A few musings.

[elisi]

So, writing my Pern crack!fic (and re-reading most of 'Dragonflight' in the process) made me think about Anne McCaffrey as a writer. I've read quite a lot of her output (most of her Pern stories, ditto 'The Tower and the Hive' series, the Peytabee trilogy, some of the Acorna books and The Crystal Singer. Maybe more, but those are the ones that spring to mind. It was some years ago...) - and I've come to a conclusion: Her biggest weakness is her characters. Let me explain:

1) Her 'good' characters/heroes are usually great and well-rounded. I adore F'lar, Lessa, Robinton etc. I think the only problem there is the lack of what Joss does so superbly - testing them to see what they're made of. I'm not thinking of self-sacrifice, but morally grey/difficult situations, and times when they might have to choose to sacrifice *someone else*.

2) I can't think of a single morally ambiguous character in any of her books (it's been a while though, so please remind me?). I mean people like Faith, Lindsey, Snape, Mr Bennet (from Heroes) etc. - those that blur the lines between good and bad, so you never know what side they'll go for, and those that cross over from one to the other - and back again. And so forth - there is endless variation.

3) Her baddies are all paperthin, with not a single redeeming feature. I could go into this in great depth, but instead I'll just for a moment ask you to compare Kylara and Lilah. QED.

And that's all you get today. She is a great storyteller, and has a brilliant imagination, but this one flaw is very sad. Is her son any better?


In other news, I wrote a review of issue 8 of s8, but it was so negative that I'm not going to post it (v. annoyed by characters being written like their S4 counter-parts, if you're curious). ETA: If it wasn't for the artwork and the characterisations, I'd like s8 so much more, I think (sidestepping the issue of the ret-cons, the castle, the high-tech stuff etc for now). But - since the artwork and the characterisations are what I love most about the Lynch/Urru comics, I'm guessing it's fairly obvious why I'm looking forward to 'After the Fall'. *crosses fingers yet again*

To end on a happier note I've (since Tuesday) written 2168 words of 'Divided Destiny', and nearly finished chapter 9. :) (It'll need a lot of work, obviously, but it's flowing nicely!)

Comments

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is that AMcC has said she deliberately wrote the whole thing about blue and brown and green dragon matings because she liked the idea of the social elite of her world being mostly gay. (And as a side issue, she got into writing SF/fantasy in the first place back in the 1960s as an explicitly feminist statement). So I don't think she's exactly prejudiced, just batshit insane has some really odd ideas...

[elisi]

she liked the idea of the social elite of her world being mostly gay.
I know her work was very progressive at the time, but I do wonder why there are no gay women...

So I don't think she's exactly prejudiced, just batshit insane has some really odd ideas...
Heh. There's also the fact that she 'patrols' her fandom to make sure everything's 'done right'. Thank goodness for Joss! ;)

[rahirah]

The thing is, gold and bronze riders (who are strongly implied to be superior human beings, however poorly their actions support that at times, because Dragons Just Know This Stuff) are all straight, and green riders (the quote feminine unquote gays) are characterized as flighty, bitchy, none-too-bright sluts.

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking that myself soon after I posted... So yeah. I think she deserves some credit considering when and where she was born, but I'm not defending her views in a modern context.