Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780345422170
ISBN number: 0345422171
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 128
Printing Date: November 23, 1999
Publishing house: Del Rey
Release Date: November 23, 1999
Sale Popularity Level: 490427
Studio: Del Rey
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Product Description:
Here there be dragons . . .
Since the very first unforgettable appearance of Pern's remarkable dragons and their brave human riders in the novella Weyr Search, winner of a Hugo award in 1968, millions of readers the world over have thrilled to Anne McCaffrey's bestselling saga of men, women, and dragons united against the deadly fall of Thread. Thanks to McCaffrey's bold and generous imagination, we have known what it is to fly. We have touched the fiery hearts and minds of the great fighting dragons, witnessed their passionate loves and violent hates, and felt the deep, unbreakable bonds that join them to their riders. McCaffrey's creative magic has made Pern real--a home to hold in the heart. Its inhabitants are more than characters in a book. They are family.
Now a member of Anne McCaffrey's family--her son Todd--gives us a candid and inspiring glimpse into the mind and soul of one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers of all time--an extraordinary woman who has influenced a generation of writers and readers and left an indelible mark on the field.
From Anne's birth on April Fool's Day in 1926, her girlhood encounters with the strange power of second sight that gifts the McCaffreys, her trailblazing efforts to balance the roles of wife, mother, and writer in the turbulent sixties, through a painful divorce and the years of sucess and acclaim that followed, Dragonholder is a labor of love that will enrich every reader's appreciation of the world of Pern . . . and its equally unique creator.
Amazon.com Review:
In her brief note to the readers, Anne McCaffrey informs us that Dragonholder was written in response to countless requests to tell 'how I spent my childhood, who my friends were, my pets, how I ever thought up Pern and its dragons--the whole nine unvarnished yards.' Todd McCaffrey, her second son and a long-time science fiction (and McCaffrey) fan put together this album of family photographs and anecdotes, interspersed with behind-the-scenes stories about his mother's writing career.
The book includes everything from Anne's childhood pet--a Maine Coon cat named Thomas, who suffered her dressing him in doll clothes and wheeling him around in a stroller and whose best friend was the neighbor's collie--to tales of McCaffrey Second Sight (possessed by Anne's grandmother and mother, as well as herself) to how she came to write the stories that became Dragonflight, the very first Pern novel. It covers her career from the early stories through her long struggle to make ends meet as a professional writer to her sucess in 1978, when The White Dragon became the very first science fiction hardcover to reach The New York Times bestseller list. McCaffrey fans won't want to miss this--it's the subsequent best thing to having your own visit with her. --Nona Vero
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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The book came in expected condition. They shipped quickly and did a great job.
Rated by buyers -
I enjoy reading about the background story of her and her family, I enjoy her stories and also her son too. Dragonsblood and Dragon's Kin exclent so was Dragonlover's Guide to Pern but someone should have check it better for there are some problems with it and with On Dragonwings too. vak
Rated by buyers 
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Admittedly, this book is for fans of author Anne McCaffrey. Fans had been clamoring for her to tell her life's story, but she's been too busy writing her novels. Her second son, Todd, wrote this book to give the fans a little bit of what they want. That's the problem. It is a little bit. This is a very slim volume (coming in at not much more than 100 pages) and is not very well organized. We are not really treated to the entirety of McCaffrey's life and this is not a chronological book. Todd McCaffrey jumps around quite a bit and never stays on any one subject for too long. We get glimpses of the science fiction legend. We see a little bit of her early life and the problems she had growing up. We see her as a struggle writer, and a struggling singer/actor. We see how these experiences shaped her later novels (the singer problems translated directly into Crystal Singer), but we never really get a sense of who Anne McCaffrey is. Granted, I'm not expecting the depth of research that we would get from Robert Caro or David McCullough, but this is a very skimpy biography and is somewhat of a let down. Decent enough for fans of McCaffrey, but I can't imagine this would be of interest to anybody else.
Rated by buyers -
The only criticism possible for this biography of Anne McCaffrey by her son, Todd, is that it is too short. The book is a must-read for any Anne McCaffrey fan, but will leave any such fan saying "More! More!" It tells in brief her family background and the story of her life in a series of family anecdotes and his own favorite memories of growing up with his mother. What is in the book is lovely and charming and interesting and often quite touching, but it is disjointed and reads more like a sketch than a real biography. What you are left with is a sense of what an interesting person she is and how much you'd like to hear more, to have a really well-rounded portrait. That lack is why I gave it only four stars instead of five. Still, you are left with a new awareness of how incredibly brave Anne McCaffrey was and is. She wrote her wonderful dragon stories under the worst possible conditions -- an unhappy, difficult marriage, raising three children, one quite ill for some years, frequent moves, the death of her father, serious money worries. Through it all, she kept writing and was clearly an excellent mother. That alone makes her an inspiration. Read the book knowing its limitations and enjoying learning some charming fragments of a life.
Rated by buyers -
It's not hard to understand why Todd McCaffrey might be fond and proud of his mother. Anne McCaffrey remains one of the finest science fiction authors in the genre today, over thirty years after she began writing. It's also not hard to see that he is indeed very fond and very proud of her when you turn the pages of this biography. Told from his own point of view as someone who was there for quite a lot of it, this story of Anne's life vivdly illustrates her family tree, her childhood, her activity in the worlds of theater and music, her less-than-satisfying marriage to Todd's father, and how she got started writing her marvelous books. Complete with family photos and written with ill-concealed amusement and love, this is the kind of book any mother would want her child to write about her.
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