Dragons fly in Sci Fi

Anne McCaffrey's dragons of Pern are no fairy tale creatures, but dinosaur-like beasts who play an integral role in their planet's ecology. The preface to Dragonflight (which science fiction fans who enjoy figuring out the background of a story for themselves will find superfluous) explains that Pern is a colonized world that has lost the memory of its home planet. Pern's deadliest enemy is a wandering planet within its solar system that, when it passes close by, emits deadly spores which are actually rogue life-forms trying to seed themselves in the fertile soil of Pern.

The original colonizers discovered that great dinosaur/dragon-like creatures could be used to fight these threads or spores, and they worked to enhance the dragon/human connection to maximize the abilities of both species. Over time, dragonriders became a breed apart.

Dragonflight begins during an interval period between thread-fall. The interregnum has been so long that the stories of Pern's ancient enemy have faded into legend, and the famous dragonriders viewed as anachronistic at best.

The story two-fold. First, F'lar, leader of the dragonriders must revive the dragonriding tradition for the threadfall he believes to be imminent. Second, Lessa, daughter of an ancient noble family, must rise from drudgery to reclaim her heritage. Lessa's story resembles a Cinderella tale or the legends of Anastasia. But escape from a life in hiding is only the beginning for Lessa. She has the tasks of connecting with the new queen dragon hatchling, control her during the mating flight that will build the future dragon population of Pern, and finally to help F'lar fight the thread invasion- even though everyone tells her that queen dragons don't fight.

This exciting story contains many interesting science fiction themes, especially time travel. Although the puzzles facing Lessa and F'lar won't be hard for most readers to figure out, reading about how they achieve their goals makes for a fun read.

A warning for parents- sexuality is a main theme because the plot involves dragon ecology- including mating. My biggest problem is that the hero F'lar is a bit too violent toward Lessa, shaking her when angry. Adults will understand that McCaffrey is characterizing F'lar as a bit dragonish himself, but teenagers too easily romanticize this type of behavior.