Dragondrums - Introduction and Chapter One
Apr. 3rd, 2021 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo I've been putting off this book, probably unfairly, for a while now. I remember nothing from it. I'm not even sure I ever read it, though I do remember a bit with Sebell and Menolly. Maybe I flipped through it at the library. The last two Pern novels were so aggravating to me that I really didn't have high hopes for this one. I liked Piemur well enough in White Dragon, but I hadn't minded Jaxom in Dragonquest, so that might not mean anything.
But then I saw the cover.
I'm not talking about the current edition. The one you can buy at Barnes and Noble has this nice, dignified cover showing a large dragon, and a boy, and a pretty font. It's nice. Inoffensive, as long as we don't remember that this is a Harper Hall book and Piemur doesn't HAVE a dragon. But yeah, pretty.
No. I saw the version from when I was a kid. The version that looks like this:
...Okay, McCaffrey. There's no way that this book can live up to the awesomeness of that cover, but I'm ready to hear you out. So to speak.
So, like Dragonsinger, we get to forgo the worldbuilding prologue and jump straight into Chapter One, in which the message drums have woken Piemur out of a sound sleep. Apparently they've been waking him out of a sound sleep for the whole five years he's lived at Harper Hall. I'm adding that to my list of reasons Harper Hall sucks. Students ought to be able to get a sound sleep, damnit.
The paragraph also tangents into telling us how important Robinton is, "almost as influential as F'lar and Lessa, the Weyrleaders of Benden". Hmph. On one hand, I'm delighted that F'lar and Lessa continue to share top billing, but on the other hand, I feel annoyed by this comparison. It's probably true. I just really hate Robinton.
Anyway, Piemur tries to get back to sleep. He knows the drum beats enough to recognize that it's from Ista Hold, and that it involved a ship. Piemur thinks that maybe he should learn the beats, but apparently they're not as frequently used now that more and more people use fire lizards.
Oh that's logical. Especially since a) not everyone trains their fire lizards well, and b) you have to basically be someone's favorite person to even get one to begin with.
And this annoys me too:
He wondered when he'd get his hands on a fire lizard egg. Menolly had promised him one when her queen, Beauty, mated. A nice thought on her part, Piemur reflected, realistically aware that Menolly might not be able to distribute Beauty's eggs as she wished. Master Robinton would want them placed to the Harper Hall's advantage. And Piemur couldn't fault Master Robinton. One day, though, he'd have his fire lizard. A queen, or, at least, a bronze.
I like that Piemur appreciates that Menolly might not be able to deliver what she promised and doesn't blame her. But what the fuck? Why would Robinton have a claim on Menolly's egg? He's her teacher, not her owner or her lord holder. Hell, we've seen nothing to indicate that a lord holder can take control of eggs laid by a subordinate's fire lizard. This is a fucked up idea.
Also, if Robinton DOES take Menolly's eggs, he can spare one to a student damnit.
I also dislike the prioritizing of gold and bronze lizards of course. I'm still reminded of Menolly talking about how one person had ended up with a green, and that was good because he didn't deserve a bronze or gold. Poor lizard. But I'm not so mad at Piemur, because he's a kid.
We get some recapping here, disguised as Piemur thinking about firelizards and a recent Threadfall. It's all stuff we know, but I'm interested in the fact that Master Domick has written a saga about the search for Lessa. In Dragonquest, Robinton had been intending to write something like that. I guess Domick beat him to it. Hah.
Anyway, eventually he hears Rocky screaming and realizes he's late to help feed them. He hurries down and meets Camo, who is only just trudging up with a bowl of scraps. Oh, ugh:
“Camo feed pretties?” The kitchen drudge smiled brightly as Menolly and Piemur reached him.
“Camo feed pretties!” Menolly and Piemur spoke the customary reassurance in chorus, grinning at each other as they reached for handfuls of meat scraps. Rocky and Mimic took their accustomed perches on Piemur's shoulders, while Lazy clung with far from indolent strength to his left forearm.
Yeah, McCaffrey, this sort of thing is still not funny.
So the lizards are eating and Piemur is wondering if Menolly heard the drum. She looks more awake, but slightly detached from her current task. "Of course, she might just be thinking up a new song, but writing tunes was not Menolly's only duty in the Harper Hall."
...what does she do? Please! I'm interested in this! She became a journeyman at the end of Dragonsinger, but clearly hasn't gone anywhere. Will we FINALLY learn what Harpers do?
Not yet, I guess. Piemur heads to his first class: chorus. They're rehearsing music for Lord Groghe's feast. Oh:
Master Domick had collaborated with Menolly this year and produced an uncommonly singable score for his ballad about Lessa and her golden queen dragon, Ramoth.
I mean, yay for Menolly, but I kind of wish we got to hear what OTHER people are doing without her input. I suppose I'm not really being fair. This is a new book, I'm going to try to shake off my emotions regarding previous books and judge fresh.
Piemur's singing Lessa. He's actually excited, eagerly waiting for his entrance. Then he opens his mouth...and no sound escapes.
Oh no.
