Nerilka's Story is a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 or science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

 by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...

. It was the eighth book published in the Dragonriders of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...

series by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey

Todd McCaffrey

Todd J. McCaffrey is an Irish American author of science fiction best known for continuing the Dragonriders of Pern series in collaboration with his mother Anne McCaffrey.-Life:...

.

Plot summary

Taking a different approach from all previous books in the series, Nerilka's Story has a non-dragonrider non-harper as its major viewpoint character. It is set during the events detailed in Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern is a fantasy or science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It was the seventh book published in the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey....

. Nerilka is the daughter of a Lord Holder who turns her back on her life of luxury and sets out to fight the disease that threatens to kill all humans on Pern. According to a critic for the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

, Nerilka makes for an "intelligent, resourceful, selfless and, alas, homely" heroine.

Reception

Critics have called Nerilka a story with "terse power." It was first published in 1985. The novel reached #7 on TIME

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 Magazine's Best Sellers list for fiction on April 7 and 21, 1986.
On the New York Times Best Seller list

New York Times Best Seller list

The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...

for paperbacks, it first appeared on February 22, 1987, at #12,
and reached #11 the week after.