The White Dragon
One of the first SF hardcovers ever to reach the New York Times bestseller list, announcing that the genre's readership had become a mass market — with a woman at the front of it.
Book Entry · Science Fiction
Dragonflight
by Anne McCaffrey · 1968 · The Dragonriders of Pern, book 1
What is Dragonflight about?
Pern has forgotten it is a colony; the dragons remain. Lessa, drudge and secret survivor of a murdered bloodline, Impresses the queen dragon Ramoth and becomes Weyrwoman just as the Red Star swings back into range and Thread — the mindless spore that devours all organic matter — begins to fall on a world that no longer believes in it, with one Weyr of dragonriders surviving where six once flew. Her solution involves the dragons' second, less advertised talent and a gamble across four hundred years. Fantasy's furniture, SF's architecture, and a heroine with no patience whatsoever.
Why it matters
Built from the Hugo-winning 'Weyr Search' (the first fiction Hugo awarded a woman) and the Nebula-winning 'Dragonrider'; the founding novel of one of SF's best-loved series and the modern dragon-bond tradition entire.
Where does it sit in the series?
McCaffrey's lost colony where genetically engineered dragons and their telepathically bonded riders burn the deadly Thread from the skies — science fiction wearing fantasy's wings.
In the Guide from The Dragonriders of Pern:
- Dragonflight (1968)
- The White Dragon (1978)
Read next
At the Earth's Core
The keystone hollow-earth adventure, launching a seven-book series (Tarzan eventually visits).
The Dragon Masters
Hugo winner for short fiction (1963), and a perfect single-sitting introduction to Vance's mirrored-civilisations mode.