Dragonsdawn (Dragonriders of Pern Series #9)

by Anne McCaffrey

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Go back in time and visit Pern like it’s never been seen before in this thrilling prequel about the creation of dragons.
 
The beautiful planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists—until unimaginable terror turned it into hell. Suddenly deadly spores were falling like silver threads from the sky, devouring everything—and everyone—on their path. It began to look as if the colony, cut off from Earth and lacking the resources to combat the menace, was doomed.
 
Then some of the colonists noticed that the small, dragonlike lizards that inhabited their new world were joining the fight against Thread, breathing fire on it and teleporting to safety. If only, they thought, the dragonets were big enough for a human to ride and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider…
 
And so they set their most talented geneticist to work to create the creatures Pern so desperately needed—Dragons!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780345362865
Publisher:	Random House Worlds
Publication date:	08/13/1989
Series:	Dragonriders of Pern Series , #9
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	124,910
Product dimensions:	4.21(w) x 6.74(h) x 0.98(d)
Lexile:	960L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Anne McCaffrey, one of the world’s most popular authors, is best known for her Dragonriders of Pern® series. She was the first woman to win the two top prizes for science fiction writing, the Hugo and Nebula awards. She was also given the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement in Young Adult Fiction, was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and was named a Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1926, McCaffrey relocated to Ireland in the 1970s, where she lived in a house of her own design, named Dragonhold-Underhill. She died in 2011.

Read an Excerpt

“Probe reports coming through, sir,” Sallah Telgar announced without taking her eyes from the flickering lights on her terminal.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Dragonsdawn"
by .
Copyright © 1989 Anne McCaffrey.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Readers who for two decades have been following the fortunes of the dragonriders and other inhabitants of the planet Pern will welcome the latest volume, chronicling the early years. It stands very much on its own, however; knowing about the later history of the planet only adds enjoyment. After 15 years of cold sleep, 6000 colonists land on Pern, seeking a simpler existence, escaping the aftermath of interstellar war and an overly technical society. The colony prospers until the consuming Threada force that destroys all life it comes in contact withmakes its first appearance. A brilliant bio-engineer attempts to develop a biological weapon to save them, a much larger version of a native life form many of the colonists have adopted as pets: dragonets with the ability to teleport and breathe flame after eating phosphoric rock. The book ends with the first successful result of that experiment. Many richly developed characters people the novel, among them two youngsters, Sorka Hanrahan and Sean Connell, who grow up to become two of the first dragonriders. One hopes McCaffrey, who most recently has been writing in the mainstream ( The Lady ), is beginning a new Pern cycle in which she will tell, in answer to many other questions, whatever happened to the intelligent dolphins that came with the humans to Pern. Major ad/promo; author tour ( Nov .)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

When the deadly silver ``threadfall'' from an orbiting comet threatens to destroy the thriving human colony on the otherwise hospitable planet Pern, scientists and genetic engineers undertake a bold and risky experiment to change the tiny native winged reptiles called fire lizards into allies for mutual survival. While fans of the ``Dragonriders of Pern'' novels will particularly enjoy the revelations in this prequel to the series, newcomers will find McCaffrey's latest an accessible introduction to the world of Pern. Recommended. JC

Library Journal