For fans of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, Dragonsdawn is a must read. It answers all those questions that probably never nagged you but are fun to have an answer to anyhow, such as "Why did the colonists come to Pern anyhow?" and "How did they make the dragons?"

I don't think it's giving away too much to say the colonists came to get away from the memories of war or that they didn't know about Thread at the time. After all, who in their right mind would colonize a planet with such a hazard?

This novel does a bit of balancing of the fantasy and science fiction aspects. On the whole, I consider McCaffrey's works to tend toward the fantasy side of the spectrum, but there's some work on the science fiction side in Dragonsdawn. 

I enjoyed the character development tremendously. Many of the characters go through tremendous growth... literally, as some major characters are children at the start and adults at the end. But you'll see some very realistic changes in personality and how people cope with tragedies in their lives.

Some may find the early parts a bit dull, especially if you aren't into the technology. But for others that might be extremely welcome.

One advantage this book has over some of the other titles in the Pern series is that you can read it whether or not you have read any of the other books. If you've read the other books, it's a familiar universe, just much earlier than prior books. If you haven't... well, you won't get any spoilers about what happens later on Pern or anything like that. It very much stands alone.