DragonFlight

This post contains spoilers. :D

DragonFlight by Anne McCaffrey

The book DragonFlight by Anne McCaffrey has two main characters, but centers mostly on the girl Lessa. In the beginning, the reader is introduced to Lessa as a dredge in Ruath Hold who has woken in uneasiness, sensing danger. She cannot sense where the danger is coming from though. Then the reader meets F'lar, a dragonrider and wingleader from Benden Weyr.

F'lar and his wing, which includes his half brother F'nor, are on Search looking for a girl to Impress the gold egg that the queen dragon Nemorth has laid. His wing comes to the High Reaches, which is the area that the overlord Fax controlled. Fax had conquered many holds in this area and had inherited or married into others; Ruatha was an area that he had conquered, brutally killing anyone of the Ruathian blood that he could find. (He didn't kill them all! Later on we discover that Lessa is of Ruathian blood and the only reason she survived the attack from Fax is because she hid in the watch-wher's den where no one would look.) F'lar and his wing search multiple Holds that Fax controls and they find no one that F'lar is satisfied with, but when they enter Ruatha all the dragonriders sense a power somewhere nearby.

As Ruath Hold discovers that Fax is coming, they panic because the Hold has deteriorated so much in the past ten Turns and they are not prepared to have their overlord there. Lessa, while others are trying to prepare, is sabotaging everything she can, hoping that Fax will renounce the Hold and she will be able to take her place as the holder of Ruatha.

Due to Lessa's sabotage, Fax says that if his wife gives birth to a healthy son, he will give up his claim to the Hold. When Lady Gamma does give birth to a healthy boy, Fax is furious and explodes in anger and hits the drudge who bore the news. This drudge happens to be Lessa and the dragonriders happened to feel power come from her, so when she does not move after being hit by Fax, F'lar is angry. Just when he finds a girl that they can take for the search, she may be dead!

So F'lar fights with and kills Fax. He then makes sure that the girl is still alive and he discoverers that she is of Ruathian blood. He coaxes her into coming to the Weyr because she has a chance to become Weyrwoman.

Lessa in fact does Impress the golden egg and dragon, Ramoth, and she becomes Weyrwoman. She then learns to fly with Ramoth as well as go between.

As the threat of Threads, the things that fall from the Red Star that kill off everything that is living, becomes a bigger issue, the riders at the Weyr are worried that they will not have enough dragons to fight the foes. The last time that Threads fell was 400 Turns ago with six Weyrs to fight them and full support of the Holds. Now there is but one Weyr and the Lords of the holds do not fully support the dragonriders anymore. They think that no more Threads will come.

Lessa discovers that one can travel back and forth in time through between just as you can travel from place to place through it, but it takes a terrible toll on the body. She decides to travel to 400 Turns ago when the riders and their dragons of five of the six Weyrs just disappeared without a trace. She survives the journey and brings the riders of the Weyrs to her present time so that they can help fight the new threat of Threads!

In the battle where all the riders come together to fight the Threads, Lessa is finally allowed to fight alongside the men because in the past, there was a whole wing for the queens! (a tradition long forgotten.)

The last thought is F'lar thinking on the extent of between and if someday they will be able to go to the Red Star and destroy the Threads once and for all, but if he told Lessa, with her nature she would definitely try it without a thought.

I loved this book! It's been in my bookshelf for years and I never managed to finish reading it... But I started reading three days ago (I read really slowly!) and I couldn't put it down even for ten minutes to get a drink! I finished half of it that day and didn't get back to it till today and I finished it earlier today! I liked the courage and strength of Lessa and the companionship of the rider and the dragon. I do recommend this book to anyone!