Dragondrums

The Harper Hall books are less a trilogy and more a duology about Menolly and then a single book about Piemur, the young harper who was introduced as a side character in Dragonsinger. Piemur has a beautiful prepubescent voice... and Dragondrums opens with that voice breaking as Piemur goes through puberty, so now he needs to carve out a new space for himself at the Harper Hall.

Piemur is a fun character, but like Menolly in the previous two books suffers from the fact that he's pretty much great at everything he does. He has to transition into drumming... and wow, he's the best drummer in the history of drumming, and everyone hates him for it. Wouldn't it be more interesting if for once in his life he had to work at something? There are show more lots of shenanigans here about the Old Timers on the Southern Continent, and Piemur works as a sort of spy to assist the interests of the northern weyrs and holds, but he pretty much adapts right away. Like Menolly in Dragonsong, he ends up in a situation that seems like it ought to be a struggle, when he's on his own in the south, but actually it's more like an extended vacation. Piemur was fun as a scampy side character in Menolly's story, but brought into focus, he has the exact same weaknesses as a protagonist as she does. show less

I like this third book in the Harper Hall trilogy, a lot, though not as much as its predecessor, Dragonsinger. Still, it's a "ripping good yarn", from the perspective of Piemur, the apprentice who is always getting into trouble. How he adjusts to a change in his position and status at Fort Hold is a fun read, and an engaging story.

This third book in the Harper Hall trilogy shifts to the point of view of Mennolly's young friend Piemur, the best boy soprano at the Harper Hall. When his voice begins to change, he is sent to the drum heights to apprentice there until it settles, but because of his friendship with Mennolly, he also gets the occasional job as a messenger or spy for the Masterharper. This breeds envy in his fellow drum apprentices, and Piemur finds himself the victim of a nasty bullying campaign. When he is injured in a prank, the bullies' antics come under Master Robinton's scrutiny, and Piemur is removed from the drum heights and sent on another mission. When this one goes wrong, he finds himself on his own with a fire lizard egg. Can he survive he show more wilderness, protect the egg, and find food to Impress the fire lizard when it hatches?

This book was a bit of a disappointment, to tell the truth. I think it is trying to be too many things at once -- it shifts from being another boarding school story (and a rehashing of the bullying issues that Mennolly faced in the previous book) to being an espionage adventure, to being a survival story (rehashing what Mennolly faced in the first book in the trilogy). Part of my disappointment may be due to the fact that I was hoping for more about Mennolly, who is reduced to a secondary player in this book, and the parts of the story that do feature her are a little unsettling. Sebell's fire lizard queen goes into heat when Mennolly and Sebell are alone in a boat, and one of Mennolly's male fire lizards mates with Sebell's queen. It's implied that, because of their bonds with their fire lizards, Sebell and Mennolly can't help themselves and, well... Earlier in the book, Piemur hinted that Sebell had romantic feelings towards Mennolly, but Mennolly's feelings are less clear. Also, she has nine fire lizards -- is this going to happen every time they mate? Boy, that could get complicated! I felt that the whole scene was unnecessary to the story. Perhaps the author was trying to give Mennolly's fans some closure since she's featured so little in this book, but it did not work for me. I didn't hate this book, but it sure doesn't live up to its predecessors. show less

I remember as a younger reader, thinking this book wasn’t quite as good as Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. However on this re-read, I liked it nearly as much, found the storyline just as engaging even though it has a different main character and a slightly broader outlook. By which I mean, it’s not so focused on one individual point of view, but also has events from the greater world and those impacts on everyone. A few chapters are from the viewpoint of the Masterharper Robinton, or of Menolly and Sebell. Menolly in this book isn’t quite recognizable to me. She’s so self-assured! It took me a while to find the one reference that notes the timeline- three years have passed. So Menolly is well-settled in the Harper Hall now.

This show more book is centered on the mischievous young man, Pieumr. He was a soprano singer but when the story opens, his voice is breaking so he’s no longer part of an upcoming performance. Instead he’s moved to the apprentice dormitory on the drumheights- patterns beaten on large drums being a main way of conveying messages on Pern. Robinton and Menolly have hinted at a special task they would like Piemur to do for them, but only if he can learn discretion. So when he incites jealousy from his fellow apprentices by learning the drum measures super quickly, and being singled out by the senior journeymen for special tasks as well, he keeps his mouth shut when they start to play dangerous pranks on him. Feeling like he doesn’t quite fit into the Harper Hall anymore, he adroitly picks up other opportunities instead and soon becomes involved- in a backstage kind of way- in local politics. Gets himself into an unexpected scrape -of his own making, really- and suddenly winds up in the Southern continent, holdless and on his own. Afraid to be accused of thievery (deservingly) he avoids people for a while, finding ways to survive- remembering well Menolly’s stories about how she’d lived alone in a cave. He doesn’t have a cave here on hot sand beaches flanking the jungle, but he finds ways to live through the dangerous Threadfall, and acquires a few animal companions as well. Then finally reconnects with representatives from the Harper Hall who’ve been searching for him, and realizes he can find a new place for himself, that doesn’t necessarily require returning to where he came from. I’d forgotten how well the details around Piemur’s adventure and survival story fill in the reader on how things work on Pern- from interhold politics, strife between thedragonriders of different times, the scantly described indigenous wildlife and how the fauna and flora vary on northern and southern continents. All this in a coming-of-age story with intrigue, spying and smuggling, dragons and the delightful fire lizards! Good reading.

from the Dogear Diary show less

This final book in the Harper Hall trilogy stars Piemur, the young apprentice who became Menolly's first friend at Harper Hall. Unlike Dragonsinger, which took place immediately after Dragonsong, Dragondrums takes place about three years later (it's mentioned that Menolly has had three Turns of instruction from Master Shonagar).

