{{Short description|2007 novel by Anne McCaffrey}} {{more citations needed|date=October 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox book | name = Dragon Harper | image = DRAGONHARPER .jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = Youll cover of US editions{{efn|name=cover}} | author = Anne and Todd McCaffrey | cover_artist = {{plainlist| * Paul Youll * Les Edwards (UK) }} | country = United States | language = English | series = ''Dragonriders of Pern'' | genre = Science fiction | publisher = Del Rey Books | release_date = 26 December 2007 | media_type = Print (hardback & paperback) | pages = 298 <!-- highest page number, ISFDB xv+298+[3]pp --> (first US edition) | isbn = 978-0-345-48030-9 | oclc = 154309096 | dewey = 813/.54 22 | congress = 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.<ref>{{isfdb series|482|''Dragonriders of Pern''}}. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref>
''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== {{notelist|notes= {{efn|name=cover|1= {{ISFDB title|707869}} lists cover artist Paul Youll for all three US editions and Les Edwards for the one UK edition.}} }}
==References== <references></references>
==External links== * {{ISFDB title|707869}} * [http://yungweyr.net/pubpage.php?page=parody ''Dragon Harper'' in ten minutes – a parody]{{dead link|date=December 2016|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} {{Portal|Children and Young Adult Literature}}
{{Pern stories}}
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Category:2007 American novels Category:2007 fantasy novels Category:2007 science fiction novels Category:Dragonriders of Pern books Category:Collaborative novels Category:Novels by Anne McCaffrey Category:Novels by Todd McCaffrey Category:2007 Irish novels
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