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Masterharper of Pern, The (Pern (published order) #15)
In a time when no Thread has fallen for centuries - when, indeed, many are beginning to dare to hope that Thread will never fall again - a boy is born to Harper Hall. His name is Robinton, and he is destined to be one of the most famous and beloved leaders Pern has ever known.It is a perilous time for harpers. They sing of Thread, yet more and more people are beginning to ...more
MP3 CD
Published
November 25th 2005
by Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD
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The Masterharper of Pern by science fiction queen Anne McCaffrey is one of her best works. She tells the life story of the great Masterharper Robinton, from his troubled childhood to his musical genius. He is a favourite character in the Pern series.
Would it be wrong of me to hijack my own review and compare the way Anne writes about Robinton with the way her son writes about his own favourite character Kindan. Anne has passed the storywriting baton to her son Todd McCaffrey who has (i...more
Would it be wrong of me to hijack my own review and compare the way Anne writes about Robinton with the way her son writes about his own favourite character Kindan. Anne has passed the storywriting baton to her son Todd McCaffrey who has (i...more
I've read much of McCaffrey's Pern series and enjoyed it, but The MasterHarper of Pern is one of the least engaging stories I've read of hers to date. The accounting of Robinton's life up to the first events of Dragonflight proves only that Robinton did absolutely nothing notable before Lessa's story and begs the question of why the book was written at all if there was nothing interesting to tell.
In some ways I understand that this was inevitable. If Robinton had done anything truly n...more
In some ways I understand that this was inevitable. If Robinton had done anything truly n...more
I've realized that Ms McCaffrey's books offend me in exactly the same way the Sex and the City movies offend me: that the main characters and their dysfunctional relationships are supposed to be somehow sympathetic, if not outright aspirational. In this book, Robinton himself is less obnoxious than her usual main character (even if I thought the one scene where he compared holding his mom to holding his wife really Freudian and gross,) but Merelan is excessively odious: trying to hide his talent...more
I really really liked this book. It followed Robinton from his birth (or actually before it) up through finding Lessa at Ruatha hold. It was so great to see how all the character's came together, and how the characters you'd seen as adults in the other Pern books were when they were children. I thought it was really neat to watch some of the main characters from the other books grow up and develop into the characters we knew and loved. It was a really neat book written from a really neat pers...more
For those that knows the MasterHarper from Mellony's point of view, you can see what a great man this is. So strong, so sad, in both family and love. He know loneliness, but he never lets it defeat him, choosing instead to give others happiness as much as he's able. This character was so strong, and real. Just seeing him from the other books, one would never guess how much pain he holds inside, but he can shoulder the burden, and keep smiling. A great man. The character itself made it a worthy r...more
I am enjoying myself on Pern. This particular title is pretty self-explanatory...MasterHarper Robinton is a character who recurs through most of the Pern books during the time frame of Lessa, the heroine of the original book in the series, Dragonflight, which occurs some 2400-2500 years after colonists from Earth land on Pern.
By giving Robinton's backstory, McCaffrey is able to flesh out a lot of the buildup to the introduction of Lessa and the circumstances behind her situation when ...more
By giving Robinton's backstory, McCaffrey is able to flesh out a lot of the buildup to the introduction of Lessa and the circumstances behind her situation when ...more
I like the Harpers of Pern and their role in keeping tradition alive and their role as educators. It's hard to swallow Petiron as a character and the way everyone puts up with his annoying traits, but is too afraid to tell him how obnoxious he is. How is he ever supposed to learn if he stays a cosseted prima donna? I thought that was how a character like Halanna learned to become a better person, by being exposed to her own faults? Weird. Finally, the second half of the book was torture. Suddenl...more
Anne McCaffrey has this amazing ability to create characters that put you in the time and place they exist. As someone who loves music, I enjoyed reading a fantasy where music is the backbone of this series.