Domick is irritated, urges him to "wake up". And they start again. And..."The sound that emerged ranged from one octave to another, neither of which were in the score he held."
Domick has Piemur sing a scale in C:
Piemur attempted to, and on the fourth note, though he had hardened his middle to iron for support, his voice again broke. Master Domick put down his stick and regarded Piemur. If there was any expression in the Composition Master's face, it was compassion, tinged with resigned irritation.
...yes, because how dare the kid AGE. I like you Domick, but irritation is not appropriate here.
He sends Piemur off to Master Shonagar and calls the understudy forward. Piemur is devastated. He tries not to listen to Tilgin's weaker voice, and how he had...or he'd had a much better voice than Tilgin ever would. He tries to convince himself that it's just a cold, but he knows what this means. Poor kid.
Shonagar is at least sympathetic:
“Well, it's sooner than we might have expected, young Piemur,” the Master said in a quiet tone, which nonetheless seemed to fill the room. “But the change was bound to come sometime.” A wealth of sympathy tinged the Master's rich, mellow bass voice. The propping hand came away from the head and brushed aside the tones now issuing from the chorus hall. “Tilgin will never come up to your measure.”
“Oh, sir, what do I do now my voice is gone? It's all I had!”
Master Shonagar's surprised contempt startled Piemur. “All you had? Perhaps, my dear Piemur, but by no means all you have! Not after five Turns as my apprentice. You probably know more about vocal production than any journeyman in the Craft.”
“But who would want to learn from me?” Piemur gestured to his slight adolescent frame, his voice cracking dramatically. “And how could I teach when I've no voice to demonstrate?”
I still wonder why Piemur can't be a good singer when his voice finishes changing. Maybe he can? This is where I reveal I know absolutely nothing about the craft. I can mostly carry a tune, but that's the extent of my own ability or knowledge.
Anyway, Shonagar has been preparing for this apparently:
“You have been without doubt or contradiction the most troublesome and ingenious, the laziest, the most audacious and mendacious of the hundreds of apprentices and voice students it has been my tiresome task to train to some standard. Despite yourself, you have achieved some measure of success. You ought to have achieved even more.” Master Shonagar affected a point. “I find it altogether too perverse, if completely in character, for you to decide on puberty before singing Domick's latest choral work. Undoubtedly one of his best, and written with your abilities in mind. Do not hang your head in my presence, young man!” The Master's bellow startled Piemur out of his self-pitiful reflections. “Young man! Yes, that's the crux. You are becoming a young man. Young men must have young-manly tasks.”
Both Piemur and I are utterly lost at what he means, but Shonagar says that this is for the Harper to tell you.
Why the fuck do actual Harpers call Robinton "the Harper"? That's so irritating.
Amusingly both of them wince when Tilgin makes a sight-reading error. Shonagar warns him to stay out of Domick's sight for a while, in case he decides that Piemur did this on purpose. Shonagar also wishes Piemur had waited a bit longer, since Tilgin will require a lot of coaching to catch up.
...why?
I mean, Piemur may have been the best. But Tilgin was his understudy. Why hasn't he been getting this coaching all along? Have you guys just been shoving all the soprano parts at Piemur for the last few years? How does anyone else learn?
...I'm probably reading too much into this. It's just that this can't be that surprising. Piemur is a young boy and young boys grow. And they should have a gaggle of able performers, not just one. I might have cut them more slack if I didn't remember Silvina's bitching about mediocre students in Dragonsinger.
Right, judging fresh. Sorry.
Oh...this bit is genuinely sad. Shonagar shoos him with an "Away with you". Piemur
“You mean, just now, sir, don't you?”
“ 'Just now, sir?' Of course, I mean now, not this afternoon or tomorrow, but now.”
“Now... and always?” asked Piemur uncertainly. If he could no longer sing, Master Shonagar would take on another special apprentice to perform those personal and private duties for him that Piemur had been undertaking in the past Turns. Not only was Piemur reluctant to lose the privilege of being Master Shonagar's special lad, he honestly didn't wish to end the very rewarding association with the Master. He liked Shonagar, and those services he had performed for his Master had stemmed from that liking rather than a sense of duty. He had enjoyed above all the droll humour and florid speech of his Master, of being teased for his bold behavior and called to task by a man he had never managed to deceive for an instant with any of his strategems or ploys.
Okay, I have to admit, for all my crankiness about Harper Hall, I'm already liking this book a lot more than Dragonsinger and the White Dragon. We have a character being dealt a profound emotional blow and a genuine challenge.
Shonagar reassures him that it's not "always". They'll never be able to escape each other, immured in Harper Hall. That's at least a little reassuring, but:
“This afternoon, you'll need some errands done?”
“You may not be available,” said Master Shonagar, his face expressionless, his voice almost as neutral.
Shonagar does make it clear that Tilgin won't be replacing Piemur as Shonagar's favorite apprentice. At least not yet. And Piemur realizes that this is hard on the old man too. I really appreciate seeing a character who can show genuine empathy to someone else even as he himself is experiencing a crushing blow.
