Month: December 2007

A nice note from Shirley

A nice note from Shirley

I was so happy to see that you will continue the
books of Pern. My daughter and I are great fans
of your Mom. Now we are great fans of you as well.
I have every thing your Mom has written some are
1st editions. I just finished Dragon’s Fire and will
go look for Dragon Harper. I wish you and your Mom
a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you
Shiley

Thank you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too!

Letter from Stasha

Letter from Stasha

Dear Mr. McCaffrey,

I have been a fan for a long time in regards to the Pern Series ever sense I was 12, and I’m almost 24 now. I especially fell in love with the concept of the dragon, and thought it was a brilliant concept that she created. But it saddened me this earlier this year when I found out about how her work had been plagiarized by another writer.

I took my sister earlier this year to watch the movie “Eragon” and was shocked at the movie. As the movie begun I took it as a child fantasy, but was horrified when the plot revealed the dragonrider, and the relationship between rider and dragon. If you are not familiar with “Eragon” this may be a very rude awakening.

The movie starts out as a fantasy movie (with other stolen material) where a girl steals a dragons egg that is later found by Eragon. It seems completely innocent until the egg hatches. Lo and behold when the dragon hatches she choses Eragon to be her life partner (a bond breakable only by death- impression) and is connected to him in a telepathic bond speaking to him telepathically much like Pernese dragons.

What makes this all worse, is that the author of “Eragon” is praised for writing original work, when the work is dripping with stolen material not only from the Pern Series, but from “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” to name the other prominent ones.

I know Anne McCaffrey was very protective of her work (and who can blame her). So what does she think when she sees other writers literally take her work and make it their own. Is she flattered that her work was spectacular enough to be mimicked, or is she angered that they are claiming her work as their own?

Sincerely,
Stasha

Hi Stasha,

“Plagiarized” is a very specific legal term. Plagiarizing, roughly (I’m not a lawyer), is when someone lifts complete words/sentences/paragraphs sufficiently that they may be considered to have done no original work. That doesn’t apply with “Eragon.”

In the case of “Eragon”, if you pick up the book you’ll probably see Mum’s review on it (I don’t know if it’s on the latest copies). She was sent an advance copy of it when it first came out and loved it. I tried reading it and found that it didn’t work for me.

Cheers,
Todd

Question from Blair

Question from Blair

Mr. McCaffrey, I have been a fan of you and your’s mothers books for many years. I am curious if you have ever approached the SciFi channel about having a Pern movie made. I know there was talk a few years ago about the possibility of a movie, but I don’t know if anything aver happened. I think the SciFi channel would be a perfect fit for the Dragonriders of Pern.

Hi Blair,

Personally, I’d like to see the Dragonriders of Pern on the big screen. Better yet, in IMAX 3D! And, as it happens, our current producers, Copperheart Entertainment started their life working in IMAX, so we have high hopes to see Pern on the really, really big screen!

Question from Mary

Question from Mary

Will there ever be a time when the Pern books are put onto audio tapes for the blind or formatted in braille?

Mary,

That’s really a question for publishers. I know that several of the Dragonriders of Pern series are already on CD/tape and I suspect that if the chance arose, Mum would love to have her books in Braille (although nowadays, I believe there are also Braille translating devices).

Cheers,
Todd