Released in 1979, Dragondrums promised to round out the "classical" Pern books, but fails to reach that mark. The book failed to find me when first published and failed again to reach me this time around.The book itself tries to do too many things at once, often rushes through scenes and events, and never quite gels. I'll tell you my theories and observations, and you can tell me that I'm wrong.Before I being, we must consider that Dragondrums was under development at the same time as The White Dragon. The two books clearly had an influence on each other. Piemer winds up on the Southern Continent as an explorer with no explanation, Mirrim has impressed Path as if you should already know, and this girl Sharra shows up. Clearly Anne knew something of the outline of each book, with The White Dragon getting first development.The most mystifying part of Dragondrums is that Menolly is NOT the lead character.With her wild popularity, you'd think that she would be the lead in the book again. At one point in the process, I am sure that she was the lead. Dragonsinger clearly promised that she would get involved in more interesting Harper tasks, letting her journey as part of being a journeyman. The book is about all those others things that Hapers need to do. You can still see the original story arc, where Menolly finds Oldtimers taking gems from mines, tracks down rogue fire lizard eggs to Meron's hold, Piemer gets taken south, sails to the Southern Continent to rescue Piemer, gets lost with the Masterharper, falls in love with Sebell, and then what? I really don't know. The getting lost part is clearly referenced in The White Dragon as if that were another book in the series, which it wasn't.My guess is that editorial heads prevailed. The biggest issue was that of Sebell. If he and Menolly were to have sex a boat, and Menolly was only fifteen, that would cause publication problems. Fifteen year olds don't get in going on a boat, even with fire lizards as an excuse. At a minimum, Menolly would need to be eighteen, and story would need to shift to three years later, which happens to be the exact time shift of the story, three turns after Dragonsinger. In addition, Menolly clearly needed to spend more time at Harper Hall learning. She needed to get her voice up to snuff. In addition, her job was clearly to write songs. Why would you put your most important song writer, someone who could influence the entire planet, into harm's way? That further emphasizes the need to time shift the book.The original concept still could have worked as referenced in The White Dragon. My guess is that there are some details that didn't work any more. For whatever reason, perhaps because she's not out of the YA age range, Menolly got relegated to a secondary character. The only other Harper of the appropriate age is Piemer, and so Anne falls back to him, presumably adapting Menolly's story to his story, while still keeping Menolly around to be part of other bits of her story.The first half of the book seems well paced enough and full enough of detail, but the middle book just goes astray. The storytelling switches to this point-of-view style that is all see this, does that, and very experiential. There's nothing like it in her other books and I just don't think that it works.The back half of the book feels rushed. We wander through so many scenes in a summarized manner that I'm positive that Anne was behind writing in a time crunch, had her novel going over the contractual word length and needed to condense to fit in everything from the outline, or both. I vote both. To be honest, much of the book feels like back story for The White Dragon.Of all Anne's books from the 70's, I think that this is the only one that lost me. Halfway through and I found myself losing steam. Dragondrums may be among the most favored of all 1970's fantasy, but I can't say that it's among the best.
The story starts at the end of Dragonsinger where Menolly is made a Journeyman. Piemur prepares himself for a big event where he will be the lead singer until his voice breaks and he realises that his one and only ability which made him special has now disappeared.But Piemur is very far from having just this one ability and Master Robinton knows how precious Piemur is. That is why Piemur is seemingly hired as a drums apprentice when in fact he is asked to becoming the Master Harper's ears and eyes wherever he goes.I was at first quite disappointed to see that I wouldn't be in Menolly's head anymore. I really loved Piemur but I was so used to see things through Menolly's eyes that I thought I wouldn't be able to like the book. But then Piemur started being Piemur and I couldn't remember why I could have been worried in the first place.Piemur has always been very cunning and at times manipulative to get what he wants and seeing his reasoning behind his cunning schemes was fantastic. He is a sweetheart and you can't stop laughing at his wild schemes! I think he is one of my favourite characters ever!It is so heart-breaking when his voice transforms, I could really feel for him, especially with the weight of everyone else's reaction, but thankfully - and quite frankly, in a typical Piemur fashion - he springs out of it and finds something else to do. He has such a great spirit that he sees the positive aspect of things.I really don't want to spoil the story by telling you what sorts of mischief he conjures up in this book, but I can promise that you won't be disappointed. I thought that my favourite books would be the first ones because they are told by Menolly and because they focus on those gorgeous little things named fire lizards but Dragondrums is such a special story of someone trying to find himself. It is such a wonderful story that I cried at the end because it made me so happy. (I am not even kidding and I understand I am losing all my street cred by confessing this.)I know these books were published years ago and no one particularly cares to discover Anne McCaffrey's books today when they can read modern stories and such but those stories really hold something others don't and I really can't wait to read all of Anne Mccaffrey's other books (thank God there are so many!). So you need to read those books too! This trilogy is one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read. It transports me to a beautifully vivid world and makes me travel alongside amazing characters. Plus now I know that I want a fire lizard as a pet so that's that.
What do You think about Dragondrums (2003)?
We are randomly in this characters head, out of no where. I understand it's the 'harper hall' trilogy but, I ask, the first one was not about the harper hall at all, but about Menolly and her teen life. The second was was also very specifically Menolly, it was at the Harpers Hall, but had a great deal to do with her and the other girls which were fosterlings of the Hold, not the Hall. Now this third one is mostly Piemur out on missions away from Harpers hall and much of the second half of the book with him playing 'Robinson Crusoe' in the southern continent. No, the Trilogy is mislabeled.... it's poorly thought out at best and completely misleading at it's face.The three books of this trilogy are pointless. Anything that was built up in the first and second novels on our Heroine Menolly is destroyed in the third one. The writing is equally terrible, the plot is literally magically transported via Dragon because McCaffrey writes such a terrible narrative it's the best she can do to move the story along to where she needs to be.I read these because I felt I kind of 'needed' to in order to validate some hardcore fantasy title in myself -- I kind of wish I just had that time back.
—Brendan
Out of the three books, this one is the best even though the main character switches from Menolly to her best friend. I found a lot of similarities in the rivarly of Peimer and the drum hall boys (as Menolly struggled with in the 2nd book with the girls), but overall I found this one a more exciting read with more world of Pern things going on. I was disappointed in the unanswered questions this book left especially what are the fire lizards special role and why is everyone so obsessed with them. Many things were not made clear. There were lots of characters that something happened to and then were forgotten about. What about Menolly's only girlfriend from the 2nd book? She disappeared. What about the people who impressed the dragons? They disappeared. I felt that more could have been done with the book and characters which left overall a little dissatified with the series. It is a very interesting and creative world that I wished was explored more. In the end, I think it is a good series for tween girls to read. It explores a young girl's dream (which goes against society) which ultimately becomes reality.
—J. Else
I wish I had read the Harper Hall trilogy before reading White Dragon. I find myself wanting to reread White Dragon now that I have read them, even though I read it fairly recently.I was a little disappointed that this focused on Piemur instead of Menolly. Honestly though, I guess she had her time, and Piemur is a good one to focus on. Naturally she does factor into this novel though.Making these books happen around the same time as the books in the main trilogy but from different perspectives actually works pretty well. Together they all make a pretty firm narrative. I think, however, I actually do kind of prefer the narratives of the Harpers than the main series. The characters just seem a little more likable. More relatable. Maybe it's because they are aimed at a younger audience and I'm a simple dude? I don't know.
—Shaun