He's shooed away, but Shonagar calls him his son, and reminds him he knows where to find him should the need arise.
Poor little kid.
He's heading for Robinton, but mostly thinking about his own prospects. And I was perhaps too judgmental before. It does sound like the Masters have discussed his predicament. Piemur is pretty sure he won't be callously thrown out or anything. But singing IS his one skill. When it comes to instruments, he can play the gitar and harp as accompaniment...so long as loud singing or other instruments can drown him out. His own created instruments are merely passable, and never got the okay to be sold at Gathers. He can copy scores well enough, but he's too restless to do it for long. And a bit prone to adding his own embellishments.
Ooo. He does have the training from Shonagar, about production and phrasing and interpretation, but he doesn't know if he'll "have a voice" as an adult, and he refuses to sing unless he does. He has a reputation!
He does get some satisfaction from hearing Tilgin's mistakes. At least his ability will be missed. I like that bit too. After two protagonists who were supposedly too mature or modest to be dickish (and yet somehow managed it admirably anyway!), I'm enjoying seeing a character be admittedly, openly petty.
Piemur ends up meeting Menolly on the steps of the hall, and they have a cute moment:
“It was rather audible,” she said, again in that gentle tone, which both irritated and appeased Piemur. Menolly, of all within the Harper Hall, would sympathize with him most acutely. She knew what it was to be without the ability to make music. “Is that Tilgin singing?”
“Yes, and it's all my fault,” Piemur said.
“All your fault?” Menolly stared at him in surprised amusement.
“Why did I have to pick now to break my voice?”
“Why indeed? I'm sure you did it only to annoy Domick!” Menolly grinned broadly at him, for they both had experience with Domick's whimsical temper.
Piemur also realizes, with a start, that he's almost able to look Menolly in the eye now. He's been growing.
Menolly seems to know what's going on, though she doesn't tell Piemur. She does say that while Domick might not be pleased that Piemur's voice changed, Robinton is. Hmph.
Piemur reminds Menolly that she owes him a favor or two. Menolly agrees, but says he shouldn't waste a favor when patience will get him the answer he wants. Again, it's very cute. Really, the Piemur and Menolly relationship was one of the few saving graces of Dragonsinger, and I like it here too.
So Piemur goes in. Robinton's busy feeding his fire lizard. He quickly ropes Piemur into helping feed the flying cat so he can gulp his klah. I'm genuinely surprised it's not spiked, given how the series treats Robinton and alcohol.
So now Piemur finally gets his answers:
“I shall miss your young voice,” said the Harper with a gentle emphasis on 'young'. “But, while we're waiting for you to settle into an adult placement, I've asked Shonagar to release you to me. I've a suspicion that you won't mind too much,” and a smile twitched the Harper's lips, “doing the odd job for me and Menolly and my good Sebell.”
“Menolly and Sebell?” Piemur gawked.
“I'm not sure I care for that emphasis,” said Menolly in a mock growl, subsiding as the Harper threw her a quieting glance.
Ooo! Are we FINALLY going to see what Harpers actually do, aside from playing music? (Also, I feel like Audiva would have rocked at the "odd jobs" thing too.)
Piemur's focused on something else though:
“I'd be your apprentice?” Piemur asked the Harper, holding his breath for the answer.
“Indeed, you'd have to be my apprentice at that,” said Master Robinton, his voice and face turning droll.
“Oh, sir!” Piemur was stunned at such good fortune.
...why is that droll? The kid just lost his mentor and his general place in the Hall.
Right, I'm trying to give Robinton the benefit of the doubt, not colored by prior books.
But really, why the fuck is that droll?
Anyway, there are a few requirements. First of all, he needs to improve his scribing so that people can actually read what he writes. He's going to need to learn to send and receive drum messages. Apparently Fandarel's still working on that message sender but it's going to take far too long to be useful now. And Piemur will also have to personally deliver messages sometimes.
We learn here that Piemur was "bred" in a runner beast hold (...weird choice of words, Robinton), and he can ride any runner anywhere. Menolly's skeptical, and I don't completely blame her, given that Piemur came here when he was about eight or so. But he seems pretty confident.
He's also going to be expected to keep a LOT of information close to the chest. Fortunately, Piemur's quite good at this sort of guile. And while Piemur's still upset at his loss of voice, he's rapidly cheering up at this suddenly important position.
Menolly has an interesting question: she asks if he's ever sailed.
“You mean, I might get to the Southern Continent, too?” asked Piemur, having rapidly added up assorted pieces of information and come to a conclusion; all too hastily spoken, he realized belatedly.
The Harper lost all semblance of lassitude and sat bolt upright in his chair, causing his fire lizard to protest vehemently.
Menolly burst out laughing.
“I told you. Master,” she said, throwing up her hands.
