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Review by Larry Woods
With "The Masterharper of Pern," Anne McCaffrey succeeds again in depicting the serenity and beauty of dragons in their symbiotic relationship with humanity on a world called Pern. For 20 years now, McCaffrey has written a series of related novels featuring planet Pern, which is threatened by deadly spores that fall periodically to the planet surface devouring and killing everything in their path. The only defense to these spores, known as Thread, are the dragons of Pern whose flaming breath destroys the Thread before it can drop to the surface.
Humans and dragons have used telepathy over generations to bond with one another in armed encampments known as weyrs, or holds, so that when dragon eggs hatch, young humans can develop a telepathic link as dragon riders.
As the story begins, no Threads have fallen on Pern for centuries, and five of Pern's six weyr holds are mysteriously unoccupied by either dragon or human. In the absence of any threat from the Thread, many of the Pern communities have lost respect for the musicians who compose, sing and teach their culture's knowledge through their tradition of music and songs. While the young protagonist Robinton has the rare telepathic gift to communicate with dragons and is a musical genius, his talents may not be sufficient to guard against the benign neglect that has unwittingly led the humans of Pern to forget the value of the musical harpers.
While some of the characters, especially Robinton's father Petiron, seem one dimensional, McCaffrey has written a beautiful story about the relationship between a mother and son.
Larry Woods is an attorney and an avid collector of science fiction.
©1998, ProMotion, inc.
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