Todd MacCaffrey

[Jaxom_Ruatha]

Hi , are you a Piers Anthony fan? Nice avatar by the way.

[Princess Ivy]

Anthony, Maccaffrey, Eddings, Adams Pratchet, Tepper, Roberts, Holdstock and quite a few others that i'm to lazy to think of right now
always nice to meet another anne fan, although for me the tower and hive and pegaus sequenses are my fave. I like dragons, don't get me wrong, i've read all of them and own all of them except that dreadfull master harper one, but the rowan is my fave, with the others in the series also being very good.

[Jaxom_Ruatha]

I still have a long reading list, but I am fairly familiar with some of those authors, the reason I was asking about Piers Anthony was because of your user name.

[Princess Ivy]

nicely spotted, yes, i'm named for the princess with the magical talent of enhancement

[Rosemary]

Apart from Dragonholder and Dragonkin, which I have not been able to find a yet, I have enjoyed all of Anne's books and enjoyed every one! Even Master Harper!
This is another series I am trying to collect, for if I remember rightly I donated them to my Library when I had finished reading them
I might not have much room left in the bookcase but these books are, as I look back, a wonderful series.

I am certainly looking forward to reading Todd's publications and just hope I won't keep comparing his way of writing to that of his mothers!

[Cheryl]

Let's see if the third post will work...the first two attempts crashed my browser (grrrr!).

Originally Posted by Lily

There's a book I've been trying to get ahold of by Todd called Dragonholder. It's supposed to be more of a memoir of Anne's work than an actual work of fiction. Apparently is a bit hard to find though. I found a copy at Amazon for £107! I also found a 1st edition on ebay right now for about $28US, but there's still a few more days to go before that ends.

Has anyone here read the book? Is it worth paying the premium for aside from filling the gap in my collection? Anyone know where I might be able to find a used copy for a modest sum?

Dragonholder is best described as a biographical sketchbook about Anne. It's not a traditional biography, as it doesn't attempt to cover all her life and it doesn't proceed linearly through time, but it does hit the major events in her life which have shaped Anne and her career, and also contains a number of family photographs.

As to whether it's worth the high price you usually find it for... I think it's likely only worth it to a collector or someone really keen on learning more about Anne, but everyone must judge for themselves. Personally I find Anne's life remarkable and inspirational, so I likely would pay a premium if I didn't manage to buy a copy when it was in print.

If you are interested in Anne's life, another biography is Anne McCaffrey: Science Fiction Storyteller by Martha P. Trachtenberg. It's still in print, and is part of a series for young adults (People to Know Series), which you'll feel at times in the writing, but it is great bio of Anne.

Online you'll find the same one page biographical blurb about Anne in many places, including her own website. I have a biographical timeline of her life on my site; it makes for dry reading but covers all the key events in her life and career.


For a chance to win a copy of Dragonholder, all are welcome to enter a trivia challenge some friends and I are holding in October, called McCaffrey Quest. While it would be a help in part to already own a biography of Anne to have a good chance at winning, most if not all answers can also be found on the net by those good at digging up such facts (hint, my own general McCaffrey site is a good place to start). For more information visit http://mccaffreyquest.srellim.org/

[mirinda]

I have actually read both Dragon kin and Dragonsblood and though they were fairly good. If you ahve trouble gettinh ahold of a particular book such as Dragonholder go to a sitr such as Borders.com and order it they always have books stored somewhere.

[Goldrider Thais]

i'm not particularlly fond of todd, but i do give him a "thumbs up" for trying. he's not really that bad, but i preffer his mother's writings!

[mirinda]

No one will ever compare to Anne, but they were good stories. Well thought out and never strayed from the laws of Pern. I try and look at the stories not the writing. of course if i don't like the writing it puts me off to further books by the writer. But books are my life I love them all...

[ghost8772]

Todd definitely leaned more on the Watch-whers than Dragons, even going so far as to make the watch-whers a lot more draconic than they were described in any of Anne's books. from what I've seen Todd has a set of his own favorite characters. and of course a time, his books are mainly at the transition of second Interval and third Pass. like the majority of Anne's books were on present (9th) pass. I do think Todd though is a big more inclined to people having things stripped from them, as well as people with some fairly transparent nefarious schemes. possible that will get better with more storytelling experience. (have only read Dragons Kin and Dragonsblood right now)

[manephelien]

Originally Posted by Princess Ivy

it seems tha tshe kept her restrictions in place, no mention of lessa or F'lar or the others there.
btw: HI

Of course not, since the books happened a thousand years or so before Lessa and F'lar. Even before Moreta. I still haven't picked up the courage to read Todd's books, I'm afraid they'll spoil Pern for me, the way Anne's own Beyond Between almost ruined Moreta.

[Lady of Winterfell]

I do still enjoy the books by Todd, but I think its mostly because they are about Pern, not really his writing.

I think Anne is far superior to him, as she should be since she started the series!

[manephelien]

Yeah. But I've read fan fic online which to my mind was superior to anything except the very, very best of Anne (Dragonquest, The White Dragon and the Harper Hall books). I can't imagine Todd's writing being better than, say, Dragonchoice