Robinton wants to know how he came to that idea:
“Well, sir, nothing special,” he said, wondering himself. “Just things like Sebell being gone for a couple of sevendays midwinter and coming back with a tanned face. Only I'd known he'd not been in Nerat or Southern Boll or Ista. There's been talk, too, at the Gathers that even if dragonriders from the north aren't supposed to go south, some of the Oldtimers have been seen here in the north. Now, if I was F'lar, I'd sort of wonder what those Oldtimers were doing north. And I'd try to keep them south, where they're supposed to be. And there're all these holdless men, looking for someplace to live, and no one seems to know how big the Southern Continent is and if...” Piemur trailed off, daunted by the keen scrutiny of the Master Harper.
“And if... ?” Master Robinton urged him to continue.
“Well, I've had to copy that map F'nor made of the Southern Hold and Weyr, and it's small. No bigger'n Crom or Nobol, but I've heard from weyrfolk at High Reaches who were in the south before F'lar exiled the worst of the Oldtimers, and they said they were sure the Southern Continent must be pretty big,” Piemur gestured broadly.
“And... ?” The Harper's encouragement was firm.
“Well, sir, if it were me, I'd want to know, 'cause sure as eggs hatch, there's going to be trouble with those Oldtimers south, “ he jerked his thumb in that direction, “and trouble with the holdless men in the north,” he turned his thumb back. “So when Menolly talks about sailing, I know how Sebell got south without being taken by a dragon. Which Benden Weyr wouldn't permit 'cause they promised that northern dragons wouldn't go south, and I don't think Sebell could swim that far. If he can swim.”
I like this a lot. One of the things I appreciated about McCaffrey in Dragonflight was how good she was at showing rather than telling. We didn't need her to tell us that Lessa was indomitable and scary. We saw it. She didn't need to tell us that F'lar was focused and brilliant. We saw it in his preparations for the Red Star. I think in later books, she started getting prone to TELLING us her characters' (alleged) virtues and not showing them as much.
Piemur is clever and very good at pulling information together.
Robinton presses Piemur, asking if he's ever shared his notions with anyone else. He hasn't. No one pays attention to apprentices anyway. Robinton keeps pushing, but Piemur holds fast: he knows his loyalty and is not a babblemouth. Robinton has some concern that he'll blurt something out when taunted by others.
Because here's the catch: Piemur can't tell anyone he's Robinton's apprentice. Officially, he'll be the apprentice of the drummaster. The Drummaster will know the truth. And because drummers have irregular hours, no one should notice his absence.
“No one will miss your boyish treble more than I, lad, except possibly Domick, but here in the Harper Hall, some of us listen to other tunes and drum a different beat.” He gave Piemur another shake, then cuffed him on the shoulder encouragingly. “I don't want you to stop listening, Piemur, not if you can take isolated facts and put them together as well as you just did. But I also want you to notice the way things are said, the tone and inflection, the emphasis.”
Piemur mustered a grin. “What a harper hears is for the Harper's ears, sir?”
Robinton tells Piemur to go to Silvina and ask to be fitted for wherehide, as a drummer has to be at post at all weathers.
“You don't need wherhide on the drumheight!” exclaimed Piemur. Then he grinned as he cocked his head at his master. “You do need it if you're riding a dragonback, though.”
“I told you he was quick,” said Menolly, grinning at the Harper's consternation.
He leaves but we stay with Menolly and Robinton. Robinton thinks about how young Piemur is. Menolly points out that he's fourteen, almost as old as she was when she went to her cave to live with the lizards. (So we're about four years after Dragonsinger. Menolly should be 18 or 19 now.) And really, he's not really suited to the other sections of the craft. It's got to be Olodkey and the drums.
Robinton goes into a really weird tangent:
“I could almost see the merit of the Oldtimers' attitudes,” said the Harper on the end of a heavy sigh.
“Sir?” Menolly stared at him, startled as much by the abrupt change of subject as the sense of what he said.
“I wish we hadn't changed so in this last long Interval.”
Both Menolly and I are lost by this. She points out that he's supported all of F'lar and Lessa's changes. She points out that, before the current pass, Harpers were nearly as discredited as the dragonriders while Robinton made the Hall into the most prestigious craft on Pern.
...did he? How exactly? I mean, I'm not trying to be a bitch here. But Dragonflight was only ever focused on the Weyrs. And the Harper Hall Trilogy started around the same time as Dragonquest. So we never really got this part of the story from the perspective of the Harpers. I'd actually like a bit more elaboration on this idea.
I guess there's always "Masterharper of Pern" but ew.
Anyway, we never do get an explanation for what Robinton means. Instead, Menolly talks up Piemur more, and his ability to get gossip at the Gathers.
Robinton also comforts himself with the idea that Piemur's assignment shouldn't take that long and when his voice settles, he should be able to resume his place as a soloist. If his adult voice is even half as good as his child's voice, he'll be better than some other Harper. Presumably that's good.
I do like this too. For all my bitching about Harper Hall, I really do appreciate that Robinton and Menolly truly care about Piemur. And Menolly is definitely making me happy here. I like seeing her supporting her friend.
The chapter ends with us being informed that Sebell is on his way back. Yay! I like Sebell!
