FSFH Book Review

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Abnett, Dan
Adams, Douglas
Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto
Allen, Roger MacBride
Allie, Scott
Allston, Aaron
Anderson, Kevin J.
Barclay, James
Barnes, Steven
Baum, L. Frank
Bear, Greg
Bendis, Brian Michael
Bischoff, David
Bisson, Terry
Blackman, Haden
Bova, Ben
Bowen, Carl
Brooks, Terry
Canavan, Trudi
Card, Orson Scott
Chadwick, Paul
Clarke, Arthur C.
Clarke, Susanna
Clemens, James
Collins, Paul
Crichton, Michael
Crispin, A. C.
Cunningham, Elaine
Daley, Brian
David, Peter
DeMatteis, J. M.
Denning, Troy
Dick, Philip K.
Dickens, Charles
Dietz, William C.
Dixon, Chuck
Donaldson, Stephen
Eddings, David
Edginton, Ian
Elrod, P. N.
Erikson, Steven
Feist, Raymond E.
Foster, Alan Dean
Fraction, Matt
Furman, Simon
Gaiman, Neil
Gemmell, David A.
Gerber, Michael
Gibbons, Dave
Golden, Christopher
Goodkind, Terry
Goodwin, Archie
Graham, Mitchell
Grant, Alan
Green, Jonathan
Green, Laurence
Guggenheim, Marc
Hagberg, David
Hambly, Barbara
Hamilton, Laurell K.
Hand, Elizabeth
Harras, Bob
Harrison, Mick
Heinlein, Robert A.
Herbert, Frank
Herbert, James
Hine, David
Hobb, Robin
Homer
Howard, Robert E.
Jacques, Brian
James, Charlie Hamilton
Jenkins, Paul
Jeter, K. W.
Johns, Geoff
Jones, J. V.
Jordan, Robert
Jurgens, Dan
Karpyshyn, Drew
Kennedy, Mike
Kerr, Katharine
Keyes, Greg
King, Stephen
King, William
Knaak, Richard A.
Kube-McDowell, Michael P.
Lawhead, Stephen
Layman, John
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lewis, C. S.
Lieberman, A. J.
Loeb, Jeph
Lorey, Dean
Lowder, James
Luceno, James
Lumley, Brian
Macan, Darko
Manning, Russ
Martin, George R. R.
Marz, Ron
Matheson, Richard
McCaffrey, Anne
McIntosh, Neil
McIntyre, Vonda
Michelinie, David
Millar, Mark
Miller, John Jackson
Miller, Karen
Milligan, Peter
Moench, Doug
Moesta, Rebecca
Moore, Alan
Nicholls, Stan
Nicieza, Fabian
Nylund, Eric
O'Neil, Dennis
Ostrander, John
Paolini, Christopher
Perry, S. D.
Perry, Steve
Pratchett, Terry
Pullman, Philip
Quinn, David
Reaves, Michael
Reed, A. W.
Reed, Brian
Rice, Anne
Richardson, Nancy
Roberts, Adam
Rowe, Matthew
Rowling, J. K.
Rubio, Kevin
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn
Salvatore, R.A.
Shelley, Mary
Shultz, Mark
Simone, Gail
Simonson, Louise
Simonson, Walter
Smith, L. Neil
Spurrier, Simon
Stackpole, Michael A.
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stewart, Sean
Stoker, Bram
Stover, Matthew
Straczynski, J. Michael
Stradley, Randy
Strnad, Jan
Sutcliff, Rosemary
Tolkien, J.R.R.
Traviss, Karen
Truman, Tim
Turtledove, Harry
Tyers, Kathy
van Belkom, Edo
Veitch, Tom
Wagner, John
Watson, Jude
Whitman, John
Williams, Sean
Williams, Tad
Williams, Walter Jon
Windham, Ryder
Wolverton, Dave
Woodring, Jim
Wurts, Janny
Yeovil, Jack
Zahn, Timothy
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Still to come
Reviewing Literature
The Books of Anne McCaffrey

Winner of numerous science fiction and fantasy awards, Anne McCaffrey has had a career spanning half a century.  Her most famous creation is the world of Pern with it's dragonriders and harpers, spanning seventeen books.  Recently, Anne co-authored the Pern novel 'Dragon's Kin' with her son Todd McCaffrey, who is to take over the telling of the stories from that world.  She lives in County Wicklow, Ireland, where she indulges her love of horses.
 
Average Review Score: 2.5 out of 5

Dragonsdawn
The prequel to the Pern series.  This book tells the story of how the colonists from Earth originally arrived on Pern.  It chronicles the deadly first encounter with the Thread and shows how the native fire lizards are engineered and raised into the mighty dragons featured in the later books.  To be quite honest I've read colonisation science fiction written much better elsewhere (Adam Robert's 'Salt' jumps to mind right now).  Things like the Thread and the dragons might have worked better if it weren't for the fact that, even if you know almost nothing about the Pern stories, you'll know they're coming.  Another thing I strongly disliked was the contingent of Irish pikies.  They just seem to be a pointless bit of anachronistic nostalgia on the author's part.  As I always have, I found McCaffrey's prose sluggish, uninteresting and lacking in flow.  It speaks volumes that it took me two weeks to read this book when I can usually read at least 100 pages a day.  I really wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a real Pern junkie (God help you).
2 out of 5
 
Dragonflight
The first book of the Pern series.  Forgive me if this is short review, but I haven't much to say.  I didn't really enjoy this book much, finding it rather predictable and generally quite mediocre.  The mystery of the missing dragonriders is the book's best element, but even that struggles to offset the awkward prose and uninspiring story.  I guess I'm just not a McCaffrey fan (which is a bugger, considering I own seven more of her books that I haven't read).
3 out of 5

If you liked McCaffrey:
Then you might like to try Robert Silverberg's Majipoor novels, or possibly Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books.

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