Anne McCaffrey Passes Away At 85 181
JSC writes "Anne McCaffrey died Monday at her home after suffering a stroke. 'In the late 1960s she became the first woman to win a Hugo Award for a work of fiction and the first woman to win a Nebula Award. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006.' She will be missed by Dragons and their Riders the world over."
I has a sad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yep and what she loved doing (writing) meant that as a teenager I could continue what I loved doing (writing). Sometimes her works copped a bit of scorn for bungling the sci-fi aspects, but really those where more just stage-props to the more important grand epic of her fantasy novels. Her writing will live long after she has passed.
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Dragonriders, stand to honors! (Score:5, Insightful)
She has passed for all time between; we accord her a dragon tribute. May she always sing the black, and cut well.
Re:Dragonriders, stand to honors! (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, the Crystal Singer series was good. I also rather liked the Freedom series, as well as the Doona series. Then there's Restoree: a great little stand-alone(?) story.
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Thank you for reminding me of the many hours of pleasure that those book brought me.
The dragons were great too, I cant help but think she had a big impact of our modern conception of dragons. I think that even Avatar owes her a debt in that respect.
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The first two books were good, I found the third one to be a big let-down and suspect that she was pressured into writing excessive sequels to series she wanted closed.
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While I quite enjoyed the first two books in the Singer series I can re-read the third any time.
I always expected a fourth.. or a prequel.. to explain where Ballybran crystal originally came from.
I'm glad she made Crystal Singer into a trilogy.
I'm sad that there will be no more
Re:Dragonriders, stand to honors! (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sure someone has already said this, but
Crystal Singer was inspired by Pat Benatar, who was trained in opera, but was told by a teacher that the burr in her voice would keep her from being a world class opera singer.......
Man, I loved Crystal Singer.
the Pern stuff was fun, but Crystal Singer was always my favorite.
jaz
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Heh, news to me. And I like Pat Benatar. Cool. It's nice to know the connection, thank you.
Re:Dragonriders, stand to honors! (Score:4, Interesting)
I hate to be that guy, but the Wikipedia page on Crystal Singer [wikipedia.org] suggests that it was McCaffrey's own experience as an amateur singer that inspired the series. Now, Wikipedia isn't necessarily the last word in anything; so, do you at the very least remember where you heard this thing about Pat Benatar, or -- ideally -- can you provide a cite?
I didn't look this all up to be a dick -- I grew up in the early '80s and love Pat Benatar. I also studied to be an opera singer at one point, so you had me intrigued.
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Crystal Singer was definitely my favorite of her works. The 2nd one in particular I think was incredible.
Re:Dragonriders, stand to honors! (Score:4, Insightful)
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You must totally love Star Wars.
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Burial in space (Score:2)
Anne (Score:5, Insightful)
A big part of my imaginary world growing up. (Score:4, Insightful)
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The Dragon Rider series is choked full of homo-eroticism. That's probably what the poster is referring to.
Shards (Score:5, Interesting)
Thanks to her, my reading ability at 11 was that of a 16 year old (with plenty of credit to my grade one teacher too, of course). Her Pern books still have a special place in my heart (hear hear! to the dragon tribute).
Well, may she forever fly with Moreta.
Re:Shards (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Shards (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the second time in two days that this quote is (probably) appropriate. I wonder at what point it becomes worthwhile to write a macro :-)
Meanwhile, I take your point but persist in the notion that the Covenant novels are, in my opinion, a good worthwhile read. Just takes a couple of reads to get everything :-)
Better than Tolkien though.. that could be a real slog.
I will miss Anne McCaffrey's writing style. Good thing is that there will always all of the books she left behind for all of us.
What I like about her writing is that it is understandable, clearly defined and easy to process. I can open just about any of her books and enjoyably pick up the story, even if only for a chapter. Good to unwind your mind before sleep.
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I had a years of unemployment some time back. Picked up the first one from a charity shop. Didn't even get half way through.
That was before home broadband & when there were four channels on TV, all of them shit.
Time well spent (Score:2)
I had a years of unemployment some time back. Picked up the first one from a charity shop. Didn't even get half way through.
Whatever else you did, it was better. I did finish the whole book.
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No, Covenant remains an asshole until the very end. The writing around the plot gets more interesting later, so some of us continue through the books for a while despite the fact that he pisses us off. I kept going at first in hopes that someone would kick his ass really, then found myself caught up in the story despite him. The idea of the classic fantasy epic, but where the "hero" sucks so much--not in an evil anti-hero way, but just as a plain old asshole--is part of the novelty of the series.
