Have just heard reports that Anne McCaffrey has passed away.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/anne-mccaffrey-in-remembrance

Sad. One of the authors who addicted me to SF in my youth.

Locus confirmed it: http://www.locusmag.com/News/2011/11/anne-mccaffrey-1926-2011/

RIP

*sigh*

I just found out about this when I was on Facebook. We've lost another great. :(

I haven't read Anne McCaffrey since I was a kid. When an author dies, I always want to go back and revisit their work. What's your favorite McCaffrey book that I should read or reread?

Hard to pick a favourite, but I'll always have a soft spot for Dragonflight, because that's where it began for me.

(5) My favorite is probably Dragonsinger, but you should probably read the entire Harperhall series, starting with book one, Dragonsong and, after reading Dragonsinger, ending with Dragondrums.

I also have found that The Rowan is a good 'stand alone' book, although Damia is a good followup to the former.

I have a soft spot for her Crystal Singer series.

I stopped reading her in the mid-1980s, but I used to love The White Dragon.

I am sad to hear this. I've enjoyed reading alot of her books.

This is a terrible loss. RIP

I think my favourite is still Dragonflight, one of the big influences in my love of science fiction and fantasy. I'm sad that she is gone.

RIP Dragonlady

As a pre-teen, I loved the Harper Hall trilogy. Of the adult Pern books, my favorites are probably Dragonflight and Dragonquest. The Talent series, starting with The Rowan is good, though I recall the first and second books, The Rowan and Damia, as the strongest. I also enjoyed the Crystal Singer books and her YA Arthurian book Black Horses for the King.

I can't believe she's gone! She was quite an influence on me, she and Ursula K. Le Guin being my favorite contemporary SF/F writers. I love McCaffrey's strong female characters, well developed, engaging worlds and excellent storytelling. Her tales don't always have happy endings, but they are always satisfying. She'll be greatly missed.

The response which touched me most and which I find most appropriate was from another thread: "The dragons weep."

>15 justjim: Thank you for re-posting that.

She will be missed. Not only did she get me hooked on SF, but she influenced pretty much every author I read now.

I think it's been about thirty years since I read a McCaffery book, but I devoured them then. Her adult fiction has adult charcters with adult motives, and I find it hard to imagine that much of today's YA glut can measure up to the Harper Hall books.

For me the loss is on a scale with when Frank Herbert passed, as I discovered Dune and Pern at nearly the same time. I didn't follow her later work, but I'm pleased to hear so much praise for the Harper Hall trilogy which I've overlooked. As usual at times like this (it last happened to me with Arthur C. Clarke), I'm prompted to go back for what I've missed.