Anne McCaffrey | Robin McKinley | Tamora Pierce | R. A. Salvatore | J. R. R. Tolkien
Anne McCaffrey defined much of the way dragons are portrayed in fantasy with her Dragonriders of Pern series. I started with the wrong book, as usual, but I found the first one eventually. She has written so much more, but the dragons are what she is best known for. My favorite book in the Dragonriders series is Dragonsdawn. This is the first chronologically in her Dragonriders series, though not in written order. It describes how humans got to Pern in the first place, and how the heirarchy that is present on Pern eas established. The Rowan and Damia are two of the books in her Telepathy series. The Rowan is the orphaned girl of a mining camp destroyed by floods, and the whole world of Altair heard her cries. Damia is the Rowan's daughter, in every sense of the word, and is even more powerful. These were both originally short stories in Get Off the Unicorn. This collection is a very good way to get to know the breadth of subject that Anne McCaffrey writes about. It's original title was "Get of the Unicorn," but her publishers misread "of" as "off." Freedom's Landing is another book that started as a short story in Get Off the Unicorn. It has been expanded and changed slightly to being a whole new trilogy. Powers that Be was co-written with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. This is a fantastic story about how large sentient life can be, and the lengths people will go to not see what is in front of their noses. There are many other books...too many to put up here. I've just put up some of my favorites.
Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley writes mostly young adult stories, but that doesn't mean they aren't enjoyable. My favorite story is Beauty: a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It presents a new twist on the classic children's story, where Beauty is not beautiful and doesn't generally enjoy the lady-like things she should. McKinley has also written another retelling of Beauty and the Beast called Rose Daughter. I didn't like it as much as the Beauty, but I've been told I should reread it...*grin* She also wrote The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. Harry isn't a lady by any stretch of the imagination, though she can pretend with the best of them. When her father dies, she goes off to stay at the army post where her brother is stationed, to live on the charity of the commandant. She falls in love with the desert, and didn't know why until she is kidnapped to start a new life, one which includes Gonturan, the blue sword. The Hero is Aerin-sol, Lady Dragon-Killer. She fights to keep her country, Damar, from being overrun by the Demon folk of the Northland. The Crown is the Hero's Crown, lost years and years ago, and said to protect Damar.
Another Young Adult author. I started reading her in high school because one of my friends said In the Hands of the Goddess was a good book. She didn't tell me it was the second of four. I have now read all of that series, Song of the Lioness, and all of the next one, The Immortals. And she has now written another set of four books about children who don't realize what they have is magic.
I picked up Homeland from my roommates book shelf, and I was hooked. Some of the books are much better than others, but I really like the Darkelf stories....all of them. And he keeps writing more. I think I am two books behind on this series now. Oh, well.
One of the great masters of fantasy. His Lord of the Rings trilogy defined much of what fantasy is today. I just reread this recently and realized exactly how much I missed completely the first time around. And I hardly remembered anything except a couple things that give important parts of hte plot away...
Anne McCaffrey | Robin McKinley | Tamora Pierce | R. A. Salvatore | J. R. R. Tolkien
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This page last updated 02/16/2000. If you have any questions/problems/comments/help, please write me.