Dragondrums

In the third volume of the Harper Hall Trilogy from McCaffrey's multi-layered dragonriders' saga, Harper Piemur is called upon to serve the Master Harper of Pern on a secret and dangerous mission. Unfortunately, the reading does little to promote the excitement of the story, and Darling has occasional difficulty remembering previous pronunciations of the Pernian names, an odd lapse since she is the narrator of the two earlier books. Her voice seems too light for an adolescent boy; furthermore, her pitch and pacing do not always allow the listener to distinguish among the characters. Dragondrums is probably the weakest book of the trilogy, and this production does little to improve it. S.G. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine