Adrienne Barbeau Book:

Editorial Review:
When his boy soprano voice begins to change, Piemur is drafted by Masterharper Robinton to help with political work and is sent on missions that lead him into unusual and sometimes dangerous adventures.

Dragondrums Reviews:
His Voice Changes
2008-03-16 - This book focuses on Menolly's young friend, the irrepressible Piemur and what happens to him when his voice starts to break. It is a don't miss for fans of McCaffrey and for Harper Hall as it does extend the understanding of the "other tunes" a harper can play in Pern's society.

I would not recommend this book as the first one to read for someone not familiar with the series. The plot suffers structural flaws and loses steam. Some themes and concepts are repeated here without the force they had when originally presented in other Pern books. The ending seems a little contrived as if the author is starting to write to a formula.

DRAGON DRUMS
2008-03-06 - I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AN AVID BOOK READER AND HAVE COLLECTED MY FAVORITES OVER THE YEARS, BUT WHEN I READ DREAGONS DAWN WHICH LEAD ME TO THE OTHER ANN MCCAFFERY BOOKS LIKE DRAGONDRUMS, I WAS HOOKED. I HAVE NOW COLLECTED ALL OF THE PERN BOOKS THAT BOTH MOTHER AND SON MCCAFFERY HAVE WRITTEN AND IT'S ONLY TAKEN ME SIX MONTHS TO COLLECT THEM ALL. DRAGONDRUMS AND THE OTHER HARPER HALL BOOKS ARE WONDERFUL IN THE FACT THAT WE GET TO SEE HOW THE BACKGROUND SUPPORT PEOPLE IN THESE BOOKS COME TO PLAY A ROLE IN THE DRAGONRIDERS LIVES. FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO ASK WHY ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING, THESE BOOKS ARE WONDERFUL. THANKS, MCCAFFERY'S.

Dragons!
2008-01-20 - The harper Hall Trilogy is my favorite set by McCaffrey and interestingly the first books I read by her. I love dragons and there for dragon stories, particularly ones were dragons are not mindless monsters of destruction, so it would be odd for me not to like these books. The story is very original and the characters well written. If your not sure of getting into the Pern books, this is the series to read! Dragondrums is the last in this set and it does not disappoint, well maybe the fact that its such a short book.

Not Free SF Reader
2007-09-03 - Dragondrums is a similar sort of story to Dragonsong/Dragonsing. A young man with musical talent has the puberty thing hit. He ain't singing soprano anymore.

So, off he goes wandering on adventures, gets into trouble, and makes friends with a fire lizard, and takes up drumming, eventually settling down.


This book is a winner!
2007-05-26 - My admiration for Anne McCaffrey knows no bounds. I think she has created some wonderful fiction. I credit her Harper Hall series with fostering a great love of reading and music in me at a very young age. I found the first book DragonSong at the library when I was about eleven or twelve and proceeded to devour everything I could find that she had put out. I eagerly awaited each new book. I became interesting in vocal music after reading these books and decided to try out for our choir in high school, choral music is still an important part of my life.

I feel badly for the people who came to this book expecting something that they did not find, namely it looks like folks thought it was going to be about Menolly and were disappointed to find it was about Piemur.

In this book as with all of her Pernese novels McCaffrey has constructed a wholly believeable world (Dragons and fire lizards? Sure! I'm down with that!) inhabited with wonderful characters who live interesting lives. They are by no means perfect. Most of the major characters evolve or transform at some point, so I have never found the world stale or boring.

A favorite wrinkle of mine is that there is no smoking on Pern. I always thought that was funny when it was compared to Tolkien's world and those of other Sci-Fi authors. No one is lighting up a pipe, no one is smoking anything. It is funny how much time can be spent padding a novel with smoking business. No smoking on Pern. At least I couldn't find any. Which was a wonder for me since when I was a kid my Mom smoked and I hated it.

I think these books are a perfect intro to Sci-Fi/Fantasy for young readers.