Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

So, here's the thing... the last few days have been... mind-boggling, to say the very least. For reference, I'm writing this on February 4th, 2025. Trump is president again and Elon Musk has taken over the Treasury Department illegally and these things have taken up a lot of my brain-space. Dragondrums was a little distraction between all the insanity and cat-pictures via social media. It was alright, overall.

I had the thought, upon finishing Dragondrums, that Piemur reminded me of Mags and Skif from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. All three are precocious, knowledge soaking, semi-spy trainees. Piemur less so, than Mags or Skif, but the way Robinton uses Piemur's skills is much the same.

My edition of Dragondrums included an introduction by Brandon Sanderson that had me thinking Piemur was going to spend a lot more time in the Southern jungle/forest than he did... so that was a little bit of a let-down. I think I spent more time wondering when that particular adventure was going to happen than I did actually paying loads of attention to the story.

But yeah, that's pretty much where my thoughts on Dragondrums end. It was entertaining enough, but not super thought-provoking. A nice combo of school-story and adventure novel.

Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

As I'm sure is just going to be a thing with this trilogy, due to when I purchased them, I will start my review by commenting on the cover. I have the latest batch with covers by Stephan Martinière. Dragonsinger features an iguana with wings. Pretty sure it's supposed to be a fire lizard, but it's honestly way too big and ugly. Thanks. I hate it.

So, largely, Dragonsinger is your bog-standard new-special-student-of-exclusive-school story. Menolly arrives at Harper Hall basically with nothing but loads of talent and her fire lizards and gets thrown into the thick of things immediately. She even encounters the annoyances of a bully and an apparently jealous adult. Piemur and Camo are her new bestest friends, which is good. I like both of them. Though I will note that Camo is definitely autistic and/or has Downs Syndrome, it is not clear. McCaffrey refers to him as a "lackwit" mostly. So, ya know, just be warned about that. Dragonsinger was written in the 1970s.

I found Menolly's first couple of days at Harper Hall to be interesting. It makes sense that she needed to be assessed, so being shuffled around to the different Masters made sense. What made somewhat less sense was that none of the adults in charge of Menolly decided to tell her where she needed to be after all that. Technically, Dunca was supposed to have relayed a message, but Silvina or Domick really should have, I dunno, hunted Menolly down to make sure she was where she was supposed to be. Made me think a little less of them, to be honest.

Speaking of Dunca... I hate her. I knew I was going to hate her from the moment Silvina opened those shutters. Dunca is clearly intimidated by Menolly and afraid of the fire lizards... among a myriad of other things, I'm sure. It's probably not a good idea to have her in charge of the fostered girls when she fosters such petty environment for them. I wish we could have "seen" Silvina's dressing down of her. I would have loved it.

I honestly felt as though I were being dragged through the story at such a quick pace. It does take place over a week and it was a whirlwind of Menolly, so I suppose that's fair. Menolly doesn't really have much time to rest, so the reader doesn't really get that either. That said, the characters are vibrant and the story is well-crafted within that whirlwind. The really important thing is Menolly finally receiving the explicit support she needs to thrive.

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

2025 Reread

First, I must complain about these Simon & Schuster re-release covers by Stephan Martinière. I find them quite dreary and the dragons are straight-up ugly. I know everyone has their own way of depicting dragons, but the Pernese ones are rather distinctive around the head shape... which these dragons don't have. I don't like them at all.

Secondly, there is overt emotional and at least once instance of physical abuse contained within these pages. Menolly's family is less than enthused about her playing and musical talent. Her father, Yanus, is a curmudgeon through and through. Her mother and sister are basically encouraged to bully Menolly. It's all very distressing and no wonder Menolly ends up running away from home. I can't help but thinking, though, that Petrion could have mentioned, at least to Menolly, that his wife had been Mastersinger (as seen in The Masterharper of Pern ). Perhaps if he'd mentioned Merelan to Yanus, Menolly would have had a better time of it. Menolly definitely would have had more hope... But then there's the Publication Order to consider... Merelan might not have been conceived of until that full 2 decades later. *le sigh

That said, although Menolly's story is depressing at times, Dragonsong is very good. Menolly is an awesome protagonist who never quite gives in to the adversity she faces. It's also not too much of spoiler to add that fire lizards abound. Menolly really comes into her own when surrounded by her fair.

I liked getting more Mirriam. She was mostly in the background of Dragonquest, being Brekke's fosterling and all. But here we get to see her becoming friends with Menolly. I think they'd be very fun as a pair, if given more time together.

Dragonsong is a very good follow up to Dragonquest. It expands Pern's world beyond the Weyr, giving us a glimpse of life in a very different arena. So far, one of my favorite Pern novels.