Dragon Harper

Dragon Harper

Youll cover of US editions[a]
Author	Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey
Cover artist	Paul Youll Les Edwards (UK)
Language	English
Series	Dragonriders of Pern
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Del Rey Books
Publication date	26 December 2007
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	298 (first US edition)
ISBN	978-0-345-48030-9
OCLC	154309096
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Class	PS3563.A255 D73 2007
Preceded by	Dragon's Fire
Followed by	Dragonheart

Dragon Harper is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey, part of the Dragonriders of Pern series that she initiated in 1967. Published forty years later, it was the twenty-first in the series.^[1]

Dragon Harper and the previous novels Dragon's Kin and Dragon's Fire feature the character Kindan as a boy and young man, about 500 years after landing on Pern (500 AL). They were the first collaborations by mother and son.

Plot description

Similar to Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern and Nerilka's Story (near the end of the Sixth Pass), this book is set in a time of a pandemic that threatens human life on Pern (just before the third return of Thread, or Third Pass).

The story focuses on the character Kindan, featured in Dragon's Kin, who has taken a position as an apprentice at the Harper Hall. In the school-like setting, Kindan has to deal with a bully, a blossoming forbidden relationship, and his role as a protector for new female apprentices after the Masterharper breaks the former taboo against female harpers. The book then deals with an influenza-like pandemic that threatens the lives of holders, as the Weyrs must maintain a quarantine to keep their rosters healthy enough to fight the next Threadfall.

The story additionally explains the loss of many of the records kept prior to, during and after colonization, further reducing the Pernese connection with its off-planet origins.

Notes

1. Dragon Harper title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database lists cover artist Paul Youll for all three US editions and Les Edwards for the one UK edition, as of 2011-10-13.

References

1. Dragonriders of Pern series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 9 October 2011.

External links

• Dragon Harper title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Dragon Harper in Ten Minutes – A Parody^{[permanent dead link‍]}