Some kids played cops and robbers… some kids played house… we played Pern.

It was 1984 and I was only 12 years old when I picked up “White Dragon” (ok, maybe at 12 most kids aren’t playing cops and robbers anymore…) and I hadn’t been much of a reader through my youth, but once I got started I couldn’t stop. We even had the Commodore 64 “Dragonriders of Pern” game (by Epyx I think)… and I’ve been a loyal fan ever since. I even got my hands on a 1st printing PBO of “Dragonflight.”

I picked up “Dragonsblood” around christmas (I work in a used book store and only pick up stuff as it comes in); as soon as I was done I called a friend and told her that she was required to borrow it. I am about half way through “Dragon’s Fire” but had to stop as I was reading on an airplane and I decided I was crying too much for my liking for being on an airplane (ya know, don’t want to upset the other passengers “why is this girl so upset? She is merely READING”!)

But I must say that most tears were tears of joy of how GOOD it all is… (even the punch you in the gut sadness was still “tears of joy at how good it is”)

And here’s to hoping that the movie is still moving forward! Maybe I should swindle my way to DragonCon this year…

Izzy

Hi Izzy,

I was a Cowboys and Indians sort myself (that dates me, doesn’t it?). But I got into science fiction at an early age with “Space Cat” by Ruthven Todd.

I’m glad you liked “Dragon’s Fire”. I won’t apologize about making you cry because anywhere you cried, I cried before you — a writer can’t bring forth emotions in others unless she or he is willing to feel them her- or him- self.

That’s actually a large part of the price of writing — that emotional drain required to write something really worth reading.

I’m afraid I don’t recall if we met at Dragon*con but if not, I hope you’ll come this year.

Cheers,
Todd

Just finished Dragonharper and loved it as much as Dragonsblood and Dragon’s Kin.

I loved all the Pern books and would gladly re-read them.

Regards, John a McCaffrey fan from Oz. Good onya mate

Dear John,

I usually delete people’s last names to increase their privacy. I was tempted to break the rule for you but I decided against it, I hope you don’t mind. My reasoning is that it might be possible for someone to troll my site and use the full name information to scam you in some way (difficult, for certain but why not be careful?).

Anyway, thanks! I’m glad you loved the books.

Dragonheart has come out since your mail was lost, so you’ve probably had a chance to read it. I hope you liked it too. Its sequel is with the publishers now.

Cheers,
Todd

Dear Todd,

I have been enjoying your new Pern books, but was perplexed and disappointed by the sudden addition of magical healing powers for “crystals” in the Pern universe. It flies in the face of the series’ internal logic, in which healers’ skills have been at least somewhat consistent with the physical laws of our own universe.

Somehow, I can suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy the idea of dragons that can go “between” space and time, but Pellar healing himself with crystals? Nope. It just made me roll my eyes and groan.

I’ve been an SF/Fantasy fan all my life, but I’ve never written a letter to an author. Up until now, I would never have considered writing a letter that questions or criticizes an author for his or her choices. That should provide you with a measure of how much this “crystal” nonsense irritated me.

So…why’d ya do it?

Dear Alana,

It’s been a while since I wrote it but I believe what I said was that the crystals helped Pellar heal. How it works, I dunno.

Pern is a world set over twenty-five hundred years in our future. Who knows what we’ll have discovered by then? I sure don’t.

What I do know is that homeopathic “teething tablets” work. I know because I gave them to my (then) four month old daughter and it was the only thing (including all the “normal” remedies) that stopped her crying from teething pains. With that bit of impartial evidence — four month old babies don’t really read marketing literature and I certainly wasn’t convinced beforehand — I realized that there’s a lot of things our current medical knowledge can’t embrace and doesn’t know.

We use crystals in our computers, we’ve used them in our watches. We all know about the piezoelectric effect, we understand that crystals tend to vibrate at particular frequencies (hence their presence in watches and computers) and we have some solid evidence that vibrations at particular frequencies (ultrasound, for example) are good for relieving muscle strain and promoting bone growth.

So… with all that, I used it.

Cheers,
Todd