Dragonflight

by Anne McCaffrey

303 pages

English language

Published April 11, 1985 by Professional Services Center for the Visually Handicapped [Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction].

ISBN:: 978-0-345-31447-5
OCLC Number:: 18270330

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(117 reviews)

HOW CAN ONE GIRL SAVE AN ENTIRE WORLD?To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise--and take back her stolen birthright. But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa's world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world. . . .From the …

64 editions

fiainros reviewed Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (The dragonriders of Pern -- v. 1)

Review of 'Dragonflight' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

From back: After ten long Turns, Lessa is ready to come out of hiding, to reclaim her birthright ... and to Impress the young dragon queen and become Weyrwoman of Benden.
Suddenly the deadly silver Thread once again threatens all Pern with destruction. But the mighty telepathic dragons that had defended Pern for centuries are now few in number, not nearly enough to protect the planet in its hour of greatest peril. So Lessa hatches a daring and dangerous scheme: rally support from people who long go ceased to exist...

I see why this story is historical fantasy akin to reading Tolkien if you are a fantasy reader. How can you not fall in love with the stories of these dragons and their riders?

I love tiny Lessa with her stubborn and defiant ways. This is a character I would have loved as a teenager, and I know I would have loved these books then. It is too bad I did not discover them at that time. The romance part of the novel is a little lacking. I find that Ms. McCaffrey is not the best at writing romances. Certainly her later novels are better than her earlier ones.

I did not manage to read this book first as I thought Dragonsong was a first novel in its own trilogy not related to Pern. That is okay. I actually still had no idea what was really going on in this novel from Dragonsong, only from the excerpt on the back of the book.

joeyh reviewed Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (The Dragonriders of Pern, #1)

Review of 'Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is one of those books that I can still remember where it was shelved in the library (which has been torn down), what that corner of the adult fiction section was like and the odd rocket+planet sticker the library inexplicably put on all the books I liked. The author died today, and that triggered these memories.

I remember Daddy letting me loose in the adult fiction section at some point, when the preteen section was growing thin. Could this have been one of the first books I grabbed? Maybe; the M's were near the back, so I probably found Asimov first, but, maybe. Certianly one of the early ones.

I remember figuring out that this was science fiction, and learning to appreciate how the SFnal view permiated the fantasy story.