Book Review: Dragonsinger

The second book in Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall trilogy, Dragonsinger, chronicles Menolly's eventful first week as a harper apprentice.

Menolly and her nine fire lizards have come to stay at their new home, the Harper Hall. Initially she is put in the small cottage with the other girls--paying customers--but most of the girls make life miserable for Menolly because of their envy. It doesn't help that the cotholder Dunca hates the sight of Menolly and fears her fire lizards. When a message to Menolly about her classes is withheld by Dunca, Menolly is given a room of her own within the male-dominated Harper Hall and becomes Masterharper Robinton's apprentice.

After a few initial trials and tribulations, Menolly is befriended by the mischievious young boy Piemur and Master Robinton's journeyman, Sebell. Piemur's clear soprano voice earned him a place as an apprentice harper at an unusually young age, and he proves a true friend to Menolly (and not just because he wants a fire lizard of his own someday).