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i_read_whatSo now that I've finished the worst book ever, I'm popping back over to Pern. This time, I'm reading Dragonsinger, which is the direct sequel to Dragonsong. I've got reasonably high hopes for this on account of the fact that Dragonsong is the first Pern Novel that I actually gave a passing grade to.
Hopefully, this continues the trend.
There's not much to be said here. For once, there's no forward. I do get a nice glossary full of names, though. Mostly Harpers Hall personnel. There's a minor spoiler as to who gets what lizard, which I remember being a plot point.
It's not quite as bad as how the family trees in the Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy kept spoiling which family members would die in each book, but it's a little sloppy.
So anyway, we see masters, and which field they teach, Journeymen, Apprentices, Students and hold personnel in both Fort and Half-Circle. It rounds itself off with Benden Weyr. Then we move on to Chapter One.
So we start off with song lyrics again. This is clearly meant to be Menolly's fire lizard song. I won't transcribe the whole thing, but this is the first verse:
The little queen all golden
Flew hissing at the sea.
To stop each wave
Her clutch to save
She ventured bravely.
...the problem with including lyrics like this is that it gives your audience a chance to judge for themselves. Robinton is very impressed by the fire lizard song. All I can think is that the tune must be ridiculously catchy, given that the lyrics seem awfully trite.
It's basically a variation of what happened with Menolly and the queen, though the viewpoint character is male. The last verse is kind of painful:
The little queen all golden
Upon his shoulder stood
Her eyes all blue
Glowed of her true
Undying gratitude.
That's not a rhyme. All the good songs rhyme.
Much to my disappointment, the story starts straight with Menolly's arrival at Harper Craft Hall. I had been hoping we might get a little bit more time at Benden Weyr, so Menolly could have a proper goodbye with Mirrim, Manora, and the other characters who had become important to her in so short a time. But nope.
Menolly is feeling triumphant. She's arriving in style: on T'gellan's Monarth, with Robinton at her back. She's thinking about how she was told that girls couldn't be harpers, and how she'd run away because she couldn't continue life without music. So she's understandably thrilled. But she's also intimidated, which the narrative expresses in a rather obnoxious way:
Yet it was also frightening. To be sure, music would not be denied her at the Harper Hall. True, she had written some songs that the Masterharper had heard and liked. But they were just tunings, not anything important. And what could a girl, even one who had taught her Hold’s youngsters their Teaching Songs and Ballads, do at a Harper Hall from which all teaching songs originated? Especially a girl who had inadvertently Impressed nine fire lizards when everyone else on Pern would give a left arm to own just one? What had Master Robinton in mind for her to do here in the Harper Hall?
If you ever wanted a good example of a "humble brag", here we go. "Oh woe is me my absent minded twitterings impressed the head of the Harpers. And I happen to have impressed nine fire lizards, isn't that inconvenient!"
I know you're just a kid, Menolly, but that's not a good look.
Menolly finds that she's too tired to think, (not too tired to humble brag though). Robinton reassures her as they land, that it's just a few minutes more. They do indeed land, and Robinton triumphantly announces the two lizards that he was given last book. (One for him, and one for his right hand man, Sebell. I feel like this could easily seed a lot of resentment, but what do I know?) Menolly is worried about her own lizards, but they've already arrived and are perched on the roof. Menolly is worried that they might misbehave, but T'gellan reassures her:
“They won’t,” T’gellan assured her easily. “You’ll see to that. You’ve done more with your fair of fire lizards than F’nor has with his one little queen. And F’nor’s a trained dragonrider.”
...I really don't like complaining that a female character is competent or is getting her just recognition, but we're getting a LOT of shilling in a very short amount of time. F'nor sucks, admittedly, but still. I feel like McCaffrey could back off a bit and let Menolly show us how awesome she is. She doesn't need to keep telling us.
