Didn't mind the overall storyline but a few things frustrated me.
The main villain has questionable motivation for anything he does. Just seems to head in random directions to cause trouble.
The 'missing presumed dead ' Harper also gets around a lot and seems reasonably well known in various places.
The 'head watchwhere woman' seems a completely different personality from the previous book. ( )

Anne McCaffrey is the quintessential writer of fantasy books pertaining to dragons. These books are always wonderful, well written, and perfectly characterized. All of her series are great but the ones that take place on Pern are the best of all. A thoroughly fun and engaging read. ( )

At Natalon’s mining camp, Pellar embarks on a secret mission to discover whether the condemned criminals known as the Shunned are stealing coal. But the gifted tracker discovers that a far more treacherous plot is unfolding. A heartless thief named Tenim has realized there is profit to be made from firestone, the volatile mineral that enables the dragons of Pern to burn the lethal Thread out of the sky. When the last remaining firestone mine explodes, a desperate race begins to find a new deposit of the deadly but essential mineral. Sure enough, Tenim has a murderous plan to turn tragedy to his own advantage. Now Pellar and his new friends—the kind and gentle Halla, a child of the Shunned, and Cristov, the son of a corrupt miner—must stop Tenim. If they fail, it will mean the end for Pern and its dragonrider ( )

Todd is in general not the writer his mother is. Most of all, he doesn't do women. Even Halla, who is supposed to be a major character isn't a real person in her own right.

Other than that, the plot is weak, and many things didn't feel like they fit into the main series. ( )

This was my first new Pern book after many decades away. So I'm not sure if my rather luke-warm appreciation is the problem of the book or because I have gotten older.

It is a story told in two parts: the first from Pellar's point of view, the second from Hella's PoV. Both are quite young, about 14 yrs old, at the beginning of the book, and it follows them, and their immediate neighbors for a year or two, with early chapters much younger, and some wrapup with them a bit older. There are a lot of characters, and I found myself setting the book down and forgetting to pick it up again.

It is a fine story, focussing on the miners, traders, and Shunned, with bits of faction with the watch-whers, and guest appearances by dragons, dragon riders, and fire lizards. Other reviewers have mentioned some inconsistencies, and they are there, but didn't destroy the book for me.

All and all, it was a fun read: not spectacular, not bad, and fun to return to the universe with Pern in it. ( )