Pern's Beginning

This book is not the first in the series, but it should have been; however, I don't belive Anne McCaffrey realized at the time she wrote "Dragonflight,"( the first in the series,which was originally written as a short story), that she would have such a loyal following of readers. Therefore, many books later she wrote "Dragonsdawn."

This book chronicles the landing on Pern, the earth-type planet in the Rukbat system, which seemed like a blessing in disguise to the new colonists. At this point the book gets, out of necessity, a little boring when it starts to deal with the everyday business of setting up housing for everyone; the colonists becoming involved with their individual work; and the day-to-day business of building a whole new society.

Then, about a third of the way through the book we do get some excitement: they discover firelizards! These tiny replicas of dragons, discovered by Sorka and Sean, soon became an object of interest to the other colonists when Sorka and Sean "impress" some of the little creatures, and take them home as pets. It turns out, though, that these little pretties are more than just cute pets.

We are now introduced to the dread of Pern: thread; a spore that hurls itself out of the sky from "The Red Star," that eats anything organic in it's path. This is naturally a great cause of concern to the population of Pern, therefore they start to work on fighting a menace they don't understand.

Experience the magic of Pern, as the scientists attempt to breed dragons big enough for a man to ride to combat thread; and the disappointment of the first hatching. Live through the heartache of Sallah Telgar's sacrifice on Pern's behalf, and learn why the inhabitants of Pern moved from the Southern Continent to form the first weyr in the north.