The Works of Anne McCaffrey

[chiqui]

Is anyone out there a Dragonriders of Pern addict? Wanted to be Menolly as a teenager? Is a fan of Rowan or Acorna?

I prefer McCaffrey's earlier short stories myself. The first three Pern novels were entertaining, but then began suffering the accrual of all that came before -- sequelitis -- and became less interesting to me. Now I couldn't possibally keep track of all the weyrs, dragons, descendants of weyrleaders, and time travel the characters have made.

Plus it has always bugged me that the books are supposed to be 'feminist' yet only one very, very lucky female can bond with a gold dragon and become an influential leader, whereas all males, in theory, have the chance to bond with a dragon and depending on the dragon's color, a weyrleader as well. I've heard it changed in later books, but not by much (i.e. the weyrs decided females could be allowed to bond with green dragons, the smallest and weakest of the breeds.)

[snowrunner]

I used to like Ann McCaffrey, but after awhile it started to bug that all her heroines started being pseudo-Irish-American, and had babies by the wagonload.

The Dragonriders were fun, but it got a bit blah when they kept inventing new Big Bads. Plus, she couldn't keep track of her characters, and dead lords used to reappear.

[Deleted]

Loved the first couple of Pern books, but rapidly lost interest after they uncovered the computer. Blah. Isn't her son writing the books now? I read one that I think they wrote together, and just couldn't get past the fact that, based on the description, the female lead had a mullet.

[franticjoy]

I loved the Rowan series, up until Lyon's Pride. Then I got bored. But all the prequels were cool- Pegasus in Flight, To Ride Pegasus- and I absolutely loved The Rowan.

I also read an early book of hers that surprised the hell out of me because it was a romance, called Ring of Fear. It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely written in a different time. Rafe, the male character, was such a 1970s porn star stereotype- mustache, lots of chest hair, very macho. I think it turned out that Nialla, the female lead, was into being spanked by him. It was just frigging weird to read that from Anne McCaffrey.

[Auroranorth]

I thought her other mainstream books were much better. The Lady is one of my favorites, and The Year of the Lucy and Stitch in Snow are ones I like rereading. The Pern series and the Rowan series both burned out a while back, and yes, her son is co-writing them now. She seems to suffer from the write the series until you die syndrome, but at some point you need to stop.

I do love the Petaybee series because it's set in a place like Alaska.