Post by DoveSuch sad sad news - Anne McCaffrey, author of many Sci-Fi Fantasy
books but best loved for her "Dragons of Pern" series, has passed away
at the age of 85 at her home in County Wicklow, Ireland.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/arts/anne-mccaffrey-dragonriders-author-dies-at-85.html
I'm actually crying as I write this - she was my best-loved author.
All of her paperbacks on my shelf are dog-eared from multiple
readings, and I tried (when I could afford it) to collect her later
books in hard cover when they were released.
Just posting as I know a few others who also loved her work.
Blessed be,
Dove
I used to think it was amazing how some writers could write so very,
very well. Now a days i tend to think some authors write about things i
am so interested in that they could write less well and i would still
think of them as great writers:)
I never could appreciate Shakespeare, and not for lack of trying, oh
yes, the occasionally verse or phrase here and there in his works but
over all i found him tediously difficult to read. Even the various
filmed versions of his works i found tedious and NOT entertaining.
Then i saw my first Kenneth Brannaugh interpretation, his film of
Shakespeare's RIchard III was and still , to me, not only incredibly
informative from a historical aspect but a very well made movie.
Previously i had never understood the Tudor succession of Henry VII. Or
why the change of Dynasty was still considered to be "in the family",
previously, it seemed to me some guy came out of nowhere and managed
through battle to win the crown of England as Henry VII. I had no idea
of his own heritage or that of his wife until i saw the Brannaugh film.
Dickens was another i just couldn't like no matter how much tried and
then in one last effort i gave his "Bleak House" a try, and i was stunned!
While set in Victorian England, mid 1800's it reads like a modern novel,
despite the set and settings and characters it seems very modern in its
dialogue and story telling. His best written book imo.
I have read everything some authors have written, some few authors have
grabbed me so strongly i couldn't get enough of them.
Most of them are spotty at best, one in particular published dozens of
books but only one is worth reading (though i have read them all:) and
that is Frank Herbert's "Dune."
On the other hand only 1 or 2 of the author E. F. Benson many works i
found boring and irrelevant.
As much as i like sci-fi as a genera, Modesitt's "Adamantine"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamant
being on a literary par with Herbert's "Dune" i tend to dismiss any book
that has the word "Dragon" on the book in any way:) even as a publishing
logo much less a word in the book title:)
I was very taken by Iain Banks "Consider Philibus" and its sequel "Right
Use of Weapons" but while he inspired me both to to read his earlier
works and try to write some of my own, he seems to have stopped writing
the type of Sci Fi i found so engaging in the two previously mentioned
works.
If i could write dialogue i would crib the Duke de Saint Simone's
copious (some 200,000 words) memoirs and write a "Versailles in Space"
novel:)
If you are not already familiar with it you might find H. Beam. Piper's
"Galactic Empire" stories of interest. He died young, back in the 1960,
just as he was about to break through to popular acclaim. Its kind of
funny when the Commanding Officer lights up a cigarette on the bridge of
the Imperial Star Ship as it cruises though hyper space between the
planets Parliament and Palatine:)
--
JL