Dragonsong - Chapter Thirteen
Jan. 24th, 2020 03:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo we've hit the last chapter of Dragonsong. It's a momentous occasion! Maybe!
I always feel accomplished when I finish a review.
So we start off with Menolly having been accidentally abandoned. Apparently T'gellan forgot his promise to return. Kind of a dick move, dude, but I suppose given the excitement, I understand. Menolly carefully climbs down the tiers and makes her way over the sand to meet with Beauty at the entrance. The others are there too, all a little nervous to see if Ramoth is about. I'm not sure where Ramoth would have gone, but I find the dragon and fire lizard interactions intriguing. We know that the dragons seem amused and tolerant of their predecessors, but how do the less sapient fire lizards perceive the relationship?
Honestly, a part of me wishes Menolly would just abandon the Harper ambition and stay at the Weyr as Pern's first and only fire lizard behavioral expert.
Menolly's injury isn't forgotten though: the sand is painful on her feet and she has to rest at the entrance. Fortunately no one notices her, and she gets a good view of Ramoth making a meal of herdbeasts, and hatchlings getting fed and bathed. Up above the Bowl, she sees Mnementh on the ledge of the queen's weyr, watching Ramoth eat, and catches a glimpse of a man's head as he descended into the Weyr. I can't remember what F'lar was doing in Dragonquest and this time, except maybe suffering from his endless wound fever, but I feel like saying "Fuck you, F'lar" on instinct.
So anyway, Menolly gets to see lots of ins and outs of Weyr life and it's kind of fun. Eventually her two green fire lizards come chattering for attention. This is notable for me, because generally speaking the own lizards Menolly has that actually do something are Beauty and maybe Rocky or Diver. But this has a reason: a man comes up to ask if the greens are hers and is shocked to realize that Beauty, Rocky and Diver are hers as well.
(This reminds me of my mild criticism that Menolly would be just as effective with five lizards as nine: it's still more than anyone else, and maybe McCaffrey would have had time to develop more distinct personalities for all but Beauty.)
The fellow who rather surprisingly doesn't have a description except that he's tall notes that she must be Menolly. Apparently he's been promised an egg from the fire lizard clutch she's found. He rambles a bit about how he's partial to browns, but wouldn't object to a bronze, and that the greens are delicate, or a blue would be great. He also wouldn't mind a queen, of course, but thinks it might be greedy.
It occurs to me that there are interesting questions as to the ownership of any clutches that the fire lizards have while bonded. Do they belong to the person bonded to the queen? I don't recall reading any instances where people have bonded to any of the offspring of their original fire lizard. Which is kind of interesting when you think about it.
The fellow would be embarrassed a bit if his Journeyman, Sebell, (A name we heard in Dragonquest, and therefore we know who this person is before Menolly does: she's talking of course to Masterharper Robinton) got the queen instead.
Anyway, when he realizes that Menolly was forgotten, he starts to help her over to where she needs to be. When she starts having trouble, he swings her up into his arms to carry her, urging her to tell Beauty that he's helping.
I always wonder how realistic that move is in real life. Menolly's tall but thin, but still, how easy is it to bridal carry a conscious person when she's not expecting it. I've been thrown over someone's shoulder by surprise once. (Happily by a friend!) But that's a different angle. Beauty doesn't really listen, so Menolly has to flap around to protect him getting some attention.
We do finally get a bit more description: silvering hair, and grey tunic that has just a band of blue. She realizes he must be a harper, maybe weyrbound to Fort. She doesn't seem as excited by this as I would expect. But probably because McCaffrey's building to the big reveal of who he actually is.
Which happens as Felena comes to investigate. There's some banter where Robinton plays at weariness and claims it's thirsty work (ha, ha, oh that alcoholic scamp). Felena calls him by name which stuns Menolly into silence. He offers Menolly some wine, and she refuses because of her tendency for hiccups, and then he gets Felena to give them some food, clownishly playing up his hunger. She notes that he seems to be worried about something.
