Anne McCaffrey's dragons are the stuff of which SF/fantasy legends are made. All of her dragon books for many years have been national bestsellers. She is one of the most popular writers ever in fantasy and science fiction.

The Girl Who Heard Dragons is a feast for McCaffrey fans and for all readers - a big, satisfying compilation of her fiction never before collected in book form. Best of all, it opens with an original short novel of Pern, "The Girl Who Heard Dragons." In addition, the book contains 24 beautiful black and white drawings by award-winning artist Michael Whelan.

Romance, humor, colorful description and affecting characters are Anne McCaffrey's hallmarks and the fifteen stories herein have these virtues in abundance. No wonder the Chicago Sun-Times described her as a "master of the well-told tale."

"The Girl Who Heard Dragons" is the story of Aramina, a teenage girl of Pern who hears dragons - a skill which does not seem likely to help solve her family's problems. They are "holdless," and must constantly roam the land, trying to hide from bandits. Aramina's mother fears losing her daughter completely to the life of a dragonrider, but McCaffrey has another fate in mind for her young heroine.

The fourteen other stories - all just as good - are:

Velvet Fields
Euterpe on a Fling
Duty Calls
A Sleeping Humpty Dumpty Beauty
The Mandalay Cure
A Flock of Geese
The Greatest Love
A Quiet One
If Madam Likes You...
Zulei, Grace, Nimshi and the Damnyankee
Cinderella Switch
Habit Is an Old Horse
Lady-in-Waiting
The Bones Do Lie

From Publishers Weekly

Spanning a variety of eras, settings and genres (SF to mainstream), this new collection of 15 tales by the prolific McCaffrey is a satisfying exhibition of her storytelling ability. In the haunting "Velvet Fields," colonists on a new world must make a terrible decision when the planet turns out not to be as uninhabited as it appears. The title story, the only tale set on Pern, recounts some of the circumstances leading up to Renegades of Pern , focusing on the plight of the masterless and homeless in times of peril. In "Zulei, Grace, Nimshi, and the Damnyankees," an Arab woman sold into slavery protects a plantation and its horses during the Civil War and its aftermath. A random group of people from different eras caught in a time storm are dominated by an old woman who can predict the time changes in "A Flock of Geese." The contemporary "Euterpe on a Fling" explores the relationship between a singer and an audience in producing a performance. Few horsemen have been left on the Earth depicted in "The Quiet One," where large animals have had to make way for an expanding human population. McCaffrey ( Lyon's Pride ) niceley demonstrates her range and world-building skills in this eminently readable assembly. Illustrations by Mike Whelan .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This collection of 15 stories, including a new "short novel" of Pern, offers a varied look at one of sf's most popular storytellers. Recommended.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.