Book description
For two hundred years there had been peace on Pern - but now the
signs were ominous. Violent weather storms and erupting volcanos
heralded the coming of the second Pass of Thread, when the red planet
would rain down its horrifying harvest which destroyed every living
organism on the face of Pern. No human or dragon or animal or plant
was safe from the hideous death inflicted by Thread.
Weyrs and Holds tried to prepare, but they had serious problems.
Over the generations much of the old technology had been lost. AIVAS,
the giant information bank, was buried under tons of volcanic ash, and
valuable and skilled men and women had succumbed to disease and old
age, taking with them the knowledge of a great civilization.
They had to prepare as best they could, training the great flights
of dragons and ensuring that the Lord Holders did their part by
protecting their people in every possible way. Only Lord Chalkin,
Holder of Bitra, refused to co-operate. He did not believe in
Threadfall. It was a plot of the Weyrs to gain ascendancy over the
Holds. He would do nothing to protect Bitra or its people. The Lord
Holders and Weyrleaders were of one accord. Chalkin must be impeached
and removed from his lands if the planet was to be made safe.
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. net