So far, it's a much better start than either of the last two books, in my opinion. Piemur is a great choice for a protagonist. He's fun and likable, with clear strengths and weaknesses, and a genuine challenge. I don't yet know if he'll be worthy of that amazing cover, but I'm feeling much happier about finding out.
But then I saw the cover.
I'm not talking about the current edition. The one you can buy at Barnes and Noble has this nice, dignified cover showing a large dragon, and a boy, and a pretty font. It's nice. Inoffensive, as long as we don't remember that this is a Harper Hall book and Piemur doesn't HAVE a dragon. But yeah, pretty.
No. I saw the version from when I was a kid. The version that looks like this:
...Okay, McCaffrey. There's no way that this book can live up to the awesomeness of that cover, but I'm ready to hear you out. So to speak.
So, like Dragonsinger, we get to forgo the worldbuilding prologue and jump straight into Chapter One, in which the message drums have woken Piemur out of a sound sleep. Apparently they've been waking him out of a sound sleep for the whole five years he's lived at Harper Hall. I'm adding that to my list of reasons Harper Hall sucks. Students ought to be able to get a sound sleep, damnit.
The paragraph also tangents into telling us how important Robinton is, "almost as influential as F'lar and Lessa, the Weyrleaders of Benden". Hmph. On one hand, I'm delighted that F'lar and Lessa continue to share top billing, but on the other hand, I feel annoyed by this comparison. It's probably true. I just really hate Robinton.
Anyway, Piemur tries to get back to sleep. He knows the drum beats enough to recognize that it's from Ista Hold, and that it involved a ship. Piemur thinks that maybe he should learn the beats, but apparently they're not as frequently used now that more and more people use fire lizards.
Oh that's logical. Especially since a) not everyone trains their fire lizards well, and b) you have to basically be someone's favorite person to even get one to begin with.
And this annoys me too:
He wondered when he'd get his hands on a fire lizard egg. Menolly had promised him one when her queen, Beauty, mated. A nice thought on her part, Piemur reflected, realistically aware that Menolly might not be able to distribute Beauty's eggs as she wished. Master Robinton would want them placed to the Harper Hall's advantage. And Piemur couldn't fault Master Robinton. One day, though, he'd have his fire lizard. A queen, or, at least, a bronze.
I like that Piemur appreciates that Menolly might not be able to deliver what she promised and doesn't blame her. But what the fuck? Why would Robinton have a claim on Menolly's egg? He's her teacher, not her owner or her lord holder. Hell, we've seen nothing to indicate that a lord holder can take control of eggs laid by a subordinate's fire lizard. This is a fucked up idea.
Also, if Robinton DOES take Menolly's eggs, he can spare one to a student damnit.
I also dislike the prioritizing of gold and bronze lizards of course. I'm still reminded of Menolly talking about how one person had ended up with a green, and that was good because he didn't deserve a bronze or gold. Poor lizard. But I'm not so mad at Piemur, because he's a kid.
We get some recapping here, disguised as Piemur thinking about firelizards and a recent Threadfall. It's all stuff we know, but I'm interested in the fact that Master Domick has written a saga about the search for Lessa. In Dragonquest, Robinton had been intending to write something like that. I guess Domick beat him to it. Hah.
Anyway, eventually he hears Rocky screaming and realizes he's late to help feed them. He hurries down and meets Camo, who is only just trudging up with a bowl of scraps. Oh, ugh:
“Camo feed pretties?” The kitchen drudge smiled brightly as Menolly and Piemur reached him.
“Camo feed pretties!” Menolly and Piemur spoke the customary reassurance in chorus, grinning at each other as they reached for handfuls of meat scraps. Rocky and Mimic took their accustomed perches on Piemur's shoulders, while Lazy clung with far from indolent strength to his left forearm.
Yeah, McCaffrey, this sort of thing is still not funny.
So the lizards are eating and Piemur is wondering if Menolly heard the drum. She looks more awake, but slightly detached from her current task. "Of course, she might just be thinking up a new song, but writing tunes was not Menolly's only duty in the Harper Hall."
...what does she do? Please! I'm interested in this! She became a journeyman at the end of Dragonsinger, but clearly hasn't gone anywhere. Will we FINALLY learn what Harpers do?
Not yet, I guess. Piemur heads to his first class: chorus. They're rehearsing music for Lord Groghe's feast. Oh:
Master Domick had collaborated with Menolly this year and produced an uncommonly singable score for his ballad about Lessa and her golden queen dragon, Ramoth.
I mean, yay for Menolly, but I kind of wish we got to hear what OTHER people are doing without her input. I suppose I'm not really being fair. This is a new book, I'm going to try to shake off my emotions regarding previous books and judge fresh.
Piemur's singing Lessa. He's actually excited, eagerly waiting for his entrance. Then he opens his mouth...and no sound escapes.
Oh no.
Domick is irritated, urges him to "wake up". And they start again. And..."The sound that emerged ranged from one octave to another, neither of which were in the score he held."
Domick has Piemur sing a scale in C:
Piemur attempted to, and on the fourth note, though he had hardened his middle to iron for support, his voice again broke. Master Domick put down his stick and regarded Piemur. If there was any expression in the Composition Master's face, it was compassion, tinged with resigned irritation.
