Anne McCaffrey

[Jonce]

Has anybody read any of her Dragons of Pern books. There an excellent mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi.

Jonce

[Film Hobbit]

Yes, I've read all of them actually. The first book, Dragonsdawn is by far one of my favorite sci-fi books of all time. If anyone hasn't read it, I strongly suggest you at least pick up Dragonsdawn.

[arynetrek]

haven't read anything from that series in awhile - the books without Robinton aren't nearly as good.

aryne *

[Film Hobbit]

The earliest ones in the series are indeed the best... the later in the series that you get, the more they decline.

[Finduilas]

I like them too. However, I don't think the trend of "the newer the worse they are" is really true. My least favourite is "Renegades of Pern".

What are your opinion of the "Ship" books?
I think some of them are good, while others are abysmal. The worst being "Partnership" I think.

[inSANaTEE Ordrin]

I found the Dolphins of Pern to be one of the more interesting of that series. ROP wasn't the greatest. It had to be filled out a bit in my opinion. Her little short in She Talks to Dragons was well done and added enough backstory to tide me over.

I did like her Chronicles of Pern as well. Great lead into the entire story.

On another side. Anyone ever read her partnership with Mercedes Lackey about the Ship captain who over ran a coup attempt on the government?

[Razgon]

Oh, and what about the books about the crystal singers?
They are actually quite good as well.

[Finduilas]

Yes, the Ship who Searched was the first of the Ship books I read, and the only one I have bought. Having read the others, I think Lackey added an extra level to that one (I had tears in my eyes each time I read the scene in the hospital).

The Crystal Singer books were ok, but they ended up in a second hand bookstore a while back (no regrets).

[inSANaTEE Ordrin]

I think the one that I am talking about findulas, is Sassinak. Great start to a wonderful trilogy, of which the Ship who Searched was I think the end. Nice little story to read and follow. Enjoyed it immensely. You are right though that Lackey did add a certain level to it, that made it all the more charming. If you liked those stories, you just might like an old out of print book by Gunnarson, named Starwolves. Same sorta vein and style of story.

[Finduilas]

Nope!
Sassinak is the 2nd book in the Planet Pirates trilogy. The first one is 'The Death of Sleep" I think, and the last one is "Generatinon Warriors"
They are all collaborations.

[inSANaTEE Ordrin]

Ok, Well I have read Sassinak and Generation Warriors. Not the first one. Enjoyed them both immensely. Need to read that first book now.

I have not read the Ship series however. Thought I had, but I ws mistaken.

[Finduilas]

In my opinion (not everyones) some of the Ship books aren't worth the paper they were printed on.

[inSANaTEE Ordrin]

Interesting. I have read the cover spiels on those. And they never really caught my interest.

[Finduilas]

I really like The Ship Who Searched, and occasionally read The Ship who Sang, but Partnership and the Ship who Won are abysmal. As are any of the Ship books done solo by any of the collaborators.

[cee2lee2]

I prefer the early Pern books also. However, if it's about Pern, I'll read it even if I don't buy it. The library has been useful in determining which ones I'll spend $ on. I can read it first before buying;)

Read the Cyrstal Singer books but preferred the Pern universe. Haven't been very interested in the "ships" books, but have enjoyed the Freedom books (Freedom's Landing; Freedom's Choice). Is there another of those?

[Finduilas]

Yes. I think it's called Freedom's Challenge.

I also don't care for the Tower Books (The Rowan series), nor really the Pegasus trillogy. In both cases I have not read the latest book.

However, I am thinking of buying Nimisha's Ship.

[GlaurungTheGold]

Nimisha's Ship is pretty good, although I prefer the Pern books.
The later Pern books are a BIG departure from the early ones, although they're good in their own right IMO, they jsut don't really fit in with the rest of the books (ones like All the Weyrs of Pern I mean)

i think my favorite books were, for no apparent reason, the Menolly trilogy (Dragonharper, Dragonsinger, Dragonsomethingelse) and that book about Robinton's youth

there's also a short story (about 50 pages :) ) called Runner of Pern out there somewhere... it's in a collection of add-on short stories to existing fantasy worlds. they also have a Wheel of Time story which is cool... i think the name of the book is Legends?

