Anne McCaffrey

Here is a link to her official site: www.annemccaffrey.org/ They have a list of all her books and series. They also have a discussion board and a chatroom which I have heard that Anne herself visits on occasion. I've never seen her there but you could try. I just read a bunch of the Ship Who books and was disappointed in some of them. They were written jointly with other authors and don't have the character of the Pern and Tower ones.

Her collaboration with Mercedes Lackey is one of the best of the Ship books.

Yes, the Ship Who Searched is one of my favorites. I don't care much for the other Ship books, Lackey adds something to it, I guess. I also like the Pern series, particularly the ones set in the last Threadfall; the Acorna series (hope to read #4 soon); really like all the Pegasus/Tower series except the first one (and I like the later ones better); the Powers That Be series and the Doona series (which nobody's mentioned yet); haven't read the Crystal series, don't plan to. I think that about covers it.

One thing that I like about the Pern and Talent universes is that they're completely hers. She's brought in other people on nearly every other series, for better or for worse, but those are hers and hers alone.

I liked the earliest of the Talent series, but after the 3'rd or so they got a bit wierd for me.

I don't remember if anyone has discussed the Freedom series yet?
Those are an interesting set of books.

I made this chart/list of Anne McCaffrey books. It helps me see which ones I have or haven't read. Of the 74 listed, I've read 44

1) All books
2) list and descriptions of series.

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1) ALL 74 BOOKS (listed on annemccaffrey.org) in order of publishing.
-helpful series codes I made up
-publishing date
-co-authors
-awards
-other comments

Restoree 1967 out of print
Dragonflight (p1) 1968 Hugo, Nebula awards
Decision at Doona (d1) 1969
Alchemy and Academe 1970 short stories edited by Anne McCaffrey
The Ship Who Sang (s1) 1969
Dragonquest (p2) 1971
The Mark of Merlin (r) 1971
Ring of Fear (r) 1971
Cooking Out of this World 1973 recipes from other scifi authors compiled by Anne
To Ride Pegasus (peg1) 1973
A Time When 1975 rare novella later incorporated into The White Dragon
The Kilternan Legacy (r) 1975
Dragonsong (p3)* 1976
Dragonsinger (p4)* 1977
Get Off the Unicorn (ss; p7) 1977 short stories including "The Smallest Dragonboy"
The White Dragon (p5)* 1978 Ditmar, Eurocon, Gandalf awards
Dinosaur Planet (dp1) 1978
The Dragonriders of Pern (p1,2,5) 1978 3 books in one volume
Dragondrums (p6) 1979 Balrog award
Crystal Singer (cs1) 1982
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (p8 ) * 1983
The Coelura 1983 short story out of print
Dinosaur Planet Survivors (dp2) 1984
Stitch in Snow (r) 1985 out of print
Killashandra (cs2) 1986 Science Fiction Book Club Book of the Year award
Nerilka's Story (p9) 1986
The Year of the Lucy (r) 1986 out of print
The Lady (r) 1987
Dragonsdawn (p10)* 1988 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
The Renegades of Pern (p14) 1989 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
The Death of Sleep (dp4) 1990 with Jody Lynn Nye
Sassinak (dp3) 1990 with Elizabeth Moon
Pegasus in Flight (peg2)* 1990
The Rowan (th1)* 1990
All the Weyrs of Pern (p17)* 1991 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
Crisis on Doona (d2) 1992 with Jody Lynn Nye
Crystal Line (cs3) 1992
Damia (th2) 1992
Generation Warriors (dp5) 1992 with Elizabeth Moon
PartnerShip (s2) 1992
The Ship who Searched (s3) 1992
Planet Pirates (dp3,4,5) 1993 3 books in one volume with JL Nye and E Moon
Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (ss, p11) 1993 Pern short stories
Damia's Children (th3) 1993 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
Powers that Be (ptb1) 1993 with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The City who Fought (s4) 1993 with S.M. Stirling
Lyon's Pride (th4) 1994
Power Lines (ptb2) 1994 with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The Dolphins of Pern (p18 ) 1994 Sci Fi Book Club Book of the Year award
The Girl who Heard Dragons (ss, p13) 1994 15 short stories, including the title story
The Ship who Won (s5) 1994 with Jody Lynn Nye
Treaty at Doona (d3) 1994 with Jody Lynn Nye
Freedom's Landing (f1) 1995
Power Play (ptb3) 1995
Space Opera (ss) 1996 with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. stories about music in space.
Black Horses for the King 1996
An Exchange of Gifts 1996 short story
Freedom's Choice (f2) 1996
No One Noticed the Cat 1996 short story
Petaybee Trilogy (ptb1,2,3) 1997 (one volume) with EA Scarborough
A Diversity of Dragons 1997 with Richard Woods, illustrated by John Howe.
Acorna (a1)* 1997
Dragonseye (p12) 1997 aka Red Star Rising in the UK
Acorna's Quest (a2) 1998
Freedom's Challenge(f3) 1998
If Wishes were Horses 1998 short story
The Masterharper of Pern (p15)* 1998 There is a CD with music based on this book!
Legends (p16) 1999 3 short novels including Anne's Runner of Pern
Acorna's People (a3) 1999
Nimisha's Ship 1998
The Tower and the Hive (th5) 1999
Acorna's World (a4) 2000
Pegasus in Space (peg3) 2000
The Skies of Pern (p19) 2001 upcoming

* the best, imo

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2) SERIES listed in author's preferred order, not necessarily order of publishing.
See above for more info.

