''Dragonsinger'' is a

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

novel by the American-Irish author

Anne McCaffrey Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 1 ...

. Published by

Atheneum Books Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Ath ...

in 1977, it was the fourth to appear in the ''

Dragonriders of Pern ''Dragonriders of Pern'' is a science fantasy series written primarily by American author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning in 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne ...

'' series written by Anne McCaffrey and her son

Todd McCaffrey Todd J. McCaffrey (born 27 April 1956 as Todd Johnson) is an Irish American author of science fiction best known for continuing the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' series in collaboration with his mother Anne McCaffrey. Life Todd Johnson was born 27 Apr ...

.. Confirmed 2011-10-09. As the sequel to ''

Dragonsong ''Dragonsong'' is a science fantasy novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. Released by Atheneum Books in March 1976, it was the third to appear set on the world Pern of the ''Dragonriders of Pern''. In its time, however, ''Dragonsong' ...

'', it was the second book in the ''Harper Hall of Pern'' trilogy, with a new publisher, editor, and target audience (young adults). The original ''Dragonriders of Pern'' trilogy was completed after publication of the first two Harper Hall books.

Plot summary

The novel follows

Menolly Characters in the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' series of science fiction novels by Anne McCaffrey. 8th Interval, 9th Pass Major characters AIVAS AIVAS is an advanced computer (Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System). AIVAS was found by Jaxom, ...

, now

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

d into the Harper Hall, a type of music conservatory for harpers (

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer w ...

s/educators) and other music professionals, as she begins her musical training to become a harper herself one day. The story begins within hours of the final events of ''

'', rounding out the tale of Menolly's coming of age. Menolly arrives at Harper Hall to find herself the center of unwanted attention and conflict. As the Hall's first female apprentice, the Masters are divided on whether or not she is worth training, causing Menolly to be greeted with various degrees of ambivalence. Due to her gender, she is not allowed to share a dormitory with her fellow all-male apprentices and must be housed with the female students, none of whom are serious musicians and all of whom shun Menolly as an outsider. Conversely, because she dorms with the students, the apprentices reject her, claiming she is not truly one of them, and leaving Menolly confused as to her true place in Harper Hall. In spite of these challenges, Menolly excels at all aspects of her apprenticeship while continuing to compose original tunes. She also becomes helpful to the Dragonriders by teaching them what she knows about fire-lizards, and presents Masterharper Robinton and his Journeyman Sebell with fire-lizards of their own. One night Menolly is woken by her frantic fire-lizards, who show her a terrifying vision of a Dragonrider and his dragon falling from the sky in flames. It is later revealed that the telepathic Dragons actually witnessed this event halfway across the world and transmitted the image to the fire-lizards, who in turn showed Menolly. The incident confirms suspicions that fire-lizards share a telepathic link with dragons and that they may have other undiscovered gifts. By the end of her first week, all the Masters agree that there is nothing they can teach Menolly, as she essentially completed her apprenticeship under her first Harper Petiron long before she came to Harper Hall. Much to her surprise, Menolly is promoted to Journeyman.

Awards

The

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

in 1999 cited the two early Pern trilogies (''Dragonriders'' and '' Harper Hall''), along with ''

The Ship Who Sang ''The Ship Who Sang'' (1969) is a science fiction novel by American writer Anne McCaffrey, a fix-up of five stories published 1961 to 1969. By an alternate reckoning, "The Ship Who Sang" is the earliest of the stories, a novelette, which becam ...

'', when McCaffrey received the annual

Margaret A. Edwards Award The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after ...

for her "lifetime contribution in writing for teens". ''Dragonsinger'' placed ninth for the annual

Locus Award for Best Novel Winners of the Locus Award for Best Novel, awarded by '' Locus'' magazine. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. The award for Best Novel was presented from 1971 (when the awards began) to 1979. ...

Notes

References

External links

{{Pern stories 1977 novels 1977 science fiction novels Dragonriders of Pern books Novels by Anne McCaffrey Young adult fantasy novels Atheneum Books books