A Gift of Dragons is a collection of four short stories of the Dragonriders of Pern series written by Anne McCaffrey. It was first published by Del Rey Books in November 2002.
It is one of two short stories collections containing only the stories of the Dragonriders of Pern series, the other being The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall.
A Gift of Dragons was the last one in the series written by Anne McCaffrey alone, before the entry of her son Todd (see Dragon's Kin). It was published first in the US and four months later in the UK with the same cover art, by Del Rey Books and Bantam UK, two imprints of Random House. Three of the four stories were previously published, one as a small book.
Includes[]
- "The Smallest Dragonboy" — Originally published in 1973
- "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" — Originally published in 1986
- "Runner of Pern" — Originally published in 1998
- "Ever The Twain" — First published
Synopsis[]
The stories are not united by any theme, but three of four are set about 2500 years After Landing, the beginning of human settlement on Pern. That is just before or during the Ninth Pass. Those three stories therefore share a Pernese historical period with most of the previous books in the series.