Anne McCaffrey is one of my Deadpool picks this year. Three of my picks this year are Sci Fi writers: her, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. All three are Damon Knight Grand Master Award winners, which commemorates the greats in Sci Fi.
I grew up reading Anne, eagerly anticipating the next installment in her Dragonriders series. Anne was one of the first Sci Fi authors I remember to work in shared universes with other authors (always with other female authors). She is a pretty ardent feminist, (although this is rarely mentioned in discussions of her life) in fact her first work was written to rectify what she saw as a lack in strong female protangonists in Sci Fi.
Suddenly, three years ago her Dragonrider books began appearing with the name of one of her sons, Todd, on the cover. That was when the sad truth emerged, that Anne is in failing health. The last three books in the series are all co-authored by Anne and Todd, but stylistic and content differences lead me to believe that Anne's inclusion is a polite fiction. At best she contributed a plot outline.
Sadly, the most recent photo of Anne I could find, from Aug 2005, seems to show her increasing infirmities. She is one of the all-time greats and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for the hundreds of hours of enjoyment and wonder she has brought me.
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