Dragon's Kin

Lore & Background

Dragon's Kin tells how the people of the planet Pern discover the special abilities of the watch-whers, a distant relative of the dragons. These beasts are used in mines to warn miners of gas pockets and to locate stranded miners during cave-ins. The story begins some years before the 3rd Pass in Camp Natalon, a mining camp, introducing a young boy named Kindan, whose father owns a watch-wher called Dask. After a mining cave-in kills his family and Dask, Kindan is adopted by Master Harper Zist, who trains him as both an entertainer and a spy. Kindan learns that the camp is divided between Natalon and his uncle Tarik. Without a watch-wher, minor accidents delay work. Despite protests from Tarik's group, Natalon trades a winter's worth of coal for Kindan to ask a queen watch-wher for an egg. Kindan succeeds and begins raising the nocturnal animal, aided by the mysterious Nuella. Together they train Kisk, learning much about the species, and Kisk's abilities eventually save many lives, including camp leader Natalon.

Reader's Guide

Dragon's Kin marks a significant transition in the Dragonriders of Pern series, being the first collaboration between Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd. It expands the Pern universe by focusing on watch-whers, creatures previously mentioned but not central to earlier novels. The book also shifts the timeline to about 500 years after human settlement, during the Third Pass, offering a different perspective from the Ninth Pass stories that dominate most of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. As the first of a trilogy featuring Kindan, it set the stage for two sequels and established a pattern of mother-son co-authorship that produced four Pern novels total. The novel's exploration of mining and watch-wher training adds depth to Pern's society and technology. Its publication in 2003 also began Todd McCaffrey's eventual solo continuation of the series after Anne's retirement.

Did You Know?

• Dragon's Kin is the eighteenth book in the Dragonriders of Pern series and the first with Todd McCaffrey as co-author.
• The novel may be considered the first of a trilogy by the McCaffreys, preceding Dragon's Fire and Dragon Harper.
• Todd McCaffrey had previously contributed the chapter 'Training and Fighting Dragons' to The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern (1989).
• The story is set about 500 years after human settlement on Pern, during the Third Pass.