In Dragondrums, Piemur reaches puberty and loses his glorious voice, so he is apprenticed to Olodkey, the Drummaster….

[Dragondrums] does not stand well alone, however, but should be read as part of the sequence…. The six novels about Pern fit together perfectly. Although her writing style has become a bit pedestrian in Dragondrums, McCaffrey has sustained reader interest by the addition of the message drums, their uses and their language. The reader barely remembers that planet-wide means of communication were lacking in the earlier books. Dragondrums leads into the exploration of the Southern Continent that is so much a part of The White Dragon, and finally lets us know how Mirrim impressed her green dragon Path. The appearance of this new book will undoubtedly compel fans to reread the entire series, to their great enjoyment. Pern, like Darkover and Dune, is a living world; may the dragons return to us in many novels to come!

Susan L. Nickerson, "Fiction: 'Dragondrums'," in Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review (copyright © 1979 by The Borgo Press), Vol. 1, No. 6, July, 1979, p. 71.