In Heaven there be Dragons

[Greyhaunt]

I've pretty much been sick since Thanksgiving morning or I would have seen this news sooner and posted about it then, but one of my most favorite authors, Anne McCaffrey, passed away on the 25th.

Her Dragonrider books may have had some misedits and continuity slips here and there, but they were and still are some of the best I have ever read. She had a way of bringing to life the characters so that you felt you knew them personally and in some cases even identified with the trials of their life.

To this day I can remember when and where I purchased my first Harperhall book - the Lassen Volcanic Park give center hahaha. We were on vacation and, voratious reader that I was, I had finished every book I'd brought with me and needed more. It had a beatiful cover with little dragons on it, and that was all I needed to see to want it. Years later I jumped into the Dragonrider books from the wrong end - I tried to start with the White Dragon purchased from the corner drugstore. Thankfully I went back and started from the beginning.

A wonderful storyteller has passed, but her stories shall go on forever.

[quidam]

I read a tiny snippet of one of her stories in elementary school in our readers. I was always frustrated that I never knew where the little fragment came from, because I loved it.

When I finally ran across her actual works a couple of years ago I was totally enthralled. While she certainly wasn't the best writer in the world, she was definitely a great story teller, and that's all that really matters. She still has me wanting my own fire lizard.

[OkamiKodomo]

I heard about this. I nearly cried. The Dragonriders were my first real introduction to fantasy worlds, and my all-time favorite portrayal of dragons. I've since also participated in several DRoP RPs, created a few fan-characters for her world, and amassed a collection of the books... I believe the only ones I'm missing are The Harperhall Trilogy, and Nerilka's Story, though I've read all of them. I've read The Rowan, Changeling, and a few other stories, and her worlds have always been so believable, in spite of the small slips, and her writing style captured me from the start. May her memory live on through her beautiful stories.

[Kirahfaye]

I've even reread several of my favorite Pern books. Thanks to my husband's previous obsession and my later one, we have every Pern novel she and her son have written.

I feel confident that the Lord welcomed Anne into heaven with open arms and a cup of klah!

[Linteia]

It was kind of like hearing the Easter bunny had died when I found out she passed. She was one of my favorite authors as a kid, and though it's been a while since I read any of her works it's still a little depressing that there will never be another one.

[Lamia of the Dark]

I think I've read a few of her short stories in anthologies, but I'm not overly familiar with her work...

[victoriavictrix]

I'm going to miss her terribly. Not only a wonderful storyteller, but a wonderful person.

[arrowchild]

Her books were some of the very first grown up fantasy books I ever read and had a huge impact on me-I'm revisting Pern right now, (rereading The White Dragon...a copy I've had since 7th grade).
Rest in peace, Anne McCaffrey

[Kirahfaye]

Arrowchild - Ruth and Robinton are my favorite Pern characters.

[LadydracoWD]

That makes me very sad to hear. I love her Pern books, as well as many others she had written... *Sadness*