"Dragonsong" and the second Pern book "Dragonquest" are set at the same time, seven years after the end of the seminal "Dragonflight" — that is, more than 2500 years after human settlement, during the "Ninth Pass" of the Red Star that periodically brings a biological menace from space. Their primary geographical settings are not distant in space yet worlds apart: "Dragonsong" in an isolated sea-hold and "Dragonquest" at the centers of Pernese society, the weyrs and major holds, especially Benden Weyr. Near the end of "Dragonsong", the protagonist Menolly is rescued by a dragonrider, and the action converges with that of "Dragonquest".