Posted on 11/22/2011 7:36:09 PM PST by EveningStar
Anne McCaffrey wasn't just the inventor of Pern, the world where a whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.
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ping
She was one of my favorite writers when I was younger.
RIP, Anne. Your Dragonriders series helped me through many D&D dungeons. You will be sorely missed.
The ship who sang had an interesting and timely premise involving euthanasia of the severely disabled and educational debts that could take centuries to pay off.
Sadness...
A wonderful woman. Her books gave me many hours of happiness in my youth.
Rest in peace, Anne. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
R.I.P.
I really enjoyed her Pern books. Don’t know how I came to read Dragonriders of Pern, but she did create a fun world.
For those not in the know, Pern was a technologically backwards world where, when a dragon would hatch, it would “impress” on a rider and become their bosom companion, making that person quite special. Great Fantasy concept.
I enjoyed The Dragon Riders of Pern when it came out, and The Ship Who Sang. The later books, less so.
But she was very generous about recommending other authors, and must have helped sell their books, since you see her blurbs on the covers of all sorts of good SF writers.
Rest in peace.
Better yet, Pern was a technologically backward world that began technologically advanced enough to genetically create dragons and had in fact been settlers from space. At least till the violent earthquakes of the southern continent had driven them north. Threadfall was a recurring problem as well.
Everybody talks about the dragons but I think Thread is one of sf's all-time great antagonists.
This is sad. The “Ship that Sang” and the few Pern books/stories that I read were really good.
She had a lot of weaknesses as a storyteller and letting her son take over Pern was a mistake; but she was one of the staples of my teenage fandom and I did imagine what it would be like to be one of her dragon riders. Most of her Pern books have a place on my shelf, for nostalgia if nothing else.
Thanks for the stories, Anne.
RIP Anne. I read the first “Dragon Riders of Pern”, but that book showed me that I simply did not like the “Fantasy” genre in Sci-Fi. Never could get into it, but I know many who loved her books. Just because I didn’t care for her stuff, doesn’t mean she wasn’t a Great.
RIP Anne.
I made it halfway through one of the books... lost interest and never finished it.
RIP, Anne. Thanks for the wonderful stories.
“The Ship Who Sang” — a real classic. All “The Ship Who” stories were great but the first one was phenomenal, especially in that time period. Many of her Pern books were terrific, too (though I confess her later work in general palled on me a bit).
A terrific, ground-breaking writer. RIP, Anne.
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