Oh, and we're told that T'gellan "gestured broadly as if only he could have accomplished this mission". After that humble bragging earlier, I'm not sure Menolly ought to be implying that anyone else is being self-important. Menolly is still full of self-doubt, but T'gellan continues to reassure:
“Don’t worry so, Menolly. just remember,” said T’gellan, gripping her shoulder in awkward reassurance, “every harper on Pern has been trying to find Petiron’s lost apprentice . . .”
“Because they thought that apprentice was a boy . . .”
“That made no difference to Master Robinton when he asked you to come here. Times are changing, Menolly, and it’ll make no difference to the others. You’ll see. In a sevenday you’ll have forgotten you’ve ever lived anywhere else.” The bronze dragonrider chuckled. “Great shells, girl, you’ve lived holdless, outrun Thread, and Impressed nine fire lizards. What’s to fear from harpers?”
...more shilling. I suppose it's one way to catch the reader up on what happened before. And I like that T'gellan is going out of his way to make her feel better.
Meanwhile, Robinton has now moved on to other news: Menolly. He announces her to the hall. It would be interesting to see the reactions of everyone else to the fact that Menolly is female, but disappointingly, we don't get that reaction because the fire lizards start crying out from the rooftops. Which leads to Robinton announcing Menolly's deeds to the Hall:
“Yes, and those fire lizards are Menolly’s,” Robinton went on, his voice easily projecting above the murmurs. “Just as that lovely song about the fire lizard queen is Menolly’s. Only it wasn’t a man who saved the clutch from the sea, it was Menolly. And when no one would let her play or sing in Half-Circle Sea Hold after Petiron died, she ran away to the fire lizard queen’s cave and Impressed nine of the eggs before she realized what she was doing. Furthermore,” and he raised his volume above the ragged cheers of approval, “furthermore, she found another clutch, which provided me with two eggs!”
So there is lots of cheering. T'gellan tells Menolly "I told you so", while the oft mentioned Silvina comes in to take charge of Menolly. She bitches at Robinton for "subjecting the child to such an ordeal". She's going to put Menolly to bed.
There's a bit of a disaster, when Menolly stumbles into stone steps in the dark, bruising her toes and making her already injured feet more painful. She worries that Silvina will think she's a coward, while T'gellan immediately swings her up in his arms. I like T'gellan just like I liked Mirrim. I hope he doesn't get discarded by the narrative when he's no longer useful.
Silvina bitches about Robinton, who apparently often goes without sleep but forgets others can't. Menolly tries to defend him, but T'gellan tells her that Robinton is "deeply in [her] debt"...huh? How? And then he tells Silvina how Menolly tried to outrun Thread. This of course causes Silvina to stare at Menolly in "respectful astonishment"
Come ON, McCaffrey. I really really hate being one of those fans kvetching about a female power fantasy. But this is a fuck lot of shilling! I understand now why we didn't get a prelude in this book: because McCaffrey decided instead that we should hear what happened from T'gellan and Robinton singing her praises to anyone who'll listen.
The fire lizards of course are dramatic, which allows Silvina to be even more impressed and allows T'gellan to rattle off their names for Menolly. Silvina asks if one of Robinton's eggs will hatch a queen.
Silvina asks after Brekke and gets T'gellan's version of events. They note that fire lizards seem to have "a full set of wits" and I'm just enjoying a recap that's not telling me how great Menolly is...so of course...
T’gellan went on. “F’nor uses his little queen, Grall, to send messages to the other Dragon Weyrs. Of course,” and T’gellan chuckled disparagingly, “she doesn’t always return as promptly as she goes. . .Menolly’s trained hers better. You’ll see.” The dragonrider had been edging toward the door and now gave a huge yawn. “Sorry . . .”
FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
I LIKE Menolly, Ms. McCaffrey. I read the last book. And even if I hadn't, T'gellan had already told us Menolly trains better than F'nor. I don't need to be convinced. But thankfully, T'gellan leaves, and Silvina and Menolly chat as she helps get her ready for bed. There's some new information here about Petiron:
“To be sure you are, now you’re here. Living in a cave, did T’gellan say? With every harper on Pern looking for you in holds and crafthalls.” Silvina deftly tugged at skirt tapes. “Just like old Petiron to forget to mention you being a girl.”
