About this item
A young woman allies with magnificent dragons in the first book in the Harper Hall trilogy, set within science fiction legend Anne McCaffreys beloved and bestselling Dragonriders of Pern series. Every two hundred years or so, on the planet colony of Pern, shimmering Threads fall from space, raining death. Yet the great dragons of Pern, mounted by the stalwart dragonriders, scour the skies with fire to destroy the deadly Threads and save the planet. But it was not Threadfall that made young Menolly unhappy. It was her father who betrayed her ambition to be a harper, who thwarted her love of music, because she was a woman. Menolly had no choice but to run away. When she came upon a group of fire lizardswild and smaller relatives of the fire-breathing dragonsshe let her music swirl around them.
About the Author
Anne McCaffrey was born on April 1st, 1926, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, BA, MA PhD (Harvard) , Colonel USA Army (retired) , and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey, estate agent. She had two brothers: Hugh McCaffrey (deceased 1988) , Major US Army, and Kevin Richard McCaffrey, still living. Anne was educated at Stuart Hall in Staunton Virginia, Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey, and graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures. Her working career included Liberty Music Shops and Helena Rubinstein (1947-1952) . She married in 1950 and had three children: Alec Anthony, b. 1952, Todd, b.1956, and Georgeanne, b.1959. Anne McCaffrey's first story was published by Sam Moskowitz in Science Fiction Magazine and her first novel was published by Ballantine Books in 1967. By the time the three children of her marriage were comfortably in school most of the day, she had already achieved enough success with short stories to devote full time to writing. Her first novel, Restoree, was written as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in s-f novels in the 50s and early 60s. It is, however, in the handling of broader themes and the worlds of her imagination, particularly the two series The Ship Who Sang and the fourteen novels about the Dragonriders of Pern that Ms. McCaffrey's talents as a story-teller are best displayed. She died at the age of 85, after suffering a massive stroke on 21 November 2011. Obituaries:
