Anne McCaffrey: Science Fiction Storyteller: A good young adult book with only one fault. It is, however, quite a doozy of a fault. The author, Martha Trachtenberg, breathlessly tells us about the Dragonriders of Pern television series in production... a series that apparently was never actually made and about which I can find no information on Anne McCaffrey's Website. Other than that fact, which she mentions several times, this is a pretty good book with a lot of good biographical information about a woman who changed the face of science fiction in a lot of ways.
As I read this I found myself trying to figure out when I met her. She made several trips to the United States on signing tours in the 1980s, and I think it was probably the 1986 tour when I met her, although I'm not positive. Although I enjoyed meeting her a lot, it was the guy behind me in the long line that sticks out in my mind. He was a Vietnam Vet, and he had the tattered remains of a shirt with a stylized dragon stencilled on it with him. Now, I know for sure I'm going to get the facts on this wrong, because I was a kid, it's been nearly 20 years, and I was in awe of the guy. Anyway, he said that his unit took the name "dragons" when a nerdy guy with a copy of Dragonflight suggested it. They used the colors of the dragons from the book. And he claimed that every man in the unit made it home alive. He still hadn't read the book, but he wanted to meet the woman who gave him and his buddies such good luck, and have her sign the shirt. I often wonder if his story was true, and what ever happened to him... did he ever read Dragonflight? Part of me really doesn't want to know, since it might spoil the sense of wonder.
Anyway, this was a great book for a fan of Anne McCaffrey, and made me curious to read some of her non-science fiction books, too. A good read.
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