The agre
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Donaldson does this a lot. Choke down the first 2 books of The Gap Cycle and you will never be able to peel away from the last 3. You'll be scrambling to get on the first pages of the third. Also the first book causes psychological damage. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant just continues on getting better after setup.
The distinctly odd thing about that series, though, is he reuses the same antagonist, the same plot, the same everything, over and over; yet it's coherent, and well done. Every book gets
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Those're the books where the main character is continues to be self loathing asshole even after he defeats the BBEG, and GOD shows up to say "Thanks, I couldn't have done it without you!"? Sorry, once was enough for me. Actually, that was twice as I stopped the first time after the rape and continuous self loathing "I'm a leper" routine got too uninteresting to continue.
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"a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it."
I use that quote from Moby DIck. Moby Dick is an interesting read because it's a meandering tale. Also, hard to appreciate until you have some life behind you. It's what I call an after 40 book.
Re:Shards (Score:4, Funny)
Herman Melville - crazy uncle to the world, or,
Herman Melville - like an old folk's home for your bookshelf.
A great imagination (Score:5, Insightful)
While Anne had a tendency to romanticize her stories and characters, there's no doubt that she had a great imagination. I'll always have a soft spot for the Harper Hall trilogy (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums). One of my favourite series, and I thoroughly recommend them to anyone of any age. Her music training in life really showed through her writing, and she wrote it well.
Well remembered.... (Score:5, Informative)
Her Dragonriders of Pern were one of my first Fantasy Novels )i dicovered them in the 80's) and had a huge impact on my reading behavior since then..
I will dearly miss her.
Martin
RIP to such a wonderful person (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember the countless times on her website and on the newsgroups (which she also posted to by the way) she was always asked about doing a movie. She had been approached countless times. But it always fell through because she didn't want the series butchered and she wanted creative control. Of course as the 2 or 3 times we heard the news of talks of a movie fall through, us on the newsgroup and on her website were sad but also happy that some 2-bit director wouldn't horribly butcher her magnum opus.
I know her son has been continuing the pern saga the last few years with Anne's blessing. But it just don't feel like Anne when reading the newer stuff. Although good, it's hard to explain.
I am saddened, but very glad and honored to have been able to come across and fall in love with her books so many years ago, which included a rereading of the Pern beginnings as my son got little older and I started reading him Pern as a bedtime story.
Re:RIP to such a wonderful person (Score:5, Informative)
She was still posting on her blog and replying to fans a few weeks ago. I think it is her relationship with the fans that kept her going, to be honest. I met her at WorldCon in Glasgow back in the 90s and she wasn't all that well then. But when she talked with those of us at the coffee clatch, her energy seemed boundless.
Re:RIP to such a wonderful person (Score:5, Interesting)
In the late 90's my wife and I, during a vacation in Ireland, actually knocked on the door of Dragonhold-Underhill. Many of the dust jackets on her books give very good clues about where she lives and several of them mention she welcomes visits from fans as long as you call ahead. Try as we might during our previous 5 days in Ireland we were unable to find a number we could reach her at, although I did manage to call her stables but she wasn't there. After a bit of driving around Wicklow we found her home and decided we'd take the chance to knock on the door, politely apologize for showing up unannounced, and ask if we could talk to Anne for a moment. Todd answered the door, said hold on and closed it again. We figured that was it and prepared to leave. A minute later he opens the door again and there is Anne! I gave her a enormous hug (I couldn't help it) which I believe made Todd nervous for a minute but Anne laughed and said you don't get a greeting like that at your door everyday. She warmly and kindly invited us into her home and chatted with us over tea and cookies for an hour. She introduced us to her mother, daughter, and Todd and gave us a tour of her home. On the way out she told us we should drive through Wicklow Pass and we'd see her vision of Pern. I'll never forget that day and often share the story with new readers of her books.
One thing I learned during our visit was the main reason she stopped writing was due to a combination of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and arthritis. She had tried speech to text programs but they didn't work for her because of the way she wrote and how her creative process worked.
She was a fabulous lady who will be missed dearly by many, many people. She will always be the Masterharper. May her dragons sing her between!
tanka (Score:5, Insightful)
Never ends your light
But forever is the night
Where flies your spirit.
And in the cold of Between
Shall our hearts forever keen.
I always loved the poems she put at the beginning of the chapters in many of her dragon books. I hope she likes it.
May she live in her fantasy worlds forever. (Score:5, Insightful)
She had heart problems in August (Score:5, Insightful)
According to her blog, she had serious heart problems in mid August. It's hard to say if her stroke now is related, but it wouldn't surprise me.
