The Girl Who Heard Dragons

I'm an Anne McCaffrey fan in general, but I particularly love her skill at writting short stories. This is a great collections of various short stories, with lots of characters you quickly get to love and are heart broken when their shory ends. This collection is deffinitely a fun and yet thought evoking experience of the "what if's" we might think about.

I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, but then, I'm an avid Anne McCaffrey fan: I loved all of the Pern books, and I thought - it couldn't get better than this. Then, I loved the Pegasus series (The Rowan, Damia, and the rest). But, the Crystal Singer books are great, too - you get the idea! These short stories evoked worlds that were familiar and worlds that were new to me - each world interesting and complex, a treat to visit. As usual, Anne's stories lift the spirits with hopeful endings, except the one sad story "Habit is an Old Horse" - skip it if you prefer. Two additional treats in this book: 24 lovely illustrations and eight autobiographical pages by Anne herself.

The book "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" is NOT a Pern book. There. Maybe that helps a bit. See, this book is a collection of SHORT STORIES. Only the FIRST story takes place on Pern. The other fourteen are a collection of fasinating and extremly diverse group of stories. One of my favorites was "The Greatest Love", which is about two children being born in the womb of their aunt, not their mother. This is done all the time now; women unable to have children find proxy mothers to help them. But this was written years before the procedure was done. Anyway, the point is, this is NOT a Pern book. It's a collection of Anne McCaffrey's writings. The first Pern story was excellant, but the other stories were just as great. And to you confused readers out there . . . take a closer look!

The stories in this book, though they range enormously in content, style, and length, leave the impression of having been set in the same enormous town, while they completely absorb you into it and don't let you out for a long time; Grace could be Aramina's best friend, while the cat-lady (I can't remember her name)hides in plain sight on the lawn - this sounds ridiculous, but I really felt lost in Anne McCaffrey's mind or something while I was reading this book - even hours later, I wasn't completely back yet. For a quick demonstration of the phenomenon, merely read the story, "Zulei, ... and the Damnyankees" - that's my favorite; I was lost there for days. This is one of my favorite books, though not my favorite McCaffrey. Another good collection of McCaffrey short stories is "Get Off the Unicorn."

The Girl Who Heard Dragons was a great book. I reccommend it to anyone who likes Anne McCaffrey or short stories (and yes, this book is NOT a novel, it's a book of short stories/novellas. Some people seem to be confused...) I really liked the fact that the stories were so different. Reading one type over and over again can be boring, but Girl Who Heard Dragons is a delightful mix of Anne McCaffrey's talents. There's also some great black and white Michael Whelan art inside (but it doesn't turn out too well in the paperback, be warned. I, being an idiot, naturally bought the paperback. Two weeks later, I saw the hardcover at a book clearence for the same price as the paperback. I now have two copies.) So, what can I say? It's a great book, has some great Michael Whelan art (my favorite book cover artist), and it's definetely worth a read