The Girl Who Heard Dragons (Pern #8.5)
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
Fiction, Dragons, Pern, American Science fiction, Fantasy fiction
Anne McCaffrey