From the prologue through to the end, this book covers a span of time from Fax beginning his conquests (just before the 9th pass) clear through to the 17th turn of the 9th pass. I don't think this would typically be too much of an issue, but this book covers at least 3 different major perspectives for most of the book, and it can be quite disorienting, at times. For reference, that time span overlaps the events in Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums and the short story "The Girl Who Heard Dragons", that I can remember off the top of my head.

The Renegades of Pern feels kind of cobbled together, compared to some of the other Pern books. It almost feels like a series of short stories due to the way it's written. I'm kind of refreshing my memory as I read through these, but it seems to me that the information provided in this book could have been presented in a different manner.

With that said, this does eventually set up the next book, All The Weyrs of Pern, and is a recommended read if you are trying to follow the 9th pass Pernese events. I just wish she would have presented this information in a different manner. ( )

Nobody believe the menace of Thread will fall in Pern again. When it did, it struck the holdless first. Holdless people are not bound to a Hold, a dwellings ruled by a lord. There people may be travelling merchants or simply castouts and runaways.
For some holdless people, they take to being renegades to earn their means.
For Jayge, he stumbles upon a plot that the renegades were to do. They were going to kidnap a girl who can hear dragons so they would know when Thread falls and when a dragon would come to patrol.
Jayge rushes to rescue the girl. It takes him all around the Northern Continent and finally into the famed Benden Weyr but nothing stop Lady Holdless Thella of the renegades. He saves Aramina and brings her to Southern Continent to start a new life.
In this book, Aramina is still young but never frail. Jayge has no clue who he was to rescue but he knew he had to because it was the right thing to do. In the end, they end up loving each other and running to the South. It takes friends to help them get rid of Thella. We find our lovable characters joining them: Harper Piemur, Master Smith Jancis, Weyrleader K'van in only his pants and Heth.
With Thella defeated, the renegades now scatter.
I like this book. It's a must read for those Pern Collectors. It has tidbits of what happened during the fall and what happenes to the people the Holdbound don't bother to think of. ( )

A bit episodic. No major character focussed on all through, but covers some of the events of earlier books from other points of view and eventually moves the story on a bit. ( )

I like Pern a lot, but I get rather confused with the timeline and history because I don't read them often or in sequence. This one however, seemed to be completely a filler novel - there was no truly consistant plot to it, and it meandered between years, characters and events seemingly at random, simply to bulk out The White Dragon (with which it runs concurrently) and surrounding novels. ( )