The Girl Who Heard Dragons
Anne McCaffrey
Tor, June 5 2012, $14.99
ISBN: 9780765333643

This is a reprint of a wonderful 1994 short story collection; only the title story occurs in Pern. “The Girl Who Heard Dragons” introduces readers to Aramina and her family on the run to keep her from being abused due to talent to communicate with dragons; to learn more about her fate read “The Renegades of Pern”. The space colonists find a planet seemingly abandoned for no obvious cause in “Velvet Fields”. Combat Dr. Bardie Makem feels attracted to “A Sleeping Humpty Dumpty Beauty” comatose soldier. Humanity continues to expand across the planet leaving no room for large animals in the wild and consequently there are a dwindling few riders left in “The Quiet One.” A woman offers “The Greatest Love” by wanting to carry her brother and sister-in-law’s fetus but charges of incest and adultery are filed against the trio and the Ob-gyn who performed the first such fertilization. During the Civil War, the Arab female slave protects a plantation’s residents horses included in “Zulei, Grace, Nimshi, and the Damnyankees.” B&W drawings enhance the compilation that showcases the versatility of the late great Anne McCaffrey who wrote several other wonderful series besides Pern.

Harriet Klausner