Dragonflight

On the planet Pern, bad silver Threads fall from the sky and eat everything green and alive, so brave people ride giant dragons that breathe fire to burn them up. A smart girl named Lessa hides as a servant but gets picked to bond with the biggest gold dragon ever, Ramoth, and with her friend F'lar on his bronze dragon, they teach everyone that dragons are super important and save the whole world from the Threads! (312 chars)

Dragonflight, the inaugural novel in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, is set on the colonized planet Pern, where human settlers genetically engineered fire-breathing dragons to combat the ravaging organic peril known as Thread, which periodically falls from the erratic Red Star and devours all organic life. As dragonrider numbers dwindle and Holds grow skeptical of ancient warnings, Benden Weyrleader F'lar leads a desperate search for a new Weyrwoman to replace the deceased queen rider. He discovers Lessa, a telekinetic drudge concealing her noble Ruathan heritage after the conqueror Fax slaughtered her family, and brings her to the Weyr where she Impresses the golden queen egg, hatching Ramoth, forging an unbreakable psychic bond that awakens her latent powers. (487 chars) Lessa and F'lar navigate Weyr politics, including rivalry with traditionalist Weyrleader R'gul, while rediscovering lost knowledge like precise Threadfall timings via ancient Star Stones. As the first Fall in centuries arrives, they rally Holds, battle betrayals, and prove dragons' indispensable role, with Lessa's ingenuity and Ramoth's prowess turning the tide. The novel culminates in the restoration of dragonrider prestige, blending personal triumph over trauma with planetary salvation, establishing Pern's epic saga of symbiosis between human and draconic partners. (612 chars)