Dragonflight: Anne McCaffrey

Dragonriders Of Pern, Book I: The men who rode the dragons were a breed apart. Chosen when the dragons first hatched, they became soul-mates for life with the huge, magnificent beats they controlled - the green, the blue, the brown and the bronzes - beautiful...terrible...the only creatures who could defend the planet Pern from the blood-red star. But without the Queen, the dragons would become extinct. Only the gigantic golden Queen could breed the new flights. And the Queen was fading...dying...leaving behind one last, huge, golden egg...