Return to Pern: The Masterharper of Pern

The Masterharper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

My memory of the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy was that Robinton, the Masterharper of Pern, was my favorite character, carrying me through parts of the book I found less interesting. So it seemed logical to me that I would follow up the Harper Hall trilogy with this prequel about the life of the Masterharper.

Published: 1998
Acquired and read: April 2023

Well, whatever made Robinton my favorite character in the original books, there's absolutely no trace of it here. Like Menolly and Piemur, Robinton is an obnoxious prodigy, able to compose amazing music from a young age, and basically better at everything than everybody else. And that's it, that's the book! He never seems to struggle, he just is the best at everything he does. I think McCaffrey doesn't really understand excellence; she seems to think it some kind of effortless superiority. Some of the most excellent people you know work the hardest and struggle the most, but you wouldn't know it from reading a McCaffrey novel. And why does Robinton have to be the best composer, the best singer, the best player? Surely the skills required to be Masterharper are not these technical ones, but the skills of leading men and having wisdom? These are skills Robinton never demonstrates in this book. Why is he picked as Masterharper? It's not clear, he just is. How does he adjust to this new role? As boringly effortlessly as he does everything else.

On top of all that, Robinton can hear all dragons talk, which totally contradicts the depiction of Robinton in the original trilogy. Wow, he's just so so special. Actually, a lot of stuff doesn't line up; Menolly's boyfriend Sebell is aged up by a whole generation here, and Robinton's mother was a harper when the Harper Hall trilogy made clear there were no women harpers prior to Menolly. Why write a prequel if you can't make it join up right?

This book was a tedious, awful slog that made me hate a character who had been one of my favorites. I've seen it said that as the Pern series went on, McCaffrey lost sight of what made it work in the original books. For the readers, Pern was an awesome place you'd want to live, but that hadn't been true for the characters. But as it went on, that became true for the characters too. The Pern of the 1990s has had all its rough edges rounded off, and that loses what made Pern work to begin with back in the 1960s.

This is the fourth installment in a series of posts about the Pern novels. The next covers Moreta and Nerilka's Story. Previous installments are listed below:

1. Introduction
2. Dragonsong / Dragonsinger
3. Dragondrums