[Finduilas]

Yes, there is a bit of a difference between the early ones and the most recent ones. I like Masterharper too. The trillogy you are referring to is Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums.

I know the book you are referring to, but I can't remember the title either.

[GlaurungTheGold]

Heh at least i got the spirit of the titles right :)
it's been a while since i read them, but i might start rereading around christmas since that's when i go home and that's where the books are...

[Finduilas]

I had to go check the titles at Amazon. (It's also available as "The Harper Hall").

Another McCaffrey book I like is "Black Horses for the King"
Have any of you read it?

[GlaurungTheGold]

Yeah it was a nice take on the legend of King Arthur. Short, but nice.

[Finduilas]

It's nice to see a story focusing on one particular aspect of a story like that. The entire story is so large, that sometimes a story based on a detail is really nice.

[Gilthalion]

I liked the (first) Dragonrider books.

I liked the Harper Hall trilogy.

I've read, and liked the first two Freedom's Challenge novels.

Seems there was something else, about telepaths who threw spaceships at one another across the void. There was a whole series of them, and they weren't bad.

[Finduilas]

The third of the Freedom books is pretty good.

Opinion on the Tower books?
(I just picked up "The Rowan" and "Renegades of Pern" at a library booksale)

[DayStar2002]

if my library had the first second and third book i would read them..... but my library sucks

[Gilthalion]

I thought the Tower series (telepaths tossing rockets, right) was good, light, pleasurable reading.

Like most of McCaffrey's work, I don't pick her up for a serious read. But I do enjoy her writing!

[Finduilas]

As I recall (not having read the series for 4 or 5 years, the first 2 were good, but they went downhill from there. As with the Pegasus books (there is a 3rd one out now that I have yet to read.)

[X Rogue]

I liked the Pern books best, although I didn't care for Renegades of Pern all that much. Read Dragonflight first and still think Lessa is wonderful, then read the Harper Hall trilogy. Robinton and Lessa are still my favorite characters in my periodic re-reads.
Liked Crystal Singer and Rowan series somewhat less than Pern, but about equally with each other. I did think that the rowan books kinda went downhill after the second one or so, however.
The Powers that be series was ok too.

[SarahStar]

Pegasus in Space is good. Read it. It's fun. (Make sure you approach it from that perspective, though: it's supposed to be fun. That's it.)

The Tower and the Hive gets better as you get used to what I like to call the "descendents" books. ( The Rowan and Damia each focus on one central character, whereas the next three focus on their descendents.) I wasn't a huge fan of Lyon's Pride but I enjoyed it more after I had read the rest of the series.

I'm a little confused as to how anyone could stand to read Freedom's Landing and Freedom's Choice and then not read Freedom's Challenge! I'm still waiting for the fourth book! (Not that there has to be another, but c'mon! I want more!) Have any of you heard of the computer game that's supposed to be released...uh...sometime soon? I think it takes place on Earth.

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned Acorna. Those books are fun, too! And there's four of them now!

http://www.geocities.com/shadowstarsrpg/sarahsig1.jpg

[Finduilas]

I read the first of the Acorna books, but never got into the others.

One thing I find funny about the pegasus books is reading them now (the first one was set in the early 90's) and looking at where they thought we would be at this time.

[Salli Canaliya]

If I ever write anything sci-fi, I am going to be sure not to mention any dates in the future. ;)

Rather than make all the comments that have been coming to my head as I read this topic, I'm going to bring up something that hasn't been discussed yet. Does anyone have any thoughts on Nimisha's Ship?

Personally, I really enjoyed it. But do you know what I'm getting at when I say it managed to go the entire book without much of a plot? In a lot of McCaffrey, what is really interesting are the characters, societies, and worlds, and whatever the big conflict is almost feels as if it is gentting in the way of the fun stuff. In this book, however, that is not a problem. There are no big conflicts.

