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Aug 29, 2007

Matthew rated it:

A book doesn't have to be Great Literature or even particularly good to appear on my "formative fiction" shelf, it just has to be a book with a meaning that changed me or helped me to understand myself and the world in a new way. Fortunately, Dragonsong is also a very good book of its type.

The best friend of my childhood was different from me in many ways: middle-class to my trailer-trash, older, weak where I was strong (he suffered from a heart condition that would kill hi More...

2 comments like (17 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2008

Jon rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

Nick rated it:

I didn't particularly enjoy this book, but I don't think it was really the book's fault. I had previously read one short story in the Pern series, and it was intriguing enough for me to buy this book for 50 cents. But I didn't realize that not only was this the third book in the overall Pern series, it was the first book in the Harper Hall trilogy. Reading it, I was like, "Menolly who? Constrictive gender roles, whatever. She's unhappy, whatever. WHERE ARE THE DAMN DRAGONS? Fire liza More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2008

Janni added it

Just reread this for the first time in years.

A bit heavy on the "Menolly is a girl, oh no!" and things don't really pick up until the fire lizards show up, but even so ... good stuff. And still the comfort read it was 20 years ago. :-)

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2008

Alethea rated it:

I just reread this for the first time in 17 years... I love this trilogy so much! It introduced me to the world of Pern and was one of the few things I have ever been able to give back to my Aunt Debbie to repay her for her kindness in introducing me to science-fiction/fantasy, Isaac Asimov, John Bellairs...

Dragonsong serves both as an introduction for young adult readers to the Dragonrider series, an examination of gender roles and tradition in their society (and perhaps in ours), a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 04, 2008

Adam rated it:

I picked this up on a lark after giving up one CD into Redwall. Having just started the first 3 Dragonriders of Pern novels, I was a tad miffed right at the beginning to be given a summary of the ending to those novels. Didn't matter though, because I was quickly sucked into the life of Menolly, a musically gifted girl born into a horribly dull and stifled by tradition fishing community.

I did almost give up on the book at the beginning because I just couldn't take all the crap that w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 27, 2008

Emma rated it:

A brief forward to the review: “Dragonsong” is the first book in Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy. The series is generally catalogued as children’s (at least in the nypl catalog) but is really for any readers. Like many of McCaffrey’s novels, it’s set in the world of Pern. I haven’t read anything but this trilogy yet, but am pretty sure these novels (from the 1970s) operate as prequels to the other more adult oriented novels. Oh, and I absolutely loved the entire trilogy.

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2007

Anja rated it:

This book has an amazing story. It is a short read that is incredibly easy and so much fun!

Menolly is the the main character, she is a girl only 15 years old, and she has an incredible talent. She is a gifted signer and musician, she would make for the perfect harper. Only one problem, Harpers cannot be girls. After embarrassing her father -The Sea Holder- with her talent she runs away to a cave full of fire lizards. She manages well on her own with the clutch of nine lizards, until More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2010

Kara rated it:

Hmmm.... remember writing a review for this.

My introduction to Anne McCaffrey. I was trying to start The Dragonriders of Pern trilogy, but was unsure about the title of the first book, and ended up with this one from the library.

A quick read, was listed as Juvenile Fantasy for the library. I really liked this book, and for having a very simple, not very complex or intricate storyline, it really held my interest.

Basically a coming of age story. Well writte More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 01, 2007

Kelsey rated it:

A great trilogy, set in the world of Pern where dragons and their riders guard against the fall of the voracious Thread organism from the sky. This trilogy focuses Menolly, a young girl with a gift for music. She runs away from home and eventually finds a place for herself at the Harpercraft Hall, where Harpers are trained. Harpers function as entertainers, teachers, spies, and distributors of information. They are especially important now, as society has been destabilized by the return of Threa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 07, 2007

Wendi rated it:

This was the first book I ever bought from a bookstore, and it was my introduction into the world of fantasy reading. I love the cover---it captured my young imagination completely. This is the story of a girl who overcomes tremendous odds to not only survive, but to begin down the path that leads to her dreams. She is a strong, inventive, brave, and lovable heroine. She will forever be one of my favorites. Though her story is relatively small, it taught me many things at in important time in my More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2012

Bridgette rated it:

It’s easy to explain the popularity of Anne McAffrey’s Pern series:

* She creates a world where people overcome hardships against a faceless, non-sentient enemy.
* The world is familiar to us even as it is new and interesting.
* Protagonists who are “misunderstood” have telepathic links to dragons, who are always completely empathetic with them and who have “chosen” them (a process called Impressing).

