Dragonsong

I can see why a certain type of person would love these books, but that certain type of person is not me. Specifically, that type of person is a teenage girl, ideally one who feels a bit like an outcast. Menolly lives in a Sea Hold on Pern, where her father is Lord Holder; she has a talent for music, but women on Pern cannot be harpers, and her father assiduously enforces these gender norms. Menolly is injured, and might never play again—and her family, in a pretty shocking moment of cruelty, allow her to believe this and don't treat her wound as well they might. This is all pretty well done stuff; my favorite part of the original Pern novels was the world that McCaffrey built up, getting to see the social structures oriented around show more the threat of the Thread, and Dragonsong expands that. Menolly navigating this world is tough and interesting reading.

Menolly ends up running away, and that was where the book began to lose my interest. The running away itself is fine, and Menolly shows some resourcefulness once she Impresses some fire lizards and saves them from a rising tide and keeps herself safe from Threadfall. (A fire lizard is a smaller cousin to a dragon; like a dragon, it can go between, but they can't talk.) But in the second half of the book, basically all conflict disappears. Once established in her fire lizard cave, Menolly doesn't really struggle anymore; then she gets rescued by a dragonrider and taken to a Weyr and the last quarter of the book is just people being terribly nice to her. No conflict, no climax. I can see why you would love this if you were an awkward, unusual-feeling teenage or preteen girl, but it was pretty boring to read as an adult. show less

This book was just as wonderful on a re-read as when I first discovered it decades ago.... Set on the world of Pern, centered around an ordinary and very sympathetic character. Menolly is youngest daughter of a large family in a sea hold- a place very much set in old traditions. Her one love is music- which relieves all the drudgery of cleaning fish, tending her senile uncle and other tasks- but her father disapproves. Life becomes even more unbearable when the Harper who had nurtured her talent dies, and she seriously injures her hand- so her parents tell her she’ll never be able to play an instrument again. Menolly runs away from the Hold and shelters from dangerous Threadfall in a cave on a bluff. She happens across a clutch of show more fire lizards just as they are hatching- and bonds with nine of the delightful little creatures. The dragonlike lizards seem to like her music, easing her loneliness, and Menolly has enough skills as a fisherman’s daughter to survive there. Until one day she’s found by a dragonrider, running from Thread (having wandered a bit too far from her cave). He takes her to a weyr where she is shocked at the treatment she receives- kindness, understanding, even appreciation for her music when she looses caution and sings in front of others. Her confusion and alarm at being given attention and kindness makes you realize just how badly she’d been treated back home. (Meanwhile, all this time back at seahold, only her brother and the new replacement Harper had continued to look for her when she ran away and was presumed dead!) It’s with relief and gladness that the reader sees Menolly at the end of the book facing a possible new life for herself- one in which she can embrace her talent and grow, instead of feeling constantly squelched and shamed.

from the Dogear Diary show less

I have read this book more times than I can count. The cover is chipped and torn and almost coming off. I've no intention of getting a "better" copy.

It is an old friend that I pull out when I want something comfortable and emotional and warm. The story of Menolly, unappreciated musical prodigy who runs away from an abusive family to survive alone and eventually finds her way to where her talents are not just appreciated but revered is a great one. I was more enthralled with the befriending of fire lizards at first. But over time the emotional journey is the one that keeps me coming back again and again.

The rest of the series is good, but this is the one I re-read the most.

I think this was the very first Pern book I ever read. A friend let me borrow it during our required reading hour in school (maybe middle school?), and I was hooked. No wonder: the Harper Hall trilogy had a lot of features that I tended to gravitate towards.

In this first book, Menolly is a nearly 15-year-old girl living is an isolated fishing village on the planet Pern. Harper Petiron, her friend, teacher, and the one who most understood her love of music, has just died. Her parents grudgingly allow her to continue teaching the village's children, at least until the new Harper arrives, but they absolutely forbid her to create or sing any of her own songs, fearing that she will disgrace the village and confuse the children into thinking show more they're real Harper-composed songs. Although Menolly has been told her whole life that girls can't be Harpers, music is so much a part of her that she can't bear to let it go, and life at Half-Circle Sea Hold starts to become more and more unbearable.

I had forgotten that this book began with a foreword explaining the colonization of Pern and the existence of the Thread-producing Red Star. I'm almost certain that Teen Me completely dismissed it and approached several of the Pern books, including this one, as though they were fantasy, rather than sci-fi. At any rate, this was a good book for me at the time, since I was still primarily a fantasy reader and had only recently and warily started reading sci-fi.

Nostalgia rereads don't always work out well for me, but thankfully that wasn't the case here. I enjoyed Dragonsong just as much as I remembered enjoying it when I first read it. I sympathized with Menolly, who managed to come across as being stifled without being annoying about it. I could also understand Menolly's parents' perspectives, even though I didn't agree with their actions. The village's survival depended upon everyone pulling their own weight. Although Harpers were important (they didn't just entertain, they carried news and new teachings, acted as judges when necessary, and more), there had never been a female Harper that they knew of, so Menolly's focus on music seemed like a waste of time and effort to them.

