Dragonflight
Encyclopedia
Dragonflight is a fantasy
or science fiction
novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey
. It is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern
series. Dragonflight was first published by Ballantine Books
in July 1968. It is a fix-up
of novella
s, including two which made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo
or Nebula Award
.
In 1987, Locus: The magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field
ranked Dragonflight number nine among the 33 "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", based on a poll of subscribers.
science fiction magazine. The first segment, "Weyr Search", had been the cover story for the October 1967 issue, illustrated by John Schoenherr
. The second segment, "Dragonrider", appeared in two parts beginning December 1967.
"Weyr Search" features the recruitment of a young woman Lessa to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, and thus to become a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community on the fictional planet Pern
. "Dragonrider" features the growth of queen dragon Ramoth and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. Analog editor John W. Campbell
requested "to see dragons fighting Thread", Pern's menace from space, and he also suggested time travel. McCaffrey put it all together. A third story "Crack Dust, Black Dust" was not separately published, but provided crucial material for the novel.
is a planet inhabited by humans. The original colonists were reduced to a low level of technology by periodic onslaughts of deadly Thread raining down from the sky. By harnessing the indigenous flying, fire-breathing dragons (with genetic alterations to make them larger and telepathic), humanity finally managed to gain the upper hand. The dragons, with their human riders, destroyed the Thread in the skies over Pern before it was able to burrow into the land and breed. However, an unusually long interval between attacks, centuries in duration, has caused the general population to gradually dismiss the threat and withdraw support from the Weyrs where dragons are bred and trained. By the time of this novel, only one Weyr remains (the other five having mysteriously disappeared at the same time in the last quiet interval), maintaining a precarious hand-to-mouth existence.
Dragons are telepathic; each bonds to a single human being when first hatched. They come in various colors which are generally correlated with their size, blue, green, brown, bronze, and gold queens. Bronzes, as the largest males, are by tradition the only ones who compete to win the queens in their mating flights. Queens, however, are always the largest dragons. As their human counterparts are linked mind-to-mind, the humans mate when their dragons mate.
on the northern continent of Pern. When the rest of her family is killed by a cruel usurper, Fax, she survives by disguising herself as a drudge (a menial servant) partly through simply adopting a slovenly appearance, but also using her hereditary telepathic abilities to make others see her as far older than she is. She escapes notice completely. Her only friend is a watch-wher, a somewhat telepathic animal that guards the castle. Lessa also psychically influences other Hold workers to do less than their best work, or to become clumsy or inefficient. Her idea is to make Ruatha unlivable, so that Fax will renounce it.
F'lar, wingleader at Benden Weyr
and rider of the bronze dragon Mnementh, finds Lessa while Searching for candidates to Impress (bond with) a new queen dragon, as the current queen has a batch of eggs due to hatch very soon, including a crucial golden egg. Realizing that she has engineered the downfall of the Hold, he recognizes her as possessing unusually strong psychic abilities. After defeating Fax in single combat (following the rules of the Pernese code duello
), F'lar convinces Lessa to give up her birthright as Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold and she passes the title on to Fax's newborn son (who later features in The White Dragon
). F'lar takes Lessa to Benden Weyr, where she impresses the Queen dragonet Ramoth and becomes the Weyrwoman, the new co-leader of the last active Weyr
. On Ramoth's first mating flight, Mnementh catches her, and by Weyr tradition, this makes F'lar the Weyrleader.
Lessa and F'lar warn a dangerously unprepared Pern of the impending Thread reappearance. The general response is disbelief, as the last thread-fall was 400 years ago, and the stories about thread-fall have receded from recent history into legend and myth. It is not until the first Thread begins to fall that they are believed by the general populace and even by some dragon-riders.
One Weyr by itself is not enough to defend the planet; there used to be six, but the other five Weyrs are now empty, deserted since the last Pass centuries before. In a desperate attempt to increase their numbers, a new queen, Pridith, and her rider, are sent back between times (a recently rediscovered skill) ten turns, to allow Pridith time to mature and reproduce. Lessa travels four hundred turns into the past to bring the five 'missing' Weyrs forward to her present. This is a huge strain for both her and Ramoth. She convinces the dragonriders of the five Weyrs to go with her to their future, and they use the Red Star as a guide to make smaller, less strenuous hops forward in time. This not only provides much needed skilled reinforcements in the battle against Thread, but explains how and why the five Weyrs were abandoned: they came forward in time.
(voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention) and "Dragonrider", which won the Nebula Award for Best Novella
(voted annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America) in 1969. McCaffrey was the first woman to win either award.
The American Library Association
in 1999 cited the two early Pern trilogies (Dragonriders and Harper Hall
), along with The Ship Who Sang
, when McCaffrey received the annual Margaret A. Edwards Award for her "lifetime contribution in writing for teens".
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
or science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
. It is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
series. Dragonflight was first published by Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
in July 1968. It is a fix-up
Fix-up
A fix-up is a novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material—such as a frame story—is written for the new novel. The term was coined by the science fiction...
of novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s, including two which made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
or Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
.
In 1987, Locus: The magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
ranked Dragonflight number nine among the 33 "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", based on a poll of subscribers.
Origins
Two components of Dragonflight were award-winning novellas published by AnalogAnalog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
science fiction magazine. The first segment, "Weyr Search", had been the cover story for the October 1967 issue, illustrated by John Schoenherr
John Schoenherr
John Schoenherr was an American illustrator.Schoenherr may be best known as the original illustrator for Dune by Frank Herbert, creating the canonical images for elements such as sandworms. However, he is also very well known as a wildlife artist and children's book illustrator, with over forty...
. The second segment, "Dragonrider", appeared in two parts beginning December 1967.
"Weyr Search" features the recruitment of a young woman Lessa to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, and thus to become a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community on the fictional planet Pern
Pern
Pern is a fictional planet created by Anne McCaffrey for the Dragonriders of Pern series of fantasy and science fiction books. It is said to be "Rukbat 3", the third planet in orbit around the star Rukbat, counting outward....
. "Dragonrider" features the growth of queen dragon Ramoth and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. Analog editor John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
requested "to see dragons fighting Thread", Pern's menace from space, and he also suggested time travel. McCaffrey put it all together. A third story "Crack Dust, Black Dust" was not separately published, but provided crucial material for the novel.
Plot introduction
PernPern
Pern is a fictional planet created by Anne McCaffrey for the Dragonriders of Pern series of fantasy and science fiction books. It is said to be "Rukbat 3", the third planet in orbit around the star Rukbat, counting outward....
is a planet inhabited by humans. The original colonists were reduced to a low level of technology by periodic onslaughts of deadly Thread raining down from the sky. By harnessing the indigenous flying, fire-breathing dragons (with genetic alterations to make them larger and telepathic), humanity finally managed to gain the upper hand. The dragons, with their human riders, destroyed the Thread in the skies over Pern before it was able to burrow into the land and breed. However, an unusually long interval between attacks, centuries in duration, has caused the general population to gradually dismiss the threat and withdraw support from the Weyrs where dragons are bred and trained. By the time of this novel, only one Weyr remains (the other five having mysteriously disappeared at the same time in the last quiet interval), maintaining a precarious hand-to-mouth existence.
Dragons are telepathic; each bonds to a single human being when first hatched. They come in various colors which are generally correlated with their size, blue, green, brown, bronze, and gold queens. Bronzes, as the largest males, are by tradition the only ones who compete to win the queens in their mating flights. Queens, however, are always the largest dragons. As their human counterparts are linked mind-to-mind, the humans mate when their dragons mate.
Plot summary
Dragonflight chronicles the story of Lessa, the sole survivor of the noble ruling family of Ruatha HoldRuatha Hold
Ruatha Hold is a hold, or dwelling-place , on the fictional planet of Pern in the series of "The Dragonriders of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey. Ruatha was the third major hold to be established on Pern. Its founders were Peter "Red" Hanrahan, his wife and their children...
on the northern continent of Pern. When the rest of her family is killed by a cruel usurper, Fax, she survives by disguising herself as a drudge (a menial servant) partly through simply adopting a slovenly appearance, but also using her hereditary telepathic abilities to make others see her as far older than she is. She escapes notice completely. Her only friend is a watch-wher, a somewhat telepathic animal that guards the castle. Lessa also psychically influences other Hold workers to do less than their best work, or to become clumsy or inefficient. Her idea is to make Ruatha unlivable, so that Fax will renounce it.
