Thread: deadly silver strands that fall from the sky like rain,
devouring every organic thing in their path - animals, plants, and
people alike. Who could believe that such a horrible thing could exist?
After all, it's been two hundred years since Thread supposedly fell on
Pern. No one alive remembers that first onslaught. There's no sign of it
anywhere in the world. Only the dragons, originally created to be a
weapon against Thread, are still around to remind people that once
before their population was decimated, their hopes and dreams and
livelihoods almost destroyed forever. For two centuries the dragonriders
have been practicing and training, passing down from generation to
generation the Threadfighting techniques learned on the fly by their
besieged ancestors. And most of the Lord Holders are prepared to protect
their people, to provide sanctuary, to assemble groundcrews to search
out and destroy any Thread that might be missed by the dragons soaring
overhead. All but one. Even now the ominous signs are appearing: the
violent winter storms and volcanic eruptions that are said to herald the
approach of the Red Star and its lethal spawn. Impossibly, one stubborn
Lord Holder, Chalkin of Bitra, refuses to believe - and that disbelief
could spell disaster for all of Pern. So while the dragonriders
desperately train to face an enemy they've never fought before, they and
the other Lord Holders must find a way to deal with Chalkin and protect
Bitra.
