After enjoying the first two books in the Harper Hall series, my partner and I were very excited to listen to the audiobook of the finale. Unfortunately, Dragondrums didn't live up to the standards set by its predecessors.

When Piemur hits puberty, life, as he's known it, is over. His beautiful tenor voice is full of cracks, and his apprenticeship to the Master of Voice is at an end. He turns to his friend Menolly for comfort. She offers a startlingly proposition: a secret apprenticeship to Master Robinton, who, if Piemur can prove himself, will induct Piemur into a fledgling initiative to make Harpers world-class spies and information gatherers. An overjoyed Piemur agrees and is placed undercover as apprentice to Drummaster Olodkey. This joy is brief, however, as intense bullying and a brewing plot of the Old Timers loom over the horizon.

Dragondrums was an in-between book for an in-between series. The two plotlines didn't mesh together well. For the school plot of Piemur's time learning drums, it seemed like McCaffrey struggled to find an organic source of conflict. In Menolly's stories, Piemur seemed universally beloved and, as a man, doesn't have to combat misogyny. The bullying seemed to come from nowhere and raised some serious, disturbing questions about the culture of Harper Hall. Even when the bullies are defeated, the questions linger, and it seems inevitable that the intense violence and abuse will happen again.

As for the larger geopolitical plot, Piemur was mostly shunted to the side, and it didn't quite become (or revert?) to Menolly's story either. We miss out on huge swathes of her journey towards being a confident young woman and Harper. I was never sure what information would be relevant. Since Harper Hall is my first series, I paused the audiobook a lot to ask Girlfriend who and what the Old-Timers are, and why everyone is worried about them.

Girlfriend had mentioned that McCaffrey's gender politics become gnarled, and here I found evidence. The age gaps in romance become quite wide, of dubious consent, and pseudo-incestuous(???). Spoiler under the cut.

It's not stated what Menolly's exact age is, but I assumed around 18. During Dragonsong, I assumed Sebell was at least a decade older. It felt extremely odd for someone in their late 20s /early 30s to be interested in a teenager. In addition, when they do boink, it's under the influence of their fire lizards' mating flights. I thought this situation was fine and dandy--even extra erotic--until Sebell says, "I didn't want it to be like this." Is this...not what he wants? Shouldn't they stop then? Like hello? Jump in the ice-cold ocean and stay there if you need to avoid being horny that badly. There are many ways out of boinking. In addition, both Menolly and Sebell express interest in Robinton. Both bemoan Robinton's obliviousness to romance and the age gap, as Robinton is in his 60s. There's also the matter that Robinton is Sebell's adopted father. There's a bizarre sense that Sebell and Menolly are settling for each other, since they can't boink Robinton.

Overall, I still want to read Dragonriders of Pern. McCaffrey isn't always this confusing of a mess. Other stories will have more explanations.