Thread, the deadly destructive alien spore, falls on Pern with the close passing of the Red Star, but no thread has fallen for 400 turns. F'lar searches for a strong-willed female candidate for an upcoming impression and finds just the woman. Lessa is brought to Benden Weyr and impresses the gold dragon Ramoth. F'lar and Lessa set about rebulding the weyr and restoring it to its proper hierarchy in the society. With the return of thread, the severe inadequacy of the fighting strength of one weyr forces Lessa to a desperate move. If she fails she will die, and Pern will be lost.

The ways of the oldtime dragonriders from Pern's past differ from the present. Their demands and takings from the craft and Lord Holders cause the Holder to resent the oldtimers. Open warfare is out of the question with threadfall a constant threat - to eliminate the need for oldtimers, the Holders and Crafthalls must eliminate thread completely by destroying it at its source. Trying to answer the great question, F'nor and Canth go between - to the Red Star! Nominated for the Hugo in 1972.

Jaxom and Ruth set out to discover Pern and themselves. Their growth to adulthood leads them into brave actions, and they prevent a war between dragons and their riders. Jaxom catches a major illness and while being cured finds the woman he wants as his companion. Knowing this, he takes the necessary steps to be confirmed as the Lord Holder of Ruatha. His life changes and so does Pern. Jaxom has made a startling discovery that will alter Pern's past and set it on a new path for the future. Winner in 1979 of the Ditmar (Australia), Streza (Eurocon), and Gandalf (WorldCon) awards.

Menolly has a talent for music matched by no one else in Halfcircle Seahold. Her parents do not approve of her musical interest but tolerated it while the Harper was alive. With the death of Harper Petiron her parents suppress her only real love - music. Menolly flees the hold to the seacaves to live with her music and fire lizards. One day she is caught out in the open during threadfall, trying to outrun the leading edge. She is saved by a thread-fighting dragon, and her rescue sets in motion events and meetings with people that will change her life and future.

Menolly arrives at the Harper Crafthall. Though at first afraid and apologetic, she quickly learns her way around and makes friends.

Piemur's youthful soprano singing voice finally cracks. Singing was Piemur's main study at Harpercraft Hall. Depressed over his sudden loss, he knows full well it will take tme for his voice to settle, if he is ever able to sing again at all. But Masterharper Robinton has other uses for the wily, conniving youth, sending Piemur on political fact gathering missions for the Hall. Then Piemur steals a queen fire lizard egg, thus setting a Lord Holder against him. The information Piemur has gathered on the Lord Holder and his dealings with the banished Oldtimers must be saved. Piemur must also save himself and the unhatched fire lizard egg as well. Winner in 1980 of the Balrog Award for Best Novel.

Moreta, Weyrwoman of Fort Weyr, attends the first Gather of Alessan, The Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold. Disaster strikes most of Pern in the form of a Plague. Both come down with the illness but recover to assist the other sick and dying. Because the sickness strikes both runner beast and humans, Master Healer Campian realizes that the infectious agent can be caught again by either party from the other. Moreta and several other dragonriders are called into service to travel across Pern to head off another outbreak - if they fail the destruction of Pern is likely. Nominated in 1984 for the Hugo Award for best novel.

Nerilka is left behind when her father, mother, and sisters attend the first gather of Lord Alessan of Ruatha. A plague strikes Ruatha and Nerilka's father breaks quarantine to come home. Word soon arrives of the deaths of her mother and sisters and Nerilka's father moves his mistress and her family in. Nerilka, not wishing to be subservient and degraded, and also ashamed of her father's actions, decides to leave her Hold, setting off on an adventure to a better life.

Over 6,000 people of the Federated Sentient Planets spend fifteen years in deep sleep on a one-way trip to establish a colony on Pern. The landing is succcessful and proceeds for several years until the first arrival of Thread. The threadfall is devastating. Scientists determine that this is not a short-term problem. Realizing help cannot come from the FSP, the colonists discover they might be able to alter the genetic structure of Pern's fire-lizards. The scientists make the necessary alterations and wait with little hope for the final result. Winner of the 1990 Science Fiction Book Club award for best novel.

Not everyone on Pern enjoyed the protection of a Hold. Some were excluded from holds for punishment. Others, like Jayge's trader clan, simply preferred the freedom of the roads to the security of a Hold. Aramina's family had lost their hold unjustly. For all the holdless, life was a constant struggle for survival. Then, from the ranks of the criminals arose a band of renegades led by Lady Thella. No one was safe from Thella's depradations and now her quarry was Aramina, reputed to have a telepathic link with dragons. Winner of The Science Fiction Book Club 1990 "Book of the Year."

When AIVAS - the Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System - was first discovered at Landing, the entire planet of Pern was awed at the knowledge it divulged. All the history of the peole of Pern was there. Dragonholders, Lord Holders and Craftmasters crowded into the tiny inner room to learn the secrets of their beginnings. And AIVAS had other gifts to offer - stored information of old crafts that had been forgotten, or medicine, music and technology. Awarded the Science Fiction Book Club "Book of the Year" in 1992.