It’s the type of world a reader can easily throw himself or herself i More...

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Dec 07, 2011

Laura rated it:

This is one of my favorite books of all time - I can't count how many times I've read it. It was the first fantasy/science fiction/speculative fiction book I've read, which opened me up to these genres that I love so much. As a terribly lonely and misunderstood adolescent, Menolly's story resonated with me strongly that it still has great meaning to me these 20 or 25 years later.

The latest re-reading: a few weeks after Anne McCaffrey passed away, while getting over a bad cold, I list More...

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Oct 12, 2011

***Dave rated it:

The first of the Pern "Harper Hall" trilogy -- and chronologically the third book of the overall Pern saga (taking place around the same time as Dragonquest), this book is much more of a YA saga. That makes it much lighter (and shorter) reading, and it relies far too heavily on the unfair woes of Menolly being a musically inclined (and immensely talented) girl in an isolated Hold where neither music nor female creativity (let alone a combination thereof) are appreciated, if even allow More...

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Jun 25, 2011

Sally rated it:

Although I have been vaguely aware of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, the idea of "dragon rider" did not appeal to me enough to drawn me into them. However, my daughter, a musician as am I, recommended the Harper Hall series mainly because of the music aspect, and also because she knew I liked fantasy stories (particularly more palatable ones as written for young adults).

I enjoyed this story, although the pace and voice of the reader in the audiobook version was a little off- More...

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Apr 09, 2011

Caroline rated it:

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved reading the Harper Hall trilogy. It has been a pure moment of wonder and pleasure and I am definitely an addict by now (had just finished reading Dragonsong in a sitting that I started Dragonsinger!).
Dragonsong starts with a very descriptive foreword explaining the creation of Pern, the dragons and the existence of Threads (deadly things falling from the Red Star) but as soon as the book starts, Anne McCaffrey's brilliant story-telling gets y More...

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Mar 27, 2011

Paradoxical rated it:

Dragonsong is a charming book. I actually very much like it, while for the previous Pern books (the Dragonrider ones) leave me a bit cold in comparison. It helps that the book generally sticks to Menolly for a main character, and when the POV switches, there is both good reason for it, and it doesn't last so very long in another person's POV. Menolly is also a character one can't help but cheer on, especially when she's faced in a situation that seems very much hopeless from the beginning.
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Jun 16, 2010

Keri rated it:

My father read the entire Pern series when I was a kid. I loved seeing the books with dragons on the covers and the word PERN somewhere in the title. He even named our dog, Jaxom. And yet, it took me 20 years to get around to reading ANY of the series!

And I'm sad that it did. I enjoyed Dragonsong immensely, but I think I could have loved it more if I could have sympathized with Menolly more. I have to say, the way her parents treat her made me upset for her as well as wonder if any t More...

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Oct 11, 2011

Kailey rated it:

Wonderfully imaginative! Really original and interesting. Great characters and plot, delightful all through! A couple of times the writing was unclear, and there are too many dragon and people's names to remember. It is also sometimes unclear if the name spoken of is a person or dragon. But other than that the writing is brilliant! I love the writing style and the use of special 'lingo' for the fantasy culture and their habits. It's very detailed, enchantingly different and yet familiar.
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Oct 21, 2010

Russell rated it:

Dragonsong was a pretty quick read. At first, I also didn’t like her writing style: she liked to use colons a lot. Apparently, we don’t use colons as much as we used to: they have widely become relics of the past. So she uses this a few times in a few paragraphs, and for some reason that bugged me a little.

The biggest bother for me was the names. Do fantasy books have to have such stupid names? Here are some examples. The main character could have been named Mellony, her sister More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 19, 2010

Elfdart rated it:

this is a great book about a girl with passion for music. the story takes place in a fictional land called pern. mccaffrey has fully developed this world in a whole series of books, this is only one series of many that take place in this land, but a lot of them are adult novels as opposed to this one which is meant for kids. the book focuses on this girl named menolly who lives in a very conservative fishing village in a time before modern technology and in a world where dragons exist. menolly l More...

