[quote=The Guardian]
American science fiction author Anne McCaffrey, who created the hugely popular Pern series of books about the symbiotic relationship between humans and dragons, died at home in Ireland on Monday, aged 85.
Her American publisher Random House said that McCaffrey passed away shortly after suffering a stroke. She is survived by her two sons and a daughter.
McCaffrey, who went on to publish almost 100 books, began her career in 1967 with Restoree, which she described as a "jab" at the way women were portrayed in science fiction. Later that year, she had the idea for the Dragonriders of Pern series, in which dragons and humans join forces to defend their planet from the deadly "thread" which falls from space and which, from 1967's Weyr Search to the most recent Dragon's Time, published this summer, became a smash hit.
"I suddenly wondered, 'what if dragons were the good guys?' Then I had to develop a planet which needed a renewable airforce against some unknown menace and came up with Pern, dragons, Thread and humans who impressed a hatchling in a lifelong symbiotic relationship," McCaffrey wrote on her website. "Rather wonderful to have an intelligent partner that loves you unconditionally. Who wouldn't like a 40ft telepathic dragon as their best friend? By the time my (then) children got home from school, I knew how it would all start: 'Lessa woke, cold.' I finished Weyr Search by summer."
The first woman to win a Hugo award and a Nebula award, McCaffrey was named a grand master of science fiction in 2005. Living in Wicklow County, Ireland, at the home she designed herself, Dragonhold-Underhill ("because she had to dig out a hill on her farm to build it"), the author was still answering letters from her fans on her website this month. In August, her son Todd, who has authored and co-authored Pern novels since 2003, relayed her disappointment at having to cancel her appearance at a Pern convention due to ill health. "Mum very specifically asked me to apologise to those who had hoped to see her there, saying: 'Sorry that old age came up and bit me on the a**'," he wrote.
Bestselling fantasy author Stephen Hunt paid tribute to her legacy: "All genres have their grand old dames… crime fiction still has PD James, romance had Barbara Cartland. In the fantasy and science fiction field, we were lucky indeed to have Anna McCaffrey.
"She was too modest to regard them as classics, but classics of the genre are what they became, outlandish planet-threatening mycorrhizoid spores and all. In a genre whose audience is often stereotyped as geeky males, in which its female authors often still feel it is a boys-only club when it comes to reviews of their work and airtime, McCaffrey was up there with Robert A Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke and Jack Williamson. She'll be deeply missed."
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Source: [url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/23/anne-mccaffrey-pern-dies-85?newsfeed=true[/url]
I wll miss her work, I loved the crystal singers, stll have it somewhere.
NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I grew up with her books and loved her Pern series. She will be greatly missed.
On the plus side I got her to autograph a few of my books at Dragon*Con a few years back, and even got a picture with her. She was really awesome.
[QUOTE=Frost 31;33404704]I grew up with her books and loved her Pern series. She will be greatly missed.
On the plus side I got her to autograph a few of my books at Dragon*Con a few years back, and even got a picture with her. She was really awesome.[/QUOTE]
Oh wow lucky, you Americans allways seem to get the best cons.
What's pern.
[QUOTE=bull3tmagn3t;33405057]What's pern.[/QUOTE]
Dragonriders of Pern was a fantasy/sci fi novel series that featured Dragons [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonriders_of_Pern[/url]
Wow... Her books were one of the first that got me really into fantasy, and reading in general..
Rest in peace Anne, you'll live on forever in Pern :(
I read that as "Anne McCaffrey, [B]Porn[/B] creator, dies aged 85"
Dammit, I've just now read up on what Pern was because of this thread, and feel that I need to read at least one of the books.
Same thing happened with Dune recently, too: I looked it up for some vague reason, then got extremely interested, despite thinking before "Oh, it's some book about giant worms and a desert and spice or something. Kinda cool, but meh". With Pern, I thought "Oh, there's a girl, and her dragon. That she rides. Woop-de-doo". But now that I've read up about it, even just from 10 minutes, I'm much, much more interested in it.
[sp]I still probably won't read them though.[/sp]
It was just yesterday I was talking to my friend about lending her a copy of Dragonflight... She will be missed.
D: Oh. Damn that sucks. She was a good author, and my mom's favorite sci fi author.
I know nothing about Pern, but why are they calling her a Sci Fi author if she wrote about dragons, which are a fantasy thing?
[QUOTE=Dr. Fishtastic;33410819]I know nothing about Pern, but why are they calling her a Sci Fi author if she wrote about dragons, which are a fantasy thing?[/QUOTE]
Because it wasn't fantasy. It was science fiction. Science fiction doesn't have to be set in the future and just because its set in the future doesn't make it science fiction.
rrer
[QUOTE=darkrei9n;33410862]Because it wasn't fantasy. It was science fiction. Science fiction doesn't have to be set in the future and just because its set in the future doesn't make it science fiction.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonriders_of_Pern#Fantasy_or_Science_Fiction[/url]
Rest in peace.
The books were awesome. I read many, but I never read all of them.
[QUOTE=Dr. Fishtastic;33410819]I know nothing about Pern, but why are they calling her a Sci Fi author if she wrote about dragons, which are a fantasy thing?[/QUOTE]
Because Pern was not all she wrote also. Crystal Singer was sci-fi also Pern was a fantasy world that had sci-fi elements, such as the people on that world's main enemy being from another planet. Also the people of the world are from another planet, though they colonised so long ago, no trace of the earlier tech.
[QUOTE=IMoo;33410872]rrer[/QUOTE]
Perrern.
I remember when someone posted this image a while back.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Anne_McCaffrey_1.jpg/240px-Anne_McCaffrey_1.jpg[/img]
I never knew this was the lady behind Pern.
[editline]23rd November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=IMoo;33410872]rrer[/QUOTE]
Gross dragon pernos.
I have never heard of this series.
[QUOTE=Dr. Fishtastic;33410819]I know nothing about Pern, but why are they calling her a Sci Fi author if she wrote about dragons, which are a fantasy thing?[/QUOTE]
It's been an ongoing thing lately, I blame Twilight for no other reason than it's made fantasy stuff popular (At my local book store, the entire SciFi section is dedicated to dragons, fairies and vampires)
That said, this book series seems to be fine, since it blends them together pretty well (The dragons are actually aliens or something?)
[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;33412201]It's been an ongoing thing lately, I blame Twilight for no other reason than it's made fantasy stuff popular (At my local book store, the entire SciFi section is dedicated to dragons, fairies and vampires)
That said, this book series seems to be fine, since it blends them together pretty well (The dragons are actually aliens or something?)[/QUOTE]
The humans are colonists on the planet from thousands of years back. the main enemy is the Thread a mushroom spore thing that floats down from a nearby planet when orbits get close enough.