Dragonflight

The American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey published the science fiction novel Dragonflight in July 1968 through Ballantine Books. It is the first book of the Dragonriders of Pern and was assembled from two novellas, which between them made McCaffrey the first woman to win both a Hugo and a Nebula Award. It is set on a colonised planet whose settlers were forced to abandon their plans for a low-technology life, and it is the first of a long series of Pern novels.

Pern is a colony world that has lost the memory of what it is, and every few generations a silver rain of spores falls from the sky and eats everything organic it touches. The colonists encountered the Thread before they were ready, and the only defence they developed is the dragons: bred from a native species, bonded to a rider at hatching, and able to burn the spores out of the air.

Lessa is the last surviving heir of Ruatha Hold, living as a kitchen drudge while she waits for a chance to take her home back. When the dragonriders of Benden come looking for candidates, she gets that chance, and the bond she forms changes what the Weyrs are able to do. The novel follows her from the Hold to the Weyr, and the dragons' ability to move through time becomes part of the answer to the Thread.

The Pern series continued for decades, with further books following different Weyrs, Holds and generations of riders. This first volume establishes the planet, the Thread, the dragons and the relationship between rider and dragon that the rest of the series depends on, and it can be read as a self-contained story.