RIP Dragonrider, you will be missed. (Score:4, Insightful)
Thats two of my top three Authors gone *sigh*
I started on Anne McCaffery's works with a older hard cover of Dragonsdawn, and then went straight to the library a few days later and got out the rest one book at a time, and the good old internet alerted me to Red star rising coming out soon.. To fill in the time I started on The crystal singer series, when I finished that it was onto 'The tower and the hive'.
I am not ashamed to admit that the opening Paragraph of 'The Rowan' still makes me cry, even the first time I read it, weird, and thus the 'Tower and the hive' became my favorite series, and Damia is my favorite book of the lot.,
Never heard of her till now, (Score:2)
Re:Never heard of her till now, (Score:4, Informative)
There are two Heinleins;
Early Heinlein (his thinner) novels are good examples of early Sci-Fi - I thoroughly recommend 'The Door into Summer' as a good starting point.
Later Heinlein (fatter more rambling books) were all written during and after his mental breakdown - from that set I recommend working through the Lazarus Long stuff initially:
1. Time Enough for Love
2. The Number of the Beast
3. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
4. To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Additionally the novel 'Friday' is a good stand-alone easy to read Heinlein.
Enjoy.
Re:Never heard of her till now, (Score:4, Informative)
I quite liked Moon is a Harsh Mistress/em of Heinlein's. Stand-alone, good read. Not as obviously pushing his sexual agenda as in some of his other books, although still quite present, obviously.
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The Heinlein books I'd recommend:
_Space Cadet_ (just don't get the Tor ebook from the Sony store --- it has so many errors it's unreadable)
_Have Spacesuit Will Travel_
_The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ (for those over 16 --- agree w/ your sexual agenda comment)
Optional for those who agree w/ or are not put off by his politics, or want to have their own challenged:
_Starship Troopers_
_Friday_
William
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Re:Never heard of her till now, (Score:4, Interesting)
He challenges no one politics. It's a story written in a different set of politics. He gives no argument for any politics, only a setting.
It's like Saying JK Rawling Challenges your belief in wizards.
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1. Time Enough for Love
2. The Number of the Beast
Writing one book about a character who travels back in time so that he can screw his mother might be excusable. Writing two is unimaginative as well as creepy. I'd skip the later Heinlein stuff and read some E.E. 'Doc' Smith for some classic space opera.
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1. Time Enough for Love 2. The Number of the Beast
Writing one book about a character who travels back in time so that he can screw his mother might be excusable. Writing two is unimaginative as well as creepy.
Especially if you've already written "All You Zombies --".
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I second the "The Door into Summer" as a good starting point; as well as "To Sail Beyond the Sunset".
I've now gone through 4 copies of Time Enough for Love.
I'd second that - "Friday" for the best standalone novel.
On the other hand, I still have my first Pern book - The White Dragon - picked up in a yard sale around 1993... my first step into Sci Fi / Fantasy.
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"The Door Into Summer" is a great start. One of the less popular Heinlein books is one of my favorites: the short story collection published as "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag". There are two stores in there, "They" and "All You Zombies...", that have inspired countless other time travel and "is this the real world or a simulated one?" tales.
Re:Never heard of her till now, (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, McCaffrey's probably generally for younger readers. Her books are imaginative, but her character development and such are probably a bit shallow for more mature tastes. She's definitely on the softer side of sci-fi than Heinlein - which I don't mind, but some people only like the hard stuff.
Dragonsdawn is the first of the books chronologically, and Dragonflight the first in order of writing - choose whichever you wish, it works both ways. There are (semi) standalone books (Dolphins of Pern, the Harper Hall trilogy), but they generally all presuppose the readers have a general knowledge of the series.
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Oh probably. It's early yet......
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"Turning off my brain isn't a problem. I went through the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer "
yes, but it seems turning on your brain is.
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McCaffrey and hard SF (Score:2)
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Heinlein: While his earlier works differ from his later works considerably, they are all very readable with decent plots. My personal favourite has always been The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I absolutely love that book, and reread it every few years. I suggest you consider reading that one first. There were rumours of a movie but I haven't heard anything since. It would do well as a movie I think. "Stranger in a Strange Land" is also a classic worth reading.
McAffrey: well everyone will say the Pern books but
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You're the first person to have brought up "Stranger in a Strange Land". I find that is odd since it's certainly his best known work. Just as he wandered off the edge...
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I listened to the Audiobook of "A moon is a harsh mistress" and I thought it was laughably bad.
Do you know if they changed it for the Audiobook?
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Be very careful with Heinlein. I read a book of his (no idea what the name was) where a group of obnoxious intellectuals visited the land of Oz in a flying car, or some such nonsense. I swore off Heinlein after that. I've later since heard his early works were better, but... meh.
