Part of Pern
First published 2005
Wind Blossom watches Pern's colonists lose their technology and slip toward feudalism. The aging geneticist fears future generations will face diseases they cannot cure. Her worst nightmare comes true 457 years later when Lorana arrives at Benden Weyr to train as an animal healer. Lorana impresses a golden dragon, but a plague soon devastates the dragon population. Without dragons to fight Thread, humanity faces extinction. Lorana's two firelizards travel back through time to Wind Blossom's era. The old geneticist identifies the dragon plague and develops a cure. She devises a method to leave clues that will guide Lorana to the same solution centuries later. The fate of both dragons and humans depends on whether Lorana can decode Wind Blossom's messages and implement the cure before the plague destroys Pern's last defense against Thread.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, fantasy, time-travel, epic-fantasy
Vibes: emotional, epic, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: apocalyptic-stakes, chosen-one, found-family, time-travel
Setting: Pern, Benden Weyr
Period: 457 years in future
438 pages · Hardcover · Bantam
Content warnings: death