Dragonsong by Anne McCaffery
New York : Atheneum, 1976. 202 pgs YA Fiction
Menolly has a talent for music. A talent not appreciated on a fishing island in Pern where time is best spent on doing practical things. When the Master Harper on her island dies, Menolly no longer has someone to encourage her in her craft. When Menolly has finally had enough of being told that her music is a waste of time, she runs away from the hold. With the help of nine fire lizards she makes a life for herself in the country living off the land.
I love Anne McCaffrey’s books they are such an imaginative Sci-Fi series. She does an excellent job of combining dragons, space ships, and some really imaginative ideas in this world of Pern that she created. This is probably my favorite miniseries within the series. I love the personalities that are shown in the different characters in this series.
MH
1 comment:
In Dragonsong, the discrimination Menolly receives for her musical talent is the catalyst for the story, but is also the way McCaffrey builds a connection between the world (Pern), the characters (Menolly and her flock of tiny dragons), and the reader. McCaffrey is able to so believably create the atmosphere of abuse that Menolly lives in, that when Menolly decides she's not going back to her fishing village (despite the fact that her culture believes living out in the wilderness is tantamount to death) it seems like the most natural thing for her to do.
The resulting series of events that leads Menolly to embrace her gift, and in turn showing the world of Pern aspects of her dragon friends that no one had ever discovered before, feels a lot like she's being pushed through event after event, but because of the heart that McCaffrey infused into all the characters involved, it's easy to forget the fact that the book is so plot driven it's easy to predict.
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