“I don’t think he forgot,” Menolly said slowly, thinking of her father and mother and their opposition to her playing. “He told me girls can’t be harpers.”
Silvina gave her a long hard look. “Maybe under another Masterharper. Or in the old days, but surely old Petiron knew his own son well enough to-“
“Petiron was Master Robinton’s father?”
Did he never tell you that?” Silvina paused as she was spreading the sleeping fur over Menolly. “The old stubborn fool! Determined not to advance himself because his son was elected Masterharper. . .and then picking a place halfway to nowhere. I beg your pardon, Menolly . . .”
1. Every harper was looking for Menolly. Of course. Because she's that important.
2. I'm always happy to get Petiron info. I'm still irked that Masterharper of Pern retcons him into an abusive dick. Here, he just sounds like someone hidebound and set in his ways, who doesn't want to ride his son's coattails.
3. So Petiron told Menolly girls can't be Harpers, but he apparently trained her with every instrument ever, and he sent her compositions onto Robinton. Silvina acts like he should have known that Robinton wouldn't mind Menolly being a girl. So...where did Petiron get the idea that it would be a problem? Why does anyone think this will be a problem? Why are there no female Harpers if this is NOT a problem?
So anyway, Menolly gets to sleep. We get a page or so of lovely sensory description, with some musing about Petiron, and the chapter ends.
...okay. Well. That was...something. I still don't understand why McCaffrey thought we needed to hear that much praise. We already KNOW Menolly is great. You don't need to have everyone under the sun trumpet it. Surely someone must think Menolly is not so great, because the first female Harper will have to prove herself at some point.
Hopefully, now that the first chapter is done, we won't have need for anymore of a recap. That should lessen the shilling to a more manageable level.
Hopefully, this continues the trend.
There's not much to be said here. For once, there's no forward. I do get a nice glossary full of names, though. Mostly Harpers Hall personnel. There's a minor spoiler as to who gets what lizard, which I remember being a plot point.
It's not quite as bad as how the family trees in the Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy kept spoiling which family members would die in each book, but it's a little sloppy.
So anyway, we see masters, and which field they teach, Journeymen, Apprentices, Students and hold personnel in both Fort and Half-Circle. It rounds itself off with Benden Weyr. Then we move on to Chapter One.
So we start off with song lyrics again. This is clearly meant to be Menolly's fire lizard song. I won't transcribe the whole thing, but this is the first verse:
The little queen all golden
Flew hissing at the sea.
To stop each wave
Her clutch to save
She ventured bravely.
...the problem with including lyrics like this is that it gives your audience a chance to judge for themselves. Robinton is very impressed by the fire lizard song. All I can think is that the tune must be ridiculously catchy, given that the lyrics seem awfully trite.
It's basically a variation of what happened with Menolly and the queen, though the viewpoint character is male. The last verse is kind of painful:
The little queen all golden
Upon his shoulder stood
Her eyes all blue
Glowed of her true
Undying gratitude.
That's not a rhyme. All the good songs rhyme.
Much to my disappointment, the story starts straight with Menolly's arrival at Harper Craft Hall. I had been hoping we might get a little bit more time at Benden Weyr, so Menolly could have a proper goodbye with Mirrim, Manora, and the other characters who had become important to her in so short a time. But nope.
