Dragonsong
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| Dragonsong | |
| Author | Anne McCaffrey |
|---|---|
| Translator | none |
| Cover artist | Joojay Huyn |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Harper Hall Trilogy, Pern |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy, Young adult novels |
| Publisher | Atheneum Books (1st edition hardcover) |
| Publication date | January 1, 1976 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 202 pp (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-689-30507-9 |
| Followed by | Dragonsinger |
Dragonsong is a novel written by Anne McCaffrey in 1976. It is the first in the Harper Hall Trilogy. The other two novels are Dragonsinger and Dragondrums.
Dragonsong was one of the books cited when McCaffrey's "lifetime contribution in writing for teens" made her the 1999 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The protagonist of Dragonsong is Menolly, a fourteen-year-old girl living in a fishing "Hold" (underground village) in the fictional world of Pern. This novel starts seven years after Dragonflight, the first book set in the Pern universe, in which flesh and plant-eating Thread began to rain intermittently from a nearby planet.
[edit] Plot summary
Menolly, youngest daughter of Masterfisher Yanus, Sea Holder of Half-Circle Seahold, is a gifted musician who is punished for using her musical talents after Petiron, the Harper who encouraged her talent, dies. Finding life at the fishing community unbearable because her father does not allow her to express her musical talents, she runs away from home. Menolly takes refuge from falling Thread in a cave—and discovers hatching fire-lizards, the precursors to the great dragons that are Pern's first defense against Thread. Isolated from civilization in her cave and forced to care for nine baby fire lizards that she Impressed, Menolly quickly learns to be resourceful and independent. Freed from the restrictive role forced upon her by her family, she indulges her passion for music.
Menolly is out foraging one day when she is caught in Threadfall. She is rescued by a dragonrider, T'gellen, who takes her to Benden Weyr. As she is adjusting to the liberal lifestyle of the Weyrfolk, she is discovered by Masterharper Robinton, the Masterharper of Pern. He discovers that she is the writer of two songs that Petiron (his father) sent him and offers her a place at the Harper Hall as his apprentice.
[edit] Themes
Fixed gender roles make Menolly an outcast, as she is unskilled at traditionally feminine tasks and excels in the masculine field of music. She chooses the dangerous world outside the Hold instead of allowing her natural talents to be suppressed.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ 1999 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winners. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ McIntire, Sarah, The Unlikely Hero Bandwagon, <http://www.victorianweb.org/courses/fiction/65/tolkien/mcintire14.html>. Retrieved on 6 July 2007
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