The Masterharper of Pern (Bookcassette(r) Edition)

Rating:
Summary: The Master Harper of Pern
Review: The Master Harper of Pern is a great addition to the series.  This book shows a different type of life in the world of Pern.  It focuses on another one of the major crafts of the world which is the Harper Hall.  It uses Robinton as the main focus in the book.  It goes through his life until it catches up with the rest of the series.  It shows many of the reasons why he is the way he is in the rest of the series.  It shows how his hard work, natural talents, and attitude to take on any job help him throughout this book.  I liked this book and if you have been a fan of McCaffery's other works, than you will like this one too.


Rating:
Summary: Just a decent biographry of Robinton
Review: The readers asked for it...that's why Anne McCaffrey wrote it, so she claims. I read it, hoping that she could make a good story about his youth. It is vaguely interesting but basically it was a dressed up from the background biographical material to the Pern books that Anne probably wrote decades ago. There was nothing exciting about Masterharper. No great adventure, new discovery or exciting action. We find out what formed Robinton's character and skills in his childhood and early youth. We also find out how he first met all the older personalities in the Dragonriders of Pern and trilogy established friendly or otherwise relationships with them. The best part of the book was the very end where it neatly lands us from a diffrent perspective at the beginning of Dragonflight: Ruatha, when Lessa is rescued by the dragonriders and Jaxom is born.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent prequel, but best served after the rest
Review: With this, Anne McCaffrey's latest entry into the low-tech sociological science fiction world of Pern, the author provides a grand prequel to the Present Pass books (Dragonriders, Harper Hall, etc.) in the form of a biography of one of the central players of those ealier written books. In the process, we view the formative years of MasterHarper Robinton and gain a deeper understanding of the politics of pre-Pass Pern, mostly especially involving the rise to power of the villainous Fax. We also visit the early lives and events of many other characters from McCaffrey's novels. As with many prequel books like this, MasterHarper doesn't make for an ideal intro to the Pern setting, being high on biography and low on action and cool stuff like the dragons. But for anyone who has read the later-occuring Pern novels (especially Dragonflight), this is a must read. Fans of Robinton will adore it.