Note: This introduction spans pp 1-2 in the examined first printing, under the heading "Prologue by Anne McCaffrey". All but the concluding paragraph is a synopsis of the Pern setting in fiction voice. Finally, "It is in the Southern continent that this story begins ...". Dragonfire is the second Crossroads Adventure "in the World of Anne McCaffrey's Pern". The first (Crossroads Adventure #1, Dragonharper) begins with the longer "Introduction (Dragonharper)" by McCaffrey. That is entirely in nonfiction voice and concerns derivative Pern fiction, the authority McCaffrey reserved re the Crossroads project, and her ultimate pleasure with the result. Evidently it may be considered a preface to both volumes.