Soon he leaves, and Menolly realizes that there's no real way she can ask Robinton about her songs. I think you could just ask, dear. But I remember being an anxious teenager too.
Soon Mirrim finds her. Mirrim is, of course, jubilant that everything worked out. She's gotten Brekke to eat for the first time in days. F'nor basically ate everything Mirrim brought him too, but I don't care about him. I still think it's weird that he goes off to the Feast when Brekke's just snapped out of her catatonia. But maybe that's just me.
Sadly, Mirrim seems to have gotten over her trepidation about Brekke and F'nor, noting that Canth tried to protect Wirenth from Prideth, and that's unheard of for a brown. It must be because F'nor loves Brekke so. Ugh.
Anyway, she couldn't bring herself to watch the Impressing, so she has Menolly fill her in. Then Menolly asks why Jaxom's thing was a big deal, and Mirrim explains what the readers of Dragonquest already know but the readers of Dragonsong might not: that Jaxom is a Lord Holder and can't be both Lord Holder and dragonrider. Mirrim also notes that Elgion is here and wonders if Menolly wants to see him. Menolly's rather virulent "No!" has Mirrim storming off in a huff.
T'gellan comes up afterward to apologize for forgetting her. He's there to build something for Robinton to carry his and Sebell's eggs in since he can't stay for the whole feast. (I do wonder why Sebell merits an egg, but I guess it's because he's the right hand man.) He ropes some weyrboys into being feet for Menolly.
So Menolly starts sewing furry bags for egg travel. She meets the Masterminer who is also promised two eggs. He asks if he can have the queen, but is told by T'gellan that they can't tell which is which. Though T'gellan notes that Menolly might know since she Impressed nine. He has her pick out "two of the best" for the Masterminer, while Menolly privately promises that the queen egg will go to Robinton.
She explains to the Masterminer how to care for the eggs and then feed them as much as possible when they hatch, and give them a lot of reassurance. (She has some trouble framing the need for affection and warmth when the Masterminer seems "hard-faced", but she manages.)
As he leaves, T'gellan figures the man's too cold to keep a fire lizard. Menolly and T'gellan argue a bit about him bringing up that Menolly trained hers to sing, and he asks why she's bothered when Mirrim hasn't done that much with her three.
I mentioned before that as much as I love the Menolly-Mirrim friendship, it does annoy me that Mirrim does occasionally seem to be positioned so that Menolly looks better. It's not Brekke-Kylara level of course. And it makes sense that Menolly's trained her lizards better, because she actually had a lot of free time that Mirrim clearly doesn't have. But it still irks me a little.
We end up switching over to Elgion, because we're overdue for an unnecessarily prolonged reveal. Elgion is enjoying the Feast, having not quite realized how dour Half Circle Hold was until now. I realize I wouldn't mind knowing a little more about where Elgion came from prior to Harper Hall. But I don't think we ever actually see the guy again. Too bad.
We're told that while watching the Impression, Elgion had some day dreams about finding a clutch of his own. He'd make sure Alemi got an egg too. Aw, I ship it. And it does seem a little unfair that Menolly found the clutch in Half-Circle Hold, but no one from Half Circle actually gets an egg. I mean, yes, McCaffrey has not so subtly made sure we saw all of them except Elgion and Alemi as terrible, but still.
Anyway, Elgion does find time to ask about the clutch. He's more interested in whether or not they came from the cave by the Dragon Stones. Somehow this connects to the pipes he heard on his trip out. He thinks the piping sound came from the cave. It's now a matter of pride that he finds out the cause. I know this has to happen, but it does irk me how Elgion's only real significance to the story is to enable Menolly's big moment. The daydream about the fire lizards is like the only independent desire the guy's actually expressed and it's now completely forgotten.
So now we finally get the reveal. T'gellan, enjoying the chance to tease the Harper, finally reveals that it had been pipes Elgion heard, and that the piper was the girl they'd rescued, Menolly.
