About this item
For millions of readers the world over the name Pern is magical conjuring up grand vistas of a distant planet whose blue skies are patrolled by brave dragons and their noble riders a paradise threatened by the periodic fall of deadly Thread But not all dangers descend from the skies Now in their third collaboration Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey spin a tale of a mysterious illness that may succeed in doing what centuries of Threadfall could not kill every last human on PernLife in the Harper Hall is busy for best friends Kindan Nonala and Kelsa As the only female apprentices Nonala and Kelsa are the butt of jokes and easy targets for the bully Vaxoram and his cronies But when Kindan springs to Kelsas defense he winds up in a fight for his life against the older bigger Vaxorama fight that will lead to a surprising friendshipMeanwhile in nearby Fort Hold a clutch of fire-lizard eggs is about to hatch and Lord Bemins beautiful young daughter Koriana is determined to Impress one of the delightful creatures At the hatching Kindan Impresses a fire-lizard of his own and wins the heart of Koriana But Lord Bemin mistrusts harpers and will not hear of a match between his daughter and the low-born KindanThen fate intervenes in the form of a virulent plague as fast-spreading as it is deadly Arising suddenly as if out of nowhere the contagion decimates hold after hold paying no heed to distinctions of birth In this feverish crucible friendship and love will be tested to the breaking point and beyond For with Threadfall scant years away the Dragonriders dare not expose themselves to infection and it will fall to Kindan and his fellow apprentices to bravely search for a cure and save humanity The price of failure is unthinkable But the price of success may be even harder to bear.
About the Author
Anne McCaffrey was born on April 1st, 1926, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, BA, MA PhD (Harvard) , Colonel USA Army (retired) , and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey, estate agent. She had two brothers: Hugh McCaffrey (deceased 1988) , Major US Army, and Kevin Richard McCaffrey, still living. Anne was educated at Stuart Hall in Staunton Virginia, Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey, and graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures. Her working career included Liberty Music Shops and Helena Rubinstein (1947-1952) . She married in 1950 and had three children: Alec Anthony, b. 1952, Todd, b.1956, and Georgeanne, b.1959. Anne McCaffrey's first story was published by Sam Moskowitz in Science Fiction Magazine and her first novel was published by Ballantine Books in 1967. By the time the three children of her marriage were comfortably in school most of the day, she had already achieved enough success with short stories to devote full time to writing. Her first novel, Restoree, was written as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in s-f novels in the 50s and early 60s. It is, however, in the handling of broader themes and the worlds of her imagination, particularly the two series The Ship Who Sang and the fourteen novels about the Dragonriders of Pern that Ms. McCaffrey's talents as a story-teller are best displayed. She died at the age of 85, after suffering a massive stroke on 21 November 2011. Obituaries:
