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Anne McCaffrey Book News

last update 11/20/2004

Todd McCaffrey's much delayed book, Dragon's Blood, is apparently nearing completion.  With luck it'll be published in the next 6-12 months.  It is set mostly in the 3rd Pass, with a bit of time travel back towards the 1st Interval (I think), and deals with a plague that affects dragons. 

One of Anne's upcoming projects is to be another Pern book, likely another novel set after The Skies of Pern which would be a follow-up to The Dolphins of Pern.

Acorna's Triumph, the seventh Acorna book, is due March 2004.  At least one further Acorna book is planned, on the subject of a child of Acorna.

Dragon's Kin, a Pern novel co-written by Anne and her son Todd McCaffrey, is due Nov 25, 2003.  It is set about 15 Turns before the start of the Third Pass and deals in depth with watch whers and the discovery of their usefulness.

A number of omnibus editions are either scheduled to be released soon or have come out in the past year or so:

Acorna's Rebels, the sixth Acorna book was published in January 2003.

Anne took a break from writing for a while, following the death of "Sis", Sara Brooks, her sister-in-law who had lived with her for many years.

A Gift of Dragons was published in late 2002.  It is a collection of Pern short stories:  "The Smallest Dragonboy", "The Girl Who Heard Dragons", "Runner of Pern", and "Ever the Twain".  The last one is new to this volume, the rest have been published previously in other anthologies.

Freedom's Ransom, the fourth Freedom/Catteni book, was published mid-2002.

Acorna's Search, the fifth Acorna book was published December 2001.

There is a new biography of Anne published in July 2001, Anne McCaffrey: Science Fiction Storyteller written by Martha P. Trachtenberg.  It's part of the People to Know series from Enslow Publishers.   This is a well-researched detailed biography of the life of Anne McCaffrey, starting with her childhood and following the development of her writing career to the present.  It does a good job of presenting the major events in McCaffrey's life and situating what novels she was working on at various times amongst those events. Included are quite a number of interesting photographs, a chronology, a partial list of McCaffrey's works, and sources for further reading including web sites.  I really enjoyed reading this biography, and while I was already pretty well informed about McCaffrey's life I did learn new things from this book.  It should be noted that this book is part of series which is aimed at teens, and this is evident as the book stops to explain terms such as magna cum laude.  But I think that McCaffrey fans of all ages will find it a very good read, just as they enjoy her own books that were aimed at a younger audience.  Of course I'm delighted beyond words that this very website was included on the short list of sites in the back of the biography!

The Skies of Pern was released in the UK in Feb 2001 and in the US in April 2001.  See the UK cover art.  The originally proposed US art had most folks in an uproar, a fact which was relayed to Del Rey by Alec Johnson (Anne's son and webmaster).  Del Rey did decide to change the art, using the dragon from the UK cover on a white background, which is an improvement but still not as exciting as the full UK cover.  They're also going to be releasing Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon with new cover art to match, and it just plain stinks!  Oh and take a good look at the DQ cover.....they recycled the original Skies of Pern cover that we all hated and they agreed to change!  Arrrrgh!  The reason for this new style of covers is that Del Rey is hoping the books will appeal to a larger audience and not just science fiction readers.  A noble goal but I miss the more scenic covers.

Pegasus in Space, third book in the Pegasus timeline of the Talent series, was released as a paperback in March 2001.  The earlier novels were re-released in paperback with the hardcover a year ago, with new cover art done by the artist illustrating the new book, Bruce Jensen.

The fourth Acorna novel, Acorna's World hit bookstores on July 25th, 2000.  The cover art was done by John Ennis, who has done all the covers so far.

Dragonholder: The life and times (so far) of Anne McCaffrey,
Anne's biography written by son Todd J. McCaffrey was released in late November, 1999!  It is a wonderful book (if a little shorter than I was hoping).  See the beautiful cover at amazon.com.

Rumor has it that there will be a sequel to The People of Pern, from a different artist (because Robin Wood suffers from fibromylagia and is not able to do much print work), if a publisher can be found for it.  The new artist is Rob Prior, whose work I got to see at DragonCon (fabulous!) and also meet briefly and snap a few pictures of.  As for the original People of Pern, it was finally reprinted in 1999, but Robin Wood is now sold out of the copies she had to sell;  the sci-fi book club might have some still, available to members only (I really don't know!). 

The Tower and the Hive (the fifth in the Rowan/Damia Talent timeline) and Acorna's People (the third Unicorn Girl book) are now both out in paperback.

There's a new Helva story, "The Ship That Returned" in the anthology Far Horizons edited by Robert Silverberg.  The title was supposed to be "The Ship Who Returned," and it should be corrected in the paperback edition of the anthology.
And for anyone who missed it, there's a Pern novelette, "Runner of Pern", in Silverberg's Legends anthology.  When this book went to paperback it was issued in multiple volumes; be sure to buy the correct one if you want the McCaffrey story! 

DelRey sources:  "Anne has won the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award from ALA for The Harper Hall Trilogy, The Ship Who Sang, and the main Dragonriders of Pern ® novels.  Established in 1988, The Margaret A. Edwards Award is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and sponsored by School Library Journal magazine. It recognizes an author's work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world. Criteria include literary quality and popularity with young adults.  This award has had a profound impact on Anne, and she is very, very proud to join Madeleine L'Engle as one of two SF writers to be so honored."