Elgion perks up, realizing that he's finally reached the part of the story where he's relevant and runs off to Robinton to tell him he's found Petiron's apprentice. Robinton is excited because the melodies sent to Petiron were "the loveliest melodies [he's] heard in all [his] Turns of harpering".
Ah, of course they are.
I feel guilty harping on this (hee, pun), since there's nothing wrong with stories about exceptional young girls. But I feel like McCaffrey doesn't bother with a sense of scale. Menolly has some training, sure, but it's just what she's been able to eke out while caring for Petiron. It's not like her parents were ever open to the idea of her actually apprenticing to him.
But somehow this is enough for her to know how to play EVERY instrument. She writes songs that aren't just good on a beginner's level, but are the loveliest melodies Robinton has ever heard.
This isn't a huge problem now, because it's not the point of the story. But it will become more of an issue in Dragonsinger as I recall. When the story is about Menolly learning to be a Harper, and she's already mastered every single music related skill, what does she still have to learn?
Manora is concerned though, with her hand, Menolly might not be able to play. T'gellan and Elgion disagree, and T'gellan says, yet again, that she's taught her lizards to sing. Thereby showing us why McCaffrey was having him broken record brag about that all chapter.
Manora urges Robinton to be gentle with Menolly, and Robinton agrees, having seen that she's inhibited and nervous. He has a plan.
So back to Menolly. She's tired but still riding the high of having been carried by Robinton himself. She's star-struck and it's very cute. Eventually Oharan joins her and asks her to sing with him. As they do, Beauty sings along. (Rocky goes back to sleep peevishly, which is adorable.)
Manora coaxes her to sing another verse, which is when Oharan (Benden's live in harper, if you recall) starts playing something new and vaguely familiar. She starts to sing along and realizes she's trapped: it's HER song. One of the ones that had been sent to the Masterharper. Who promptly comes out and asks that she play "her own song."
...this is gentle?
Fucking bards.
Anyway, we get a sweet if slightly frustrating moment:
“But I can’t play ... ” She held up her hand. Robinton took it in both of his, gently fingering the scar, examining it.
“You can play, Menolly,” he said quietly, his kind eyes on hers, as he continued to stroke her hand, much as she would have caressed her frightened Beauty. “Elgion heard you when you were playing the pipes in the cave.”
“I’m a girl ... ” she said. “Yanus told me ... ”
“As to that,” replied the Masterharper somewhat impatiently, though he smiled as he spoke, “if Petiron had had sense enough to tell me that that was the problem, you might have been spared a great deal of anguish: and I certainly would have been spared a great deal of trouble searching all Pern for you. Don’t you want to be a harper?” Robinton ended on such a wistful, distressed note that Menolly had to reassure him.
I realize that McCaffrey may not have been planning a sequel, but I could wish that she didn't quite defang the idea of the first female harper so thoroughly here. No, there actually isn't an issue at all with the idea of a female harper. We've just never had one before because...no woman has ever wanted to be a harper?
I feel like I'll have a lot more to say on this topic when we get to Dragonsinger.
There is a pretty hilarious bit after where Menolly protests that Lessa said she belongs in the Weyr, and Robinton retorts that Lessa will not tolerate nine singing fire lizards in her Weyr, and yeah that's probably true.
This actually is why I get so puzzled when McCaffrey seems to bend over backwards to make certain of her protagonists near flawless (see: Brekke). Lessa is the opposite of flawless, and she is delightful in every appearance.
So Menolly agrees to come and the story ends.
As a climax goes, that was reasonably enjoyable. I was amused at how Robinton's idea of being gentle was really anything but.
I do wish we'd gotten a little more of a resolution with Mirrim though. That was an abrupt conclusion to a friendship that formed the backbone of the Weyr segments. I'd imagine they'd make up in time, but with Menolly going off to the Harpers, who knows when that might be. And it does seem to kind of reinforce the problem with Half Circle Hold and Elgion: these characters only exist to further Menolly's story and are promptly shelved when they're no longer necessary. If I didn't know Mirrim has a bigger story to come in her own right, I'd be very frustrated.
