Dragon Harper (33 page)
Authors: Anne McCaffrey
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Shelly Shapiro, our longtime editor at Del Rey, for all her hard work in making this book great. She was aided by Judith Welsh, our editor at Transworld, and we’d like to thank her, too.
Once again, the redoubtable Martha Trachtenburg did a sterling job of copyediting the book, catching many things that we’d missed and making suggestions for the improvement of our verse. Thanks, Martha. We’re sorry about all the handkerchiefs.
Georgeanne “Gigi” Kennedy, daughter and sister, respectively, provided her moral support, encouragement, and occasional keen insight as with all other Pern books.
Finally, we’d like to thank our agents, Diana Tyler of MBA Literary Agency, and Donald Maass of the Donald Maass Literary Agency for their support, cheer, and great feedback on the rough draft.
Any mistakes, errors, or omissions are, as always, strictly our own.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
A
NNE
M
C
C
AFFREY
, the Hugo Award–winning author of the bestselling Dragonriders of Pern
®
novels, is one of science fiction’s most popular authors. With Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, she co-authored
Changelings
and
Maelstrom,
Book One and Book Two of The Twins of Petaybee. McCaffrey lives in a house of her own design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland. Visit the author’s website at
www.annemccaffrey.net
.
T
ODD
M
C
C
AFFREY
is the bestselling author of the Pern novel
Dragonsblood,
as well as
Dragon’s Kin
and
Dragon’s Fire,
which he co-wrote with his mother, Anne McCaffrey. A computer engineer, he currently lives in Los Angeles.
Having grown up in Ireland with the epic of the Dragonriders of Pern, he is bursting with ideas for new stories of that world, its people, and its dragons. Visit the author’s website at
www.toddmccaffrey.org
.
B
Y
A
NNE
M
C
C
AFFREY
Published by Ballantine Books
Decision at Doona
Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet Survivors
The Mystery of Ireta
Get Off the Unicorn
The Lady
Pegasus in Flight
Restoree
The Ship Who Sang
To Ride Pegasus
Nimisha’s Ship
Pegasus in Space
Black Horses for the King
THE CRYSTAL SINGER BOOKS
Crystal Singer
Killashandra
Crystal Line
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Nerilka’s Story
Dragonsdawn
The Renegades of Pern
All the Weyrs of Pern
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Dolphins of Pern
Dragonseye
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
A Gift of Dragons
On Dragonwings
B
Y
T
ODD
M
C
C
AFFREY
Dragonsblood
B
Y
A
NNE
M
C
C
AFFREY AND
T
ODD
M
C
C
AFFREY
Dragon’s Kin
Dragon’s Fire
Dragon Harper
Dragon Harper
is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2007 by Anne McCaffrey and Todd J. McCaffrey
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
D
EL
R
EY
is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
McCaffrey, Anne.
Dragon Harper / Anne McCaffrey & Todd McCaffrey.
p. cm.
1. Pern (Imaginary place)—Fiction. 2. Life on other planets—Fiction. 3. Space colonies—Fiction. 4. Dragons—Fiction. I. McCaffrey, Todd, 1956– II. Title.
PS3563.A255D73 2007
813'.54—dc22 2007027611
eISBN: 978-0-345-50252-0
v3.0