Author Anne McCaffrey has died

[Space Chimp]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/book...cian-newtonian

One of the fantasy greats has passed.

[dgavin]

*sniff* A sad thing indeed, she is/was one of my favorite authors.

[Solfe]

I really enjoyed her work, especially the Planet Pirates Series.

[dgavin]

I'm so bummed about this I just can't put words to it.

As a dysletic, reading and lanuages in school was always a challange for me, eventualy to the point I soured on reading and writing altogether. It was authors like her that got me into reading for enjoyment some years after school during my military days.

I was looking forward to her new dragonriders book "After the Fall ", but I guess that book will not be happening now. She started it about a year after I sent her and Todd a short story based on that idea. I was curious if maybe I might see something in the book that related to my short story A Stranger in the Weyr.

[Paul Beardsley]

I didn't like her writing and would not call her one of the greats by any stretch, but she was well know, and it's always sad when a high-profile long-standing name in the field passes away.

[Swift]

That is sad. I wasn't a huge fan of the Pern books, but I always love "The Ship Who Sang". I assume Helva will sing at her funeral too.

[publiusr]

She will be missed.

[Moose]

RIP, Dragonlady. You'll be missed.

[geonuc]

That is sad. I wasn't a huge fan of the Pern books, but I always love "The Ship Who Sang". I assume Helva will sing at her funeral too.

One of my early favorites, too.

[Noclevername]

I'm sad to hear it. I liked the Pegasus series myself.

[Romanus]

I've only read a handful of her Pern books, but I enjoyed them all; finishing them is very high on my to-do list. I consider her one of the greats, personally, and am truly saddened.

[Rhaedas]

I agree that her earlier works are probably the best. The White Dragon probably is still my favorite, I guess because I read it at the age where I could relate to Jaxom, and I think it was a great story. Also thought that Dragonsdawn was a great prequel for the whole series to give a believable historical beginning.

[tusenfem]

Ohh that is sad news. I liked here books, got almost all series.

[Gillianren]

I'm not sure I'd consider her a great, necessarily, but I find the Pern books enjoyable enough to pass an evening with. So I'm rereading one in her memory.

[starcanuck64]

I don't think I ever read any of her work but I found it comforting somehow always seeing her books advertized in science/science-fiction magazines over the years.

I'll have to give Pern or other series a try, I'm sad she's gone.

[dgavin]

I think where Anne's greatness came from was not so much her works, but what she did with her popularity after she got it. She was the first female author to break into the genre, and she collaberated with many others (mostly ladies) to help them break into the genre as well, some of them now notable names in thier own right; Mercedes Laceky, Elizibeth Moon, Jody Lynn Nye, Margarett Ball, S.M. Sterling, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, and her own son Todd McCaffery. Many of these authors also continued this trend of collaberation with others on thier own right.

She was also the first Sci-Fi Author to bring to the forefront female protagonists instead of male, romance, and heightened aspects of adventure into the genre. Robert Heinlien's "Friday" was a prime example of main stream Author's of the time also following this trend.

I think the saddest thing about this is she won't see her dream of Dragonriders on film be fullfilled, that will be up to her son now. The movie company that has the rights (Copperheart Entertainment), finnaly assiged a screen writer and producer after six years sitting on the rights. They hired none other then David Hayter, the screenwriter for X-Men, XMan 2, The Scorpion King for this task. Dark Hero Studio's will be the production company.

[Paul Beardsley]

She was the first female author to break into the genre

It's true that she was the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula, and she was up-front about her gender, but Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore were active quite a few years before Anne had her first short stories published, and Ursula LeGuin (whose career proper started at around the same time as Anne's) had considerably more impact.

[LookingSkyward]

[HenrikOlsen]

She was the first female author to break into the genre, and she collaberated with many others (mostly ladies) to help them break into the genre as well,

I think she was more the first female author to break OUT of the genre in the sense that her books were the first to be read by non-genre-fan readers.

[ToSeek]

It's true that she was the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula, and she was up-front about her gender, but Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore were active quite a few years before Anne had her first short stories published, and Ursula LeGuin (whose career proper started at around the same time as Anne's) had considerably more impact.

She's also the second woman to win a SFWA Grand Master award, in 2005 (LeGuin was the first, two years earlier).

[Disinfo Agent]

The short story The Smallest Dragonboy was among the first science fiction I read, and it left a lasting impression on me. Such a gem!

Regrettably, when I read the full-length Pern novels Dragonfall and Dragonquest years later they did not do much for me.