I was interested to read that someone thought the Tower and the Hive and the Crystal books were about on equal footing. Maybe I'm biased because I read them pre-Pern, but I give the Rowan books much more credit than that. (The Crystal series is perhaps my least favorite McCaffrey trilogy, okay?)

[Finduilas]

I liked it. That one really had a nice feeling to it. Watching 2 species come together, and the way nobody gave up hope of being found.

[Elanor]

I've read most or all of the Dragonriders of Pern, as well as the Dinosaur Planet books, Pegasus/Rowan/Damia books (I like the way Pegasus in Space finally connected them all), and a bunch of other ones. The Dragonriders is one of the scifi/fantasy series that really makes me want to write my own sequel! Anyone for some fan fic?

[Finduilas]

Love to see some. If you are looking for somewhere to put it, you can try it on my message board (I have a section for that that is just dying for some new messages now).

[Elanor]

Hm, well, I've been sort of inventing a plot in my head for a while now--ever since I read All the Weyrs, actually--and it keeps changing! argh. I'm scared that if I write it down, I'll want to change it later... Does you ever have this problem when you're trying to write a story?

[Finduilas]

All the time. I have one original piece in 3 places, all different.

[Elanor]

I just started reading the Ship Who Sang series--how many books are in it? Is the new Nimisha's Ship part of it?

[X Rogue]

Nope, Nimisha's Ship is not part of the Ship Who Sang series. I know it includes the Ship Who Sang, The City Who Fought, and maybe one other book I can't remember the name of. Ask at the bookstore or your library, they might know more about it.

[Finduilas]

Nimisha's Ship is set in the same universe as The Coelura.

The "Ship" Books about the brainships include:
Partnership
Ship who Searched
Ship who Sang
City who Fought
Ship who Won
and a few others that I can't remember
one is a sequel to City who fought
and another is a sequel to Ship who Won.


Finally read Pegasus in Space and it was actually quite good.

[biriwilg]

My library has a lot of Pern books, but it cuts off at Dragonseye. Does anybody know which book is after Dragonseye? Also, what is the fourth Acorna book? My library only has three. :(

[Elanor]

Here is a link to her official site: www.annemccaffrey.org/ (http://www.annemccaffrey.org/) They have a list of all her books and series. They also have a discussion board and a chatroom which I have heard that Anne herself visits on occasion. I've never seen her there but you could try. :) I just read a bunch of the Ship Who books and was disappointed in some of them. They were written jointly with other authors and don't have the character of the Pern and Tower ones.

[Finduilas]

Her collaboration with Mercedes Lackey is one of the best of the Ship books.

[KayQy]

Yes, the Ship Who Searched is one of my favorites. I don't care much for the other Ship books, Lackey adds something to it, I guess. I also like the Pern series, particularly the ones set in the last Threadfall; the Acorna series (hope to read #4 soon); really like all the Pegasus/Tower series except the first one (and I like the later ones better); the Powers That Be series and the Doona series (which nobody's mentioned yet); haven't read the Crystal series, don't plan to. I think that about covers it.

One thing that I like about the Pern and Talent universes is that they're completely hers. She's brought in other people on nearly every other series, for better or for worse, but those are hers and hers alone.

[Finduilas]

I liked the earliest of the Talent series, but after the 3'rd or so they got a bit wierd for me.

I don't remember if anyone has discussed the Freedom series yet?
Those are an interesting set of books.