I only started reading the Dragonflight books recently, after I got a Kindle as a gift. They were certainly an enjoyable read. Sort of a light sci-fi / fantasy combo.
Many thanks, Anne. I think you made the world a little richer
rip (Score:5, Insightful)
I spent a lot of time as a youngster at the public library. Fortunately my mom was a big reader and took me there often (it was too far from our house for me to ride my bike or walk.) In grade school I'd already figured out that Science Fiction and Fantasy were my favorites. I don't remember what year it was exactly but it doesn't seem like it took me too long to read through everything interesting in the kids section and I moved over to the regular Sci-Fi/Fantasy shelves.
I do remember clearly pulling the White Dragon off the shelf one day and there on the cover [iofferphoto.com] was a guy, sitting on a dragon, with little dragons around them both. Well, that was it. I grabbed it and I tore through it.
I still chuckle because my parents were rather conservative and some of the content in that book would have made them flip out. I just loved every bit of it, and then went back to the library to actually read through the series in order. The Pern books became lifelong friends, from that introduction as an adolescent, to bringing Masterharper of Pern with me on my honeymoon (read it on the flight) and today I still am reading the books. Not too many authors have that kind of long term impact.
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Before Videogames There Were Books and Imagination (Score:5, Informative)
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The comment about the cover art for the Pern books reminds me of how great they were. I'd imagine that alot of us here have Michael Whelan to thank for in getting us started on many great books. Thanks Anne and Micheal for the great memories.
Before MMOs there were MUDs (Score:5, Interesting)
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Holy crap, PernMUSH. What a great place that was. I basically learned English on PernMUSH (and can't thank the people there enough for their kindness and patience with me).
Dear AC, might I ask who you were there? Just on the off chance we knew each other. (Me, I was just some random weird Bluerider. Hi. :))
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Indeed, Michael Whelan's cover art was fantastic, introducing a whole group of people to late 70s, early 80s fantasy.
Samples:
Dragonflight [bookfever.com]
Dragonquest [jedisaber.com]
The White Dragon [blogspot.com]
Good bye Anne (Score:5, Insightful)
Watch out for thread, Anne.... (Score:2)
SF with romance (Score:5, Interesting)
McCaffrey's love scenes, wooing, and relationships were very different from typical SF fare. Typical for a romance novel, perhaps? (I wouldn't know, don't read that genre.) Some people don't care for that in their SF, but I enjoyed the novelty.
Most SF leans towards casual, kinky sex, like Niven's interspecies sex on the Ringworld. Treats it all technically and distantly, or as a tool for manipulation or sealing deals. In Star Trek, seems the crew is often getting drugged with strange fluids, hit with plant spores, tempted with sexy robots, shapeshifting aliens, holodeck creations, or otherwise being enticed or forced into some sort of quickie, cheapie when they are busy with other matters. Sex as a mere plot device, and love as an impediment that could interfere with your duties, an inconvenient holdover from primitive times that has little place in modern life. Worst of all, you always knew almost all the changes in relationships would be rebooted for the next episode. True, the dragons of Pern imposed upon human sex life. However, McCaffrey cared enough about it not to do stuff like reboots.
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McCaffrey's love scenes, wooing, and relationships were very different from typical SF fare. Typical for a romance novel, perhaps?
They seemed slightly anachronistic. Her romantic story lines would have fitted into an Austen or Bronte novel with little modification, just a very different backdrop. I think that's part of the appeal of her stories. The only slightly grating aspect was the fact that her homosexual (male) characters always seemed to end up in stable sexual relationships with women...
Dragonspeed, Anne (Score:3)
I was never a huge fan of her works, just a matter of taste -- yet I appreciated her creation of female protagonists, and her depiction of dragons as allies of man.
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I was asked the other day whether I knew any movie that did Dragons justice.
The only movies I could think of were Dragonheart, Eragon and Reign of fire, none of them really worked. Reign of fire did well to depict them as an "out of context problem" as Iain M Banks would put it, but it could just have easily been aliens.
I always wondered what it would be like to see a movie or TV series of Pern.
Now, I haven't read George R.R. Martin's books, so I don't know whether the Game of Thrones sequels will feature t
A staple of my library (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been reading Anne McCaffrey since I first found "Dragonsong" and "To Ride Pegasus" in my school library in year 8 (~13 years old) - some 25 years ago. To this day Dragonsong is still my favourite of the Pern books. I spent the next few years hunting down and buying (with my very limited money at the time) every Anne McCaffrey book I could get my hands on. I still have all of them - I love seeing "RRP: $3.75" ... I don't have every one of her books - I've missed some of each of the Ship books, Tower and Hive series, Peetaybee and Acorna. One of these days I need to fill in my collection, but with the price of books these days ...
