Dragon Harper (Dragonriders of Pern, The)

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Dragon Harper (Pern (published order) #20)

by Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey

3.89 · rating details · 3,284 ratings · 113 reviews

For millions of readers the world over, the name Pern is magical, conjuring up grand vistas of a distant planet whose blue skies are patrolled by brave dragons and their noble riders, a paradise threatened by the periodic fall of deadly Thread. But not all dangers descend from the skies. Now, in their third collaboration, Anne McCaffrey and her son, Todd McCaffrey, spin a ...more

Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages

Published September 30th 2008 by Del Rey

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Mar 18, 2009

Edward rated it

· review of another edition

Dragon Harper Todd McCaffery
Stale characters running through a cardboard plot. Sadly this sums up the latest return to the Pern, the world of dragons. We have been here before but in better company. In a strange choice for this book, the thing that Pern is most known for is notably missing, dragons, the telepathic and empathic companions of this forgotten colony of humans deposited on Pern. The dragons and their lesser cousins, watch-weyrs and firelizards were genetically engineered so...more

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Aug 18, 2011

Debbie Moorhouse rated it

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Shelves: sff

Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels were a guilty pleasure of my late teens and early twenties (I was supposed to be reading English Literature, after all!) and that must account to some extent for why I stayed up until four am reading this book. Because, although highly readable, it is not a very good book.

It is in fact a pretty bad book.

It's amazing to think that Todd McCaffrey is in his fifties, because this book reads very much like teen Pern fanfic. No, it really does. Prot...more

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Aug 04, 2011

Kathy Davie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: funny, young-adult

It's 495.4 AL, 4 months and 495 years after landing in the Dragonriders of Pern fantasy series taking place on a planet cleared as habitable for humans. Only for the one-way-only colonists to discover shortly after arriving that the original survey team had just missed the regular incursion of a deadly enemy from space. Desperate to survive, their experts developed a radical solution using the planet's indigenous life form.

This is the book three involving Kindan and this time we actual...more

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Jul 23, 2010

Keiji Miashin rated it

· review of another edition

Much like its characters, which have to deal with a plague, this book too suffers from something debilitating and deadly.

Unfinished-ness.

From the very beginning the book is striking in its emptiness. There is nothing here for a long time reader to grind their teeth on. Every aspect of the writing is minimal and bare bones.

The first chapter is liable to confuse readers as it focuses, in a limited third person perspective, on one boy and provides no hint that an...moreMuch like its characters, which have to deal with a plague, this book too suffers from something debilitating and deadly.

Unfinished-ness.

From the very beginning the book is striking in its emptiness. There is nothing here for a long time reader to grind their teeth on. Every aspect of the writing is minimal and bare bones.

The first chapter is liable to confuse readers as it focuses, in a limited third person perspective, on one boy and provides no hint that another, Kindan, is the books true protagonist. This makes the transition between chapters 1 and 2 jarring and confusing.

Adding to the confusion is a veritable letter soup of names. These characters are thrown at us in the first two chapters with little description or preamble.

In fact, if there is one thing the book does most horribly wrong it is description. Mainly, the fact that there is none. Reading this book I could tell you that the Harper Hall has some Apprentice dormitories, and Fort Hold a Great Hall. What these locations (or any locations in the book) look like I couldn't tell you. The book NEVER describes. It mentions things but never elaborates, never pontificates, leaving all events to occur in a vague white space of slightly differing locales.

The one thing the book does tell us are the characters, but that's not a good thing. We are TOLD that a certain character likes to draw, for example, but never once in the story do they do so nor do other characters comment on their work. I subscribe to the adage: "Show, don't tell." And the book is as far away from following it that one can possibly be without cutting out dialogue entirely.

Speaking of the dialogue, it's unique. By which I mean that if I took out all the 'he saids' and 'she saids,' and just placed names in front of every line of text there would be little change in the text. THAT is how little description and prose can be found in this book.

The lack of any text describing setting, emotion, actions, etc. is the creation of a whirlwind of activity where characters move from place to place because someone somewhere said so. There is no depth here, no introspection for either the reader or the characters. No growth, no development. The few characters that do exhibit some of those two are forced and rushed through those changes since there is no descriptive text OF them. This makes their shift in personalities jarring and unnatural.

