When we last saw Jayge and Aramina, they had settled down in a settlement built by the original inhabitants at what they called “Paradise River Hold.” They’d settled into a quiet life as holders and begun to raise a tribe of kids. However, Alemi (Menolly’s brother, introduced to us in Dragonsong), has also come to the Southern Continent to seek his fortune and has joined them there. He befriends Jayge and Aramina’s eldest child Readis and they frequently go fishing together.
During one such excursion, they are caught in a storm and find themselves rescued by what Alemi refers to as “shipfish.” The shipfiush then surprise them by talking to them. After a long series of complicated events, the dolphins – as they inform the humans that they are properly called – begin to re-establish their relationship with the humans of Pern, culminating in Readis establishing a new crafthall for working with and studying the dolphins.
I’ve got a complicated relationship with this novel. For many years I thought it was a pretty weak entry into the series. It mimics the structure of Dragonsong – even down to Readis, having chosen to live in a self-imposed exile (like Menolly) rather than deny himself the life he wants, being tricked (again, like Menolly) into revealing his talents and aspirations, but this time to an elderly dolphin named Teresa, who has inherited the mantle of “The Tillek,” oldest and wisest of all the dolphins.
It’s possibly the most self-indulgent novel in the series. But it really is quite wonderful for all that the story is very slight. Taking place alongside and after All The Weyrs Of Pern, it’s really easy to dismiss it as just a lot of wish-fulfilment. But it’s so deceptively easy to read and you get so caught up in the very mild story and it’s wonderful to read about the domestic lives of characters we’ve only known in times of drama and tension before.
It also gives us a glimpse of some kind of happiness for Mirrim for the first time. We saw in All The Weyrs Of Pern that she was in a relationship with T’gellan, who is now the Weyrleader of one of the newly established weyrs in the Southern Continent. We also saw in Weyrs that she was quite competent in her right, being able to learn the skills that AIVAS (the computer uncovered at the end of The Renegades Of Pern) was teaching. And when a dolphin reveals in this book through the use of its sonar that she is in fact pregnant, we see a softer side to her, as well as the tender reaction from T’gellan. She isn’t a hero or a major character in this story but it’s great to see that she has undergone some sort of growth and development and not just remained the grumpy, bossy girl that others saw her as.
However, we need to focus on the titular dolphins for a moment. The dolphins in this book are charming and mercurial, and their joy at being able to work with men again is contagious (I mean, aside from a dolphin that had been gene-spliced with DNA from an orca in Startide Rising, I’ve yet to meet a dolphin in fiction that has been set up as a villain in any fiction). The idea that they have been trying to communicate with humans on Pern for over two thousand years with no luck is heartrending, frankly. There’s a prologue set just over a century after landing in which two dolphins forlornly ring the summoning bell on the pier at Landing to summon the humans, knowing that it won’t be answered. So when Alemi manages to strike the bell – after it has been partly restored – with the signal provided to him by AIVAS and summons the dolphins, it is just beautiful:
Alemi… craned his neck and saw a phalanx of dolphins racing towards the shore, leaping and vaulting out of the water. The waters beyond seemed to be full of dorsal fins and leaping shipfish. The Master Fishman rose to his feet, gawping at the noises that drifted to him.
‘Bellill! Squee! Bellill! Bellill rings! Squee! Bellill! Bellill!’
And later, Menolly reflects on the dolphin’s journey through the years to this moment:
To be ignore, to have one’s abilities neglected must have been hard and yet the dolphins continued to do what they could to aid humans all these long centuries.
But this isn’t just about the dolphins: there’s also the continuation of plotlines from the other stories: we get again the death of Robinton and the fallout from the loss of such an important personage. But here it’s the establishment of schools and the development of new technologies, as they pertain to Pern, for AIVAS, unlike some other AIs I could mention, was determined to only help the humans of Pern until they were able to learn from its resources themselves, without any guidance save their own intelligence.
Something else that was a huge surprise when I first read this – and came to appreciate further in subsequent readings – was the return of Camo! We first met him all the way back in Dragonsinger, but he’s faded into the background since then with only occasional appearances. In this novel, though, Menolly takes up a position as the harper of Paradise River, partly to spend time with her brother, but mostly to finish up her latest pregnancy somewhere warmer than the Harperhall. And she brings Camo as a nanny! As I said back in Dragonsinger, Camo’s portrayal was not a major plus for that book, but it at least showed a disabled person being valued in their community and workplace. That Menolly has come to trust and rely on him enough to care for her children is a truly wonderful development for his character and a great piece of representation.
We also get the continuation of Toric’s plans for expansion, which are now becoming more important since the dragonriders have begun staking claims to large chunks of the Southern Continent, in preparation for life without the threat of Thread… or the dependence on the Holds and Crafthalls of Pern for tithes. This plotline isn’t dealt with as much as I might have liked – it needed more foreshadowing and setting out, in my not-so-humble opinion – but it will be dealt with in an upcoming book, fortunately.
Unfortunately, the discovery of “lost” technology and cute animals might make this novel seem a lot more self-indulgent and cozy than some readers might be comfortable with: it lacks the harder edges of the earlier novels, and the conflicts here don’t seem as vital and important as they were in previous books and stories.
Fortunately, I am not one of those readers.
Coming Up Next: Red Star Rising/Dragonseye (depending on what market you live in)
