The Beginning of Pern

Anne McCaffrey gives us Pern's history with this book. If you have never read any of the Pern books I would recommend starting here (even though it wasn't the first).

6 thousand colonist have made their way to the planet of Pern in the Rukbat System. Most of them have made the 15 year journey in deep sleep on the great transport ships Yokohama, Bahrain and Buenos Aires. The reason they have come is to start new lives away from the technocrats that have polluted the earth and first Centauri. They come from all areas of life including some Irish traveling folk. All the sciences are covered. It would seem that everything is in place for the colonist to turn Pern into a home the most people only dream of.

But there are some peculiar things about this planet. Like how come there doesn't seem to be any predators and what where those strange circles caused by. Sometimes it seems to good to be real.

For 8 years all goes better than any could expect then comes the menace from the sky. Thread!!!!!!!
all would have been lost if not for the new found friends "dragonets" or fire lizards as Sean Connell calls them.

This unexpected threat brings out the best in most like Salla Telgar, and the worst in a few like Avril Bitra.
Paul Benden and Emily Boll do the best they can to lead the colonist in these troubled times but, moral is low and the sleds they use to fight the thread are falling apart and the batteries are dying. If only those dragonets were bigger.