All of these things together make me feel like this is NOT a book. This is, perhaps, a second draft. A manuscript that COULD be a good book if the author(s) had spent even another year actually WRITING some prose into it.

2 Stars. Barely. Because its bad, but not just yet horrible enough for 1.(less)

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Jul 07, 2010

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I will admit up front that I couldn't finish this. I adore the Pern books and had not yet given the Todd McCaffrey books a try, so decided to give this one a shot. And I thought it was pretty terrible, at least as much of it (maybe a third) as I read. One of the wonderful things about the real Pern books is that McCaffrey creates such a sense of the world; you know where things are, what they look like, etc. This one has nothing of that at all. The only places I can picture in my head are the on...more

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Nov 03, 2009

Doris rated it

· review of another edition

This book didn't really give me a reference to tell how to relate it back to the originals (was it before or after the Oldtimers came forward?). The overall theme was already used - old time disease decimates the world and is saved through clever reuse of ancient history. Where was it used before? Moreta's Ride.

Unfortunately it appears that Todd will be doing more of the writing in the future, but the books I have read with him as author/co-author tend towards the stale side, with re...moreThis book didn't really give me a reference to tell how to relate it back to the originals (was it before or after the Oldtimers came forward?). The overall theme was already used - old time disease decimates the world and is saved through clever reuse of ancient history. Where was it used before? Moreta's Ride.

Unfortunately it appears that Todd will be doing more of the writing in the future, but the books I have read with him as author/co-author tend towards the stale side, with reuse of plots and characters and a plot that could stand a little more thinking.

This book reused Kindan and Aleesa, but without the deep caring and conviction that made their earlier appearances so strong. An example - Kindan goes against everything he knows to spend time with a woman he knows he shouldn't, but in a way that could destroy his life. He didn't think (although most young men in the grip of hormones would have trouble in this scene).

However, what bothered me was that the duel scene, while potentially an outstanding method of ending bullying (but not likely as anyone who has weathered bullying knows), the whole scene seemed lame, and afterwards, while Kindan wins, it almost felt as if he lost. His opponent becomes his servant, and then he promptly forgets about him except when it becomes easier to use the guy as a gofer. It just felt as if there was more to be done here for the emotional growth of both young men.

(Actually, my experience tells me that someone who, coming back into training after a major injury and worked half to death in training, would never be able to compete in anything athletic, let alone win. He would have to have been super-athletic to begin with to accomplish this feat.)

Also, I never figured out why the title was "Dragon Harper", since, although Kindan tried to Impress, we never see a lot more of him interacting with dragons after that. In fact, one of the mainstays of previous books has been that Candidates stay in the Weyr to try again. Kindan just went tamely back to Harper Hall.

He then figures out all by himself a way to overcome the plague, and does all the healer stuff, losing all his helpers along the way, but getting praise and accolades from the people he saves. When the awards are handed out, he barely gets promoted to journeyman, and as a harper at that, when he did almost no harper tasks for the major portion of the book... bah humbug to quote a phrase.

Todd McCaffrey may have grown up around Pern, but he doesn't have the "voice" to portray the characters nor the imagination to make it real for those 200-500 pages the way his mother does. As another reviewer said "Putting the name McCaffery on this book doesn’t make this good."

It just was not a good book. Easily read, easily forgettable, with characters that don't persuade you to stick around visit. The brief glimpses we get of Pern itself make it obvious that "you had to be there" as in you already need to be very familiar with Pern in order to read this.
(less)

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Jan 10, 2009

Sidhe1 rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really enjoyed this one. Maybe it's because I haven't read ANY Pern books in so long and I was in unknowing withdrawal. I don't know. But I really liked this one.

It started out in one of my favorite places on Pern, the Harper Hall. Right from the start, I've always loved the harpers, so I tend to have a soft spot for Pern books largely set in the Harper Hall or dealing with harpers in some way. It reminded me a bit of the Harper Hall trilogy with Menolly, when Kindan was getting t...moreI really enjoyed this one. Maybe it's because I haven't read ANY Pern books in so long and I was in unknowing withdrawal. I don't know. But I really liked this one.

It started out in one of my favorite places on Pern, the Harper Hall. Right from the start, I've always loved the harpers, so I tend to have a soft spot for Pern books largely set in the Harper Hall or dealing with harpers in some way. It reminded me a bit of the Harper Hall trilogy with Menolly, when Kindan was getting to know his way around and making friends, dealing with Vaxoram and his bullcrap, etc. I liked that this all built up to show how honorable Kindan is, and his duel with Vaxoram underscored it.

