   dragonflight is a fantasy 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 novellas, 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. == origins == two components of dragonflight were award-winning novellas published by analog 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. == plot introduction == pern is a planet colonised by humans. the original colonists originally intended to adopt a low-technology agrarian lifestyle gradually, but were thrust into this more precipitously after they encountered the onslaught of the deadly thread raining down from the sky. by harnessing the indigenous flying, fire-breathing dragons (with genetic alterations to make them larger and telepathic), 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, creating pockets of safet
1960s_fantasy_novels 1968_novels Ballantine_Books_books Dragonriders_of_Pern_books Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novella_winning_works Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novella-winning_works Novels_by_Anne_McCaffrey