The thing I was really looking forward to was the fire lizards (tiny dragons). They took a bit to show up, which is one of the reasons why I've reread Dragonsinger more than Dragonsong, but they were still just as wonderful as I remembered. I loved reading about Menolly's efforts to try to make a life for herself and her fire lizards outside the Sea Hold, but it was her reentry into civilization that really brought a smile to my face. It was lovely to see her finally get to be around people who didn't constantly dismiss her and tell her that her dreams were both worthless and actively harmful to the people around her. And her first conversations with Master Robinton! I had forgotten how charming he was.

Although this would be a pretty good starting point for Pern newbies, there were a few things that would be confusing: Brekke's situation, and the uproar surrounding Jaxom's Impression of Ruth. Menolly learned some of the background info, but further details weren't really important to her story. To newbie readers whose interest was piqued, I'd say either start from the beginning and read Dragonflight, or try the books that deal more directly with Brekke and Jaxom (I think Dragonquest and The White Dragon, respectively), keeping in mind that those are books 2 and 3 and might bring up further questions. But hey, that's the fun thing about reading a series.

Back to Dragonsong: all in all, this was a quick and enjoyable read that reminded me of what I loved about this series. It could have used more fire lizard scenes and Master Robinton appearances, but that's what Dragonsinger is for. On to the next book!

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

My father read the entire Pern series when I was a kid. I loved seeing the books with dragons on the covers and the word PERN somewhere in the title. He even named our dog, Jaxom. And yet, it took me 20 years to get around to reading ANY of the series!

And I'm sad that it did. I enjoyed Dragonsong immensely, but I think I could have loved it more if I could have sympathized with Menolly more. I have to say, the way her parents treat her made me upset for her as well as wonder if any teenage feelings of, "My parents hate me!" lingered at first. Even if it was a combination of both, by the end I truly disliked Yanus, no matter how good of a Holder he was.

The story is a beautiful one, and the beginning of a series that I'm sure will prove show more to be amazing. When Menolly runs away from home after being injured and forbidden to sing or play music, which her heart yearns to do, her adventure starts. When she finds the legendary fire lizards and helps them save their clutch, she doesn't have any idea that it'd do more than just give her friends.

I definitely recommend this to any fantasy reader! show less

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey is the first book of the Harper Hall trilogy (along with Dragonsinger and Dragon Drums). I first read these and the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy (Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon) back when I was barely a teenager.

I loved all of them for many years, along with many other McCaffrey stories. It took me awhile to figure out that one of the things that I really enjoyed is that there is no religion in this fantasy setting, and no war or large-scale violence.

The Harper Hall trilogy are my favorites, and the only ones I am interested in keeping now. That's because they don't involve any sex, unlike the other early trilogy. It took me a long time to figure out that McCaffrey's portrayal of show more sex was deeply problematic: almost always involving at least one scene where the man makes sexual overtures, the woman says no, and the man goes ahead anyway. Sex without consent is by definition rape. Add in the particular twist of the telepathic bonds with dragons or fire lizards, such that when the dragons mate, the people linked to them have sex too, swept away by the sexual urges. Which is to say, the woman bonded to the gold queen dragon doesn't get to pick her sex partner and may not even know what the hell is happening if she didn't happen to grow up in a dragon weyr. But hey, that's just biology and associated social order.

The protagonist of Dragonsong is Menolly, the youngest daughter of the chief (Holder) of a small, isolated fishing village (seahold). She's 14 at the beginning of the first book, musically gifted, and bereft at the death of her mentor Petiron, the hold's harper. Her father reluctantly assigns her to teach the children until the new harper arrives so they don't fall behind on their lessons. However, she is to teach only the formal and traditional teaching songs. She is forbidden to make her own music because only boys can apprentice to learn a trade, including harpering.

Menolly becomes increasingly unhappy under the patriarchal and narrow restrictions of her family and village and runs away because possible death foraging alone and holdless is better than her increasingly intolerable home life. Adventures ensue as Menolly learns to survive and become self-sufficient. She isn't lonely though, when she discovers that the legendary fire lizards are real and become a part of her new life. Part of the story is told from the perspective of Elgion, the new harper, as he tries to find out what happened to Petiron's mysterious apprentice at the behest of the Masterharper. Their stories converge at the end for a happy resolution and shiny new future for Menolly.

This is a charming books featuring a strong female character coming of age and finding her strength and her friends. She deals with physical and emotional abuse, seeking food and shelter, social ostracism, prejudice, and overly narrow gender roles. But the story is hopeful and ultimately rewarding. I wanted to be Menolly when I read these books at her age. show less

A simple coming of age story set in the world of Pern, but well told and with that special 'warm fuzzies' quality. Menolly is a talented musician born in the wrong place - a Hold dedicated entirely to the life of the fisherman and where girls and women in particular have no chance at achieving anything different with their lives. She can indulge her passion only so long as it serves a required purpose, and eventually the strain becomes too much.

Anne McCaffrey wrote two original trilogies for the world of Pern during its heydey. I read the other in my school days but never picked up this one, which runs in parallel and has some crossover. It has all the flavour of the others, a goldmine of nostalgia: far better than when an author show more returns to a series years later is to find another original work that was written in that period. Menolly is a bit of a Little Nell, a little too purely good - there's not the least spark of anger in her, only fear when she considers her foes. If you don't find that too saccharine, the ending will pluck your heartstrings. show less