Then the plague came and galvanized Kindan and his friends to step up and do whatever it took to help. It did seem a bit too much like the plague from Moreta's book. However, it was told from the perspective of the holders rather than the weyrfolk, and it didn't affect the weyrs, so it was sufficiently different so it didn't really bother me. I thought there were some parallels to the Black Death, actually. Not in the way the disease itself manifested, but rather in the impact it had on the society. With so many dead, it opened up avenues for people to advance much faster than would ever have been possible before, people had to think in new ways to survive, and probably people got into social positions that would have been impossible before. I just found it interesting.

I do wonder who Todd is planning to set up for Kindan in future books, though. He must have a character in mind, since I didn't see much purpose to killing off Koriana other than to make Kindan and Lord Holder Bemin bond over her death. I don't know why that would matter, though, other than just simple character growth and development. Bemin did need to get over his dislike of harpers, and did so. It's just too bad it had to happen because of the death of his daughter. I will wait and see what happens in this regard in future books.

Overall, I also thought the quality of the writing here was much better than the previous book. The editing was better, too. I didn't see any verbatim repeats, although the slang exclamations sometimes still seem out of place, too American modern to fit into Pern. I think it must just be me, though.

I think Todd McCaffrey is improving and, while I still think he will never be as good a writer as his mother, so far he's able to fill in well enough to keep me happy. (less)

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Sep 27, 2008

rivka rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: die-hard Pern fans

Shelves: mccaffrey-pern

It's always nice to re-visit Pern, and the idea behind this book is a good one. Unfortunately, the characters are so poorly drawn that I just don't care very much about any of them. Kindan has appeared before, and I still don't feel like we know him at all.

Disappointing, especially when compared to the earlier Pern books dealing with another medical crisis -- Moretta and Nerilka's Story, which were far superior.

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Mar 25, 2009

Sabrina rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Meh. That's how I sum up my impression of this book. I'm really getting tired of the plague storyline. I fell in love with the Pern books because of the dragons, and this is the third book in a row that deals with illness and barely mentions dragons. I'm very afraid that this is the direction the series will be taking from now on. It just feels like another retelling of an already re-told story.

I also had some difficulty with the belivability of the characters. Events happen ...moreMeh. That's how I sum up my impression of this book. I'm really getting tired of the plague storyline. I fell in love with the Pern books because of the dragons, and this is the third book in a row that deals with illness and barely mentions dragons. I'm very afraid that this is the direction the series will be taking from now on. It just feels like another retelling of an already re-told story.

I also had some difficulty with the belivability of the characters. Events happen and 14-year-old boys were described as having thought processes and realizations that most 40-year-olds haven't yet acknowledged. I mean, seriously. A 14-year-old being thankful that he was beaten up so that he would have a "place to belong" now? A realization by Kindan (age 14) that the reason Vaxoram is being a bully is because he is self-conscious and insecure? Laughable. All it would have taken would have been for one of the Masters to explain the bully's behavior to Kindan, and I could have accepted that. It is just too much of a stretch to think that this angry young boy who was feeling persecuted arrived at such a realization on his own. And I won't even begin to get into the sudden turn-around of Vaxoram. There's such a thing as maturity, and then there's remembering the parameters you set for your own character.

Along those lines, however, I am also really confused as to why this one boy is the savior of Pern. Why was he given such an important research task, and him alone? Why was he continually given so much responsibility by so many different people? Why did so much fall on his young apprentice shoulders?

Overall, everything about this book was hard to take. If it hadn't been yet another retelling, it could be a decent story except for the miserable character development. It seemed like every page I read I was sighing to myself and thinking how a character would not react/say/do whatever it was said that he/she did.