Menolly is feeling triumphant. She's arriving in style: on T'gellan's Monarth, with Robinton at her back. She's thinking about how she was told that girls couldn't be harpers, and how she'd run away because she couldn't continue life without music. So she's understandably thrilled. But she's also intimidated, which the narrative expresses in a rather obnoxious way:
Yet it was also frightening. To be sure, music would not be denied her at the Harper Hall. True, she had written some songs that the Masterharper had heard and liked. But they were just tunings, not anything important. And what could a girl, even one who had taught her Hold’s youngsters their Teaching Songs and Ballads, do at a Harper Hall from which all teaching songs originated? Especially a girl who had inadvertently Impressed nine fire lizards when everyone else on Pern would give a left arm to own just one? What had Master Robinton in mind for her to do here in the Harper Hall?
If you ever wanted a good example of a "humble brag", here we go. "Oh woe is me my absent minded twitterings impressed the head of the Harpers. And I happen to have impressed nine fire lizards, isn't that inconvenient!"
I know you're just a kid, Menolly, but that's not a good look.
Menolly finds that she's too tired to think, (not too tired to humble brag though). Robinton reassures her as they land, that it's just a few minutes more. They do indeed land, and Robinton triumphantly announces the two lizards that he was given last book. (One for him, and one for his right hand man, Sebell. I feel like this could easily seed a lot of resentment, but what do I know?) Menolly is worried about her own lizards, but they've already arrived and are perched on the roof. Menolly is worried that they might misbehave, but T'gellan reassures her:
“They won’t,” T’gellan assured her easily. “You’ll see to that. You’ve done more with your fair of fire lizards than F’nor has with his one little queen. And F’nor’s a trained dragonrider.”
...I really don't like complaining that a female character is competent or is getting her just recognition, but we're getting a LOT of shilling in a very short amount of time. F'nor sucks, admittedly, but still. I feel like McCaffrey could back off a bit and let Menolly show us how awesome she is. She doesn't need to keep telling us.
Oh, and we're told that T'gellan "gestured broadly as if only he could have accomplished this mission". After that humble bragging earlier, I'm not sure Menolly ought to be implying that anyone else is being self-important. Menolly is still full of self-doubt, but T'gellan continues to reassure:
“Don’t worry so, Menolly. just remember,” said T’gellan, gripping her shoulder in awkward reassurance, “every harper on Pern has been trying to find Petiron’s lost apprentice . . .”
“Because they thought that apprentice was a boy . . .”
“That made no difference to Master Robinton when he asked you to come here. Times are changing, Menolly, and it’ll make no difference to the others. You’ll see. In a sevenday you’ll have forgotten you’ve ever lived anywhere else.” The bronze dragonrider chuckled. “Great shells, girl, you’ve lived holdless, outrun Thread, and Impressed nine fire lizards. What’s to fear from harpers?”
...more shilling. I suppose it's one way to catch the reader up on what happened before. And I like that T'gellan is going out of his way to make her feel better.
Meanwhile, Robinton has now moved on to other news: Menolly. He announces her to the hall. It would be interesting to see the reactions of everyone else to the fact that Menolly is female, but disappointingly, we don't get that reaction because the fire lizards start crying out from the rooftops. Which leads to Robinton announcing Menolly's deeds to the Hall:
“Yes, and those fire lizards are Menolly’s,” Robinton went on, his voice easily projecting above the murmurs. “Just as that lovely song about the fire lizard queen is Menolly’s. Only it wasn’t a man who saved the clutch from the sea, it was Menolly. And when no one would let her play or sing in Half-Circle Sea Hold after Petiron died, she ran away to the fire lizard queen’s cave and Impressed nine of the eggs before she realized what she was doing. Furthermore,” and he raised his volume above the ragged cheers of approval, “furthermore, she found another clutch, which provided me with two eggs!”
So there is lots of cheering. T'gellan tells Menolly "I told you so", while the oft mentioned Silvina comes in to take charge of Menolly. She bitches at Robinton for "subjecting the child to such an ordeal". She's going to put Menolly to bed.
There's a bit of a disaster, when Menolly stumbles into stone steps in the dark, bruising her toes and making her already injured feet more painful. She worries that Silvina will think she's a coward, while T'gellan immediately swings her up in his arms. I like T'gellan just like I liked Mirrim. I hope he doesn't get discarded by the narrative when he's no longer useful.
