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| Anne Mccaffrey |
On 21 November, the American writer sudden failure Anne McCaffrey, born 1926, author of the saga of The Dragonieri of Pern, The Ship, which de sang, and many other fantasy and science fiction, some of which are still unpublished in Italy (while almost everything else is out of print ...).
It was host to the 2002's Italcon, during which he met his Italian fans. I was among them, and I still remember being impressed by the character, which under the appearance of Miss Marple concealed determination and charisma. Not surprisingly, we are talking about a woman who, in 1970, leaving behind a divorce and moved to America alone with children Ireland.
The McCaffrey came to writing around 1950, but became a writer full time only since the mid '60s, when her three children began to be larger. Extremely prolific - including fiction, nonfiction, and collaborations with more hands is the author of nearly 100 titles - and versatile (but her romance novels are not much, and she was the first to recognize it), is the fantastic, of which he was passionate, which finds its true voice. Between 1961 and '69 he wrote a series of five short stories that later turn into the aforementioned The ship, which he sang the first title of the science fiction series of the same name: it tells of a universe where interstellar travel is fundamental to the survival of the human race , is only possible thanks to a ship guided by a human mind. For this reason the mind of children with severe physical is inserted inside the vessel, leading to the development of new creatures, sentient ships whose only relationship to the "human" is the exclusive link with your pilot. Already this track it is understood that McCaffrey did not fear the powerful stories. In 1969 the fourth story is the Hugo Award finalist comes to both the Nebula.
Two awards that the author had already won - the first woman to succeed - in the category in 1968 with the short novel The Flight of the Dragon, the novel that opens the saga of Dragonieri of Pern. The author is perhaps his best prose, as well as imaginative stories that deliberately exceed the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy: Pern is a world ruled and defended by a class of knights of dragons, fantasy ambiance apparently, since it is a colonized world centuries before by land. Each rider form a bond with your dragon, mental and spiritual absolute, so that the death of one of the two annihilated the survivor of the pair (just like in Eragon cycle of Chistopher Paolini).
The stories are many, too, each worthy of space, but this is not the context for a thorough analysis of the career of almost fifty years of McCaffrey. There will be time. I have not exhaustive, nor can I provide an accurate list of the Italian editions of his stories, too many of them out of print for years. I wanted, however, to greet one of the best writers of the fantastic 900, thanking her for the wonderful stories that left us.