A good book makes me forget that I'm reading a book. It pulls me in and I get consumed by the fictional world unfolding before my eyes. I never forgot where I was for one second while reading this book, and that doesn't make for a good read. (less)

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Sep 02, 2010

Kristie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

A pretty good book, but compared to the other Pern stories (which I love!), I thought it was only so-so. They already did the whole deadly epidemic thing in Moreta's Ride and Nerilka's Story, so it kinda seemed like a reused plot to me. Normally the characters are one of the best parts of the books, but I didn't really feel like you got to know the characters that well until more than halfway through the book. Maybe if I had read Dragon's Kin more recently, I would have had a better feel for Kin...more

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Dec 21, 2011

Tara rated it

· review of another edition

I really love Anne McCaffrey as a writer; I've read most of her books. So when I saw that she'd written a few more books on Pern with her son as a co-author, I was pretty excited. The first one was fun, but then the second, third, and fourth just seemed to be repeats of previous Pern plots, but not as well told. Maybe I'm prejudiced - I'll admit, I think Anne McCaffrey is an exceptional writer. Her son's ok, but it's not the same writing. I did enjoy the first combined book of theirs, but a regu...more

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Mar 21, 2011

Amelia rated it

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Shelves: fantasy, dragons

It was just okay...I really loved about half of the books in the Pern series and the rest were just okay for me. This one was just okay. I really liked a lot of the characters. It just didn't have the same feel as say, Dragonflight or Dragonquest. It's just starting to get streched too thin.

That, and the fact that we already had a plague of flu in Moreta and just two books earlier a plague of something flu-like that effected the dragons rather than people in Dragon's Blood. The ...more

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Jun 06, 2009

Hallie rated it

· review of another edition

What I learned (yet again) from this book: Anne McCaffrey should never have let her son get involved in the Pern books. Not that she's a top-quality writer herself, but she does know how to create a world that is interesting enough you want to keep coming back to it despite the flaws in her prose. Her son clearly doesn't live in that world the same way she does. This book is completely shallow, the characters are one-dimensional (the one attempt at an evolution of personality happens in an impla...more

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Apr 26, 2011

Andy rated it

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I was excited when my eldest son gave me the book but I'll have to admit that while I was jonesing for more Pernese tales and I finished this one in about 12 hours, something was a tad off. The tale wasn't very cohesive as a whole and although I knew that it followed Dragon's Kin, I still had a slight problem placing it in the Dragonrider's of Pern chronology from memory. All in all, it was an easier read than the time I slogged through L Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth (the only one of his book...more

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May 17, 2011

Samantha rated it

· review of another edition

I've always been a fan of the Pern books. This isn't my favourite, and may even be my (to date) least favourite, but it's not a bad book. I miss the ones where Ms. McCaffrey was writing on her own, as the books seemed a bit more fleshed out, and the characters more resonating.

Dragon Harper brought a tear to my eye once or twice, but I also cry at moving diaper commercials, so that's not saying much. I read it because it's about Pern, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to someone to r...more

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Jun 15, 2011

Cass rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2008, books-i-own, sci-fi, 2011

Another book in which Todd McCaffrey attempts to have thirteen year old children behave as adults, complete with smoldering love scenes which conflict with the "we don't peek" bath scenes.

Kindan from Dragon's Kin returns and it is in this book that he really starts to get annoying. For such a young person his resume is ridiculously unbelievable. Harper apprentice and later Watch Wher handler. He discovers better firestone and attends an impression as a candidate. Friends wit...more

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Oct 24, 2008

Anna rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

"There are a few references to characters and events from both Dragon's Kin and Dragon's Fire, and since I don't recall much of the latter, I'm beginning to suspect I may have missed reading that one, too. Regardless, once those connections are made and all the key characters are introduced, this book easily stands on its own with its own tale to tell. If you aren't already familiar with Pern, you might get a bit lost in the cultures, titles, and terms. This isn't a good book to start with,...more

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Jan 15, 2008

Kristen rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Pern fans (people who aren't Pern fans yet should read the old stuff first!)

I love Pern, so it's hard not to like this book. But it isn't my favorite. However, like all Pern books, I found it hard to put down, at least through the second half. It feels like a Pern book, even though it was coauthored by Anne's son Todd McCaffrey, so that's good. But it's another Pern book about a plague and about how they can't find what they need in the historical records. Not so good. And also at one point I felt like they were really trying to make up bad stuff to happen to the...more

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Sep 29, 2008

Luann rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, adult, 2008

I was so careful to read the four newest Pern books in publication order! But I think I would have enjoyed Dragon Harper MUCH more if I had read it BEFORE Dragonsblood. I guess it wasn't as much of an issue for me in reading Dragon's Fire because that storyline focused a lot on Pellar and Halla. While reading Dragon Harper, I had to keep reminding myself where these events fit into the storyline - mostly after Dragon's Kin and Dragon's Fire, but before Dragonsblood. Or at least before the Ki...more

