# Anne McCaffrey - The Masterharper of Pern



## Brian G Turner (Oct 13, 2007)

Original review by Jane Jinn:



I was intrigued, but disappointed. I had been a fan of Anne McCaffrey's  for several years and have read, re-read, and analysed her books while  waiting for each new one to come out, but this is where I gave up and  stopped reading. Robinton is just too perfect! Does anyone else know the  phrases Mary Sue or Gary Stu? They denote characters who are perfect,  beautiful, special in some way, beloved by literally everybody, and  always end up saving the day because the universe revolves around them  and nothing in the story can be resolved without their expert help.  Robinton falls neatly into this category. He is just too good to be  true. Despite being neglected by his father, Robinton is of course a  musical genius, makes friends easily, and can even speak with dragons.  He spends much time in the the Weyr and knows all the dragons and their  riders. Then he's in the Hold where he meets Fax and can already smell  that the man is trouble. And at the end of the story, when he is  disguised as a drudge in Ruatha during the events that were already told  in "Dragonflight", Robinton suddenly takes charge, sending Fax's men on  their way, telling F'nor to send for Lord Holder Bargen from High  Reaches, and ordering them to find a wet-nurse for baby Jaxom. The  reader is left with the impression that, at the very least, Jaxom would  have starved to death if not for Robinton's presence there.

  I also found that this book just didn't fit in with what I'd led myself  to expect by reading Anne McCaffrey's other books. Why, for instance, is  Robinton so surprised when Mnementh speaks to him for the first time in  "Dragonquest", if he's practically grown up speaking to dragons, as  shown here? Why does R'gul repeatedly tell Lessa that queens don't fly  in Dragonflight, when he's obviously old enough to remember Carola and  Feyrith flying around Benden Weyr? Why does Petiron not disabuse Menolly  of her notion that women can't be harpers and what is the problem about  sending her to the Harper Hall in Dragonsong, if Petiron's own wife  Merelan is called MasterSinger, and girls such as Halanna or Maizella  are welcomed at the Hall?

  And speaking of Petiron, he was the biggest disappointment of all. I was  horrified to see how he was portrayed here. In "Dragonsong", he was  shown as a patient, generous, loving old man, one who genuinely  regretted the fact that Menolly could not be a Harper because she was a  girl, but who did his utmost best to teach her everything he could, and  who was so excited about her original creations of songs that he sent  them to the Masterharper. Here, Petiron is shown as being petty and  jealous, so possessive of his wife that he doesn't want to acknowledge  his own son, and downright irritated by Robinton's presence, instead of  delighting in the boy's musical ability. I just can't reconcile these  two portrayals of the same character. I'm not convinced that Merelan's  death could have softened Petiron so much. By the depth of his  possessiveness, I would have guessed that he would become bitter,  certainly even more irritated by things in general. I also did not like  the way the entire Harper Hall connived to keep Robinton away from  Petiron's attention as much as possible, teaching him in secret, letting  him compose in secret, just to 'save' him from his father's  perfectionism. Then Merelan tells Petiron that nobody has been hiding  Robinton from him, that he simply did not hear and did not see. Huh?

  Sebell is introduced in this book at a point in the story that shows  he's actually older than Lessa, which would make him about thirty five  by the time of "Dragonsinger". Yet in that story, he's only a  journeyman, one who's only just walked the tables from apprenticeship. I  can't believe he's such a bad musician that it would take that long to  promote him. His presence in this book doesn't seem to serve a purpose,  so why has he been forced in? Just to show that he's the son Robinton  never had?
  It also seemed to me that the estrangement between Weyr and Hold had  been gradual, over the course of generations, not happening in a mere  thirty-forty years. For instance, in the original books, there's no  mention of letting the public watch dragons hatching until Ramoth's  first clutch hatches, and then F'lar breaks a "longstanding" tradition  when he sends for the fathers of the Candidates so that they can watch.  How long is "longstanding"? It seems that Robinton was there when F'lar  himself Impressed, a mere twenty or twenty five Turns before that. Also,  many of the events in this book that deal with the political situations  and the estrangement seem rushed, squeezed in between leisurely scenes  about Robinton's personal life. If he's not actually present, the events  are skimmed over, merely reported; told, not shown. But it's amazing  that Robinton manages to be almost everywhere on Pern at just the right  moment to see what's going on.

  I found this particular rendering of Pern too different from her  original books. It just didn't ring true in my ears. Pern has changed.  At first, it was a small group of people who had faith and almost no  evidence, that Threadfall would return. They were fighting against a  very large group of people who were convinced otherwise because of  centuries of tradition. Now it seems that almost everybody who matters  on Pern is enlightened, but they have to fight against the few who  aren't. I almost think the situation is the reverse of what we were  shown in "Dragonflight," and it's made me lose a lot of interest.  There's no longer an underdog to root for. There's no suspense, nothing  to worry the reader. It's obvious that the good guys will win, because  they are enlightened and the bad guys aren't, and they do win, so easily  that the threat never really seems real somehow.

  We already know the story of Lessa, F'lar, and Fax from "Dragonflight,"  where it was told in a much better and less rushed way. Having Robinton  witness it all while disguised as a drudge seems contrived and just  plain pointless.

  All in all, this book left me feeling disappointed, almost cheated. I  wished I'd had the chance to check it out from a library first and read  it, then I probably wouldn't have bought it.


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## Pyan (Oct 13, 2007)

Dreadful, dreadful book, Brian - I, too was deeply disappointed by the contrived premise, and the contortions that Ms McCaffrey had to put her characters through to make it all fit together - and even then, she fails in several important areas.

After reading this, I actually went back and read _Dragonflight_ to remind myself of the freshness of the original concept, and the power of the earlier writing....sadly, this seems to all but disappeared in the overextending of the series......

Not recommended, except for the most rabid and undemanding acolytes. Sorry!


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## Talysia (Oct 13, 2007)

I think the inconsistences were what put me off keeping this book once I'd read it.  Sadly, it's not the brightest chapter in the Dragonriders of Pern series, in my opinion, and I prefer the version of events told in DragonFlight.


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