Hywela Lyn: Anne McCaffrey

at 12:00 am

I'm excited to be taking part in the Romance Madness Hop. It runs from January 25 to 29 (Friday to Tuesday) so you have five days during which you can take part.There are over Fifty blogs taking part, so the more you visit and comment on, the more chances you have to win.

I'll be giving away a copy of my fantasy novella 'Dancing With Fate' and a $6 Amazon voucher.

I have to write about one of my favourite romances. Ah, there are so many, and I'd love to mention some of my wonderful author friends out there, but how could I choose just one or two? Instead. the one I have chosen is one of the first Science Fiction stories I ever read, by a world famous author, Anne McCaffrey. It's not strictly speaking a romance, in the way most people these days think of a romance, but it is certainly a love story and I was and still am, very moved by it.

The Ship Who Sang was published in 1969 and is a science fiction novellette, the first of five stories published between 1961and1969. The stories became a series known as The Brain & Brawn Ship series, and are set in the future, in the Universe of Anne McCaffrey's Federated Sentient Planets.

PURCHASE

Helva is a human being, born with a severe physical disability. The parents of babies with such physical disabilities but fully developed and exceptionally talented brains, are given the choice of allowing them to become "shell people" rather than to be euthanased. Taking that option, physical growth is stunted, the body is encapsulated in a titanium life-support shell with capacity for various roles in their adult life. As such, they suffer no pain and live a comfortable existence in a metal shell for several centuries, performing unusual service for Central Worlds. After medication and surgery, general education, and special training, shell children reach adulthood with heavy debts which they must work off in order to become free agents. They are employed as the "brains" of spacecraft ("brainships"), hospitals, industrial plants, mining planets, and so on, even cities.

Helva becomes the "brain" of a starship. A brainship is able to operate independently but is usually employed in partnership with one physically fit person called a "brawn" who travels aboard the ship as its pilot. A brawn is specially trained to be a companion and helper, the mobile half of the partnership. Their training is long and intense and the brawns also need to have a high level of intelligence. Helva is no mere cyborg though, her human side is very evident. She laughs, reads, Shakespeare, listens to opera - and sings! Helva chooses a young man called Jennan as her "brawn". As they get to know each other, their relationship develops to a deep and genuine love, despite the lack of any physical contact. The story ends on a tragic but very moving note, with Helva singing 'taps', but I don't want to give too much away, apart from saying that If you love SF romance, as I do, this is one story about an enduring love, that will stay in your mind long after you've read it.

I was so captivated by 'The Ship Who Sang" and later on by Anne McCaffrey's "Dragon" Series, that I wrote to her and asked if she had any advice for someone wishing to write - to my surprise I received a lovely postcard back from her, telling me to "write what I would like to read". I've never forgotten that advice, and and although my books published so far, Starquest, Children Of The Mist, and Dancing With Fate are quite different to "The Ship Who Sang" or indeed, the "dragons of Pern" they certainly owe much to that piece of advice from a wonderful writer.

Anne McCaffrey passed away in November 2011, but she wrote a great many books, and several amazing series. Although she always termed herself a Science Fiction writer rather than a Fantasy writer, and would probably never have thought of herself as a romance writer, certainly all her stories have a strong romantic thread in them - but for me 'The Ship Who Sang' is the most beautiful and poignant of all.

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'STARQUEST' 'CHILDREN OF THE MIST' (The sequel to Starquest) Dancing With Fate

'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH

Also available on Kindle

at 12:49 pm

ANNE McCAFFREY, the Irish/American Science Fiction writer, died on 21st November. This incredibly talented writer was my idol. I was enchanted by her 'Dragons of Pern' stories, and cried over 'The Ship Who Sang'. Many years ago. I wrote to her and was surprised and delighted to received a hand written postcard back, with the advice 'Write what you would like to read.' I've never forgotten it.

She wrote so many wonderful books - the first one I read was 'The Ship Who Sang', which I originally read as a short story and was delighted to find it had become a full length novel.

The story is about Helva, a severely disabled girl becomes the core of a starship, or Brainship, with her mind controlling all its major functions. Her brain had been saved and implanted into the titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. The blurb says 'She had to choose a human partner, to soar with her through the daring adventures and exhilarating escapades in space.' This is actually a very moving love story but I won't say any more in case I spoil it for you if you have yet to read it.

She told Locus Magazine in 2004:

"I think the best story I ever wrote was 'The Ship Who Sang'. It still causes people to cry, including me. When Todd (her son) and I were reading it at Brighton, they had a BBC crew filming it. So there were these BBC cameramen hunkered down filming us, and comes the end of the story (which Todd always reads, because I can't go through it without weeping), I saw that these cameramen had tears rolling down their faces. That's such a thrill — a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house."

Anne McCaffrey is probably best known for her 'dragons of Pern' stories. Pern was a distant planet settled by humans but threatened from time to time by life-destroying "Threads", which fell from a neighbouring planet. To combat these, the humans genetically modified a species of winged reptile, native to Pern, each one of which was bonded symbiotically with a human rider from the moment the 'dragon' hatched. These dragons and their riders fought the dreaded thread and a unique telepathic relationship formed between dragon and rider. Anne said she hoped to redress the balance because she felt dragons had previously had a 'bad press'. 'Dragonflight' is the first of the dragon books and chronicles the 'impressing' of Lessa with her Queen dragon and her romance with bronze dragon rider, F'lar.

Not all her readers realise that she was also very fond of horses and had her own stables at her home in Ireland. One of her few non Science Fiction novels is 'Ring Of Fear,' a thriller romance, set in the world of horse shows.

She had an amazing imagination, and created a variety of different and unique worlds.

She will be sorely missed by her many friends and fans. Rest in peace, Ann, may your journey 'between' be smooth and your stories enthral the angels.

NB Most if not all of Anne's books are available on Amazon and you can find out more about this wonderful writer at http://pernhome.com/aim/

'STARQUEST' 'CHILDREN OF THE MIST' (The sequel to Starquest) Dancing With Fate 'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH 'STARQUEST' 'CHILDREN OF THE MIST' (The sequel to Starquest) Dancing With Fate 'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH'

Also available on Kindle