FIRST THREADFALL!

Sorka glanced over her shoulder, and terror lent strength to her arms as she urged the mare to greater efforts. They were nearly to the ledge, nearly to what little safety it offered from the hissing silver fall that splatted so ominously across the woods they had only just left.

On the shoreline, the thick clumps of tough bushes they had ridden through only moments before were no longer visible, covered by a writhing mass of “things” that seemed to enlarge as they watched. Sorka felt sick to her stomach.

Anne McCaffrey “remains a master of the well-told tale.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“Few are better at mixing elements of high fantasy and hard science fiction in a narrative that disarms skepticism by its open embrace of the joys of wish fulfillment.”

—New York Times Book Review

“This is must reading for fans of the The Dragonriders of Pern series …”

—San Diego Tribune

Title Page

Copyright

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN is a trademark of Anne McCaffrey. Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.

A Del Rey® Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1988 by Anne McCaffrey

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-47806

eISBN: 978-0-345-45398-3

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Maps

PART ONE Landing

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

PART TWO Thread

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

PART THREE Crossing

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

APPENDIX

Dedication

Profound Acknowledgments

Other Books by This Author

About the Author

Maps

PART ONE

LANDING

Chapter 1

“Probe reports coming through, sir,” Sallah Telgar announced without taking her eyes from the flickering lights on her terminal.

“On the screen, please, Mister Telgar,” Admiral Paul Benden replied. Beside him, leaning against his command chair, Emily Boll kept her eyes steadily on the sunlit planet, scarcely aware of the activity around her.

The Pern Colonial Expedition had reached the most exciting moment of its fifteen-year voyage: the three colony ships, the Yokohama, the Bahrain, and the Buenos Aires were finally approaching their destination. In offices below the bridge deck, specialists eagerly awaited updates on the reports of the long-dead Exploration and Evaluation team that, 200 years earlier, had recommended Rukbat’s third planet for colonization.