Day 141 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Get Off the Unicorn by Anne McCaffrey is a collection of her short stories, some based on a couple of her novel series. For those who are not familiar with Anne, she is probably the “mother” of female sci-fi writers. I first encountered her by picking up a book of hers that had a really cool cover – with dolphins on it. After buying it, I found out that it was part of a series, so I picked up all of the previous books in the series… and there were quite a few.

The series has become known as the “Pern” series (Pern is the planet on which it takes place) – and it is amazing. Dragons! Love it! The first Pern novel was written in 1968, and forty years later, her son is continuing the series. There are now 19 novels.

Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Great series – read it.

One thing that I have adored about Anne’s writing is the amount of research and detail that she put into her Pern series. Everything is very well thought out – very cohesive. I remember reading an article about how many scientists she talked to in order to get the science right about the ort clouds and the “threads” and how dragons could realistically breathe fire. All of her background work pays off in that series.

That said, until I read this collection of short stories, the Pern novels were the only books I’ve read by Anne (and she has a number of other series – the woman cranks out a lot of material).

Overall, I liked this collection. Stories based on her “Brain & Brawn” (aka Singing Ship) series as well as her “Tower & Hive” (aka Rowan) series make me want to pick up those collections and read them. Unlike Pern’s fantasy collection, these are more tech-based. Again, the science is well thought out and seems very realistic in how it is presented.

There is also a Pern short story (which was my favorite, of course) – and rekindled my desire to finish the last couple of Pern novels (which her son has written and/or collaborated on with her). Have I mentioned that I love those books?

The other short stories deal with things like telepathy, or a kid who can turn paintings into reality, a “save the whales” story, etc.

There were a couple of downsides to this book. First, the stories that I liked – were just too short. But these are ones based on some of her other series, so someday I’ll pick them up.

Secondly, a couple of them weren’t really that great. “The Thorns of Barevi” is about an Earth girl who is kidnapped by an alien race and made a slave, but at the beginning of the story, she’s been living in a forest, having escaped a few months earlier. She helps an alien who crash lands where she is, then there’s a short “sex scene” and the story ends. In her intro, she admits to trying to cash in to the “sci-fi soft porn” market that was big at the time, and says she failed miserably. I agree. She’s much better than that. There’s nothing obscene about what she writes, but it doesn’t add anything to the story, so there really is no reason for it to be there.

The other story I wasn’t particularly fond of was “Changeling” which deals with a hetero girl, homosexual male and a bisexual male and their “struggles” with forming a family. Though well written, it’s not a subject I approve of, let alone want to read about.

Like I said, overall, it’s a good book. The two Rowan stories, two Singing Ship stories and the Pern story are the best and most interesting in the book. If you’ve never read any of those three series, picking up this book and checking out those five short stories will give you an idea of what they’re about… and once I get through the 6,548,327 other books on my shelf, I’ll pick up the Rowan and Singing Ship series and read them. Meanwhile – I know the Pern series is good and very well worth the read! (Have I mentioned that I love the Pern series?)

Here is the Wiki site that lists her Pern novels, novellas, compilations, etc: Anne McCaffrey