Travel back to the earliest days of Pernese history in this first-ever Dragonriders of Pern short-story collection. Join the original survey team as they explore Pern and decide to recommend it for colonization. Share the terror of the evacuation from the Southern Continent as a flotilla of ships, aided by intelligent, talking dolphins, braves the dreadful currents of the Pernese ocean . . . Building a new life on a distant world, braving the dreaded Thread that falls like silver rain from the sky only to destroy every living thing it touches, flying heroically on the wondrous dragons: The Dragonriders of Pern!

When Masterfisher Alemi took young Readis out to catch redfins for the evening feast, neither of them realized it heralded a new chapter in the history of Pern. For when a sudden black squall blew up, their mast splintered and broke and their boat capsized. It was the shipfish who saved them, swooping up from the deep, holding them firm above the water, guiding them back to land, and above all speaking to them. Alemi, called to the all-encompassing power of AIVAS, learned that the shipfish were dolphins - brought to Pern with the early colonists to help and guide man through the oceans of the new planet. Now all the old Dolphin lore had to be rediscovered . . . Science Fiction Book Club winner "Book of the Year" award in 1994.

A collection of 15 short stories including the title story:

Aramina's family were 'holdless.' Driven out of their home after the massacre at Ruatha, they were forced to roam the land, seeking shelter and protection wherever they could. And now, after a period in the Igen caverns, they had to flee yet again - for the evil holdless Lady Thella had discovered Aramina's unusual gift - she could 'hear' dragons - and Thella planned to exploit this gift for her own ends. At dead of night the little family began their flight through the forests and mountains of Pern - pursued by Lady Thella. But this time the dragon were to play a part in Aramina's destiny.

For two hundred years there had been peace on Pern - but now the signs were ominous. Violent winter storms and erupting volcanoes heralded the coming of the second Pass of Thread, when the red planet would rain down its horrifying harvest and destroy every living organism on the face of Pern. No human or dragon or animal or plant was safe from he hideous death inflicted by Thread. Weyrs and Holds tried to prepare, but they had serious problems. Over the generations much of the old technology had been lost. AIVAS, the giant information bank, was buried under tons of volcanic ash, and valuable and skilled men and women had succumbed to disease and old age, taking with them the knowledge of a great civilization. They had to prepare as best they could, training the great flights of dragons and ensuring that the Lord Holders did their part by protecting their people in every possible way. Only Lord Chalkin, Holder of Bitra, refused to co-operate. He did not believe in Threadfall. It was a plot of the Weyrs to gain ascendancy over the Holds. He would do nothing to protect Bitra or its people. The Lord Holders and Weyrleaders were of one accord. Chalkin must be impeached and removed from his lands if the planet was to be made safe.

In a time when no Thread has fallen for centuries - when, indeed, many are beginning to dare hope that Thread will never fall again - a boy is born to Harper Hall. His name is Robinton, and he is destined to be one of the most famous and beloved leaders Pern has ever known. The son of Petiron, renowned composer, and Merelan, one of Pern's most gifted singers, Robinton is a prodigy from birth. As a child, he is already composing music that the apprentice and journeyman harpers play with delight. And he also discovers another gift: he has the ability to speak with the dragons, who tend to reach out telepathically only to their riders. But not everyone appreciates his talents. His own father, driven by jealousy, spurns the boy. And far to the north, in the High Reaches, trouble is brewing in the form of a despotic holder, Fax, who hates harpers in general - and Robinton in particular. It is a perilous time for harpers. They sing of Thread, yet more and more people are beginning to doubt the return of that deadly scourge. They teach reading, writing, and history, yet Fax is determined to keep his growing area of influence free of the learning that might sow unrest. And they extol the dragonriders whom many view increasingly as a drain on the resources of the Holds. Now harpers are being turned away from holds; and, worse yet, they are being derided, attacked, even beaten. It is in this climate of unrest that Robinton will come into his own. For despite the tragedies that beset his own life, he continues to believe in music and in the dragons, and he is determined to save his beloved Pern from itself . . . so that the dragonriders can be ready to fly against the dreaded Thread when at last it returns!

It is a time of hope and regret, of endings and beginnings. The Red Star, that celestial curse whose eccentric orbit was responsible for Thread, has been shifted to a harmless orbit, and the current Threadfall will be the last. Technological marvels are changing the face of life on Pern. And the dragonriders, led by F'lessan, son of F'lar and Lessa and rider of bronze Golanth, and Tai, rider of green Zaranth, must forge a new place for themselves in a world that may no longer need them. But change is not easy for everyone. There are those who will stop at nothing-not even violence-to keep Pern and its people pure. And now a brand-new danger looms from the skies....and threatens a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

Every dragon that ever breathed fire lives in this wondrous book!