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Anne McCaffrey
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 Anne McCaffrey's major work in hard science fiction for three decades has been her continuing series
of stories chronicling the history of the planet Pern. Originally begun under the tutelage of John W. Campbell
in the late 1960s, this popular exercise in hard sf world-building, complete with astrophysics and environment
in the tradition of Mission of Gravity and
Dune, has become the locale of many fantastic and romantic
adventures, from the first book,
Dragonflight (1968) to the most recent,
All the Weyrs of Pern (1991). The telepathic
dragons of Pern have become McCaffrey's trademark; although she has written other sf, notably
The Ship Who Sang (1969), it is the Pern books that are automatic best sellers today. And while they are read by hard sf
fans who appreciate the worldbuilding in the background, the mass audience undoubtedly reads them as
romantic fantasies about dragons, not science fiction at all (a fact that has caused the author some dismay over the
years -- she vigorously, and correctly, maintains that she writes science fiction -- worldbuilding is hard work).
It is true that the stories set on Pern often have little to do with the attitudes of hard science fiction and
a lot to do with the emotional bonds between humans and the dragons they ride. And it is further the case that
the enormous success of the series has liberated other writers both of fantasy and science fiction to pursue
the direction of romantic adventure, with or without world-building, to popularity and financial success. But "Weyr Search" exists in conscious
dialogue with the traditions of hard science fiction, in the lineage of Dune.
But intentionally or not, McCaffrey has forged a connection between world-building sf and
world-building fantasy of the lineage of Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings and Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy. In an
era when the contemporary genre fantasy was being created to a significant extent by science fiction writers
(such as Fritz Leiber) turning their talents to the creation of fantasy worlds, Pern exists as a sort of bridge between the
technical rigors of hard sf and the historical, anthropological and philological rigors of Tolkien, whose
concept of the creation of a Secondary World in fantasy fiction (elucidated in his 1947 essay, "On Fairy Tales")
has profoundly influenced the evolution of both fantasy and science fiction since. McCaffrey's blend, in the
Pern cycle, makes her as influential on the body of sf outside hard sf as Hal Clement is on hard sf itself.
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The Ascent of Wonder copyright © 1994 by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. | ||
Cramer: On Science & Science Fiction || Hartwell: Hard Science Fiction
David G. Hartwell || Kathryn Cramer || About Tor Books || Ordering Info
Interactive Intoduction to THE ASCENT OF WONDER copyright © 1995-1997 by Kathryn Cramer.