Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Moreta of Ruatha Hold is one of the finest Dragonriders of her time, and when a deadly plague begins sweeping across Pern, she finds herself at the center of a desperate effort to deliver a vaccine to every hold before the virus kills a generation. Anne McCaffrey's seventh Pern novel is set centuries before the main series, a historical epic that answers some of the mythology's oldest questions about the heroism Pern's culture celebrates and what it actually cost.

Sheila Hart narrates with the dramatic clarity the story's epic scale requires — this is Pern at full scope, the entire planet as the setting and the fate of the human population as the stakes. The medical urgency gives the novel a different texture than the dragon-rider adventures that define the main series, and Hart's performance handles the transition between intimate character moments and panoramic crisis with consistent authority. At just over 12 hours, Moreta is a satisfying deep cut for devoted Pern readers.