Pern Appreciation Month: “The Smallest Dragonboy”

In 1973, Anne McCaffrey should have had the world at her feet: she had released several short stories and novels into the world, won some awards that no other woman had won before her, and had the beginnings of a bestselling series in Dragonflight and Dragonquest.

However, she had recently divorced her husband and emigrated to Ireland with her children. Money was short and straits were dire; she had sold several short stories but not enough to base a living on in a new country. Fortunately, prolific editor Roger Elwood invited her to submit a short story to a forthcoming anthology. After starting a story about a girl called Menolly, she came up with “The Smallest Dragonboy”, a story partly based on her brother Kevin’s experiences with illness during his childhood.

In the story, Keevan (our point-of-view character) is in training for dragon Impression at Benden Weyr (the story seems to be taking place some time between Dragonflight and Dragonquest). But he is short for his age, and young for candidacy, making him a target for bullying from Beterli, a larger and older boy.

At first, the bullying is limited to name calling and teasing, but after an overheard conversation, in which some dragonriders are heard suggesting that they get rid of a few candidates. Keevan naturally thinks they mean him and is depressed. Beterli finds him when he is running an errand and pushes him further (possibly because he hasn’t impressed a dragon either and is becoming too old to be a candidate) and eventually knocks Keevan unconscious.

While Keevan recovers, he is distressed to learn that his injury means he won’t be a candidate at the hatching. However, when the Impression begins, he drags himself from his sickbed to the hatching grounds and Impresses bronze Dragon Heth…

This is Anne McCaffrey’s most anthologised story and probably the single work for which she is best known.

The story is a fairly basic underdog story, but what makes it stand out is the way that it manages to explain the setting of Pern and the relationship between Dragon and Rider so simply and effectively:

To be chosen – to be a dragonrider! To sit astride the neck of a winged beast with jewelled eyes: to be his friend, in telepathic communion with him for life; to be his companion in good times and fighting extremes; to fly effortlessly over the lands of Pern!

McCaffrey herself identified that part of the appeal of the series was the idea of having a dragon as a constant soulmate, one that loved you more than anything else, that would support you in all endeavours:

Human beings don’t like the solitary state, we abhor it, therefore if you have a critter that loved you, in spite of yourself, that was always with you, that really understood you, like a telepathic dragon, then, well, maybe would not have many of the social problems that beset people. You have a support system.

(Space Voyager, issue 16, August/September 1985)

For all that she apparently modelled the dragonriders on the test pilots of the 1950s and 60s, the idea that their supreme confidence and heroism came from the unconditional support of their platonic life partner is hugely appealing.

When Keevan Impresses Heth and becomes K’van, we can see that relationship begin. We got hints of what it’s like from Lessa’s Impression of Ramoth in Dragonflight and Jaxom’s Impression of Ruth in Dragonquest – as well as the absence of it with Lytol and Brekke – but here is where that partnership begins to be explored and cemented as part of the lore of the series. It’s also lovely that we get glimpses of K’van later on in the series, knowing that he hasn’t just disappeared into the background.

Coming Up Next: Dragonsong