to stay where you were when the sickness started to spread. Nerilka soon learns that her mother and all of her sisters died of the plague. Her mother is barely in the ground before her father brings his mistress and her family into the Hold. Nerilka cannot bear to serve someone younger than herself who lords it over everyone at the Hold. When she overhears her father denying the Masterhealer and Masterharper medication and other supplies, Nerilka sneaks out several large sacks of the essentials and leaves with them. She starts treating the illness at a camp just outside of the Fort Hold and then travels to small holdings that are far away from Hold and Weyr.

Nerilka soon hears that Ruatha Hold is all but desolate, she knows that she is needed most there. She arrives to discover that Lord Alessan has lost all of his family, but his sister Oklina. As she struggles with the few survivors of Ruatha Hold to develop a vaccine that can save all of Pern's livestock, she finds herself falling in love with Lord Alessan. She knows that he will never care for her, especially since he loves Weyrwoman Moreta, but when news of the terrible tragedy of Moreta's death reaches Ruatha, it changes everything...

Nerilka's Story is essentially the same story contained in Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, but told from a different perspective. This is the first time in the series that Anne McCaffrey wrote a book about someone other than a dragonrider or a Harper so it was very interesting to see life on Pern from a completely different perspective. I liked Nerilka - she kept trying to stand up for herself and to do what was right even when everyone else was trying to hold her back and keep her down. I also enjoyed seeing the story of Moreta from an outsider's point of view and learned a lot about Pern at the time of Moreta that I didn't know before. My only real complaint about the book is that it is so short! I was able to read it in about 1 hour (I am a fast reader, though). If you have enjoyed any of Anne McCaffrey's other books in the Pern series, I know that you will enjoy this one!

With the publishing of Nerilka's Story, Anne McCaffrey took a bold and potentially dangerous step, leaving the proven success of concertrating on dragons and dragonriders to offer the reader a revealing and poignant insight into the equally dangerous but more mundane world of the common holder.

This book gives us a feel for what the average citizen of Pern must endure; privation, sickness, a medieval culture governed by far-from-enlightened nobles, and the desperation of facing endless drudgery with little hope of ever improving one's lot in life.

The entire Pernese series is greatly enriched by the grass roots knowledge revealed in this story. Nerilka faces daunting challenges from a variety of sources, eventually proving that both tragedy and triumph are the domain of all people, and that indomitable spirits are not limited to those whose lives are spent in the Weyrs.

Ms McCaffrey goes to great lengths, including illustrations, to emphasize how physically plain and unappealing Nerilka is. Regardless, nothing can keep the beauty of her spirit and personality from bursting through. She is as true a heroine as any who ever rode a dragon.

Nerilka's Story may be a saphire in a world of diamonds, but it is still a jewel in the crown of the Pernese Saga. Without this volume, the tale of the Dragonriders of Pern is incomplete.

i found Nerilka's Story to be a facinating book that looked into Nerilka's past and present life and shows us through her actions what her pet pieves are and how she tolerates things. i have been a major Anne McCaffery fan ever since Damia and this one rates right up there with Renagades of pern.