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language: English
country: USA
year: 1998
form: novel
genre(s): science fiction
series: Dragonriders of Pern, #14
dates read: 27.2.21-1.3.21, 14.5.25-16.5.25
to be honest I’m not sure I can write a review of Anne McCaffrey’s The Masterharper of Pern. this is, to put it simply, because I am insane about this series, and while of all the books in this series The White Dragon is the one I find most frustrating, Masterharper is the book that makes me most insane.
the book follows the life of Robinton — ultimately the Masterharper (or “MasterHarper” as this book hideously has it), the head of the Harpercraft, responsible for music and education across Pern — from his birth to the opening events of Dragonflight, the first book in the series. continuity-wise, it is a disaster, particularly with regards to characters’ ages but also in relation to who is where and at what times. at least there’s no necromancy in this one, though!
unfortunately, despite the mess it makes of continuity stuff, I am obsessed with one of its core plot elements: Robinton and his best friend (or more than friend?) F’lon, the young, brash Weyrleader of Benden, are each part of an institution that, as we saw in Red Star Rising/Dragonseye, was established to Stand The Test Of Time and ensure that Pern would be ready for the return of Thread. both institutions have fallen into disrepute, with fewer and fewer new members coming to join them, a slow but steady and seemingly irreversible decline that both Robinton and F’lon are aware of but that neither of them can actually do anything to address. this is one of my absolute favorite plots, and it is heartbreaking that it’s in a book that is, while pleasant enough for what it is, broadly mediocre.
this is really the crux of the problem with this book: while its narration is perfectly pleasant and moderately engaging it also could have been about 100 pages shorter — perhaps even 150 pages shorter (and this for a book that’s only 260-some pages in my hardcover copy) — and not lost much, if anything, of note. I’m pretty sure the abridged audiobook I listened to as a child fully cut Robinton’s wife entirely and still produced an enjoyable experience. indeed, I think probably a more enjoyable experience without introducing her only to fridge her a chapter and a half later to give Robinton some Tragedy.
the fridging of Kasia exemplifies the casual sexism that runs through this book, from Master Lobirn’s wife having abandoned her career as a Healer to be a full-time mother and housewife to — in one of the most appallingly mean-spirited parts of the entire series — everyone at the Harper Hall conspiring to Break a willful girl who’s been sent to study music. and let’s not even get started on the sexism and fatphobia combo re the treatment of Jora! (the one bright light here is Robinton’s relationship with Silvina, who refuses to marry him even when she’s pregnant with his child on the grounds that she’s not cut out for monogamy and there are too many other men to love.)
the plot, such as it is, has two threads: for the first third or so of the book, the focus is split between Robinton and his mother Merelan and both of their relationships with Robinton’s father, Petiron, a difficult, exacting man who is also the only person at the Harper Hall unaware that his son is extraordinarily musically talented. another problem with this book is that it insists that Merelan is a Good Parent and Petiron is a Bad Parent, but the reasons it gives for Petiron being a Bad Parent are often actually unrelated (though he is also a neglectful, bad parent). the example that really stuck out to me is Petiron’s insistence that there be no favoritism towards Robinton and that Robinton go through all the normal steps of the Hall’s educational program. insofar as status and appearances are quite important on Pern I think this is a totally reasonable concern, actually — the problem is that everyone at the Hall is all in on Robinton as the specialest little boy who ever lived, so the narration and all the characters around Petiron present this as an unreasonable demand on his part. meanwhile, Merelan — the “Good Parent” — and the rest of the Hall are actively conspiring to prevent Petiron from realizing how talented his son is. hello?
with all of that said. the reason I am insane about this book is F’lon and Robinton’s relationship. fellas, is it gay to sleep in your best boy friend’s bed? is it gay if he sleeps in yours? is it gay to gaze consideringly at him and wish he, too, had become a dragonrider so he could be a constant presence in your social and sexual sphere? is it gay to show up at his wedding and be weird and pushy and constantly intruding into his relationship with his fiancée and then wife to remind everyone that he’s your best boy friend? is it gay to leave the woman you apparently “love”, who has literally just given birth to your son, in order to travel halfway across the planet and get drunk with your best boy friend? is it gay to nod when your best boy friend has been rebuffed by another woman he wanted to marry and tell him it’s for the best because “[t]hink of all the…ah…friendships you’d have to forgo”? is it gay if your best boy friend can speak to your dragon — which is permanently telepathically bonded to you but can sometimes hear and choose to speak to other people — but, crucially, says this ability comes not from his ability to communicate with the dragon but rather is telepathically mediated through you? is it gay if you wonder what it’s like when your best boy friend has sex?
but it’s not just F’lon — or, rather, after F’lon is killed off, Robinton gets a new boyfriend. two of the stories in The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall make much of a wife taking of her husband’s boots as a sign of How Married They Are. here, that role is taken by Robinton’s main spy, alias Nip, who returns from a mission after which Robinton insists on removing Robinton’s boots, prompting Nip to observe: “You’re the only man I’d allow such a privilege.”
but, of course, none of this can be addressed directly, because god forbid anyone outside the Weyr not be straight!
except for the one teenager from Fort Hold who Impressed a green dragon who apparently was so obviously not cis/het that even Petiron, a man oblivious to the fact that his son is a musical genius, knew he was queer. that sums up this book, really, I think.
moods: dark, hopeful, wacky