RTW – Doing the Groundhog Thing

This week on YA Highway, the prompt asks, If you could be reincarnated as any fictional character, which would it be? Which made the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, pop into my mind, hence the title of my post.

Moving on, I gave the question my usual three seconds of thought, figuring that the quickest answer to come into my mind would be the best. I did briefly consider Katniss (but for only the first second of those three), then realized everyone in the world wants to be Katniss (admit it). So I spent the next two seconds digging a little further back and came up with a character I’ve loved for years.

I’d want to be Lessa from Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. If you haven’t read Anne McCaffrey’s dragon books, I suggest you check them out. Yes, some are better than others (the first three, Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon are very worthy, as well as the more YA companion series, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums). But McCaffrey created such a great world and society that I’ve often fantasized about living on Pern with its genetically augmented dragons.

Lessa is a pretty kick-ass character who doesn’t let anyone push her around. She doesn’t actually run around in that cheesy white outfit shown on the cover, by the way. When she’s riding her golden dragon, she wears practical riders’ leathers. But she’s a feminist’s feminist, insisting that yes, female breeding dragons can fly and they can carry a rider. They can even help fight Thread, the menace on Pern.

So there you go. I want to be Lessa and fly around on a golden dragon. That would be my fantasy come true.