Book description
Young Kindan has no expectations other than joining his father in the
mines of Camp Natalon on Pern. Mining is fraught with danger, but
fortunately the camp has a watch-wher, a creature distantly related to
dragons and uniquely suited to specialized work in the dark, cold mineshafts.
Then disaster strikes, leaving Kindan orphaned and the camp without
a watch-wher. Grieving, Kindan is taken in by the camp's new Harper
and finds a measure of solace in a burgeoning musical talent . . . and
in a new friendship with the mysterious Nuella. It is Nuella who
assists Kindan when he is selected to hatch and train a new
watch-wher, a job that forces him to give up his dream of becoming a
Harper; and it is Nuella who helps him give new meaning to his life.
Meanwhile, long-simmering tensions are dividing the camp. As warring
factions threaten to explode, Nuella and Kindan begin to discover
hidden talents in the watch-wher - talents that could very well save
an entire Hold and which show them that even a seemingly impossible
dream is never completely out of reach ...
Anne McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated
cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and
Literatures. A prolific bestselling author, she is best known for her
handling of broad themes and the worlds of her imagination,
particularly in her tales of the Talents and the novels about the
Dragonriders of Pern. Anne McCaffrey lives in a house of her own
design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Visit the author's website at www. annemccaffrey. org.
Todd McCaffrey, Anne's son, is a computer engineer living in Los
Angeles. The approved heir to Pern, his first solo Dragonriders of
Pern novel, Dragon's Blood, will be published by Bantam Press in 2005.
Visit his website on www. toddmccaffrey. org
