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Oh, that's really too bad. What an amazing writer. "Dragonflight" was one of my first exposures to adult fantasy.
Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2008
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Many fond memories of her early work myself. I'm not sad but grateful. She leaves a wonderful literary legacy that will continue to delight young and old alike. In fact, I like to think she merely went "between" and is astride her dragon soaring through the skies of Pern with Flar and Lessa.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob (who hasn't read a Pern novel in a quarter century; thus my ability to recall character names only demonstrates the persistent and sustaining joy of her tales)
Posts: 1475 | Registered: Aug 2010
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Sad news. Though I stopped following the series awhile back, I read it extremely avidly...in particular, "The White Dragon," the "Dragonsong" set, and "Nerilka's Story." Also, McCaffrey produced a memorable work in "The Ship Who Sang."
In a way, the Dragonflight / Pern stories were a bridge between the SF of yesteryear and the fantasy of today. The first of them were respectable enough as SF to be published in Campbell's Analog...and "The White Dragon" was reportedly the first marketed-as-SF hardcover to hit the bestseller lists. (I bought the paperback---most hardcovers were beyond my means in those days.) Also McCaffrey was the first woman to win the Hugo and Nebula awards.
The Dragonflight / Pern series was very much in the vein of SF works where there was an unneeded spaceport that was soon abandoned or forgotten as the plot progressed...something that the Tolkien-influenced crowd would soon dispense with. So McCaffrey was a pioneer.
(Regrets that I'm not sure of the proper name for the series.)
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Oh my but I'm sorry to hear this. Anne McCaffrey is and always will be on my all time favorites authors list. I devoured all the Pern novels she wrote and the first two or three her son wrote too. Other series/books of hers I enjoyed were the Doona books and the Petaybe books.
I dreamed many a time about meeting the lady for real but never got the chance. She was an incredible author.
Posts: 1320 | Registered: May 2008
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My Mom just called me and told me about this. I've never read her, but Mom's read most of the Pern stuff and some of her others.
It is sad but...she was 85. She led a long and creative life and leaves a great legacy. I'm sure there are dragons wherever she is.
Posts: 2626 | Registered: Apr 2008
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I just started adding up what all of hers I've read. It's a long list.
All of the original Dragonriders series. Most of the Brain and Brawn series. The Crystal Singer trilogy. The Talents series. The first three Petaybee books. The Freedom series. The first three of the Acorna series. I have, but have not yet read, the first of the Barque Cats series.
A lot of wide ranging material there--and more of it is science fiction than fantasy. (Although science fiction about a sentient planet--Petaybee--borders on fantasy, I suppose.)
Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
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In all fairness...I started to get the feeling that the Pern things were overextended, a series gone on too long for its own good...and I also read and heartily disliked a couple of the "Anne McCaffrey with [insert name of junior collaborator here]" published works. That may have driven me away from picking up more recent works of hers.
But I'll remember the joy of the earlier ones, and I'll carry that with me, at least as long as I'm able to remember it...
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