Finished the book.  Decided to read volume three, Dragonsong, before I hit Memoirs of a Geisha.  Ten pages in, it appears to be a more interesting and engaging story.  Memoirs can wait.

Isn’t life funny?  Then again, this particular book’s main character seems to be a familiar favorite of mine:  the Independent, Headstrong Girl who bucks expectations to Do The Right Thing.  You know, Jo in Little Women, or Scout (the little girl) from To Kill a Mockingbird, or spunky, demure Jane Eyre, or the Dune series characters Sheena, Siona and Darwi Odrade.

So off I go, into a pulpish but hopefully more enjoyable story about Those Irrascible Humans and their Unquenchable Dragons from the Thread-Scored Planet of Pern.