Dragondrums is
the third volume of the Harper Hall
trilogy. It’s noticeably different than the first two volumes because this volume
focuses on Piemur, rather than Menolly. I read some reviews and comments online
about how some people really didn’t like that change. It was said that it
undermined Menolly’s character and that Piemur isn’t worthy enough to lead his
own book. I personally like the change. Menolly rubbed me the wrong way because
she was infallible and could do no wrong. She reeks of Mary Sue’ness and that
got tiresome pretty quickly. She’s still a part of Dragondrums but it’s less focused that in the previous volumes. I
did have my moments where I really liked her but overall, I liked her better in
this book. She works better for me when she’s not in the spotlight. For me,
she’s a character that works best when I’m not spending all my time inside her
head. I can appreciate her talents and personality much more this way. I also
happen to like Piemur, so having more of him in Dragondrums was a positive change, in my opinion. However, like
Menolly, he did have his moments where he annoyed me.
This book is about growing up and dealing with changes
that our out of control (kind of funny then that readers were upset about the
change in main character – you can’t do anything about it so settle in and
enjoy the story). Piemur, at the age of 14, loses his soprano voice leaving him
unable to sing until his voice settles down and he finds his new vocal range. He’s
at a loss as to what his future hold. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s never
excelled at anything else at Harper Hall besides singing. He’d even become
Master Shonagar’s favourite student because of his voice. Aside from that, he’s
not really any good in other fields of music. He sucks at making instruments,
his gitar playing is no more than average, he isn’t good at composition, or at
copying sheet music. Crushed by the thoughts that he would have to return to
his childhood Hold, he is given incredible news.
He’s been reassigned to apprentice with Master Robinton,
the Masterharper of Pern and working with Menolly and Sebell (the
Masterharper’s journeyman). Piemur is to be a spy for the Harper Hall. In order
to make sure his new role stays a secret which will allow him to take part in
covert information gathering operations, he’s officially reassigned to Master
Olodkey, the Drummaster, and working in the drum heights. In actuality, he’s to
do both jobs, often having to practice his drum measures while travelling from
one place to the next on Pern.
It’s at this point in the book where Piemur and Dragondrums suffer in the same way that
Menolly and the two previous volumes of the trilogy suffered. Only good things
happen to him (when bad things a happen they’re often blessings in disguise)
and he excels at everything. He’s very skilled with the drums, quickly and
skilfully learning all of the drum measures he is assigned. Similar to Menolly,
he even gets bullied for being too good. This was a frustrating turn for the
story to take. It made it difficult for me to continue liking Piemur because
his attitude toward his mistreatment at the hands of the other drum apprentices
was different than how he was portrayed in the earlier books. I’m not saying
that bullying doesn’t happen nor that it doesn’t happen for the reasons
displayed in this book, but Piemur’s attitude towards it and the similarities
it had with Menolly’s story made the story feel repetitive. My thoughts while
reading were that McCaffrey replaced her Mary Sue (Menolly) from Dragonsong and Dragonsinger with a Gary Stu (Piemur). He does no wrong for the entire
book . . . until, suddenly, he screws up remarkably and the second half of the
book becomes very satisfying and manages to improve the first half by adding
some much deserved balance to Piemur’s character.
The second half of the book is where Piemur really grows
up. He has to come to terms with the fact that he screwed up in his mission at
Nabol Hold, but he can’t dwell on it too much because he’s lost in the Southern
Continent. Not only does he need to feed himself and find shelter from
threadfall, he also has to take care of his fire lizard egg. The chapters
dealing with his survival are excellent. I also enjoyed the work that Robinton,
Menolly, and Sebell had to do in the Northern Continent to fix the problems
Piemur caused. Even the book’s ending is good, if a tiny bit abrupt. The
resolution of the plot feels like a natural progression from what came earlier
in the novel. Likewise, the establishment of the new status quo that flows
nicely into the continuation of Piemur’s story as seen in The White Dragon.
A Note on the Reading Order:
When asked in which order to read the Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne
McCaffrey was said to recommend reading them in publication order. I tend to
agree with her on this and I happen to think it’s often true of most series.
Specifically for Pern, reading the
book in chronological order ruins significant portions of Dragonflight, Dragonquest,
and other books in the main Pern timeline of the Ninth Pass. However, having
read The White Dragon and Dragondrums in publication order, I
would argue that reading Dragondrums
first makes for a better reading experience. Essentially, follow the
publication order but swap the last two books:
Dragonflight
(1968)
Dragonquest
(1970)
Dragonsong (1976)
Dragonsinger (1977)
Dragondrums (1979)
The White Dragon (1978)
To start off, it makes sense to break the flow of the
main Dragonriders of Pern trilogy
between Dragonquest and The White Dragon by reading the first
two books in the Harper Hall trilogy.
Menolly isn’t a character in Dragonquest
(at least, she’s not mentioned but she is present at a few events in Benden
Weyr, such as Ruth’s impression
with Jaxom) and so
it makes sense to read Dragonsong and
Dragonsinger before reading The White Dragon because it gives you
the chance to get to know her as a character before she makes her appearance in
the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy.
While the publication order and the chronological order are essentially the
same with the first four books, things take a wrong turn with the following two
books.
If following the strict publication order, like I have
been, you’ll end up reading Dragondrums
after The White Dragon. That works
just fine except for Piemur who certainly gets shorthanded when it comes to his
part of the story. Publication order doesn’t work because Piemur is in a
completely different place (as well as a different character) in The White Dragon than he is in Dragonsinger. He changes a lot during
the events of Dragondrums. Because of
that, I would read Dragondrums before
The White Dragon. There are also
spoilers in The White Dragon that
could ruin your enjoyment of Dragondrums.
To top it off, there happens to be a nice progression in the story when reading
the entire Harper Hall trilogy
uninterrupted, even with the change in main character from Menolly to Piemur.
You can read them directly after reading Dragonquest
and you don’t get the sense that you’re missing anything in the larger story of
Pern during the Ninth Pass. That’s not true when circling back to The White Dragon before finishing the Harper Hall trilogy with Dragondrums.
The most important thing, regardless of which reader
order you choose to read these books, is that you don’t skip Dragondrums. It was my favourite of all
the Harper Hall trilogy books. I like
Piemur as a character (even though he was annoying for part of the book), I
enjoyed his personal growth throughout the novel. I also liked the missions he
did for the Masterharper. Aside from some Gary Stu moments, this book was fun.
It was quick in ways that some of the main Pern
trilogy books can’t be (there is a lot of talking and explaining and discussing
and multiple plot lines) but it also put me square into the middle of Pern. I
felt like I was living on that far away planet for the couple of days I was
reading. It gave me that sense of wonder I want from science fiction and
fantasy while also giving me large scale stakes (the events of Nabol Hold) and
personal stakes (Piemur’s story). It had moments of triumph and moments of defeat.
It’s slim book, but there is no fat here. It’s meaty, very enjoyable, and I
wish Piemur, Menolly, Robinton, and Sebell continue to play an important part
in the following Pern novels.
(Actually, it will be several books before we return to the main storyline in All the Weyrs of Pern since I’ll
continue to read the series in publication order).
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