Dragon's Kin

I've been so busy recently, especially with work, but I had the chance to read Anne & Todd McCaffrey's "Dragon's Kin" last week. Unfortunately, it's not very good. The story takes place about 15 years prior to the third pass (this is from memory, and so may not be accurate), and is "ancient history" (not only pre-Lessa, but pre-Moreta as well). Kindan is a young boy who's orphaned when his father and brothers are killed in a mining accident (the entire story takes place at a coal mine settlement). He becomes the ward of Master Zist, a harper who's been newly assigned to the settlement. Kindan becomes Zist's apprentice and is looking forward to becoming a Harper when he grows up. However, the settlement leader wants Kindan to raise a watch-wehr (the w-w being trained to work with and protect men in the mine). Kindan gives up his dream of being a Harper, but becomes friends with the blind Nuella. Nuella becomes heavily involved in the training of Kisk, the w-w, and ultimately bonds with Kisk, freeing up Kindan to become a Harper after all.

Anne, whom I've been reading since around 1980, is a hit-and-miss writer, usually hitting but occasionally missing (e.g., Dolphins of Pern). Whether this "miss" is due to son Todd (Anne's heir apparent to the Pern empire) is difficult to say. The story reads like one of Anne's work (the good news), but is also very formulaic (one of Anne's occasional bad habits) and the outcome was too easy to predict. Overall, I'd rather read one of Anne's other works.