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Dec 30, 2010

Livy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, dragons, fantasy

I think this is my first 1 star and I'm sad to give it to a Pern novel. They have gotten increasingly terrible after The Skies of Pern (where Anne writes herself into a corner and also where the series should have ended), but this is by far the worst. Terrible plot, the characters don't have any motivation for doing what they do, and nothing is believable. The entire thing has a cardboard feel about it. There's no life to it. Plagues on Pern have been done. More than once. Similar and handled mu...more

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Jan 30, 2009

J-Lynn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: adult-books, fantasy, nyra-2010-books, young-adult-and-adolescent-lit

I read this without having read any of the previous Pern books and it stood on its own. It took a while to get into the story because the references to the other books seemed distant. But, by the time the plague hit, I found myself really invested in young Kindan's story. The book became a study in the rise of a leader and I look forward to continuing the series.

I would classify this as high fantasy--so it won't appeal to everyone.

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Mar 30, 2008

Smaileh rated it

· review of another edition

I have enjoyed the Dragons of Pern series since I first read Dragonflight way back when. I lost track of it after 1998's Masterharper of Pern and somehow missed the new books written with Todd McCaffrey. (On the plus side, I now have a new stack of books to look for and read.)

Since I have obviously missed a few titles, I had some trouble placing this book within the chronology of Pern. Obviously it takes place before the original stories but is it before or after Moreta's Ride and N...more

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Dec 18, 2010

MaryJane rated it

· review of another edition

It was like, okay. I was not gripped by it as with some of Anne McCaffrey's earlier Pern books. I was sort of confused as to where this story belongs in the chronology. Seems like it was unheard of for a girl to be a harper, so it must've happened before the time of Menolly. On the other hand, it was Menolly who did a lot of work to communicate with fire lizards, so this must have taken place after her time?

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Nov 13, 2010

Margo rated it

· review of another edition

Very poorly written. The story starts and stops, and transitions are NOT smooth. It seems more like it was written for a very young audience who would not expect logical flow. This is my first time reading one of the mother/son collaborations, and even though I really enjoy Anne McCaffrey's solo work, I will not be reading another one "co-written" by her son. Very disappointing.

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Jan 30, 2009

Gregory rated it

· review of another edition

Good, but super sad ending. Well it's happy but sad. You'd have to read it, but I liked it a lot. I'm still a little confused by the title, the kid isn't a Dragon Rider, and not really even a journeyman harper till the VERY, VERY end. So I'm not sure what's up with that. It's open for another though, I don't know if they'll write one.

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Mar 02, 2010

Tamcamry rated it

• This is really a fantastic book. It’s also a page turner like the last one. It gives great insight into the life of Kinden. He is a good character that warrants more stories than the ones written so far. This book also tells about some of the events referred to in Dragonsblood. Hopefully, there will be more about Kinden.

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Jan 07, 2012

Rose rated it

· review of another edition

Great Einstein's ghost, this book was tedious. No scrap of plot lurks betwixt its pages, and (if one is sufficiently posessed of both determination and a great deal of masochism), it is possible to expend hours searching in vain for some hint of individual personality to distinguish its population of cardboard characters.

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Feb 27, 2008

Dennis Callin rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 26, 2008

Lizziek8 rated it

· review of another edition

It was nice to be back on Pern, but something was different. This book was written by Anne and son Todd, but I think either Anne is slipping or Todd did most of the writing. It has the same style, to some degree, but it read more like fanfic than anything else.

The attention to details wasn't there. Words like pencils, paper, and antiperspirant appeared in the story several times. Earlier Pern books were careful of details such as this.

The book was very dependent on the ...more

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Apr 13, 2009

Laura rated it

· review of another edition

A new threat to the people of Pern has appeared. Survival of the society comes to depend on the wits of several of the apprentices in the Harpers' Guild. The dragon riders play an important role, of course.
Very enjoyable escapist fiction. I could recommend this to teens.

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About Anne McCaffrey

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

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Quotes from Dragon Harper

“Step by step
Moment by moment
We live through
Another day” — 22 people liked it

“Fight only in direst need
Not for lust or petty greed
Honor those that do give birth
Respect them well for their full worth” — 10 people liked it

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Dragon Harper (Pern (published order) #20)

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