''Dragon's Kin'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by the American-Irish author

Anne McCaffrey Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 19 ...

and her son

Todd McCaffrey Todd J. McCaffrey (born 27 April 1956 as Todd Johnson) is an Irish American author of science fiction best known for continuing the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' series in collaboration with his mother Anne McCaffrey. Life Todd Johnson was born 27 Apr ...

. Published by

Del Rey Books Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn, by Penguin Random House. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It ...

in 2003, it is the eighteenth book in the ''

Dragonriders of Pern ''Dragonriders of Pern'' is a science fantasy series written primarily by American author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning in 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. ...

'' series and the first with Todd as co-author. ''Dragon's Kin'' may be considered the first of a trilogy by the McCaffreys, preceding ''

Dragon's Fire ''Dragon's Fire'' is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey, Published in 2006, it was the twentieth book in the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' series that she initiated in 1967.. Retrieved 9 Oc ...

'' and ''

Dragon Harper ''Dragon Harper'' is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey, part of the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' series that she initiated in 1967. Published forty years later, it was the twenty-first i ...

''. Primarily the three books feature Kindan as a boy and young man, about 500 years after landing on

Pern ''Dragonriders of Pern'' is a science fantasy series written primarily by American author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning in 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. T ...

(500 AL).

Collaboration

Anne McCaffrey created Pern in the novella ''Weyr Search'' (1967) when her second child Todd was eleven. In 2001 and 2002 she published her fifteenth Pern novel and second collection of short stories. ''Dragon's Kin'' was their first collaborative work. Todd later recalled that a Del Rey editor in the 1990s "pitched it to me that someone ought to continue Mum's legacy when she was no longer able. At the time I had misgivings and no story ideas". Previously, as Todd Johnson, he had contributed the chapter "Training and Fighting Dragons" to ''The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern'' (1989). Mother and son had also discussed Pern and its setting for years, and she had suggested that he "writes the military science fiction prequels" to the colonization, but that never progressed far."Letter from Nathan"
(26 December 2009). Todd McCaffrey blog. Retrieved 13 July 2011. They co-authored four Pern novels and, as of December 2011, Todd has done three alone. All are set just before and during the "Third Pass", about 500 years after human settlement on Pern and 2000 years before the "Ninth Pass" events chronicled in most of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books.

Plot summary

The story tells how the people of the planet

discover the special abilities of the watch-whers or whers, a distant relative of the dragons. Subsequently, these beasts are used in mines to warn miners of gas pockets and also to locate stranded miners, should there be a cave-in. The story begins some years before the 3rd Pass in Camp Natalon, a mining camp. There, the reader is introduced to a young boy Kindan, whose father owns a watch-wher called Dask. During a mining cave-in, Kindan loses his entire family as well as Dask, and is adopted by the Master Harper Zist, who begins to train him to be both an entertainer and a spy, something that Harpers do. This is how Kindan learns that the camp is divided into two parties, Natalon's and his uncle Tarik's. Meanwhile, the camp is without a watch-wher and minor accidents keep delaying the work. Despite the protests from Tarik and his group, Natalon decides to trade an entire winter's worth of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

for a chance for Kindan to ask a queen watch-wher for an egg. He succeeds and begins the difficult task of raising a nocturnal animal. As no records exist on how to raise or train the watch-wher, Kindan has no clue but is luckily aided by the mysterious Nuella. Together, they train Kisk and, in the process, learn a great deal about this species. This proves to be vital as, towards the end of the novel, Kisk's abilities will save many lives, including that of the camp leader, Natalon.

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External links

{{Authority control 2003 novels 2003 fantasy novels 2003 science fiction novels Dragonriders of Pern books Collaborative novels Novels by Anne McCaffrey Novels by Todd McCaffrey Del Rey books