This Prequel to Dragonriders of Pern was written later in the Dragonriders series, but gives us all the details of the original creation of the dragons. At this period in the colony, Pern while cut off from civilization still has scientific technology - most notably genetic engineering. In a well written fantasy-history Anne McCaffrey creates life-like characters with skills, virtues, flaws and driving forces, along with a compelling plot line. She went to some lengths to assure the prequel would be consistent with everything already written about Pern. So fans of the series should enjoy filling in the missing details by reading this "history".
