kat_bird 's review for:

MasterHarper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

4.0

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I have been reading Anne McCaffrey's Pern books for many years. I discovered them when I was twelve, and over the course of that summer I devoured all that had been written. I adored them. I adore Masterharper Robinton. I have a print of the portrait of Robinton that Robin Wood did for her People of Pern book. I always thought a book about Robinton would be great, and I wanted to like The Masterharper of Pern when it came out. I expected a lot from The Masterharper of Pern, and I was greatly disappointed. Ms. Caffrey seems to have written this book in a vacuum. It does not fit in at all with the impressions of Robinton's early life and life at the Harper Hall at the end of the long interval that she gave in her earlier books. She gives short shrift to story lines and characters she had alluded to in earlier (written) books, while focusing on entirely new characters created for this book. If these other events and people were so integral to Robinton's life--why were they never mentioned later in his life? Ms McCaffrey fell for the same pitfall that many writters of prequels encounter. That said, I am sure Pern fans will still want to read The Masterharper of Pern, but it won't be one of those books to make it into the reread pile. Instead when you get a hankering for Robinton and the Harper Hall, I would suggest listening to the companion CD of the same name recorded by Tania Opland and Mike Freeman. The cd is definitely the best thing to have come out of the book.