F'lar, wingleader at Benden Weyr
Benden Weyr
Benden Weyr is the second of eight Weyrs on the planet of Pern in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern fantasy novel series....
and rider of the bronze dragon Mnementh, finds Lessa while Searching for candidates to Impress (bond with) a new queen dragon, as the current queen has a batch of eggs due to hatch very soon, including a crucial golden egg. Realizing that she has engineered the downfall of the Hold, he recognizes her as possessing unusually strong psychic abilities. After defeating Fax in single combat (following the rules of the Pernese code duello
Code duello
A code duello is a set of rules for a one-on-one combat, or duel.Codes duello regulate dueling and thus help prevent vendettas between families and other social factions. They assure that non-violent means of reaching agreement be exhausted and that harm be reduced, both by limiting the terms of...
), F'lar convinces Lessa to give up her birthright as Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold and she passes the title on to Fax's newborn son (who later features in The White Dragon
The White Dragon
The White Dragon is a 2004 Hong Kong wuxia comedy film directed by Wilson Yip and starring Cecilia Cheung and Francis Ng.The White Dragon is directed by Wilson Yip, whose best known works to date are Bullets Over Summer, Juliet in Love and SPL: Sha Po Lang...
). F'lar takes Lessa to Benden Weyr, where she impresses the Queen dragonet Ramoth and becomes the Weyrwoman, the new co-leader of the last active Weyr
Weyr
A Weyr is a collection of dragons, their riders and support staff in Anne McCaffrey's fictional world of Pern.The function of a Weyr is to fight Thread, a spore that originates in the Oort cloud of the Rukbat solar system, carried by a planetoid referred to as the Red Star with a loose elliptical...
. On Ramoth's first mating flight, Mnementh catches her, and by Weyr tradition, this makes F'lar the Weyrleader.
Lessa and F'lar warn a dangerously unprepared Pern of the impending Thread reappearance. The general response is disbelief, as the last thread-fall was 400 years ago, and the stories about thread-fall have receded from recent history into legend and myth. It is not until the first Thread begins to fall that they are believed by the general populace and even by some dragon-riders.
One Weyr by itself is not enough to defend the planet; there used to be six, but the other five Weyrs are now empty, deserted since the last Pass centuries before. In a desperate attempt to increase their numbers, a new queen, Pridith, and her rider, are sent back between times (a recently rediscovered skill) ten turns, to allow Pridith time to mature and reproduce. Lessa travels four hundred turns into the past to bring the five 'missing' Weyrs forward to her present. This is a huge strain for both her and Ramoth. She convinces the dragonriders of the five Weyrs to go with her to their future, and they use the Red Star as a guide to make smaller, less strenuous hops forward in time. This not only provides much needed skilled reinforcements in the battle against Thread, but explains how and why the five Weyrs were abandoned: they came forward in time.
Awards
Dragonflight includes the Novellas "Weyr Search", which won the 1968 Hugo Award for Best NovellaHugo Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
(voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention) and "Dragonrider", which won the Nebula Award for Best Novella
Nebula Award for Best Novella
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novella. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.-Winners and other nominees:-External links:**...
(voted annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America) in 1969. McCaffrey was the first woman to win either award.
The American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
in 1999 cited the two early Pern trilogies (Dragonriders and Harper Hall
The Harper Hall Trilogy
The Harper Hall trilogy comprises three fantasy or science fiction novels by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey.They are part of the Dragonriders of Pern series as it is known today, 24 books by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey as of summer 2011....
), along with The Ship Who Sang
The Ship Who Sang
The Ship Who Sang is a science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey, a fix-up of five stories published 1961 to 1969. Alternatively, "The Ship Who Sang" is the earliest of the stories, a novelette, which became the first chapter of the book...
, when McCaffrey received the annual Margaret A. Edwards Award for her "lifetime contribution in writing for teens".
See also
- The Atlas of PernThe Atlas of PernThe Atlas of Pern by Karen Wynn Fonstad is an authorized companion book to the science fiction Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey...
(1984), a companion book produced by Karen Wynn FonstadKaren Wynn FonstadKaren Wynn Fonstad, née Wynn was the author of several atlases of fictional worlds.Born Karen Lea Wynn in Oklahoma City to parents James and Estis Wynn, she graduated from Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, and then earned a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy and an M.A...
in consultation with McCaffrey.