...yes, because how dare the kid AGE. I like you Domick, but irritation is not appropriate here.
He sends Piemur off to Master Shonagar and calls the understudy forward. Piemur is devastated. He tries not to listen to Tilgin's weaker voice, and how he had...or he'd had a much better voice than Tilgin ever would. He tries to convince himself that it's just a cold, but he knows what this means. Poor kid.
Shonagar is at least sympathetic:
“Well, it's sooner than we might have expected, young Piemur,” the Master said in a quiet tone, which nonetheless seemed to fill the room. “But the change was bound to come sometime.” A wealth of sympathy tinged the Master's rich, mellow bass voice. The propping hand came away from the head and brushed aside the tones now issuing from the chorus hall. “Tilgin will never come up to your measure.”
“Oh, sir, what do I do now my voice is gone? It's all I had!”
Master Shonagar's surprised contempt startled Piemur. “All you had? Perhaps, my dear Piemur, but by no means all you have! Not after five Turns as my apprentice. You probably know more about vocal production than any journeyman in the Craft.”
“But who would want to learn from me?” Piemur gestured to his slight adolescent frame, his voice cracking dramatically. “And how could I teach when I've no voice to demonstrate?”
I still wonder why Piemur can't be a good singer when his voice finishes changing. Maybe he can? This is where I reveal I know absolutely nothing about the craft. I can mostly carry a tune, but that's the extent of my own ability or knowledge.
Anyway, Shonagar has been preparing for this apparently:
“You have been without doubt or contradiction the most troublesome and ingenious, the laziest, the most audacious and mendacious of the hundreds of apprentices and voice students it has been my tiresome task to train to some standard. Despite yourself, you have achieved some measure of success. You ought to have achieved even more.” Master Shonagar affected a point. “I find it altogether too perverse, if completely in character, for you to decide on puberty before singing Domick's latest choral work. Undoubtedly one of his best, and written with your abilities in mind. Do not hang your head in my presence, young man!” The Master's bellow startled Piemur out of his self-pitiful reflections. “Young man! Yes, that's the crux. You are becoming a young man. Young men must have young-manly tasks.”
Both Piemur and I are utterly lost at what he means, but Shonagar says that this is for the Harper to tell you.
Why the fuck do actual Harpers call Robinton "the Harper"? That's so irritating.
Amusingly both of them wince when Tilgin makes a sight-reading error. Shonagar warns him to stay out of Domick's sight for a while, in case he decides that Piemur did this on purpose. Shonagar also wishes Piemur had waited a bit longer, since Tilgin will require a lot of coaching to catch up.
...why?
I mean, Piemur may have been the best. But Tilgin was his understudy. Why hasn't he been getting this coaching all along? Have you guys just been shoving all the soprano parts at Piemur for the last few years? How does anyone else learn?
...I'm probably reading too much into this. It's just that this can't be that surprising. Piemur is a young boy and young boys grow. And they should have a gaggle of able performers, not just one. I might have cut them more slack if I didn't remember Silvina's bitching about mediocre students in Dragonsinger.
Right, judging fresh. Sorry.
Oh...this bit is genuinely sad. Shonagar shoos him with an "Away with you". Piemur
“You mean, just now, sir, don't you?”
“ 'Just now, sir?' Of course, I mean now, not this afternoon or tomorrow, but now.”
“Now... and always?” asked Piemur uncertainly. If he could no longer sing, Master Shonagar would take on another special apprentice to perform those personal and private duties for him that Piemur had been undertaking in the past Turns. Not only was Piemur reluctant to lose the privilege of being Master Shonagar's special lad, he honestly didn't wish to end the very rewarding association with the Master. He liked Shonagar, and those services he had performed for his Master had stemmed from that liking rather than a sense of duty. He had enjoyed above all the droll humour and florid speech of his Master, of being teased for his bold behavior and called to task by a man he had never managed to deceive for an instant with any of his strategems or ploys.
Okay, I have to admit, for all my crankiness about Harper Hall, I'm already liking this book a lot more than Dragonsinger and the White Dragon. We have a character being dealt a profound emotional blow and a genuine challenge.
Shonagar reassures him that it's not "always". They'll never be able to escape each other, immured in Harper Hall. That's at least a little reassuring, but:
“This afternoon, you'll need some errands done?”
“You may not be available,” said Master Shonagar, his face expressionless, his voice almost as neutral.
Shonagar does make it clear that Tilgin won't be replacing Piemur as Shonagar's favorite apprentice. At least not yet. And Piemur realizes that this is hard on the old man too. I really appreciate seeing a character who can show genuine empathy to someone else even as he himself is experiencing a crushing blow.
He's shooed away, but Shonagar calls him his son, and reminds him he knows where to find him should the need arise.
Poor little kid.