[Elanor]

I made this chart/list of Anne McCaffrey books. It helps me see which ones I have or haven't read. Of the 74 listed, I've read 44 :)

1) All books
2) list and descriptions of series.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) ALL 74 BOOKS (listed on annemccaffrey.org) in order of publishing.
-helpful series codes I made up
-publishing date
-co-authors
-awards
-other comments

Restoree 1967 out of print
Dragonflight (p1) 1968 Hugo, Nebula awards
Decision at Doona (d1) 1969
Alchemy and Academe 1970 short stories edited by Anne McCaffrey
The Ship Who Sang (s1) 1969
Dragonquest (p2) 1971
The Mark of Merlin (r) 1971
Ring of Fear (r) 1971
Cooking Out of this World 1973 recipes from other scifi authors compiled by Anne
To Ride Pegasus (peg1) 1973
A Time When 1975 rare novella later incorporated into The White Dragon
The Kilternan Legacy (r) 1975
Dragonsong (p3)* 1976
Dragonsinger (p4)* 1977
Get Off the Unicorn (ss; p7) 1977 short stories including "The Smallest Dragonboy"
The White Dragon (p5)* 1978 Ditmar, Eurocon, Gandalf awards
Dinosaur Planet (dp1) 1978
The Dragonriders of Pern (p1,2,5) 1978 3 books in one volume
Dragondrums (p6) 1979 Balrog award
Crystal Singer (cs1) 1982
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (p8 ) * 1983
The Coelura 1983 short story out of print
Dinosaur Planet Survivors (dp2) 1984
Stitch in Snow (r) 1985 out of print
Killashandra (cs2) 1986 Science Fiction Book Club Book of the Year award
Nerilka's Story (p9) 1986
The Year of the Lucy (r) 1986 out of print
The Lady (r) 1987
Dragonsdawn (p10)* 1988 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
The Renegades of Pern (p14) 1989 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
The Death of Sleep (dp4) 1990 with Jody Lynn Nye
Sassinak (dp3) 1990 with Elizabeth Moon
Pegasus in Flight (peg2)* 1990
The Rowan (th1)* 1990
All the Weyrs of Pern (p17)* 1991 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
Crisis on Doona (d2) 1992 with Jody Lynn Nye
Crystal Line (cs3) 1992
Damia (th2) 1992
Generation Warriors (dp5) 1992 with Elizabeth Moon
PartnerShip (s2) 1992
The Ship who Searched (s3) 1992
Planet Pirates (dp3,4,5) 1993 3 books in one volume with JL Nye and E Moon
Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (ss, p11) 1993 Pern short stories
Damia's Children (th3) 1993 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
Powers that Be (ptb1) 1993 with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The City who Fought (s4) 1993 with S.M. Stirling
Lyon's Pride (th4) 1994
Power Lines (ptb2) 1994 with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The Dolphins of Pern (p18 ) 1994 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
The Girl who Heard Dragons (ss, p13) 1994 15 short stories, including the title story
The Ship who Won (s5) 1994 with Jody Lynn Nye
Treaty at Doona (d3) 1994 with Jody Lynn Nye
Freedom's Landing (f1) 1995
Power Play (ptb3) 1995
Space Opera (ss) 1996 with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. stories about music in space.
Black Horses for the King 1996
An Exchange of Gifts 1996 short story
Freedom's Choice (f2) 1996
No One Noticed the Cat 1996 short story
Petaybee Trilogy (ptb1,2,3) 1997 (one volume) with EA Scarborough
A Diversity of Dragons 1997 with Richard Woods, illustrated by John Howe.
Acorna (a1)* 1997
Dragonseye (p12) 1997 aka Red Star Rising in the UK
Acorna's Quest (a2) 1998
Freedom's Challenge(f3) 1998
If Wishes were Horses 1998 short story
The Masterharper of Pern (p15)* 1998 There is a CD with music based on this book!
Legends (p16) 1999 3 short novels including Anne's Runner of Pern
Acorna's People (a3) 1999
Nimisha's Ship 1998
The Tower and the Hive (th5) 1999
Acorna's World (a4) 2000
Pegasus in Space (peg3) 2000
The Skies of Pern (p19) 2001 upcoming

* the best, imo

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) SERIES listed in author's preferred order, not necessarily order of publishing.
See above for more info.

----------
The Dragonriders of Pern (p)
-Basically, people from earth colonize the planet Pern and over thousands of
years have to deal with the dangerous parasite thread that falls from the sky
periodically (their main solution is breeding fire-breathing dragons to kill it),
while developing their unique social and political structure and keeping their
planet alive. Lots of scifi, adventure, romance. A fully-developed world, with
lots of wonderful characters.

