- Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern. Her best-written and best-plotted story, in my opinion, even if nowhere near my personal favourite.
- Dragonquest. Good expansion on the "mysteries" introduced in Dragonflight and addresses the change of status quo and cultural clash between Oldtimers who were accustomed to more deference and the newer dragonriders who've had to basically support themselves.
- Dragonsinger. Menolly may be a Mary Sue, what with her incredible musical gifts, 9+ fire-lizards, and ability to win over just about everyone with her winningest personality that wins over just about everyone, but at least she's an entertaining one.
- Dragonsong. Bumped down a bit because she whines and feels more sorry for herself in this one. Also, the obstacles against her are a bit more over-the-top.
- The White Dragon. Continues on from Dragonquest, with the stuff expanded upon there coming to a head. Jaxom annoys me, but I like Ruth, and it's nice to see things from the previous books resolved in a believable way.
- Dragonsdawn. How the colony got started, and how it adapted in the ways that would eventually produce "modern" Pernese society. Ranked lower because it's more of a set-up prequel than a "classic" Pern book.
- Dragonflight. Got everything started and a pretty good standalone sword-and-sorcery feudal barbarian warlords-type story in its own right.
Bumped a few places down because its "tone" isn't quite congruent with the books further down the line and can be a bit jarring if read back-to-back. Also, skeevy gender relationship issues which admittedly never disappear, but are more open and obvious in this volume in the series.
- All the Weyrs of Pern. My personal favourite. Yes, I know I have no taste. But I've always been a sucker for technological "uplift" stories.
Bookends Dragonsdawn in dealing with Thread. I pretend the series ended here, and every time I've let go of that pretense long enough to try a further novel out of morbid curiosity, I've ended up… not quite regretting it per se, but just wishing I'd continued to keep pretending.
- First Fall: The Chronicles of Pern. I make an exception for this, since it's mostly a collection of previously-written short stories. Good fill-in-the-blanks on certain aspects of Pernese history.
Post preview says the above list goes up to 9, so I'll add in
Dragondrums for a 10th, even though I don't really like it all that much and Piemur is kind of annoying. But it provides a bridge between
Dragonquest and
The White Dragon which explains certain stuff about the Southern Continent and is better written than the back half of
Renegades of Pern which pretty much repeats the same, but with extra "When will this book finally end?!".
Mind you, I did like the post-Thella/Jayge/Aramina bits where they rediscover Landing. But that's about it.