The Pern series is a wonderfully constructed group of books with characters that are strong core characters in one book and interesting peripheral characters in the next book. Again, I honestly am not a fan of fantasy but McCaffrey writes strong amazing characters that you just ...more
The Pern series is a wonderfully constructed group of books with characters that are strong core characters in one book and interesting peripheral characters in the next book. Again, I honestly am not a fan of fantasy but McCaffrey writes strong amazing characters that you just ...more
Okay, so I started out a little pissed that she was milking this story again, since Robinton is in the first three books as well as renegades and this is simply "the story of his life", and so retelling part of the other four books. But, she goes back to the very beginning, so it is basically all new and engaging information. Very little is a repeat of the start of book one. I was actually sobbing at one point and crying in earnest at a couple of others. That's a book I was obvious...more
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Yaaaay, got to read more about Master Robinton!
I loved this like all the other Pern books I've read so far, but one thing I've noticed is that Anne tends to recycle her character types. Like Petiron is a lot like Domick in the future books, even MasterHarper Gennell seemed similar to Robinton during the Harper Hall series - oh and Tuck/Piemur, anyone?
Aside from all that, it was a great read. I wish I could read more about Lessa, but I probably will since she's obviously an im...more
I loved this like all the other Pern books I've read so far, but one thing I've noticed is that Anne tends to recycle her character types. Like Petiron is a lot like Domick in the future books, even MasterHarper Gennell seemed similar to Robinton during the Harper Hall series - oh and Tuck/Piemur, anyone?
Aside from all that, it was a great read. I wish I could read more about Lessa, but I probably will since she's obviously an im...more
• While I liked much of this book there were a few things that made it a little difficult for me. First, I know that the character Robinton is a major character in the original Dragonrider trilogy. I respect that he must have had an interesting life, and I see why A.M. went back and wrote a book about it. My problem is that his life was unrealistically tragic. Look, all of the tragedies that happened in his life are real and possible things that can happen in someone’s life, it’s just unreal...more
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 dis...more
McCaffrey's beloved Dragonrider's of Pern series has been blessed with yet another novel. For as many of these novels that she has written, one might suspect that there would be at least one dud among them, yet every time I get my hands on one, I am pleasantly surprised - and find I don't really want to put it down.
Chronologically, this novel perfectly segues into Dragonflight, one of the primary Dragonrider novels. The last chapter introduces us to Lessa and the events at the beginn...more
Chronologically, this novel perfectly segues into Dragonflight, one of the primary Dragonrider novels. The last chapter introduces us to Lessa and the events at the beginn...more
It's hard to know the best order to read the books of Pern as many of the stories overlap. However, I have put them in a somewhat chronological order that gives the reader a logical sequence to follow. I recommend starting with this one.
For those of you who are new to Pern, it is an earth-like planet inhabited by human beings who live in a medieval-styled society. There is no magic on Pern, but there are fire-breathing, telepathic dragons who bond at their hatching with the human ...more
For those of you who are new to Pern, it is an earth-like planet inhabited by human beings who live in a medieval-styled society. There is no magic on Pern, but there are fire-breathing, telepathic dragons who bond at their hatching with the human ...more
McCaffrey offers a prelude to her original Dragonrider novels by revisiting a main character of those stories, Masterharper Robinton. However this might be more interesting if he was more of a protagonist and less of an observer to events happening about Pern. This sort of treatment cumulates at the end of the book when Robinton finds himself present to one of the most important scenes of the entire series, a Forest Gump like insertion into the storyline. An ok story, but could have been so m...more
The story of Master Robinton from his being born til the events of the first Dragonrider trilogy. An extremely talented boy is ignored by his perfectionist father even while being better than him. Amazing that Robinton turned out as well as he did. A very enjoyable tale, even though McCaffrey shows her true colors in regards to her views on marriage and sexuality.
Not sure what is up with this specific edition on Goodreads. It is NOT abridged. [nor specially priced :D]
Not sure what is up with this specific edition on Goodreads. It is NOT abridged. [nor specially priced :D]
I have to admit I enjoyed the beginning of the book, covering Robinton's birth, childhood, and young manhood. And it was intriguing to meet the characters first introduced in DragonFlight. However, the closer it came to that Turn, the more stressed I became. Yes, I knew what the results would be, but there you have it. That's me. :-P
I did think it would take us well into this Threadfall. It didn't, and I was sorry about that.
