Druhá kniha pentalogie Drakeni z Pernu. Děj knihy se podle vnitřní chronologie odehrává během devátého Míjení. Život na Pernu se změnil. Nic není jako dřív. Tradice přestávají být tradicemi, mění se zvyky i postoje prostých lidí. Dračí jezdci se chtějí vydat na Krvavici a jednou provždy zničit vražedná Vlákna. Je taková cesta vůbec možná, nebo je to sebevražedná mise? A je dobré, nebo špatné znamení, že se narodil bílý drak?... celý text
Jednou za stovky let se k Pernu přiblíží jeho sesterská planeta Krvavice a s ní smrtonosná Vlákna. Jedinou ochranou před zkázou světa jsou draci a jejich jezdci. Nyní však Vlákna nepadala už po několik set oběhů. Draků je málo, dračí jezdci i prostí lidé na hrozbu zapomněli, stará dračí královna umírá a v líhništi tvrdne skořápka pouze jednoho jediného královského vejce. Poslední nadějí je mladá dívka Lessa a starobylý gobelín...
Dračí dar přináší čtyři okouzlující příběhy o Pernu v jednom svazku s uměleckými ilustracemi Toma Kidda. Povídka Nejmenší z dračích jezdců, je o nejmladším z kandidátů na dračí jezdce. Keevan je rozhodnut zasvětit se drakovi při příští líhni dráčků z vajíček a překvapivě se ukáže, že navzdory svému vzrůstu je on nejvhodnějším kandidátem. V povídce Dívka, která slyšela draky mladá dívka se vzácnou schopností komunikovat s draky uvede svou rodinu do nebezpečí a musí čelit tváří v tvář největší bázni – i svému nejtajnějšímu přání. Pernskou poselkyní je nazývána dívka jménem Tenna, která následuje rodinné tradice v doručování zpráv – a nalezne svůj osud v mechem porostlých stezkách, které Poslové pod draky přeplněným nebem po staletí používali. A konečně jeden velmi zvláštní dar: vzrušující nový příběh z Pernu Navždy dva, zde poprvé publikovaný a plný svěží imaginace Anne McCaffrey.
On the planet Pern, after her father forbids her to indulge in music in any way, fifteen-year-old Menolly runs away and takes shelter with the planet's fire lizards who, along with her music, open a new life for her.
Lower Secondary This follows the relationship of Jaxon and Ruth, and the fortunes of the Weyrs. Ruth is much smaller than the other dragons, is white and does not rise to mate, but he communicates with firelizards and is very agile. he and Jaxon make a very important discovery about Pern's past history.
On Pern, men breed and train great fire-breathing dragons to help them fight the deadly silver Threads that fall from the sky, destroying all life-forms, whenever the Red Star passes near.
To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise—and take back her stolen birthright. But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever.
Over 6,000 people of the Federated Sentient Planets spend fifteen years in deep sleep on a one-way trip to establish a colony on Pern. When the colonists first landed on the untouched, uninhabited world of Pern, they thought they had finally found the place they sought...a tranquil, serene new world that would allow them to create their own civilization, far away from the reaches of war and corruption that scarred their old worlds. As they threw themselves completely into the creation of the new colony, they were unaware that they were about to face an enemy more sinister than they could have anticipated. Several years after their landing marks the first Fall of the voracious, mindless Thread, which devours everything in its path and lays waste to their thriving world. Completely isolated from all help, their only hope of survival is if they can somehow genetically engineer a fire-breathing indigenous creature, known as a dragonet, into a larger form capable of destroying the Thread as it falls.
“When McCaffrey's beloved dragons roar and their riders soar on the beasts' mighty backs . . . fans of Pern will likely be enthralled.”—Publishers Weekly For generations, the dragonriders had dedicated their lives to fighting Thread, the dreaded spores that periodically rained from the sky to ravage the land. On the backs of their magnificent telepathic dragons they flew to flame the deadly stuff out of the air before it could reach the planet's surface. But the greatest dream of the dragonriders was to find a way to eradicate Thread completely, so that never again would their beloved Pern be threatened with destruction. Now, for the first time, it looks as if that dream can come true. For when the people of Pern, led by Masterharper Robinton and F'lar and Lessa, Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Bendon Weyr, excavate the ancient remains of the planet's original settlement, they uncover the colonists' voice-activated artificial intelligence system—which still functions. And the computer has incredible news for them: There is a chance—a good chance—that they can, at long last, annihilate Thread once and for all.
A young girl with a horn and extraordinary powers, including healing and plant growth, is discovered by prospectors in an escape pod and taken to the lawless planet Kezdet. While she hopes for a life of freedom, the planet harbors a dark secret involving child slave labor orchestrated by a sinister figure known as "The Piper." As she grows, Acorna becomes determined to fight against the exploitation and carve her own path toward freedom, challenging the oppressive forces around her.
