Dragonflight (novel)

Lore & Background

Two components of Dragonflight were award-winning novellas published by Analog science fiction magazine. The first novella, 'Weyr Search', illustrated by John Schoenherr, had been the cover story for the October 1967 issue. The second novella, 'Dragonrider', appeared in two parts, beginning in December 1967, the first of which was also a cover story illustrated by Schoenherr. 'Weyr Search' (which became the eponymous first part of the novel) features a young woman named Lessa being recruited to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, thus becoming a dragonrider, and the leader of a Weyr community on the fictional planet Pern. In response to a request from Analog editor John W. Campbell for 'more dragon stories', McCaffrey wrote the novelette 'Dragonflight', the story of the growth of Lessa's queen dragon, Ramoth, and their training together. Campbell, however, 'wanted to see dragons fighting Thread', Pern's menace from space, and he also suggested time travel. Starting from these suggestions, McCaffrey wrote a third story titled 'Crack Dust, Black Dust', published in Analog in two parts as 'Dragonrider' (the two parts became the third and fourth part of the novel, 'Dust Fall' and 'The Cold Between' respectively). Although 'Dragonflight' was not published separately, it was, in Campbell's words a 'very good bridger for the novel', and also gave the novel its name.

Reader's Guide

Dragonflight takes place in the far future on Pern, a planet colonized by humans. The colonists had originally intended to gradually adopt a low-technology agrarian lifestyle, but were forced to move more quickly after they encountered the deadly Thread raining down from the sky. By harnessing and riding the indigenous, flying, fire-breathing dragons (with genetic alterations to make them larger and telepathic), the colonists destroyed the Thread in the skies over Pern, creating pockets of safety over its surface, before it was able to burrow into the land and breed. Humanity finally managed to find equilibrium and began to create a thriving culture, society, and economy, eventually expanding right across Pern's northern continent. When this narrative begins, however, an unusually long interval between Thread attacks has caused the general population to dismiss the threat as myth and gradually withdraw support from the Weyrs where dragons are bred and trained. By the time of this narrative, only one Weyr remains (the other five having mysteriously disappeared at the same time in the last quiet interval), maintaining a precarious existence. Dragonflight is the story of Lessa, a girl of less than twenty turns and sole survivor of the noble ruling family of Ruatha Hold 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 by using her hereditary telepathic abilities to make others see her as far older and less attractive than she actually is. F'lar, wingleader at Benden Weyr, and rider of the bronze dragon Mnementh, finds Lessa while searching for candidates to impress a new queen dragon. F'lar takes Lessa to Benden Weyr, where she Impresses the queen hatchling 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. One Weyr by itself is not enough to defend the planet; there had been six, but the other five Weyrs are now empty, deserted since the last Pass centuries before. Lessa travels four hundred turns into the past to bring the five 'missing' Weyrs forward to her present. 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.

Did You Know?

• Dragonflight is a fix-up of two novellas that made Anne McCaffrey the first woman writer to win a Hugo and a Nebula Award.
• The novella 'Weyr Search' was the cover story of the October 1967 issue of Analog, illustrated by John Schoenherr.
• Editor John W. Campbell suggested adding dragons fighting Thread and time travel, leading to the story 'Crack Dust, Black Dust'.
• In 1987, Locus ranked Dragonflight at number nine among the 33 'All-Time Best Fantasy Novels'.