 First edition cover | |
| Author | Anne McCaffrey |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Michael Whelan |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | May 1994 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 352 pp. |
| ISBN | 0-312-93173-5 |
The Girl Who Heard Dragons is a 1994 collection of short fantasy and science fiction stories by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey.[1] It opens with an essay on her celebrity, or lack thereof, and includes 23 drawings by the cover artist Michael Whelan.[2][3]
The title novella and cover story alone belongs to the Dragonriders of Pern series. It had previously been published as a fine book by Cheap Street[4] and was later included in the all-Pern collection A Gift of Dragons. The story "Duty Calls", written for David Drake's The Fleet, also references previous McCaffrey series; a brainship and a Hrruban (from Decision at Doona) are the main characters. Two other McCaffrey stories in this collection, "A Sleeping Humpty Dumpty Beauty" and "The Mandalay Cure" are also from The Fleet series, while "The Bones Do Lie" and "A Flock of Geese" are also linked. Twelve of the fifteen stories were previously published in various magazines or anthologies; two were original to the collection.[n 1]
The Girl Who Heard Dragons does not include bibliographic data on previous publication of the collected stories and provides any annotation for only one of them, "The Greatest Love" ("written in 1956").[2]
- ^ McCaffrey has lived in the vicinity of Dublin, Ireland since September 1970, when she emigrated from greater New York City at age 44, one month after filing for divorce.
• Todd McCaffrey (1999). Dragonholder: The Life and Dreams (So Far) of Anne McCaffrey by her son. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-42217-1. Pages 54–55, 68–71, 74.
None of the collected stories had been published although she had written at least one of them, "The Greatest Love". - ^ a b Inspection of the first US mass market edition, August 1995 (ISBN 0-812-51099-2). The only annotation is page 187.
- ^ Some of the drawings scattered in the book certainly illustrate Pern, including the title story. Some or all of them were selected by publisher TOR from works Whelan had done earlier, rather than commissioned for the collection.
• Michael Whelan. Official Pern Art. The Pern Museum. Hans van der Boom (c) 2008. Retrieved 2011-10-21. - ^ ISFDB does not provide any publication data but the year 1986. For some information and images see "Collectors Highlight (10) – The Girl Who Heard Dragons" at the Anne McCaffrey forums Meeting of Minds. The two contributors are the moderator and hostess of the forums. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
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