Your opinion - Top 10 Pern books/series from Anne McAffrey?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Yep, Mercedes Lackey has done a fair number of shared books, including many of the Bard's Tale books, back in her early days. There are times I think I prefer the shared ones (mistaken loves and abused kids don't seem to play such a prominent part). I didn't realize there was a McCaffrey connection to "Elemental Masters", though.

Only in my misfiring braincells. Comes from too much posting late at night, I
guess. That and they say the memory is the first thing to go.

Luck;
Ken

[Worldwalker]

Um, what did you say is the first thing to go, again?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Um, what did you say is the first thing to go, again?

Who's going somewhere?

[GhostHawk]

DragonFlight for me was one of the books that really pointed me towards Fantasy. Up to that point I was more into hard core Science Fiction.

But DF I picked up late one evening while at college, and when I finished I realized the sun was coming up and the birds were singing. It grabbed me in ways that other authors never did.

That being said, I think she would have been better off going out in style as the Grand Dame of fantasy rather than let Todd screw things up.

Have not been favorably impressed with his "additions" lets say.

As to Mercedes Lackey, well yes she's shared a lot of ideas, tossed bones to lots of people trying to get started. But the vast majority of her Valdemar series absolutely rock in my opinion. Mercedes somehow manages to not only make me like her characters, but get so emotionally attached that tears flow.

Say what you like, but to me that is about as good as it can get.

And yes, I know I just told everyone in the world that I'm a big softie.
No big deal, most of you knew it already.

[Gwen Morse]

Since the thread has mentioned other series of hers, I'll co-opt part of it to simply mention some Anne books I like that I think have been overlooked.

Restoree - one of her earliest and one of my favorites. I can't say what I love about this book other than...the quirkiness. The heroine of a book kidnapped by aliens, FLAYED ALIVE, sent through extreme corrective plastic surgery, and then doped and left to be an orderly in a hospital of "mental defectives"! That's what happens before you even meet her . The best I can say is that it's much better than it sounds with that intro. In it's broadest sense, it's a Cinderella story.

The Crystal Singer trilogy - Crystal Singer, Killashandra, Crystal Line. A great set of books. The first two are fantastic, the third is the weakest but still "readable". Just like the Pern books (teleporting firebreathing dragons battling rains of deadly spores from space), it takes a totally improbable premise (fabulously valuable physics-violating quartz crystal mined by humans with perfect pitch) and tries to wrap it in a thin veneer of scientific explanation. Also like the Pern books, the science is secondary to the "story". Reading the three books in series you get a glimpse of something rarely provided in light science fiction...the rise, peak, and fall/redemption of a character.