I always feel accomplished when I finish a review.
So we start off with Menolly having been accidentally abandoned. Apparently T'gellan forgot his promise to return. Kind of a dick move, dude, but I suppose given the excitement, I understand. Menolly carefully climbs down the tiers and makes her way over the sand to meet with Beauty at the entrance. The others are there too, all a little nervous to see if Ramoth is about. I'm not sure where Ramoth would have gone, but I find the dragon and fire lizard interactions intriguing. We know that the dragons seem amused and tolerant of their predecessors, but how do the less sapient fire lizards perceive the relationship?
Honestly, a part of me wishes Menolly would just abandon the Harper ambition and stay at the Weyr as Pern's first and only fire lizard behavioral expert.
Menolly's injury isn't forgotten though: the sand is painful on her feet and she has to rest at the entrance. Fortunately no one notices her, and she gets a good view of Ramoth making a meal of herdbeasts, and hatchlings getting fed and bathed. Up above the Bowl, she sees Mnementh on the ledge of the queen's weyr, watching Ramoth eat, and catches a glimpse of a man's head as he descended into the Weyr. I can't remember what F'lar was doing in Dragonquest and this time, except maybe suffering from his endless wound fever, but I feel like saying "Fuck you, F'lar" on instinct.
So anyway, Menolly gets to see lots of ins and outs of Weyr life and it's kind of fun. Eventually her two green fire lizards come chattering for attention. This is notable for me, because generally speaking the own lizards Menolly has that actually do something are Beauty and maybe Rocky or Diver. But this has a reason: a man comes up to ask if the greens are hers and is shocked to realize that Beauty, Rocky and Diver are hers as well.
(This reminds me of my mild criticism that Menolly would be just as effective with five lizards as nine: it's still more than anyone else, and maybe McCaffrey would have had time to develop more distinct personalities for all but Beauty.)
The fellow who rather surprisingly doesn't have a description except that he's tall notes that she must be Menolly. Apparently he's been promised an egg from the fire lizard clutch she's found. He rambles a bit about how he's partial to browns, but wouldn't object to a bronze, and that the greens are delicate, or a blue would be great. He also wouldn't mind a queen, of course, but thinks it might be greedy.
It occurs to me that there are interesting questions as to the ownership of any clutches that the fire lizards have while bonded. Do they belong to the person bonded to the queen? I don't recall reading any instances where people have bonded to any of the offspring of their original fire lizard. Which is kind of interesting when you think about it.
The fellow would be embarrassed a bit if his Journeyman, Sebell, (A name we heard in Dragonquest, and therefore we know who this person is before Menolly does: she's talking of course to Masterharper Robinton) got the queen instead.
Anyway, when he realizes that Menolly was forgotten, he starts to help her over to where she needs to be. When she starts having trouble, he swings her up into his arms to carry her, urging her to tell Beauty that he's helping.
I always wonder how realistic that move is in real life. Menolly's tall but thin, but still, how easy is it to bridal carry a conscious person when she's not expecting it. I've been thrown over someone's shoulder by surprise once. (Happily by a friend!) But that's a different angle. Beauty doesn't really listen, so Menolly has to flap around to protect him getting some attention.
We do finally get a bit more description: silvering hair, and grey tunic that has just a band of blue. She realizes he must be a harper, maybe weyrbound to Fort. She doesn't seem as excited by this as I would expect. But probably because McCaffrey's building to the big reveal of who he actually is.
Which happens as Felena comes to investigate. There's some banter where Robinton plays at weariness and claims it's thirsty work (ha, ha, oh that alcoholic scamp). Felena calls him by name which stuns Menolly into silence. He offers Menolly some wine, and she refuses because of her tendency for hiccups, and then he gets Felena to give them some food, clownishly playing up his hunger. She notes that he seems to be worried about something.
Soon he leaves, and Menolly realizes that there's no real way she can ask Robinton about her songs. I think you could just ask, dear. But I remember being an anxious teenager too.
