Thoughts on Anne McCaffrey's Work?

[Greg_Seebregts]

Hi All

Just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on the works of Anne McCaffrey? Do you like them? Why/Why not? What are some of your favorite books of hers?

Personally, I love Anne McCaffrey's work; I find it incredibly entertaining, full of likable characters, exciting action, and excellent humor. Some of my favorites are: the Tower and the Hive series, Dragonsinger and the Crystal Singer Trilogy.

[kandscreeley]

I tried her some of her books quite a while ago now. I could never get into them. I'm not sure why. Perhaps too much fantasy as I'm more into the sci-fi side.

[Greg_Seebregts]

Yeah, there's quite a heavy fantasy element to most of her work - the one exception being the Talent Universe books. To Ride Pegasus, Pegasus in Flight, and Pegasus in Space are the first three in the universe. If you haven't read those then maybe that's a good place to start.

[Musae]

I have and I love it Dragonriders of Pern is my favorite but I want to read more

[Lysander99]

Hi All

Just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on the works of Anne McCaffrey? Do you like them? Why/Why not? What are some of your favorite books of hers?

Personally, I love Anne McCaffrey's work; I find it incredibly entertaining, full of likable characters, exciting action, and excellent humor. Some of my favorites are: the Tower and the Hive series, Dragonsinger and the Crystal Singer Trilogy.

Anne McCaffrey's work should be given to any young child as mandatory reading to allow that child's imagination to grow beyond the limits of what they can perceive the world to be. I know that this seems outlandish but i just really found her work really unique and how she had an innocent view of how special abilities like magic could benefit society that i found particularly charming.

Her Tower and the Hive Series, in particular had a great mixture of Metaphysical & Psychic combat combined with Awesome Space Military Combat that is unique to read.

Her Dragonriders of Pern Series is a great decades spanning series of books of a world where all manner Dragons exist alongside our protagonists. It is a joy to see the series characters and their descendants grow and change over time.

Lastly her Crystal Singer Trilogy is a fantastic science fiction series with a great story and scope with characters with special abilities and unique and interesting alien species and worlds. It was a great series and i wished that she had written more books in that series.

Given her range of writing ability i think that she is a great author and would recommend her books to anyone.

[1+Katherin]

I have just joined the book club and I am glad to find people who read the same books I do. Anne McCaffrey is probably my favorite author. I have read her Pegasus trilogy, which is the first part of her Talented series trilogy.

The first is the Pegasus trilogy. The second entry to the story/series is the Rowan books which takes place about about 5 generations later.

The last part of the story/ series trilogy are the books in the Hive books. I have read and enjoyed all of them.

I have also read several of the Pern series and stand alone books. I enjoyed these stories but have not read them all. I don't believe I have read any of the books her son Todd has written.

The first series of hers I read was the brainship stories. The first book I discovered was called The Ship Who Sang. This series also included non- ship stories like The City That Fought.

Other series of hers I have enjoyed include the Freedom, Doonia (Ms?) and Crystal Singer.

I didn't like the Powers To Be and I have not read her other series.

A couple of her stand alone books I have read are The Year of the Lucy and one I Have to check the title of that is about a prince/ruler that has been overthrown and is helped by a woman from Earth who is also being held captive.

I know this has been a long entry but there are so many of her books worth reading.

[Honeybeetle]

My mom had all her paperbacks when I was a kid, and I read them as soon as I was capable to getting through books without pictures in them, having admired the dragons on the covers for ages. The world of Pern was astounding, beautiful and dangerous, and I was hooked. I found out years later that my teachers had called my mother expressing concern that I was reading "inappropriate literature." Apparently, mom just laughed and replied "It's fine, they're from my bookshelf!"

Anne McCaffrey wasn't perfect, but she was a visionary and a trailblazer in sf/f. I know reading her work as a kid did my imagination a world of good.

[nes86]

Anne McCaffrey is one of my favorite authors as well. I attribute my love of all things fantasy and dragon to her amazing work! I recently started rereading the books in order of the Pern timeline, purchasing the books that I missed or that came out after I originally read the series years ago. Her son, Todd, has done a very good job picking up where she left off and continuing the series. I just found out her daughter, Gigi has also written at least one book in the world of Pern called Dragon's Code. I will have to check it out. A talented family for sure. If you haven't read it, I would also recommend Dragonholder: The Life and Dreams (So Far) of Anne McCaffrey by her son, Todd McCaffrey. I really enjoyed learning more about her.

I appreciate some of the other series you have recommended by her. I will have to check them out as I believe I have only read her Pern books and a few of her stand-alone novels.

[EvelynBlake]

What would people recommend as the most suitable first book by Anne McCaffrey? I want to try to read some of her stuff but she has written quite a lot

[M Zee]

I really love her Dragonriders of Pern series (and her Tower and Hive books as well) but I think it's really important to point out that the books were written in the 1960s. A lot of her books were pretty progressive at the time but they haven't always aged well on a few social issues. I don't think that should keep anyone from reading them but it should be kept in mind, especially when handing them to a younger audience (though I read them when I was in middle school, so I can't say much!).