For those of us who have been waiting to get more Piemur, specifically the details of what he was doing on the Southern continent under the Master Harper's orders, he is here. This book follows the events in Dragon Drums and interweaves with those of The White Dragon to flesh out what the harpers were doing to help with the tense situation of the Oldtimers deciding to withdraw from the Weyrs and the theft of the queen egg from Benden. It also lets us get a glimpse of Piemur's home in Crom and his kin there. We see Toric of Southern Hold, observe some of the interactions between the Oldtimers, and spend time with dragonriders N'ton and J'hon. Of course, any story with Piemur couldn't be told without his friends Menolly and Sebell, as well as his fire-lizard Farli and his runnerbeast Stupid.
This story fills a gap within the awesome Chronicles of Pern, bridging the continents, the Harper Hall and Weyrs, and even the Holds. It does an excellent job of underscoring what Master Robinton is always telling his proteges - that they are all dependent on each other and what affects one, affects them all. It is rewarding to see Piemur work to rise above his disappointment over losing his beautiful young singing voice and use the other skills he has to help those he cares about.
While fans will recognize the characters and what is at stake in the conflicts, newcomers may be a bit frustrated by their lack of prior knowledge. The action begins in medias res and takes off from there, so they will have to do some reading between the lines to make sense of things. The characters are compelling enough that it probably won't put off many new readers, but they may want to go back to the original series and then revisit this again later to enjoy it even more.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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