Soon Mirrim finds her. Mirrim is, of course, jubilant that everything worked out. She's gotten Brekke to eat for the first time in days. F'nor basically ate everything Mirrim brought him too, but I don't care about him. I still think it's weird that he goes off to the Feast when Brekke's just snapped out of her catatonia. But maybe that's just me.
Sadly, Mirrim seems to have gotten over her trepidation about Brekke and F'nor, noting that Canth tried to protect Wirenth from Prideth, and that's unheard of for a brown. It must be because F'nor loves Brekke so. Ugh.
Anyway, she couldn't bring herself to watch the Impressing, so she has Menolly fill her in. Then Menolly asks why Jaxom's thing was a big deal, and Mirrim explains what the readers of Dragonquest already know but the readers of Dragonsong might not: that Jaxom is a Lord Holder and can't be both Lord Holder and dragonrider. Mirrim also notes that Elgion is here and wonders if Menolly wants to see him. Menolly's rather virulent "No!" has Mirrim storming off in a huff.
T'gellan comes up afterward to apologize for forgetting her. He's there to build something for Robinton to carry his and Sebell's eggs in since he can't stay for the whole feast. (I do wonder why Sebell merits an egg, but I guess it's because he's the right hand man.) He ropes some weyrboys into being feet for Menolly.
So Menolly starts sewing furry bags for egg travel. She meets the Masterminer who is also promised two eggs. He asks if he can have the queen, but is told by T'gellan that they can't tell which is which. Though T'gellan notes that Menolly might know since she Impressed nine. He has her pick out "two of the best" for the Masterminer, while Menolly privately promises that the queen egg will go to Robinton.
She explains to the Masterminer how to care for the eggs and then feed them as much as possible when they hatch, and give them a lot of reassurance. (She has some trouble framing the need for affection and warmth when the Masterminer seems "hard-faced", but she manages.)
As he leaves, T'gellan figures the man's too cold to keep a fire lizard. Menolly and T'gellan argue a bit about him bringing up that Menolly trained hers to sing, and he asks why she's bothered when Mirrim hasn't done that much with her three.
I mentioned before that as much as I love the Menolly-Mirrim friendship, it does annoy me that Mirrim does occasionally seem to be positioned so that Menolly looks better. It's not Brekke-Kylara level of course. And it makes sense that Menolly's trained her lizards better, because she actually had a lot of free time that Mirrim clearly doesn't have. But it still irks me a little.
We end up switching over to Elgion, because we're overdue for an unnecessarily prolonged reveal. Elgion is enjoying the Feast, having not quite realized how dour Half Circle Hold was until now. I realize I wouldn't mind knowing a little more about where Elgion came from prior to Harper Hall. But I don't think we ever actually see the guy again. Too bad.
We're told that while watching the Impression, Elgion had some day dreams about finding a clutch of his own. He'd make sure Alemi got an egg too. Aw, I ship it. And it does seem a little unfair that Menolly found the clutch in Half-Circle Hold, but no one from Half Circle actually gets an egg. I mean, yes, McCaffrey has not so subtly made sure we saw all of them except Elgion and Alemi as terrible, but still.
Anyway, Elgion does find time to ask about the clutch. He's more interested in whether or not they came from the cave by the Dragon Stones. Somehow this connects to the pipes he heard on his trip out. He thinks the piping sound came from the cave. It's now a matter of pride that he finds out the cause. I know this has to happen, but it does irk me how Elgion's only real significance to the story is to enable Menolly's big moment. The daydream about the fire lizards is like the only independent desire the guy's actually expressed and it's now completely forgotten.
So now we finally get the reveal. T'gellan, enjoying the chance to tease the Harper, finally reveals that it had been pipes Elgion heard, and that the piper was the girl they'd rescued, Menolly.
Elgion perks up, realizing that he's finally reached the part of the story where he's relevant and runs off to Robinton to tell him he's found Petiron's apprentice. Robinton is excited because the melodies sent to Petiron were "the loveliest melodies [he's] heard in all [his] Turns of harpering".
