Pern was world poor in metals, so the colonists were prepared to abandon most technology and focus on an agrarian society. What the survey probes failed to report was that a planet with an erratic elliptical orbit would pass close enough for the its voracious "threads" to cross over to Pern where they would devour any organic life they fell on. The colonists were too far from Earth for a message to summon help in time and the ships that brought them to Pern lacked enough fuel to take them somewhere else so they had to improvise. They began carving out massive caves for shelter while their geneticists worked with the native flying fire-breathing lizards to enlarge them and enhance their telepathic ability. The dragonriders of Pern were born and their lives revolved around burning the threads from the sky before they could reach the ground and caring for the dragons they bonded with. Every few hundred years the planet they called the Red Star would be out of range for four hundred years. During one of these long breaks, the people hoped the Red Star wouldn't return and they neglected the tithes of necessary goods that supported the dragonriders and the Holds warred with each other. Where there had once been several volcanic weyrs of dragonriders, there was only one, and its only queen dragon died after laying her last clutch of eggs. The only hope for those who remembered their duty was the golden egg of a queen and the hope that they could find a strong willed woman worthy of bonding that new queen. Without a queen, there would be no more dragons and the Red Star is growing brighter in the morning sky.

Dragonflight begins with the dragonrider brothers F'lar and F'nor on Search among the Holds seeking young women to present to the queen when she hatches. Tradition says a Lord can only rule one Hold, but Lord Fax has gained seven. Nothing prepared F'lar for the depressing state of Ruatha Hold where Lord Fax slaughtered all of the former Lord's bloodline that had produced many famous riders. Or did he? The brothers and their dragons all sense a subtle power in the Hold. Lessa is the last of her bloodline and has been forced to hide as a drudge in the Hold her father ruled. From her invisible position she has carefully manipulated people and events so that Fax will get no profit from Ruatha. She patiently bides her time until she can reclaim her rightful place as Lady Holder. But F'lar offers a different option she never considered; become a weyrwoman where she can influence the entire world.

As a weyrwomain, Lessa remains frustrated by the hidebound men in power who consider her and her dragon, Ramoth, little more than breeding stock. Will things change after Ramoth's first mating flight? The rider of Ramoth's mate will become the new Weyr Leader and Lessa's mate, and together they will be stuck with the problem of how can a single weyr protect all of Pern? The answer is surprising...time travel.

In 1968 McCaffrey combined the Hugo Award winning novella Weyr Search with the Nebula winning novella Dragonrider with an unpublished story to create Dragonflight. McCaffrey was the first woman to win each of those awards. She was determined to bring strong female characters into a genre that stereo-typically appealed to young men. Her characters, both male and female, demonstrate a variety of strong personalities. Lessa is intelligent, ambitious, and manipulative, but others are patient planners like F'lar or the practical Headwoman of the Weyr. Strong does not always mean likable. For instance I love this book, and I might respect Lessa and her role, but I never quite liked her. However you feel about the characters, this is the beginning of a marvelous series.