Cover artist Victoria Poyser Series Dragonriders of Pern Media type Print (hardcover) Genre Science Fiction Country United States of America | Language English Publication date July 1984 Pages 500 pp (first) Number of books 3 Publisher Doubleday | |
Characters Menolly, Robinton, Piemur, Jaxom, F'lar, F'nor, Ramoth, Sebell, AIVAS, Mnementh, F'lessan, Readis, Sharra, Lessa, Ruth Books Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, The Chronicles of Pern: F | ||
The Harper Hall trilogy comprises three science fiction novels by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. They are part of the Dragonriders of Pern series as it is known today, 24 books by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey as of summer 2011. In their own time, however, they were new Pern stories published by Atheneum Books in 1976, 1977, and 1979, alongside the Dragonriders of Pern series whose continuation in a third book from Ballantine was eagerly awaited until 1978. Omnibus editions of the two trilogies were published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club in 1978 and 1984, titled The Dragonriders of Pern and The Harper Hall of Pern respectively.
Contents
Harper Hall's target was young adults in contrast to the general audience for fantasy and science fiction. Indeed, editor Jean E. Karl, who had established the children's and science fiction imprints at Atheneum Books, hoped to attract more female readers to science fiction and solicited "a story for young women in a different part of Pern". McCaffrey delivered Dragonsong and they contracted for a sequel before it was out.
The three books were subtitled "Volume One of The Harper Hall Trilogy", "Volume Two ...", and "Volume Three ..." on the front covers of the first Bantam Spectra edition, early 1986.
Synopses
Dragonsong and Dragonsinger feature 15-year-old Menolly, a girl with great musical talent raised in an isolated sea-hold (akin to a fishing village) where composition is no part of a girl's future. Dragonsong ends with her invitation to the main craft-hall of the harpers. Dragonsinger covers her brief apprenticeship there, ending with her promotion to journeyman.
Dragondrums focuses on Piemur, a secondary character in Dragonsinger as a boy soprano, and one apprentice who made Menolly feel welcome. His voice changes and he needs a new occupation, perhaps at the communication drums.
Chronology
Seven Pern books including the Harper Hall trilogy were published before The Atlas of Pern (1984), a companion book produced by Karen Wynn Fonstad in consultation with McCaffrey. Their geographical settings from peninsulas to stables are illustrated by maps and other drawings and their chronologies are explicitly presented in the Atlas.
Awards
The American Library Association in 1999 cited the two early Pern trilogies (Dragonriders and Harper Hall), along with The Ship Who Sang, when McCaffrey received the annual Margaret A. Edwards Award for her "lifetime contribution in writing for teens".