Dragon's Fire (2003) is the 20th book written in the Dragonriders of Pern series. Chronologically it is set around the Third Pass, about 500 years after landing.
Pellar is an orphan taken in by Masterharper Zist. Though born mute, Pellar is a gifted tracker, and when Zist sets off to take over as harper for Natalon's coal-mining camp, Pellar-along with his fire-lizard, Chitter-joins him on a secret mission of his own: to find out if reported thefts of coal are the work of the Shunned, criminals condemned to a life of wandering and hardship.
Halla is one of the children of the Shunned. Though innocent of their parents' crimes, these children have inherited their cruel punishment. Lack of food, shelter, and clothes is their lot; hope is unknown to them. And what future would they hope for? Without a hold to call their own, there will be no protection for them when the lethal Thread inevitably falls again. Life is even tougher for Halla. Her family gone, she must fend for herself. Yet despite the brutality of her surroundings, Halla is kind and gentle, devoted to those more helpless than she.
As depraved as Halla is good, Tenim is in league with Tarik, a crooked miner
from Camp Natalon, who helps him steal coal in exchange for a cut of the profit.
But Tenim soon realizes there is a lot more to be made from firestone, the
volatile mineral that enables the dragons of Pern to burn Thread out of the sky.
Tenim doesn't care what he has to do, or whom he has to kill, in order to corner
the market.
Cristov is Tarik's son. Dishonored by his father's greed and treachery, the
boy must make amends somehow, even if it means risking his life by mining the
volatile firestone, which detonates on contact with the slightest drop of
moisture.
When the last remaining firestone mine explodes in flames, a desperate race
begins to find a new deposit of the deadly but essential mineral, for without it
there can be no defense against Thread. But Tenim has a murderous plan to turn
tragedy to his own advantage, and only Pellar, Halla, and Cristov can stop
him-and ensure that there will be a future for all on the world of the
Dragonriders.
Author Biography
Anne McCaffrey was one of the world's leading science-fiction writers, and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as the Margaret A. Edwards' Lifetime Achievement Literary Award. Born and raised in the US, although of Irish extraction, she spent the last years of her life in Ireland, in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains. She died in 2011 at the age of eighty-five. She is the creator of the Dragons of Pern series.
Todd McCaffrey is the bestselling author of the Pern novels Dragonsblood and Dragonheart, and the co-author, with his mother, Anne McCaffrey, of Dragon’s Kin, Dragon’s Fire, and Dragon Harper. A computer engineer, he currently lives in Los Angeles. Having grown up in Ireland with the epic of the Dragonriders of Pern, he is burst-ing with ideas for new stories of that world, its people, and its dragons.