Ah, of course they are.
I feel guilty harping on this (hee, pun), since there's nothing wrong with stories about exceptional young girls. But I feel like McCaffrey doesn't bother with a sense of scale. Menolly has some training, sure, but it's just what she's been able to eke out while caring for Petiron. It's not like her parents were ever open to the idea of her actually apprenticing to him.
But somehow this is enough for her to know how to play EVERY instrument. She writes songs that aren't just good on a beginner's level, but are the loveliest melodies Robinton has ever heard.
This isn't a huge problem now, because it's not the point of the story. But it will become more of an issue in Dragonsinger as I recall. When the story is about Menolly learning to be a Harper, and she's already mastered every single music related skill, what does she still have to learn?
Manora is concerned though, with her hand, Menolly might not be able to play. T'gellan and Elgion disagree, and T'gellan says, yet again, that she's taught her lizards to sing. Thereby showing us why McCaffrey was having him broken record brag about that all chapter.
Manora urges Robinton to be gentle with Menolly, and Robinton agrees, having seen that she's inhibited and nervous. He has a plan.
So back to Menolly. She's tired but still riding the high of having been carried by Robinton himself. She's star-struck and it's very cute. Eventually Oharan joins her and asks her to sing with him. As they do, Beauty sings along. (Rocky goes back to sleep peevishly, which is adorable.)
Manora coaxes her to sing another verse, which is when Oharan (Benden's live in harper, if you recall) starts playing something new and vaguely familiar. She starts to sing along and realizes she's trapped: it's HER song. One of the ones that had been sent to the Masterharper. Who promptly comes out and asks that she play "her own song."
...this is gentle?
Fucking bards.
Anyway, we get a sweet if slightly frustrating moment:
“But I can’t play ... ” She held up her hand. Robinton took it in both of his, gently fingering the scar, examining it.
“You can play, Menolly,” he said quietly, his kind eyes on hers, as he continued to stroke her hand, much as she would have caressed her frightened Beauty. “Elgion heard you when you were playing the pipes in the cave.”
“I’m a girl ... ” she said. “Yanus told me ... ”
“As to that,” replied the Masterharper somewhat impatiently, though he smiled as he spoke, “if Petiron had had sense enough to tell me that that was the problem, you might have been spared a great deal of anguish: and I certainly would have been spared a great deal of trouble searching all Pern for you. Don’t you want to be a harper?” Robinton ended on such a wistful, distressed note that Menolly had to reassure him.
I realize that McCaffrey may not have been planning a sequel, but I could wish that she didn't quite defang the idea of the first female harper so thoroughly here. No, there actually isn't an issue at all with the idea of a female harper. We've just never had one before because...no woman has ever wanted to be a harper?
I feel like I'll have a lot more to say on this topic when we get to Dragonsinger.
There is a pretty hilarious bit after where Menolly protests that Lessa said she belongs in the Weyr, and Robinton retorts that Lessa will not tolerate nine singing fire lizards in her Weyr, and yeah that's probably true.
This actually is why I get so puzzled when McCaffrey seems to bend over backwards to make certain of her protagonists near flawless (see: Brekke). Lessa is the opposite of flawless, and she is delightful in every appearance.
So Menolly agrees to come and the story ends.
As a climax goes, that was reasonably enjoyable. I was amused at how Robinton's idea of being gentle was really anything but.
I do wish we'd gotten a little more of a resolution with Mirrim though. That was an abrupt conclusion to a friendship that formed the backbone of the Weyr segments. I'd imagine they'd make up in time, but with Menolly going off to the Harpers, who knows when that might be. And it does seem to kind of reinforce the problem with Half Circle Hold and Elgion: these characters only exist to further Menolly's story and are promptly shelved when they're no longer necessary. If I didn't know Mirrim has a bigger story to come in her own right, I'd be very frustrated.
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Date: 2020-01-26 02:36 am (UTC)Also Menolly's teenageriness!
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Date: 2020-01-26 04:32 am (UTC)