Pern was a beautiful planet, Earth-like enough to feel like home, yet unspoiled by the industrial development and interstellar wars that had ravaged the other planets of humankind. And the few thousand colonists who came to Pern intended to keep it that way. They staked their claims on the land and settled down to build a low-tech, agricultural paradise on the world they had loved at first sight.

Then disaster struck. Deadly spores fell like silver threads from the sky, devouring everything - and everyone in their path. Fire and water could destroy the Thread but the colonists could not keep up with their relentless attacks. At this rate the colony would not survive.

However, the colonists noticed that the small dragon-like lizards that inhabited their new world were joining the fight against the Thread, breathing fire on it and then teleporting to safety. If only the dragonets were big enough for a human to ride, and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider! And so they set their most talented geneticist to work to create the creatures Pern so desperately needed - Dragons!