Singing her heart out… - DragonSong: Pern vol. 4
Written: Mar 30 '05 (Updated Aug 06 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The world of Pern seen from a whole new perspective
Cons: Less emphasis on dragons and their riders
The Bottom Line: A strong female character and emphasis on music make the start of this second Pern trilogy among my favorites in the series
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| pearannoyed's Full Review: Dragonsong Books |
Many have read and loved Anne McCaffrey’s trilogy about The Dragonriders of Pern Sadly, not all the readers of that first group of books knows about the follow-up collection covering much of the same time period, but from a different perspective. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey shifts the emphasis away from the dragon weyrs and into the holds and crafthalls, creating an entirely different texture and setting for further exploration of this intriguing fantasy world.
The World
The planet Pern is much like Earth, and is, in fact, populated by humans. The humans share the planet with large, telepathic dragons who can chew a stone which enables them to breathe fire. These fire-breathing friends are especially useful in combating Thread—the showers of deadly, parasitic spores which fall into Pern’s atmosphere at regular intervals.
The Story
Caution—this review may contain spoilers for previous books in the Pern series. If you don’t want those books spoiled, please don’t read this review. I don’t intentionally give away details from other books, but cannot promise to avoid all such references. You have been warned.
Menolly is miserable.
As the daughter of a minor holder there are certain expectations and obligations that she has to meet. Unfortunately, she is too tall, too skinny, too curious, too active to please her parents. And all she wants to do is learn everything she can about the craft of the Harpers - music is her passion. Unfortunately, as her father Yanus has often told her, no girl will ever become a Harper. It just isn’t fit.
But now that Half-Circle sea hold’s Harper, Petiron, is dead, Yanus has agreed to allow Menolly to teach the children – a thrill for the young teen, but also a mixed blessing. With Petiron gone, so are her dreams of one day becoming a real Harper. She has no expectations that Master Harper Robinton would be as indulgent as old Petiron had always been – even with her perfect pitch and her ability to write new songs.
Her distress only deepens when a new young Harper named Elgion arrived at Half-Circle. She knows now that her teaching days are over. And now she finds herself given the worst of tasks in order to keep her away from the new Harper. Clearly Yanus is afraid that Elgion will learn that the teaching has been done by a mere girl, disgracing the small hold.
Menolly, for her part, welcomes every opportunity to be as far from the hold as possible – gathering greens or small crabs. Her adventures even lead her to aid a wild firelizard, though who would even believe her if she told of it? But when thread comes unexpectedly, will her long legs and rebellious spirit be enough to help her survive threadfall?
My Thoughts
This first book in Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy is a welcome change from the original Dragonriders Trilogy. While those books are intended for a decidedly more “adult” audience; this grouping, the only Pern books published by Bantam Spectra, is market to a slightly younger audience.
The flow of Dragonsong seems more fluid to me than McCaffrey’s first trilogy. There is more storytelling and less jumping from event to event. And unlike the earlier novels, the focus on a single character makes this book a much easier read than some of McCaffrey’s other work.
I’ll admit that the presence of F’Lar and Lessa is missed at first. For anyone who has read about Pern, it seems odd to have Dragons and their riders play so small a role in this unusual world. But because this book is set in roughly the same time frame as Dragonquest brief glimpses of the greater events happening on this alien world are seen, albeit from a different perspective. This lends an air of familiarity to the stories that might have been missing otherwise.
In all, I would definitely recommend Dragonsong to either established readers of the Pern novels, or to those who wish to get a taste of this world for the first time. Though this is the start of the second trilogy in this series, I think one could easily follow the story without having read the first three books.
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For a more complete look at life on Pern, check out this brief overview.
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Books in the Pern collection:
Dragonriders Trilogy
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
Harper Hall Trilogy
Dragonsong
DragonSinger
DragonDrums
Other Pern Novels
Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern
Nerilka’s Story
Dragonsdawn
Renegades of Pern
All the Weyrs of Pern
Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Dolphins of Pern
Dragonseye (U.S.), Red Star Rising (U.K)
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
Dragon’s Kin (with Todd McCaffrey)
Dragon’s Blood (by Todd McCaffrey—coming Jan. 2005)
Compilations
The Dragonriders of Pern (Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon)
On Dragonwings (Dragonsdawn, Dragonseye and Moreta)
A Gift of Dragons (short stories)
Related Works
The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern (ed. Jody Lynn Nye / Bill Fawcett)
The Atlas of Pern (by Karen Fonstad)
The People of Pern (a ‘portrait gallery’ by artist Robin Wood)
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Amy Padgett
Location: CA Dreamin' ~ TX reality
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