after finishing dragonflight, i was like ‘oh i get it. i see why this series is 26-odd books long. at this slow pace, it would take 26 books to properly unfold a life and planet and plot, but i’m excited to spend the necessary time tracing lessa’s journey in the dragon society of pern’. and then i started dragonquest and it was about different protagonists and different concerns and i was like. oh. ok. i don’t understand this series.
because, see, there’s a thing the first couple of books in the series do where the set up is agonisingly slow, and then plot and excitement and discovery kicks in, and it is a satisfying and full narrative, but because it comes so late in the gamed, it also feels like the whole book's set-up and then cliffhanger for future development. (which is coming together at this point of the series, it’s just world development more than character). i though dragonsong struck a better balance with this. i thought dragonsinger struck a much worse one: it’s all set up. it takes place over one week and the high points are playing in a quartet and a market. there’s a big dragon on the front cover, which is completely false advertising. it also barely delivers on the content of the first book: i thought her brother would matter? and despite all that set-up, apparently this is the last menolly-focused book. this seems mad given how it ends, which is why i started w that anecdote about how i don't understand the structure of the books:series? all in all, an insane use of 250 pages.
i had a lovely time with it, though. menolly is a sweetie, i was glad to see her succeed. the whole thing is pure fantastic wish-fulfilment, and that’s nice. cozy fantasy does nothing for me as a label, but i guess this sort of fits? obsessed with the fact harpers hall is pure wizard school, but for music. like it’s not roke, but it’s not not roke. and for me (stupid about it) but also for the story and for menolly, it’s nice to see music as magic, something fantastical and transformative, whilst also very clearly a skill.
to conclude. i continue to be surprised and unsettled by the irregular rhythms of these series, 4 books in, but i do also think mccaffrey knows what shes doing, and that i will see menolly again and that’ll be good, and everything will crescendo at some point, with all my old friends there, and it will be satisfying, because i know so many of them. i was right that the story would unfold slowly, across books, but i forgot it could also unfold across people and places, and not to any of their detriments.