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Jan 03, 2009

Tresuiri rated it:

The whole issue of the main character suffering reminds me of Oliver Twist. I didn't appreciate the whole women’s lib slant that was, in the end, supposed to re-enforce the main character’s liberation in the end. I liked the fantasy aspect and how the author was detailed enough to paint an interesting picture for me to tag-along. I felt the book dragged on when the relationships between characters were fleshed out in great detail and the main character’s psyche was regularly detailed. Perhap More...

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Jun 16, 2010

Cameron rated it:

Thanks to this book, I now know who the anti-Jules Verne is. Those of you who've read any of Verne's works know that he loves to go into excruciating detail when he describes the world and the things in it. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that at least half of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is made up of descriptions of various fish, wildlife, and submarines. Anne McCaffrey, on the other hand, takes quite a different approach to description. That is to say that she approaches it with a te More...

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Sep 07, 2010

Michael rated it:

This was the very first Pern book I read and when I got it I couldn't put it down. Something about the world setting captured my imagination at the time.

Author's Note: I remember my grandmother sending me down to the corner store to buy some books for me to read during one summer vacation. I found a copy of this book lurking in a dim corner and brought it home. I read it in under 24 hours and was hooked on the world setting. I started combing other used book stores--I couldn't afford More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2010

Debbie rated it:

Book one in the Harper Hall trilogy (comes after the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy).

Menolly is the youngest child at isolated and fishing-focused Half-Circle Sea Hold. She is musically gifted and has spent years being secretly taught by the Harper. When he dies, however, her parents, believing that no girl can (or should) become a Harper, forbid her to make music and punish her cruelly when she does. After injuring her hand and being told that she will never be able to play an inst More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Jenna rated it:

This is a book that literally saved my life. When I was 11, and my mother and I were homeless after the death of my stepfather, this book was made available to me, as was the sequel. The tale of Menolly, a 14-year-old musical prodigy outcast, made me feel so much less alone. It prevented my suicide.

This book is short, sad, lovely, and adventurous. The writing is so accessible, so poignant, and so endearing that I have it memorized. I've passed on my copies, only to buy more, and the More...

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Dec 04, 2011

Phaedra rated it:

I decided to reread the Pern and a few other books by Ms. McCaffrey when I heard she had passed away. This was the first Anne McCaffrey book that I read, it was something that I found in my school's library when I was either in 5th or 6th grade. I was amazed at the world, at the dragons and fire lizards, and Menolly's youthful angst. I had no idea until later that this was part of a series. Now, almost 30 years later I find that I still enjoy the story. Menolly is a strong female character wh More...

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Nov 25, 2011

Laura rated it:

I'm rating this in honor of Anne McCaffrey today, who has passed away but left an amazing universe behind. While as an adult I find these books not quite sophisticated enough to really enjoy re-reading them anymore, the Pern stories were one of my entry points to the world of fantasy novels and will forever have a treasured spot on my bookshelf. One of my most amusing memories of Pern: as a little one I was relatively oblivious to the love story in the Dragonsong trilogy, re-reading as a youn More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 19, 2011

Ashley rated it:

So, I read this book back in Junior High or something. My dad had recommended it and I had forgotten EVERYTHING about it.

I have no clue how I understood any of it back then because I barely understood it now. The book sort of starts in the middle of the story and you are expected to know what is going on (even though it is the first book). There are A LOT of names and I just couldn't remember who was who and where everything was. BUT in the end, I understood the story and the names rea More...

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Mar 31, 2010

Lauryn rated it:

two thumbs up so far. this book is about a girl named menolly who finds herself a teacher for something only men were allowed to do. she is a harper. but when her master(and father who is the master of the hold wich is the place where she lives)finds out that she has been making up her own songs she is beaten with her master's(/ fathers) belt. this leaves gashes in her back. when her mother finds out she doesen't do a thing about it. she mearly punishes the poor girl more by making her do chores More...

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