"Restoree" is possibly my favourite of her books. It's her first, and it has a rawness to it that I find very appealing. You can see the genesis of many of of the ideas that appeared in her later stories - for example the inhuman aliens that are so evident in several series.
Interestingly, I've been re-reading a random selection of her books the last few days - "Red Star Rising"; "Dragonsdawn"; "Dolphins of Pern" and "Pegasus in Space". It's one of the things I love about her writing - if you know the worlds she's built, you can pick up nearly any of her books and enjoy it in isolation. Less so for a tight series like "The Crystal Singer" though.
The Dragonlady has gone between.
Deeply saddened (Score:2)
I loved the Pern stories as well as Crystal Singer. Actually, I didn't dislike anything of hers I read.
I suppose Todd will continue writing but I will miss Anne's distinct style a great deal.
Farewell, Anne! (Score:4, Interesting)
One of my favorite storytellers! I still enjoy reading her stories over and over again.
I "first" discovered her stories when The White Dragon came out. But, a number of years later, I remembered that I had read one of her short stories--The Smallest Dragonboy--back when it was first published. At my age then, the story strongly resonated with me. It's probably why I enjoyed The White Dragon so much. After reading The White Dragon, I bought the other books in the series that were then available. I loved how in the HarperHall Trilogy, she took the commoners point of view in the daily life of Pern.
I loved how she brought many of her series of stories to create a single cohesive universe. The Brainship series and the Crystal Singer series came together nicely. I also enjoyed how Dragonriders went from a fantasy setting to hard science fiction as the history of Pern was slowly revealed. I always wondered if ever McCaffrey was going to have Pern rediscovered by a Brainship and re-enter galactic society? I guess that one is for our collective imaginations or for Todd to pursue, if within Anne's canon.
I wanted a dragon so bad... (Score:2)
As a Female Geek (Score:5, Interesting)
A bitter sweet goodbye (Score:2)
I remember the first book of her's I read. It was an anthology of short Pern stories. I must have been around 12. They opened me up to the world of fantasy/scifi literature and started me down the path to being an avid reader. Anne McCaffrey changed my life for the better and I wish I had been able to thank her before her passing.
RIP, Anne McCaffrey (Score:2)
Years ago, a cow-orker was raving about her Pern series. At the time, I didn't want to get into yet another long series, so I didn't buy any of them. A couple years ago, I was looking for something new and remembered the cow-orker's recommendation, bought one of the books, and loved it. Now I have most of the series.
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The definitive answer to your question [zazzle.com]
G'bye, Anne. (Score:2)
Guess what series I was reading when I came up with my current handle.
McCaffrey's books helped me get a jumpstart on literacy way back when. G'bye, Anne. Thanks for all the books.
Ah! The Thread! (Score:2)
Wheel and turn
Or bleed and burn.
Fly between,
Blue and green.
Soar, dive down,
Bronze and brown
Dragonmen must fly
When Threads are in the sky.
Just last month.... (Score:3)
I gave a hard-back copy of one of Anne's books to the very bright ten year old girl across the street. Her mom was having trouble finding books that she would read that weren't full of the wrong messages. I looked in my library shelf and Anne McCaffrey's book caught my eye. I don't know if she has read it... but Anne's books always had the right messages. Thanks, Anne. RIP.
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Be sure to mention her passing to your neighbor and her daughter when you get a chance.
Earlier today I was surprised to learn that another famous writer lived a LOT longer and later than I had ever thought (their heyday was decades before I was born), and that I was young enough to not notice their passing.
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The right message?
I suppose thinly veiled gay sex is the right message for some people.
As opposed to vaporizing aliens [wikipedia.org], invading planets [wikipedia.org] or having sex with your mother [wikipedia.org] - not so bad.
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yes, the news of someone's death is a perfect time for a mean-spirited, nitpicking personal evaluation of their bibliography. Great job.
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We do, the ones who still live, honor her memory, and have to read insults while eulogizing her from worthless lumps of meat like you. Dick.
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So you don't care. Why shit on the memories of the people who do? You're an autard.
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It's not going to hurt her where she is, and if it somehow offends you to hear a differing opinion, that's a problem with you, not with the person stating their opinion.
It's one thing to have a differing opinion, but quite another to express it in a location that is just socially unacceptable.
To take it to a bit of an extreme, it's not what the Westboro Baptist Church is shouting about so much as where they shout about it (at funerals).
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