Will I love Dragonsong?

The Harper Hall of Pern Trilogy was incredibly exciting to me upon its discovery.

To see Menolly, a woman with gifts subverting traditional gender roles, leave her community and eventually excel was inspiring. I found hope that one’s talents might be strongly developed and recognized, eventually. I was fascinated by Menolly’s multi-layered abilities and aspired to grow such.

I learned good community might be found when your current network isn’t nurturing. If only there were tiny fire-lizards one could impress and cohabitate with! 

The Pern books spoke to my yearning for deep and unbreakable connections. After all, what teen wouldn’t wish to be chosen by a dragon? But Menolly was a bit like looking in a mirror. Uncomfortable in the surroundings of home and happiest on some path leading away from the expectations of family. Even if that path led to a cave in the wilderness. Actually, for me, especially if that path led to a cave in the wilderness.

The shorelines of Menolly’s world, rocky inlets and coastal cliffs, are not much like the shorelines I’ve explored in Virginia. But the salt… show more.

I loved the character of Menolly in this book and series. She is a girl gifted with song in a country where women are not allowed to be professional singers. Despite opposition from her own family, she is invited to the Harper Hall, where she can’t help but excel.

Thanks to a strong mentor, she builds self-confidence and ability. I believe this is something so important for young women in the fictional or real world. Giving someone a hand up doesn’t pull one down. The characters in the Harper Hall series are beautifully written, and any injury to them felt… show more.

Dragonsong is the science fantasy story of an isolated teenage girl who runs away from home when forbidden to pursue her passion for music. She stumbles on a nest of fire lizards—the legendary ancestors of the dragons that keep her world safe—and must stop hiding her identity and use her gifts to aid the dragonriders in their crucial mission. 

This book has the SF/F holy trinity of great plot, characters, and world-building—but what really hooked me was the multi-dimensional female main character that I connected to immediately. I’m a musician and creative thinker, too, so I could see myself in… show more.

I remember it distinctly—the day my father brought home Dragonsong for me. I had shown signs of being an avid reader and he thought I might like this book because it had a pretty cover. It did have a startlingly beautiful cover, but it was the story inside that captivated me. The tale of Menolly’s flight away from the stagnation of her family and her survival struck a chord in me, and I imagined myself as Menolly, learning to live life on my own without the support of those around me. And secretly, I always wanted a fire lizard… show more.

This is part of McCaffrey’s beloved Dragonriders of Pern series. Dragonsong is set in a seaside hold—a fortified town—and far from the inland holds that rule the land. Menolly, a young woman with a gift for music, aspires to be a harper, but her rigidly conservative parents forbid it. Realizing she will never make her parents or herself happy, she strikes out on her own. In her adventures, she discovers a nest of fire lizards, the miniature, cute, and wild cousins of the majestic dragons. She befriends all nine of them (sort of like adopting a feral cat colony, I'd… show more.