Author's preferred order (I agree)

1 Dragonflight (Weyr Search + Dragonrider)
2 Dragonquest
3 Dragonsong (Harper Hall trilogy 1)
4 Dragonsinger (Harper Hall trilogy 2)
5 The White Dragon (first 2 chapters)
6 Dragondrums (Harper Hall trilogy 3)
(then read the rest of The White Dragon)
7 The Smallest Dragonboy (short story in Get Off the Unicorn)
8 Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
9 Nerilka's Story 5, overlapping
10 Dragonsdawn
11 Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (short stories)
12 Dragonseye
13 The Girl who Heard Dragons (title short story)
14 The Renegades of Pern
15 The Masterharper of Pern
16 Runner of Pern (short novel in Legends)
17 All the Weyrs of Pern
18 The Dolphins of Pern
19 The Skies of Pern (in process)

----------
Dinosaur Planet (dp)
-set in and around the planet Ireta

-The Ireta Adventure-
1 Dinosaur Planet
2 Dinosaur Planet Survivors
-Planet Pirates-
3 Sassinak
4 The Death of Sleep
5 Generation Warriors

----------
Pegasus (peg) The Pegasus series preceeds the Tower and the Hive series
-involving the psychically "Talented" in Earth's future

1 To Ride Pegasus
2 Pegasus in Flight
3 Pegasus in Space

----------
Petaybee (ptb)
-set on the sentient planet Petaybee

1 Powers that Be
2 Power Lines
3 Power Play

----------
Freedom (f)
-Humanity's struggle for freedom after aliens conquer Earth

1 Freedom's Landing
2 Freedom's Choice
3 Freedom's Challenge

----------
Romances (r) not really a series

* The Mark of Merlin
* Ring of Fear
* The Kilternan Legacy
* Stitch in Snow
* The Year of the Lucy
* The Lady

----------
Doona (d)
-the adventures of Humans and Hrrubans on the unspoiled planet Doona

1 Decision at Doona
2 Crisis on Doona
3 Treaty at Doona

----------
The Ship Series (s)
-the adventures of "shell people" and their brawns

1 The Ship who Sang
2 PartnerShip
3 The Ship who Searched
4 The City who Fought
5 The Ship who Won

----------
The Tower and the Hive (th) This series follows the Pegasus series
-involving the psychically "Talented" Lyon family and friends

1 The Rowan
2 Damia
3 Damia's Children
4 Lyon's Pride
5 The Tower and the Hive

----------
Crystal Singer (cs)
-set on the planet Ballybran with the heroine, Killashandra Ree

1 Crystal Singer
2 Killashandra
3 Crystal Line

----------
Acorna (a)
-about Acorna the Unicorn girl

1 Acorna
2 Acorna's Quest
3 Acorna's People
4 Acorna's World

----------
Short story collections (ss)

Alchemie and Academe (edited)
Get Off the Unicorn
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Girl who Heard Dragons
Space Opera (edited)

[Finduilas]

That is a lot of books. I think I have read at least 59 of her books, maybe a few more.

[Finduilas]

I just saw "The Skies of Pern" in the local bookstore. Anyone read it yet?

[X Rogue]

Nope, didn't know if it was out yet or not. I'll read it and come back with my thoughts, I guess. I love the Pern books! I wanted a Pernese dragon SO much after reading the Dragonriders trilogy!

[Finduilas]

I'll read it eventually. It's got way too many holds at the local library now.
It looks interesting though (set after All the Weyrs of Pern and Dolphins of Pern) and I was sort of wondering what would happen after those books.

[galadriel1]

I used to read some of her stuff but got away from it for a while. I`ve found a new interest lately. I`m starting back into the Dragonriders of Pern series - with Dragonflight. I had started to reread it years ago but never finished it. I want to read the series again because I`ve forgotten a lot of it.