Rest In Peace, Anne McCaffrey

Dragons are usually viewed as monster cliches of fantasy, but writer Anne McCaffrey depicted them in a fresh new science fictional light as noble and intelligent creatures on a colonized planet.  Due to her incredible stories in the Dragonriders of Pern series and other tales, McCaffrey became the first woman to win the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award and to be named a Grand Master of Science Fiction.  Sadly, she passed away on November 21, 2011, due to a stroke.

Pern is just one example of her stellar imagination.  She also wrote The Ship Who Sang, a fascinating saga about a future in which disabled children are raised to be integrated into "brainships," and many other stories that inspired readers of all ages.  Her Pern adventures are being developed into a live-action adaptation -- hopefully it will be able to capture the epic grandeur of McCaffrey's source material.

The next time you see Hiccup riding Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon or one of the Na'vi soaring through the sky of Pandora on a winged Ikran in Avatar, remember that Anne McCaffrey imagined it first.  May she rest in peace.