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language: English
country: USA
year: 1979
form: novel
genre(s): science fiction
series: Dragonriders of Pern, #6
dates read: 16.6.18-17.6.18, 13.8.24-15.8.24
continuing the Pern reread, regrettably, I did once again listen to Anne McCaffrey’s Dragondrums.
this book, while it is a quick and, in its way, reasonably engaging read, is nonetheless unbearable, for many reasons.
the book is a notional sequel to Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, but rather than being about Menolly — sensibly, since her arc reached an extremely satisfying conclusion at the end of Dragonsinger — it instead follows Piemur as he tries to figure out what to do with himself and who he wants to be after his voice begins to change and he can no longer sing.
he finds himself chosen as the Masterharper’s new apprentice and assigned to assist Menolly and Sebell, an older journeyman, with their spy missions — one of the “other tunes” that people play at the Harper Hall. this gets him into some trouble both inside and outside of the Hall and eventually leads him to the Southern Continent as part of his journey of self-actualization. finally, as you probably predicted, he realizes that he doesn’t belong at the Harper Hall after all, since he can’t sing: he should instead spend several years wandering the Southern Continent by himself, not talking to anyone except his firelizard and the small runnerbeast (i.e., horse) he rescued from Thread.
what’s that? you expected — especially since this is a children’s book — that Piemur would finish the novel by being triumphantly brought back into the Harper fold with a new sense of purpose and belonging in his community? well, your first mistake was expecting that the very heavy parallelism between Dragondrums and Dragonsong and Dragonsinger would be followed through on. the moment that most jumps out to me is when Piemur is in Southern and meets Sharra, a young woman healer from Southern Hold, who tells him about the area, extolls its virtues, and is generally dismissive of Northerners (and, rather scandalously, of dragonriders). Sharra, reflecting on Piemur’s brief experience living Holdless and surviving Threadfall on his own without shelter, tells him that if he can do this, he “belong[s] here”.
attentive readers, and possibly even inattentive readers, will notice that this recalls Lessa and Mirrim telling Menolly in Dragonsong that she “belongs” at Benden Weyr, if she was able to Impress and train nine firelizards. crucially, while their assessment of Menolly seems correct based on the partial and limited information available to them, readers are aware of Menolly’s talent for and love of music — we know, in other words, that she does not, in fact, belong at the Weyr; she belongs at the Harper Hall. given that Piemur’s arc — bullied out of his home by people who do not appreciate his talent, semi-accidentally displaced to live Holdless, Impressing a firelizard — so closely parallels Menolly’s in Dragonsong, it is quite jarring that the end of the book is the book saying: actually Sharra was right. Piemur doesn’t belong in the Harper Hall anymore. he should be separated from his community and the people who care about him. this is Growth. hello??
the bullying plot is also extremely difficult to read because of the sheer administrative incompetence it rests on — in fact, what in the real world would be criminal negligence, in a way that absolutely does not align with the portrayal of the Harper Hall in Dragonsinger or of its inhabitants, not least Robinton and Silvina. it also is driven by an uncharacteristic and honestly kind of nonsensical lack of communication from Robinton, Menolly, and Sebell, and by the book’s firm insistence — from everyone, including Piemur — that Piemur is typically “indiscreet”, prone to revealing secrets. what? since when?
my other issue with this book is that it’s fundamentally just a main series book. several plot-important things happen in this book, most notably Meron dying. no wonder I found it boring as a child — the politics were incomprehensible coming from Dragonsinger. also, speaking of Meron dying — implicitly of some kind of STI — his death is preceded/precipitated by Robinton, T’bor, and several Lord Holders, assisted by the Masterhealer, Oldive, torturing Meron, by refusing to give him his painkillers until he names a successor. the book seems to think that this is Robinton demonstrating a core of “steel” rather than Robinton torturing a man who, fundamentally, did only one thing wrong — illegally trading with the Oldtimers — and otherwise is just a deeply unpleasant person. personally I do not think this merits torture, actually!
also, Menolly and Sebell have firelizard mating flight sex. apparently Menolly’s triumphant professional coming-into-her-own at the end of Dragonsinger wasn’t enough; she needs to have a monogamous heterosexual romantic partner. okay.
the one bright light is how much of a crush Piemur has on N’ton. look at this:
N’ton had always been Piemur’s ideal of a dragonrider: tall, with a really broad set of shoulders, dark brown hair slightly curled from being confined under a riding helmet, an easy, confident air reflected by a direct gaze and a ready smile. The contrast between this present Fort Weyrleader and his disgruntled predecessor, T’ron, was more vividly apparent as N’ton smilingly greeted the harpers’ apprentice.
this book is absolutely why I was (am) in love with him. Piemur is clearly kind of head-over-heels for him, and he’s absolutely right to be.
moods: adventurous, dark