The Harper Hall Trilogy

Lore & Background

The Harper Hall trilogy consists of Dragonsong (1976), Dragonsinger (1977), and Dragondrums (1979). The first two books feature 15-year-old Menolly, a girl with great musical talent raised in an isolated sea-hold where composition is not considered part of a girl's future. Dragonsong ends with her invitation to the main craft-hall of the harpers, and 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, whose voice changes and who needs a new occupation, perhaps at the communication drums. 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.

Reader's Guide

The Harper Hall trilogy is significant as a young adult entry within the larger Dragonriders of Pern series, which as of 2018 included 26 books by Anne McCaffrey or her children Todd and Gigi McCaffrey. 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 trilogy's legacy includes recognition by the American Library Association in 1999, which 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. 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.

Did You Know?

• The Harper Hall trilogy was published by Atheneum Books in 1976, 1977, and 1979.
• Editor Jean E. Karl solicited 'a story for young women in a different part of Pern' to attract more female readers to science fiction.
• Dragondrums focuses on Piemur, a boy soprano from Dragonsinger whose voice changes.
• The American Library Association cited the Harper Hall trilogy when Anne McCaffrey received the Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1999.