He's heading for Robinton, but mostly thinking about his own prospects. And I was perhaps too judgmental before. It does sound like the Masters have discussed his predicament. Piemur is pretty sure he won't be callously thrown out or anything. But singing IS his one skill. When it comes to instruments, he can play the gitar and harp as accompaniment...so long as loud singing or other instruments can drown him out. His own created instruments are merely passable, and never got the okay to be sold at Gathers. He can copy scores well enough, but he's too restless to do it for long. And a bit prone to adding his own embellishments.
Ooo. He does have the training from Shonagar, about production and phrasing and interpretation, but he doesn't know if he'll "have a voice" as an adult, and he refuses to sing unless he does. He has a reputation!
He does get some satisfaction from hearing Tilgin's mistakes. At least his ability will be missed. I like that bit too. After two protagonists who were supposedly too mature or modest to be dickish (and yet somehow managed it admirably anyway!), I'm enjoying seeing a character be admittedly, openly petty.
Piemur ends up meeting Menolly on the steps of the hall, and they have a cute moment:
“It was rather audible,” she said, again in that gentle tone, which both irritated and appeased Piemur. Menolly, of all within the Harper Hall, would sympathize with him most acutely. She knew what it was to be without the ability to make music. “Is that Tilgin singing?”
“Yes, and it's all my fault,” Piemur said.
“All your fault?” Menolly stared at him in surprised amusement.
“Why did I have to pick now to break my voice?”
“Why indeed? I'm sure you did it only to annoy Domick!” Menolly grinned broadly at him, for they both had experience with Domick's whimsical temper.
Piemur also realizes, with a start, that he's almost able to look Menolly in the eye now. He's been growing.
Menolly seems to know what's going on, though she doesn't tell Piemur. She does say that while Domick might not be pleased that Piemur's voice changed, Robinton is. Hmph.
Piemur reminds Menolly that she owes him a favor or two. Menolly agrees, but says he shouldn't waste a favor when patience will get him the answer he wants. Again, it's very cute. Really, the Piemur and Menolly relationship was one of the few saving graces of Dragonsinger, and I like it here too.
So Piemur goes in. Robinton's busy feeding his fire lizard. He quickly ropes Piemur into helping feed the flying cat so he can gulp his klah. I'm genuinely surprised it's not spiked, given how the series treats Robinton and alcohol.
So now Piemur finally gets his answers:
“I shall miss your young voice,” said the Harper with a gentle emphasis on 'young'. “But, while we're waiting for you to settle into an adult placement, I've asked Shonagar to release you to me. I've a suspicion that you won't mind too much,” and a smile twitched the Harper's lips, “doing the odd job for me and Menolly and my good Sebell.”
“Menolly and Sebell?” Piemur gawked.
“I'm not sure I care for that emphasis,” said Menolly in a mock growl, subsiding as the Harper threw her a quieting glance.
Ooo! Are we FINALLY going to see what Harpers actually do, aside from playing music? (Also, I feel like Audiva would have rocked at the "odd jobs" thing too.)
Piemur's focused on something else though:
“I'd be your apprentice?” Piemur asked the Harper, holding his breath for the answer.
“Indeed, you'd have to be my apprentice at that,” said Master Robinton, his voice and face turning droll.
“Oh, sir!” Piemur was stunned at such good fortune.
...why is that droll? The kid just lost his mentor and his general place in the Hall.
Right, I'm trying to give Robinton the benefit of the doubt, not colored by prior books.
But really, why the fuck is that droll?
Anyway, there are a few requirements. First of all, he needs to improve his scribing so that people can actually read what he writes. He's going to need to learn to send and receive drum messages. Apparently Fandarel's still working on that message sender but it's going to take far too long to be useful now. And Piemur will also have to personally deliver messages sometimes.
We learn here that Piemur was "bred" in a runner beast hold (...weird choice of words, Robinton), and he can ride any runner anywhere. Menolly's skeptical, and I don't completely blame her, given that Piemur came here when he was about eight or so. But he seems pretty confident.
He's also going to be expected to keep a LOT of information close to the chest. Fortunately, Piemur's quite good at this sort of guile. And while Piemur's still upset at his loss of voice, he's rapidly cheering up at this suddenly important position.
Menolly has an interesting question: she asks if he's ever sailed.
“You mean, I might get to the Southern Continent, too?” asked Piemur, having rapidly added up assorted pieces of information and come to a conclusion; all too hastily spoken, he realized belatedly.
The Harper lost all semblance of lassitude and sat bolt upright in his chair, causing his fire lizard to protest vehemently.
Menolly burst out laughing.
“I told you. Master,” she said, throwing up her hands.
Robinton wants to know how he came to that idea:
“Well, sir, nothing special,” he said, wondering himself. “Just things like Sebell being gone for a couple of sevendays midwinter and coming back with a tanned face. Only I'd known he'd not been in Nerat or Southern Boll or Ista. There's been talk, too, at the Gathers that even if dragonriders from the north aren't supposed to go south, some of the Oldtimers have been seen here in the north. Now, if I was F'lar, I'd sort of wonder what those Oldtimers were doing north. And I'd try to keep them south, where they're supposed to be. And there're all these holdless men, looking for someplace to live, and no one seems to know how big the Southern Continent is and if...” Piemur trailed off, daunted by the keen scrutiny of the Master Harper.
