May 2004 – Page 2 – Todd McCaffrey

Letter from Stephen

By | May 16, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

Hi Todd,

Have you managed to read Eragon by Christopher Paolini? He is only 20 years old and this is the first book in a trilogy. For such a young author and his first book I thought it was really good. If you haven’t got round to reading it yet you got to check it out. I will be interested to read your view on this new and exciting young author.

Hi Stephen,

I haven’t read Eragon yet. I know Mum has as she gave it a recommendation. Apparently Mr. Paolini was only 15 when he first wrote the book. I’ve heard he’s working on sequels, too.

Cheers,
Todd

Letter from Tan

By | May 14, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

Hello,

I know that the next Pern novel is titled ‘Dragonsblood’. But there is also another novel with the same title and it is written by Jane Yolen (The Pit Dragon triology).

Hi Tan!

Yeah, I know. Similar titles occur. There is also a Dragonflight Series publsihed by Athaneum which has nothing to do with Pern.

Cheers,
Todd

Letter from Chad

By | May 14, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

Hi Todd,

I was wondering if there was any possibility for a collection of “Pern-based” short stories written not only by Anne and yourself, but also by other authors, i.e. Bob Salvatore, Terry Brooks, Richard Jordan, etc… I am very fond of the omnibus format used for “Chronicles of Pern,” and “A Gift of Dragons.” Pursuant to this, I think it would be neat to solicit the the unique talents and voices of other SF/Fantasy authors.

With Regards,
Chad.

Hi Chad,

This is the sort of question you’d be better asking Mum, not me. Mum has already edited one anthology, “Alchemy and Academe” a long time ago. The book-keeping issues alone with a multi-author anthology are enough to kill the deal.

Cheers,
Todd

Yay! Way to go Burt! 212,000 feet and climbing!!!

By Todd | May 13, 2004 | Comments 0 Comment

Today, Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan’s famous aircraft development organization, launched Spaceship One to an altitude of 212,000 feet with speeds reaching Mach 2. Scaled, backed by Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame — and a longtime s-f fan), launched their SpaceShip One initiative in a bid to capture the $10,000,000 X-prize by providing a low-cost commercial spaceflight for anyone.

And today, SpaceShip One took a huge step towards reaching that goal.

Interestingly, it’s guessed that they’ve spent about $25 million so far — compare that to $5 billion for just ONE space shuttle (that’s excluding the costs of *launching* it).

According to the LA Times, Burt said that they’re hoping to win the X-prize this summer.

Read Scaled’s Press release here
or the LA Times report here
(you may have to sign on for the LA Times).

Check out Scaled’s Flight Test page for a more detailed flight results (including that the darned avionics failed) here.

Wow! My congratulations to everyone who worked on this magnificent project!

— Todd