“Anne McCaffrey's world is rational and scientific and wondrous, illogical but following all the rules. The history of her series stretches back far... I love her Pern books, and I'm reading her Pegasus adventures now. I can't say her "Rowan" continuation is so good, nor Acorna. When you write as much as she does, some of the characters are similar, the plots becoming staler... Often her historical accounts are really just dry accounts of passionate stories...
In Dragonsdawn, McCaffrey introduces a starring cast of Terrans settling a peaceful planet plagued by a space virus, "Thread". They notice thought-joined fire lizards defending their homes by fire and wing, and so develop the Pernese dragons... Heroics of many ordinary persons included... Betrayal, desperation, death, hope, politics, and a longing for peace far from the world they once knew.”