Silvina bitches about Robinton, who apparently often goes without sleep but forgets others can't. Menolly tries to defend him, but T'gellan tells her that Robinton is "deeply in [her] debt"...huh? How? And then he tells Silvina how Menolly tried to outrun Thread. This of course causes Silvina to stare at Menolly in "respectful astonishment"
Come ON, McCaffrey. I really really hate being one of those fans kvetching about a female power fantasy. But this is a fuck lot of shilling! I understand now why we didn't get a prelude in this book: because McCaffrey decided instead that we should hear what happened from T'gellan and Robinton singing her praises to anyone who'll listen.
The fire lizards of course are dramatic, which allows Silvina to be even more impressed and allows T'gellan to rattle off their names for Menolly. Silvina asks if one of Robinton's eggs will hatch a queen.
Silvina asks after Brekke and gets T'gellan's version of events. They note that fire lizards seem to have "a full set of wits" and I'm just enjoying a recap that's not telling me how great Menolly is...so of course...
T’gellan went on. “F’nor uses his little queen, Grall, to send messages to the other Dragon Weyrs. Of course,” and T’gellan chuckled disparagingly, “she doesn’t always return as promptly as she goes. . .Menolly’s trained hers better. You’ll see.” The dragonrider had been edging toward the door and now gave a huge yawn. “Sorry . . .”
FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
I LIKE Menolly, Ms. McCaffrey. I read the last book. And even if I hadn't, T'gellan had already told us Menolly trains better than F'nor. I don't need to be convinced. But thankfully, T'gellan leaves, and Silvina and Menolly chat as she helps get her ready for bed. There's some new information here about Petiron:
“To be sure you are, now you’re here. Living in a cave, did T’gellan say? With every harper on Pern looking for you in holds and crafthalls.” Silvina deftly tugged at skirt tapes. “Just like old Petiron to forget to mention you being a girl.”
“I don’t think he forgot,” Menolly said slowly, thinking of her father and mother and their opposition to her playing. “He told me girls can’t be harpers.”
Silvina gave her a long hard look. “Maybe under another Masterharper. Or in the old days, but surely old Petiron knew his own son well enough to-“
“Petiron was Master Robinton’s father?”
Did he never tell you that?” Silvina paused as she was spreading the sleeping fur over Menolly. “The old stubborn fool! Determined not to advance himself because his son was elected Masterharper. . .and then picking a place halfway to nowhere. I beg your pardon, Menolly . . .”
1. Every harper was looking for Menolly. Of course. Because she's that important.
2. I'm always happy to get Petiron info. I'm still irked that Masterharper of Pern retcons him into an abusive dick. Here, he just sounds like someone hidebound and set in his ways, who doesn't want to ride his son's coattails.
3. So Petiron told Menolly girls can't be Harpers, but he apparently trained her with every instrument ever, and he sent her compositions onto Robinton. Silvina acts like he should have known that Robinton wouldn't mind Menolly being a girl. So...where did Petiron get the idea that it would be a problem? Why does anyone think this will be a problem? Why are there no female Harpers if this is NOT a problem?
So anyway, Menolly gets to sleep. We get a page or so of lovely sensory description, with some musing about Petiron, and the chapter ends.
...okay. Well. That was...something. I still don't understand why McCaffrey thought we needed to hear that much praise. We already KNOW Menolly is great. You don't need to have everyone under the sun trumpet it. Surely someone must think Menolly is not so great, because the first female Harper will have to prove herself at some point.
Hopefully, now that the first chapter is done, we won't have need for anymore of a recap. That should lessen the shilling to a more manageable level.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-02 04:41 pm (UTC)Anyway, I like T'gellan. Also I appreciate Silvina not being impressed by Robinton.
The Menolly Is The Best Ever shilling is something I don't think I noticed as a kid.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-02 05:17 pm (UTC)