It's been two-hundred years since the deadly Thread fell like rain upon Pern, devouring everything in its path. No one alive remembers that first horrific onslaught and no one believes in its return--except for the dragonriders. For two centuries they have been practicing and training, passing down from generation to generation the formidable Threadfighting techniques. Now the ominous signs are appearing: the violent winter storms and volcanic eruptions...

In the beginning, before Thread, before the Dragons, before the Holds and the Weyrs and the elite Dragonriders of Pern, was just the great ships gliding through space with nearly six thousand colonists prepared to tackle the mighty task of beginning a new world on a strange planet.

Tired of his boring life, Lord Jaxom decides to secretly train his extraordinary dragon to take part in the desperate battles of dragons and their riders against the Threadfall that periodically threatens their planet.

With the planet of Pern no longer threatened by Threadfall, its inhabitants are free to build new lives for themselves with the help of recently discovered ancient technology, until a terrifying new peril from the sky endangers the planet.

A child prodigy turned Masterharper, Robinton must fight for his life when the citizens of Pern begin to doubt his and other Harpers' warnings of the coming of the dreaded Thread, and he uses his love of music, tlelpathic dragons, and his homeland to battle and evil tyrant preparing to take over the planet.

"Everyone, holder and dragonrider alike, pitched in to help except Nerilka's father, who refused to share Fort Hold's bounty with the other Holds. So, ashamed of her family and determined to do her part, Nerilka packed up medicines and supplies and sneaked off to aid her people."--Page 4 of cover.

Lady Nimisha is shocked when Lord Tionel chooses her to be his successor at the helm of the Ship Yards, and now she must try to fulfill his dreams and her own.

When a mine containing firestone, the mineral that gives the dragons of Pern their ability to breathe fire, explodes, killing the miners trapped there, young Cristov volunteers to take over the dangerous task of retrieving the explosive rock for the dragons.