Here be dragons...
I'll be honest. I always thought that Anne McCaffrey's Pern books were a fantasy series. After all, the lurid dragons on the cover of the paperbacks that poulated the bookstores of my youth made it clear that there were dragons there, and in large numbers. And there were people on the dragons. That spells fantasy, for sure.
But then I subscribed to Easton Press' Masterpieces of Science Fiction (again: highly recommended to everyone in the US - outside the US will mean books lost in the mail which you have to write to EP to receive, although they are quite quick at getting the re-shipped books out) series, and received Dragonflight as one of the books. Huh? Well, without giving any spoilers, it seems the dragons were genetically engineered as a defensive weapon against a mindless spore attack from a neighboring planet. Ergo, science fiction.
The book does not begin well. I had a tough time getting into it. But from about the halfway point onwards, I began to understand why it made McCaffrey's name forever. It picks up speed, shows the great strength of will of the main character and turns a mediocre book into a great adventure that I didn't want to end. Recommended.
Has anyone else noticed how many great books come from either shorter work (Ender's Game), or awful earlier versions (Dune, The Silmarillion)? Well, Dragonflight itself has a similar genesis. The book was drawn from two novellas published in Analog: "Weyr Search" (Hugo winner) and "Dragonrider" (Nebula winner) - so now I'd like to see those earlier ones...
So, keep churning out those shorts... Who knows where they might eventualy lead? And I'd love to know which of the great novels - in the genre or outside of it - have this type of origin.
My World Cup thought of the day: I like the trend I'm seeing in which the good teams hammer the lesser ones by as many goals as possible. Not only is this practical due to tiebreaker rules, but it also drives home what I've been saying: the current qualifying rules allow too many teams that aren't up to standard to get into the finals - and leave out good teams that deserve to be there. So thank you, Portugal.
But then I subscribed to Easton Press' Masterpieces of Science Fiction (again: highly recommended to everyone in the US - outside the US will mean books lost in the mail which you have to write to EP to receive, although they are quite quick at getting the re-shipped books out) series, and received Dragonflight as one of the books. Huh? Well, without giving any spoilers, it seems the dragons were genetically engineered as a defensive weapon against a mindless spore attack from a neighboring planet. Ergo, science fiction.
The book does not begin well. I had a tough time getting into it. But from about the halfway point onwards, I began to understand why it made McCaffrey's name forever. It picks up speed, shows the great strength of will of the main character and turns a mediocre book into a great adventure that I didn't want to end. Recommended.
Has anyone else noticed how many great books come from either shorter work (Ender's Game), or awful earlier versions (Dune, The Silmarillion)? Well, Dragonflight itself has a similar genesis. The book was drawn from two novellas published in Analog: "Weyr Search" (Hugo winner) and "Dragonrider" (Nebula winner) - so now I'd like to see those earlier ones...
So, keep churning out those shorts... Who knows where they might eventualy lead? And I'd love to know which of the great novels - in the genre or outside of it - have this type of origin.
My World Cup thought of the day: I like the trend I'm seeing in which the good teams hammer the lesser ones by as many goals as possible. Not only is this practical due to tiebreaker rules, but it also drives home what I've been saying: the current qualifying rules allow too many teams that aren't up to standard to get into the finals - and leave out good teams that deserve to be there. So thank you, Portugal.