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The Dragonriders of Pern (p)
-Basically, people from earth colonize the planet Pern and over thousands of
years have to deal with the dangerous parasite thread that falls from the sky
periodically (their main solution is breeding fire-breathing dragons to kill it),
while developing their unique social and political structure and keeping their
planet alive. Lots of scifi, adventure, romance. A fully-developed world, with
lots of wonderful characters.

Author's preferred order (I agree)

1 Dragonflight (Weyr Search + Dragonrider)
2 Dragonquest
3 Dragonsong (Harper Hall trilogy 1)
4 Dragonsinger (Harper Hall trilogy 2)
5 The White Dragon (first 2 chapters)
6 Dragondrums (Harper Hall trilogy 3)
(then read the rest of The White Dragon)
7 The Smallest Dragonboy (short story in Get Off the Unicorn)
8 Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
9 Nerilka's Story 5, overlapping
10 Dragonsdawn
11 Chronicles of Pern: First Fall (short stories)
12 Dragonseye
13 The Girl who Heard Dragons (title short story)
14 The Renegades of Pern
15 The Masterharper of Pern
16 Runner of Pern (short novel in Legends)
17 All the Weyrs of Pern
18 The Dolphins of Pern
19 The Skies of Pern (in process)

----------
Dinosaur Planet (dp)
-set in and around the planet Ireta

-The Ireta Adventure-
1 Dinosaur Planet
2 Dinosaur Planet Survivors
-Planet Pirates-
3 Sassinak
4 The Death of Sleep
5 Generation Warriors

----------
Pegasus (peg) The Pegasus series preceeds the Tower and the Hive series
-involving the psychically "Talented" in Earth's future

1 To Ride Pegasus
2 Pegasus in Flight
3 Pegasus in Space

----------
Petaybee (ptb)
-set on the sentient planet Petaybee

1 Powers that Be
2 Power Lines
3 Power Play

----------
Freedom (f)
-Humanity's struggle for freedom after aliens conquer Earth

1 Freedom's Landing
2 Freedom's Choice
3 Freedom's Challenge

----------
Romances (r) not really a series

* The Mark of Merlin
* Ring of Fear
* The Kilternan Legacy
* Stitch in Snow
* The Year of the Lucy
* The Lady

----------
Doona (d)
-the adventures of Humans and Hrrubans on the unspoiled planet Doona

1 Decision at Doona
2 Crisis on Doona
3 Treaty at Doona

----------
The Ship Series (s)
-the adventures of "shell people" and their brawns

1 The Ship who Sang
2 PartnerShip
3 The Ship who Searched
4 The City who Fought
5 The Ship who Won

----------
The Tower and the Hive (th) This series follows the Pegasus series
-involving the psychically "Talented" Lyon family and friends

1 The Rowan
2 Damia
3 Damia's Children
4 Lyon's Pride
5 The Tower and the Hive

----------
Crystal Singer (cs)
-set on the planet Ballybran with the heroine, Killashandra Ree

1 Crystal Singer
2 Killashandra
3 Crystal Line

----------
Acorna (a)
-about Acorna the Unicorn girl

1 Acorna
2 Acorna's Quest
3 Acorna's People
4 Acorna's World

----------
Short story collections (ss)

Alchemie and Academe (edited)
Get Off the Unicorn
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Girl who Heard Dragons
Space Opera (edited)

That is a lot of books. I think I have read at least 59 of her books, maybe a few more.

I just saw "The Skies of Pern" in the local bookstore. Anyone read it yet?

Nope, didn't know if it was out yet or not. I'll read it and come back with my thoughts, I guess. I love the Pern books! I wanted a Pernese dragon SO much after reading the Dragonriders trilogy!

I'll read it eventually. It's got way too many holds at the local library now.
It looks interesting though (set after All the Weyrs of Pern and Dolphins of Pern) and I was sort of wondering what would happen after those books.

I used to read some of her stuff but got away from it for a while. I`ve found a new interest lately. I`m starting back into the Dragonriders of Pern series - with Dragonflight. I had started to reread it years ago but never finished it. I want to read the series again because I`ve forgotten a lot of it.