Piemur is looking forward to singing Lessa's part in Master Domick's newest song, but then something horrible happens: his voice breaks. Piemur's voice was the best thing he had going for him, musically, and there's no telling if he'll still sound as good when it finally settles. In the meantime, Masterharper Robinton has a job for him. He wants Piemur to put his natural gossip collection skills to good use and show more act as his spy, gathering information about the Oldtimers while pretending to be a regular drum apprentice.

Although I've reread both Dragonsong and Dragonsinger several times over the years, I've never once read Dragondrums because, to be honest, Piemur's story didn't interest me. My recent reread of the first two books inspired me to finally finish the trilogy, but I'd still have preferred a third book about Menolly to one starring Piemur.

Dragondrums turned out to be just as readable as the other two books in the trilogy, and in many ways it was more exciting than my favorite of the three books, Dragonsinger. Piemur tried to process the disappointment and uncertainty of his changing voice, learn drum measures, deal with awful bullies, and spy for Robinton without getting caught. I'd have loved a book in which Journeyman Menolly spied for Robinton while composing new songs, but I have to admit that quite a few aspects of this book worked better with Piemur than they would have with Menolly. Piemur was more of a risk-taker and more likely to break rules, whereas Menolly took her biggest risks only after being pushed into a corner.

That said, I didn't like Piemur as much as I liked Menolly. One risk he took was enormous and, as far as I could tell, at least partly inspired by greed. Instead of calling him back to Harper Hall so that he could be properly and rightfully chewed out, Robinton just gave Piemur everything he'd hoped for and wanted. The ending seemed far too easy.

I didn't realize until fairly late in the book that the story's structure was basically Dragonsong and Dragonsinger told backwards. It was clever (maybe a bit too much so for my tastes), but at the same time it didn't have anywhere near the impact of Menolly's two books, because Piemur wasn't in as precarious a situation. McCaffrey tried to force things by making Piemur's bullies more vicious than Menolly's, and it still didn't feel quite right. At Half-Circle Sea Hold, Menolly was in danger of losing the music she loved more than anything. She was forbidden to play her own songs, she could only compose music in secret, and her own mother saw to it that her hand healed badly so that she'd be physically incapable of playing most instruments. True, Piemur's voice had broken, but there was still a chance he'd sound just as good after it settled. He was doing an excellent job as a drum apprentice, and Robinton himself had given him a job that he was supremely well-suited for. He didn't have the need or desire for a new home that Menolly had had, so the book's ending didn't pack the same emotional punch.

As for the rest, the various mentions of the Oldtimers and of Mirrim and Path made me wish that it hadn't been so long since I'd read some of the other Pern books. I could follow what was going on well enough to understand the story, but I knew there were “big picture” things I was probably missing.

One thing this book gave me that I'd always wondered about was the story of how Menolly and Sebell became a couple. It was...a bit disappointing. Dragonsinger never gave me the impression that Sebell was interested in Menolly as anything more than maybe a future friend. In Dragondrums, Sebell began to show signs of being attracted to her, but the first (and only?) person who noticed was Piemur. Sebell and Menolly becoming a couple was at least partially a result of their fire lizards (I had no idea that fire lizards had the same effect on their humans that dragons do – that has got to be awkward). What I hadn't realized was that, given the chance, Menollywould likely have preferred to end up with Robinton rather than Sebell, and that Robinton might possibly have felt the same about Menolly. Here's the quote:

"It wasn't just Kimi's need," he said in a hurried voice, "you know that, don't you?"

"Of course, I know, dear Sebell." Her fingers lingered on his cheek, his lips. "But you always stand back and defer to our Master." She did not hide from Sebell then how much she loved Master Robinton, nor would that have ever come between them since they each loved the man in their separate ways. "...but I have so wished–" (220)

I'm...not sure how I feel about this. I always thought of Robinton as Menolly's idol and surrogate father.

Anyway, it's tough to say whether I'd have liked this book more if it had had the years of nostalgia attached to it that Dragonsong and Dragonsinger had. I think I'd have still viewed it as the weakest book in the trilogy – still an enjoyable read, but not as good as the other two books.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Third book in the trilogy, jumping to mostly Piemur's point of view. The change in protagonist always bothered me about this series. Piemur's voice changes, he's sent to the drum heights while it settles as well as doing spy missions for the Masterharper. He ends up stealing a fire lizard egg and being transported to Southern Hold while hiding, and this leads to Sebell and Menolly sailing south to find him. There's a bit of a disturbing incident on the trip, Sebell's queen fire lizard goes into heat and he's all like "sorry you're the only one here, I've loved you for ages, but now I need to have sex with you" - granted it's the basis for the human-lizard/dragon bonds, with the male green riders forced to have sex with the male brown, show more blue or bronze riders when their female dragons mate, but seriously, Menolly should have just tied him up instead of being all "it's okay, you've been standing aside for years, I've loved you too". There were no hints that she returned his crush. Hrmph. The people are caught up in the mating frenzy, and don't stand to Impress dragons unless they can deal with this I guess, but it still reeks of coercion. show less

Most of this book is a good continuation of the previous ones in the series, but at the end, the sex comes back. Until that point, it's a fun young adult adventure with an impetuous but resourceful protagonist and a broader and more worldly outlook than the first two books.