Dragonflight

As a kid, I heard a lot about the Pern books, but somehow never got around to reading them.

I'm reading through them one by one as part of an omnibus edition, so I'm not sure how much of the foreward information was or is included if you read just Dragonflight on its own.

Pern is an awesome blend of science fiction and fantasy. A red star orbits in the same system as Pern, and when it comes close, these black threads fall to the planet leaching the life out of everything. So the Pernese genetically engineer dragons to fight the threads. Dragons that can tesseract through time and space.

Dragonflight centers around the last haven of dragonriders on Pern following a very long time passing since the last pass of the red star. People are starting to think that the danger that the dragons "protect" them from is just a legend. Even dragonriders are getting a little complacent with how they handle life in the weyr.

The threat returns, luckily just following the installation of new leadership among the dragonriders, and the group must come together to keep the threads from destroying a world that has forgotten the threat.

This is the first novel in a classic series, and various books in the series have own a bucketful of awards. This novel reads like a fantasy, and you think that is what it all is about until later in the series when it becomes a science fiction theme. Dragons in this case are winged beasts who can breathe fire and burn the "thread", a deadly enemy that periodically falls from the sky. Lessa, a young lady, has certain mental powers that she puts to work getting revenge on the people who invaded her family's domain, and tries to use those powers on the Dragonriders when they come around. This brings her to their attention, and she become a Dragonrider herself. While I like it a lot (and so do many others when you look at the awards McCaffrey earned), I would not recommend it to someone who does not enjoy fantasy. The science fiction aspects do not come out until later in the series.

I have this as part of the three-volume set The Dragonriders of Pern which includes the first three novels in the series.

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.