“And if... ?” Master Robinton urged him to continue.
“Well, I've had to copy that map F'nor made of the Southern Hold and Weyr, and it's small. No bigger'n Crom or Nobol, but I've heard from weyrfolk at High Reaches who were in the south before F'lar exiled the worst of the Oldtimers, and they said they were sure the Southern Continent must be pretty big,” Piemur gestured broadly.
“And... ?” The Harper's encouragement was firm.
“Well, sir, if it were me, I'd want to know, 'cause sure as eggs hatch, there's going to be trouble with those Oldtimers south, “ he jerked his thumb in that direction, “and trouble with the holdless men in the north,” he turned his thumb back. “So when Menolly talks about sailing, I know how Sebell got south without being taken by a dragon. Which Benden Weyr wouldn't permit 'cause they promised that northern dragons wouldn't go south, and I don't think Sebell could swim that far. If he can swim.”
I like this a lot. One of the things I appreciated about McCaffrey in Dragonflight was how good she was at showing rather than telling. We didn't need her to tell us that Lessa was indomitable and scary. We saw it. She didn't need to tell us that F'lar was focused and brilliant. We saw it in his preparations for the Red Star. I think in later books, she started getting prone to TELLING us her characters' (alleged) virtues and not showing them as much.
Piemur is clever and very good at pulling information together.
Robinton presses Piemur, asking if he's ever shared his notions with anyone else. He hasn't. No one pays attention to apprentices anyway. Robinton keeps pushing, but Piemur holds fast: he knows his loyalty and is not a babblemouth. Robinton has some concern that he'll blurt something out when taunted by others.
Because here's the catch: Piemur can't tell anyone he's Robinton's apprentice. Officially, he'll be the apprentice of the drummaster. The Drummaster will know the truth. And because drummers have irregular hours, no one should notice his absence.
“No one will miss your boyish treble more than I, lad, except possibly Domick, but here in the Harper Hall, some of us listen to other tunes and drum a different beat.” He gave Piemur another shake, then cuffed him on the shoulder encouragingly. “I don't want you to stop listening, Piemur, not if you can take isolated facts and put them together as well as you just did. But I also want you to notice the way things are said, the tone and inflection, the emphasis.”
Piemur mustered a grin. “What a harper hears is for the Harper's ears, sir?”
Robinton tells Piemur to go to Silvina and ask to be fitted for wherehide, as a drummer has to be at post at all weathers.
“You don't need wherhide on the drumheight!” exclaimed Piemur. Then he grinned as he cocked his head at his master. “You do need it if you're riding a dragonback, though.”
“I told you he was quick,” said Menolly, grinning at the Harper's consternation.
He leaves but we stay with Menolly and Robinton. Robinton thinks about how young Piemur is. Menolly points out that he's fourteen, almost as old as she was when she went to her cave to live with the lizards. (So we're about four years after Dragonsinger. Menolly should be 18 or 19 now.) And really, he's not really suited to the other sections of the craft. It's got to be Olodkey and the drums.
Robinton goes into a really weird tangent:
“I could almost see the merit of the Oldtimers' attitudes,” said the Harper on the end of a heavy sigh.
“Sir?” Menolly stared at him, startled as much by the abrupt change of subject as the sense of what he said.
“I wish we hadn't changed so in this last long Interval.”
Both Menolly and I are lost by this. She points out that he's supported all of F'lar and Lessa's changes. She points out that, before the current pass, Harpers were nearly as discredited as the dragonriders while Robinton made the Hall into the most prestigious craft on Pern.
...did he? How exactly? I mean, I'm not trying to be a bitch here. But Dragonflight was only ever focused on the Weyrs. And the Harper Hall Trilogy started around the same time as Dragonquest. So we never really got this part of the story from the perspective of the Harpers. I'd actually like a bit more elaboration on this idea.
I guess there's always "Masterharper of Pern" but ew.
Anyway, we never do get an explanation for what Robinton means. Instead, Menolly talks up Piemur more, and his ability to get gossip at the Gathers.
Robinton also comforts himself with the idea that Piemur's assignment shouldn't take that long and when his voice settles, he should be able to resume his place as a soloist. If his adult voice is even half as good as his child's voice, he'll be better than some other Harper. Presumably that's good.
I do like this too. For all my bitching about Harper Hall, I really do appreciate that Robinton and Menolly truly care about Piemur. And Menolly is definitely making me happy here. I like seeing her supporting her friend.
The chapter ends with us being informed that Sebell is on his way back. Yay! I like Sebell!
So far, it's a much better start than either of the last two books, in my opinion. Piemur is a great choice for a protagonist. He's fun and likable, with clear strengths and weaknesses, and a genuine challenge. I don't yet know if he'll be worthy of that amazing cover, but I'm feeling much happier about finding out.
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Date: 2021-04-04 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-04 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-02 12:23 am (UTC)And truly the best cover of all Pern books ever.