Book reviews

Book reviews with a Boston bent. Be it a book that takes place in Boston, or was written by a writer from Boston. Or one on the history of Boston. From comic book to graphic novels to the strange and weird. If it is about Boston you will find it here

Saturday, November 26, 2011

It is with great sadness that I write today

To share the new that one of the great authors has passed away.  Born in Cambridge Massachusetts on April fools day, author and world builder  Anne McCaffrey has passed away.  She had not been well of late, but hearing the news she had passed away from a stroke was still a blow.  I always admired Anne, and the one time I meet her years ago only made me love her more.  She was the first female author to win a Hugo, for her novella Weyr Search, and the first to win a Nebula for Dragonriders   The first woman to win both awards.  She always had time for her fans, and encouragement for people who wanted to write themselves.

I discovered Anne in high school. She had created a wonderful world where woman DID something. Must fiction and fantasy use woman as objects, some thing to be protected, to be chased after, never once to add or subtract anything to the story.  Anne was different, no one was useless.  Every person no matter what they did or who they were did something. Woman took the lead in many stories, strong woman, who did not need protecting.  In the Harper Hall series, Anne was writing commentary about  male centric  society.  Well she was writing a story about a woman who was a great songwriter and singer who lived in a society where woman did neither.  Kind of like how the world felt to me in the late 70's.  I wanted more than a working class girl should have wanted. I married the first guy who agreed with me that a woman should go to college, and be more than just a wife and mother.  In middle class and upper class famalies, it was expected that woman would go to college, but not in the blue collar world I lived in.  In Menolly I found a teen age girl wanting to be so much more than just a wife and mother. It was my life, only with Dragons!  I'm not a great singer, and it has been ages since I touched the organ even longer for the clarinet . But, like Menolly I wanted some thing more. When she found her place, I felt like I could do that too!

If you have not yet read this wonderful writer or know anything about  Pern wiki this will help. 

Anne did not just write Pern novels, thought they were her longest series.  She also wrote
The worlds of Anne McCaffrey



 My personal non Pern series is the Freedom Series 4 novels about what happens when the Earth is attacked by a superior alien race and manages to fight back. The series is complex, amazing and follows the  many races enslaved by the Eosi as they work together to bring freedom to the galaxy. As always Anne writes strong woman, and equally strong men.


When is a legend a legend? she famously asked in 1968 in the introduction to Dragonflight.  Well Anne my dear, you are a legend. An amazing woman who opened doors, and held them open for any one else who wanted to go through. 

 some of the most wonderful writing about her from the web. 

  NPR Remembering Anne McCaffrey   

About scifi Anne McCaffrey

My heart goes out to her family, and her son Todd, who like his mother is a wonderful talented writer, who always has time for fans, and turns most of them into friends. 




1 comment:

  1. I was also very saddened to hear about the death of Anne McCaffrey. She was a wonderful writer and she will be sorely missed.

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