Fantasy and Sci-Fi Classics: "Dragonsong"

In the first of her "Harper Hall of Pern" books, Anne McCaffrey tells the enchanting story of the talented but misunderstood Menolly, creating a true classic of YA literature.

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I think it’s safe to say that Anne McCaffrey really wrote something special with her Dragonriders of Pern series. It’s one of those secondary worlds that is just so fully-developed, and so filled with characters that you can’t help but love (even if you do want to shake them sometimes), that you can see why it remains such a beloved part of the speculative fiction pantheon. I really do regret that I wasn’t more familiar with work before I recently started making my way through it–thanks to a chance encounter with some mass market paperbacks at an antique shop–but, as they say, better late than never! 

Which brings me to Dragonsong.

Whereas the earlier volumes in the series were about big, weighty things–the fate of Pern when faced with Thread, this volume takes on a more intimate story. In its pages we meet Menolly, a young woman living in Half-Circle Seahold and, though she is the daughter of the ruler, this doesn’t mean she has any special privileges. If anything, it makes her life more difficult and, though she clearly has a gift for music, her parents forbid her from making the most of it. Ultimately, she finds shelter in a small cave where she manages to impress several fire lizards and, as the novel reaches its conclusion, she is rescued from Thread by a dragon, who in turn takes her to Benden Weyr, where her life is changed forever.

It’s hard not to fall in love with a character like Menolly. From the moment we meet her it’s clear that she deserves so much more than she is going to get from anyone in her family. The only person who was ever able to see her as more than a drudge was the Harper Petiron, but his death–and subsequent replacement by another Harper–seems to indicate that there is no future in music for Menolly, and this only seems to be confirmed when she injures her hand and seems to lose her full dexterity. McCaffrey has a keen sense of pacing in these chapters, allowing us to see the full extent of Menolly’s happiness without burdening us down with unnecessary detail. 

Furthermore, through Menolly we learn a great deal more about how everyday folk on Pern live. The first two volumes in the series were more about the doings of the great and powerful–Lessa and F’lar and Robinton, especially–leaving us to largely imagine what life must be like in the various Holds. Here, we come to understand how life in such places can be quite stifling to someone like Menolly, whose gifts are not only not celebrated but are viewed with acute suspicion by everyone but particularly her parents. Small wonder that she decides that the best thing she could do is run away. 

Dragonsong is also remarkable for the extent to which dragons–the major selling point of the entire series–are rather tangential to the action. Yes, we see them from the skies, and yes, they end up playing a key role in saving Menolly from Thread, but they aren’t central to the story in the way they were before. Some might see this as a drawback, but for me it was quite refreshing. Furthermore, it allowed us to get more insight into the fire lizards, particularly once Menolly not only manages to save a whole clutch of them but also manages to impress them soon after hatching. The scenes between her and her little clutch are some of the most heartwarming that I’ve yet read in the Pern series, particularly since she manages to live with them in a greater degree of harmony than she was ever able to attain with the humans back at the Hold. 

Even though Menolly is the primary protagonist of this book, we also get some insight into the new Harper who arrives at Half-Circle, as well as his efforts to determine who it was that was working so closely with the late Petiron. This builds in some nice dramatic tension, as his chapters unfold without Menolly knowing anything about what his true purposes are or how desperate he is to find her. 

As a result of this deft plotting, it’s hard not to feel a sense of vicarious vindication when Menolly is eventually taken to Benden Weyr, where she is at last given the love and, just as importantly, the respect, that she has so long been denied. Having so long been a burden to others, she almost doesn’t know how to act, and it’s both sad and a little funny to see her apologizing so profusely to everyone with whom she comes into contact, including some of the characters that we have already come to know from some of the other volumes in the series. 

And then it all changes when she encounters Robinton. Has there ever been a character quite like him? Here is a man who is one of the most important figures on all of Pern, and yet he goes out of his way to take a young woman under his wing and to offer her the opportunity to live a life she never dreamt could be hers. True, he does so in large part because of her undeniable musical talents, but one also can’t help but feel a fondness for the Masterharper, particularly since we’ve already spent some time with him in the earlier volumes in the series. 

Thus, by the end of Dragonsong one can’t help but feel joy and elation that Menolly is at last somewhere that she can call home, somewhere where her gifts will be appreciated for what they are rather than crudely and cruelly dismissed. There will of course be a long road ahead of her, but we can take some comfort that at last she is among her own kind, no longer forced to live a life that is as fulfilling as it is dangerous. I can’t wait to see what lies in store for Menolly as she begins her career as a Harper!