Book Review: The White Dragon

Jaxom, the young Lord Holder of Ruatha, and his unusual white dragon Ruth star in this volume of the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Chronologically set at the same time as the Harper Hall trilogy (or roughly thereabouts), it was interesting to see Pern and other major characters (such as Menolly) from yet another point of view.

However, I found this book somewhat tedious (though fairly well-written), because the basic plot doesn't ever really pick up. Things are seen from Jaxom's point of view, and he is discontented during the majority of the book. (You'd think he'd spend more time doing something about his situation than whining about it.) Eventually Jaxom does figure this out and takes a few steps in the right direction, but I felt that his full potential as a character was never very well realized. Instead of sympathizing with him or cheering him on, I mostly felt annoyed with him. Much more interesting were the support characters (who are main characters in the other books). Overall, I thought this book was "just okay," but not worth purchasing for my personal library or even really worth re-reading.

Book Review: Dragonquest

I enjoyed Dragonquest far more than the previous book in the "Dragonriders of Pern" series, Dragonflight. The brown dragon Canth and his rider F'nor are the most major characters in the book, and I liked them a lot. Also, this book takes place at the same time as Dragonsong and Dragonsinger from the Harper Hall trilogy, so there were a lot of the same events happening from a different viewpoint than Menolly's. I thought this was a very entertaining and fairly well-written book.

Book Review: Dragonflight

For many years, I've been reading and re-reading the Harper Hall trilogy, loving it each time and taking the general social structure within the book for granted. However, I recently became interested in Pern outside of the scope of the Harper Hall. As I read Anne McCaffrey's first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series, Dragonflight, I learned that things were not always as I had thought. This book is the story of how the Pern I've always enjoyed came to be. I had a bit of trouble keeping everyone's name straight, as several different characters frequently have similar names (for example, F'lar is not to be confused with F'nor; and T'bor is not the same person as T'sum) due to the method of naming children on Pern. Thankfully, in this particular copy there was a "Dragondex" in the back that helped to keep the main characters straight.

Lessa is a lowly kitchen drudge at Ruatha Hold. However, there's more to her than meets the eye. It turns out that she's actually one of the last true Ruathans, and the cruel Lord Fax killed the rest of her family when she was eleven during his conquering of Ruatha Hold. Since that day, Lessa has been planning her revenge so that she can take over the home that should have been rightfully hers.

Everything changes on the day that F'lar, rider of a bronze dragon named Mnementh, visits Ruatha Hold with Lord Fax. (A bronze dragon is the highest-ranking male dragon.) With F'lar are his twelve wingmen, other dragonriders, including his half-brother F'nor, who rides a brown dragon named Canth. F'lar is on Search-- in other words, he is looking for a strong woman who is capable of becoming Weyrwoman. Lessa doesn't know this--she only sees an opportunity to rid her Hold of Lord Fax forever by making him renounce his claim on it in front of dragonmen. She subtly manages to make Lord Fax's meal inedible in various ways, which makes him angry, and he swears an oath that he will not have a Hold that cannot support itself.

However, things do not happen as Lessa has planned. Fax ends up dead, Ruatha Hold goes to his newborn son Jaxom, and F'lar has found the woman he wants to become Weyrwoman: Lessa. As Lessa consents to go to Benden Weyr, she has no idea that she will have to learn to work with F'lar, and together, somehow find a way to save Pern from the deadly spores of Thread...

Book Review: Dragondrums

It's been about three years since the last book, and Piemur's voice is changing. Having lost his famous soprano voice, Masterharper Robinton decides it's time to put Piemur to good use with his other abilities. Piemur's primary other talents include picking up important snippets of information and putting them together to see the whole of whatever's going on, and dissembling. So Master Robinton secretly makes Piemur his new apprentice, and assigns him to the drumheights (the primary message center). This way, Piemur will be in a position to send and recieve messages, as well as covertly perform any other tasks the Masterharper might wish.

This is my least favorite book in the Harper Hall trilogy. I like Piemur, but as the other two books are about Menolly, I would have expected her to be more important in this book than she actually turns out to be.

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).

Book Review: Dragonsong

This book is a longtime favorite of mine, and for quite awhile I was not aware that it was actually part of a trilogy. It can be read alone, but works fairly well with the other two books also.

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong is about a girl named Menolly who lives in Half-Circle Sea Hold on the planet known as Pern. Menolly's one true joy in life is music. She has talent, and was singled out and taught by the Hold's harper Petiron. In this society, songs are used to teach Pern's history and school the children, among many other things. After Petiron's death, Menolly is the only one able to sing and play properly, and must take over schooling the children until the new Harper arrives. However, her strict, tradition-abiding father, Yanus, is the Sea Holder, and anything musical is considered "harper's business" and therefore a man's job. (Traditionally, only men can become harpers.)

After an unfortunate accident and the increasing unfairness of her parents in denying her music, Menolly leaves the Hold-- a daring and dangerous thing to do, because of something known as Thread. When a wayward red star passes close enough to Pern, it drops deadly spores that eat through anything living. Metal and rock are the only things that stop Thread, so one must have shelter during Threadfall. The inhabitants of Pern have come up with a way to combat Thread: huge dragonlike creatures are ridden by specially chosen human beings--dragonriders--and together, they char Thread into ash midair. Menolly's leaving her Hold and living without shelter is dangerous, but she finds a cave in time. Inside the cave, a clutch of fire lizards (similar to dragons, but much smaller) are about to hatch, and from there, all her adventures begin...