ragons are real. Genetically engineered from tiny flying lizards, they soar through the skies of the planet Pern hunting for their ancestral enemy, the life-consuming, silvery entities known as Thread. Their human riders, who bond with them telepathically moments after the dragons hatch from their eggs, aid them in their ancient quest.
Every 200 years for millennia, the Red Star--the source of the mindless, destructive Threads--passes close enough to Pern to drop its vile invaders down on the fertile planet. But as Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight opens, Threads have not fallen for 400 years. Most of the Lord Holders--the rulers of the lands of Pern--no longer believe that the Threads will fall, and have begun to look upon the dragons as costly, antiquated parasites. They ignore all the old rules and traditions for fending off Thread, and have taken to tithing only the worst of their produce and livestock to the dragonriders.
The dragon population has plummeted over the long centuries, thanks both to the Lord Holders' disdain and dragonfolk's inept, spineless leadership, which only half-believes the Threads will return. Where seven weyrs full of dragons once protected the planet, now only one remains.
But not all on Pern have forgotten the old ways. F'lar, rider of bronze Mnementh, has studied the old records and seen the signs pointing to the invaders' return. The Red Star is growing closer, and a newly laid queen dragon egg is warming on the sands of the Hatching Ground. He knows that to wrest control of the weyr from the old leadership, he
must find a strong-willed woman to bond with soon-to-be-hatched queen.
He discovers her in the form of Lessa, a young woman whose entire family was slaughtered by a ruthless, expansionist dictator named Fax. She has spent the last 10 years plotting the man's downfall, and when she meets F'lar, she maneuvers him into fighting and slaying the overlord. She thinks the man's death will win her back her lands, but it wins her something far greater: a new life as a dragonrider.
A dragon designed for SF dreamers
The first Pern short story, "Dragonrider," appeared in Analog in 1967. It was folded into Dragonflight when the novel was published in 1968, and McCaffrey has been churning out a steady stream of Pern novels ever since.
McCaffrey reinvented the dragon with her Pern books, taking the mythical archetypes of Western civilization and merging them with the technology of the far future. The result is a novel that looks like fantasy, but has strong science fiction roots. The heroes may live in a technologically backward, agrarian society, but they aren't intent on keeping it that way. The new generation of dragonriders represented by F'lar and Lessa are guided by tradition and augment it with whatever technology they can discover or recreate. They are truly heroic, passionate individuals who constantly fight to find solutions to their problems, rather than succumbing to apathy and despair.
What makes the book--and the series--work, though, are the dragons. They are grand, majestic beasts that breathe fire by chewing "firerocks" and are capable of teleporting between places in less time than it takes to count to three. They are every boy and girl's dreams of the perfect companion: loyal and loving as the best puppy, intelligent and caring as a best friend, and capable of going anywhere. It's a heady, addictive vision that easily captures the imagination and keeps fans craving more.
