Rating: 
Summary: One of the better books in the Dragonriders of Pern series
Review: I like this first novel about Menolly a lot...However, much of Dragonsinger won't make sense if the reader hasn't read Dragonsong first. The novel gets somewhat bogged down in the daily life of Menolly at half circle where she's very much unappreciated and at times punished for being a musical prodigy. The pace picks up when Menolly gets caught out of the hold at threadfall, and well, I guess I shouldn't comment further to avoid spoiling the plot.This is another novel which could be fairly nice to finally see in movie form although this novel and Dragonsinger would probably need to be combined to make a feature length film.
Rating: 
Summary: Menoly's Tale is great
Review: Dragonsong is the first novel in the Harper Hall trilogy and the fourth in the Pern series. Harpers are assigned to Holds and Guild Halls to educate the children and to pass on interesting events to the adults. Harpers are much in demand since the return of Thread and Lessa's heroic trip through time to bring forward another five full Weyrs from the past. In this novel, seven turns have passed since Lessa's trip through time. Half-Circle Sea Hold has lost their aged Harper and no one other than Menolly, the Sea Holder's youngest child, can properly sing the deathsong to honor old Petiron as he is put to rest. Yanus is upset that a mere girl should be given this honor, yet he has no choice but to allow it. Moreover, Menolly is the only one available to instruct the children in the Teaching songs. However, Yanus and his wife, Mavi, try to stop Menolly from "tuning", writing new songs. After repeated warnings, Yanus beats her with his belt when she dreamily strums a new tune in front of the children and Mavi piles works on her. When the new harper arrives, Yanus and Mavi try to keep Menolly from his attention, even though the new Harper has asked about the person who wrote the new songs that Petiron had sent to Harper Hall. When Menolly slashes her hand open while gutting packtails and gets slime into the cut, her mother cleans, stitches and bandages the wound and tells Menolly that she will no longer be able to use that hand to play music. The wound becomes poisoned by the slime as well as infected and Menolly spends a few days in pain and delirium. After she recovers, she spends most of her time out of the Hold gathering greens and fruit. One day Menolly is out gathering spiderclaws when she discovers a golden fire lizard trying to move her clutch of eggs away from a unusually high tide, but she keeps dropping them. At first, the little queen tries to drive Menolly away, but Menolly eventually persuades the queen to let her help. By the time the remaining eggs are safe, Threadfall drives Menolly into the small cave with the queen and her eggs and then the eggs begin to hatch. The young fire lizards are hungry and try to scramble out of the cave to catch food, but the falling Thread will kill them, so Menolly desperately feeds them the spiderclaws. By the time that the Threadfall is over, Menolly has impressed nine young fire lizards. This novel is my favorite in the Pern series, although others are almost as enjoyable. There is something fresh and open about the tale, and the songs, that especially appeals to me. Menolly is a talented young woman who belongs with the Harpers, despite her parents thoughts on the matter. Thus, the story is a classic generation gap plot with a final satisfactory resolution. This novel may appeal more to young women than to males, but I passed this novel on to my daughters because I liked it. You don't have to be female to enjoy this story. Menolly is an very likeable young woman who compells your attention. Highly recommended for McCaffrey fans and anyone else who enjoys SF tales of talented young persons struggling to gain recognition for their abilities.
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