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anne mccaffrey (& mercedes lackey)
6 Aug 2004 12:17 amreread dragonsong and dragonsinger today. have never before noticed how incredibly mary sue they are. yet, equally incredibly, so far superior to most of mccaffrey's ouvre as to bear no comparison. --it's not even all the early stuff with hacks like this, imo; i like some early lackey, for instance, including arrows of the queen and arrows' flight, which correspond in many ways to these two. (except that lackey's somewhat more sophisticated, in her own way--the depth of the training scenes, the intensity in flight, contrasted with the simpler adolescent battles in singer. and mccaffrey's caricatures are much sharper--markedly individual, some nearly unforgettable and quite vivid. this quality is not, however, present in all her work.) (and i think arrows' fall gets bad much faster than does dragondrums, too.)
last weekend in socorro i picked up my own copy of another mccaffrey which i consider a personal classic, to ride pegasus. as i recall it, while i like this one even on re-reading (though with some reservation), i couldn't even entirely stomach pegasus in flight, the sequel. the copy was only 50c, so well worth it, though i didn't remember it very clearly. the most vivid thing involved "blueberries" being used as a password, and i was quite puzzled to discover that it wasn't. i don't know if i'm remembering the sequel or something else entirely.
re-reading things you liked better as a child does take off some of the shine--like bruce coville, sadly--but it's still worth it, i think. there's a nostalgic value, and some insight, because things you've read as a child you've never really quite read. new bits always open up, and the affection, i find, remains even if my Quality Judgment changes. i remember when lackey's vows & honor duology were, with the exception of dealing with dragons, my favorite books. i had to buy a hardcover omnibus from the sf book club because i wore out the paperbacks (purchased in third grade) before the end of my fifth grade year. the summer before that,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kitten_head and i spent endless time making cardboard weapons and paper armor for costumes, she kethry, i tarma... do you remember that, babe?
last weekend in socorro i picked up my own copy of another mccaffrey which i consider a personal classic, to ride pegasus. as i recall it, while i like this one even on re-reading (though with some reservation), i couldn't even entirely stomach pegasus in flight, the sequel. the copy was only 50c, so well worth it, though i didn't remember it very clearly. the most vivid thing involved "blueberries" being used as a password, and i was quite puzzled to discover that it wasn't. i don't know if i'm remembering the sequel or something else entirely.
re-reading things you liked better as a child does take off some of the shine--like bruce coville, sadly--but it's still worth it, i think. there's a nostalgic value, and some insight, because things you've read as a child you've never really quite read. new bits always open up, and the affection, i find, remains even if my Quality Judgment changes. i remember when lackey's vows & honor duology were, with the exception of dealing with dragons, my favorite books. i had to buy a hardcover omnibus from the sf book club because i wore out the paperbacks (purchased in third grade) before the end of my fifth grade year. the summer before that,
kitten_head and i spent endless time making cardboard weapons and paper armor for costumes, she kethry, i tarma... do you remember that, babe?
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