I did think it would take us well into this Threadfall. It didn't, and I was sorry about that.
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A basic premise of the Dragonsinger Trilogy is that women were not trained as harpers--so Menolly is breaking down all kinds of gender barriers on Pern when she goes to Harper Hall. Now in this book we're supposed to accept that Robinton's mother was a renowned harper? I had a hard time getting over that MAJOR continuity issue...and the rest of the book wasn't very interesting either.
I love it when an author takes a beloved character from a series of books and gives them their own story. Anne McCaffrey retells some old tales but all through the eyes of Robinton, the Masterharper of Pern while at the same time giving us his full story so we could understand his perspective on the events of Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon and so on. Stories like this enrich the original texts and make you want to re-read them all over again.
The McCaffreys have got to be my favorite science fiction authors ever. I got hooked on Pern during high school when I read the Harper Hall Trilogy, and then I went on to explore the rest of the world with Anne and Todd in the book adventures of a lifetime. I highly recommend any of the Dragonriders of Pern book series for any science fiction lover.
Great adventure within a very interesting reality of a planet with dragons--of many sizes. Watch out for the sensuality in some of these books. However, they're still worth reading--well written fantasy adventure with positive characters and decisions, with the ultimate triumph of the noble and good.
Wish this could be a 5 star book because I love Robinton! But although I loved reading about him growing up, it just wasn't an amazing book. I wish more time had been spent with adult Robinton, when he had the "voice" that we're more familiar with from other books. It was interesting getting more background on his character.
I really wanted to like this book, but I felt it seemed to be forced to fit into the framework of what was dictated by the other books in the series. And even then, certain bits just didn't fit with the Harper Hall / Dragonriders series.
And yet, I still re-read it when I re-read those books.
And yet, I still re-read it when I re-read those books.
I loved this whole book except for the ending. The ending felt like it was cobbled onto the end and read like a so-so piece of fan fiction. But the rest of the book was amazing. It chronicles Master Robinton's life from his birth to Dragonflight with all the joys and tradgeys in it.
I was introduced to Pern by my husband. My favorite Pern books are this one and the Harper Hall Trilogy. Robinton is the kind of man that makes you feel as if anything could be possible and yet it is still alright to have flaws. I believe this is Anne McCaffrey at her best.
I enjoyed all Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. I generally like scifi books that don't put the emphasis on violence, but present well drawn characters who are quirky, or honest or interesting. Anne McCaffrey manages to do that over and over again in this series. Pern is well drawn as a location with enough mystery to keep you wanting more. These books are a good mix of Earth middle ages, fantasy, men, women and children of all ages and interests. Not to mention the Dragons of different colors, ...more
The McCaffreys have got to be my favorite science fiction authors ever. I got hooked on Pern during high school when I read the Harper Hall Trilogy, and then I went on to explore the rest of the world with Anne and Todd in the book adventures of a lifetime. I highly recommend any of the Dragonriders of Pern book series for any science fiction lover.
The Masterharper of Pern was ever the fascinating man, and this book provides insight into who he is and was, clarifying facts and issues. I really enjoyed the insight into Pernese history and the great expanse of the world.
AT LAST A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT MY FAVORITE PERNESE CITIZEN: MASTER ROBINTON....GOOD LEADUP TO THE MAIN EVENTS IN HIS LIFE: LISSA&FLAR, JAXOM&RUTH,THE DRAGON, MENNOLLY,PIEMORE, THE DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST LANDING SITE...
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Anne McCaffrey was born on April 1st, 1926, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 1:30 p.m., in the hour of the Sheep, year of the Fire Tiger, sun sign Aries with Taurus rising and Leo mid-heaven (which seems to suggest an early interest in the stars).
Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, BA, MA PhD (Harvard), Colonel USA Army (retired), and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey, estate agent....more
More about Anne McCaffrey...
Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, BA, MA PhD (Harvard), Colonel USA Army (retired), and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey, estate agent....more
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