A True SciFi/Fantasy Author

One thing that irritates me in literature is genre's, they never seem to be able to truly capture the whole idea of a given book.  Take the book Wicked, it is a story based on a fairytale, set in a completely unreal world chock full of magic.  Now I personally would probably place this in the fantasy genre, but nope it's usually found in literature or fiction, of which it is both but seems to fit fantasy better.  One of the reasons I hate this is that it seems to discourage people from reading books they might really enjoy.  To really irk me (I know they do it on purpose just to drive me crazy) most places combined Science Fiction and Fantasy into one big SciFi/Fantasy genre. Anybody who reads either of these genres knows that they are NOT the same thing. 

Having gone on that rant I now would like to present to you an author who actually does combine the genres of SciFi and Fantasy almost flawlessly.  She is also one of my favoritists (another special word of mine) authors.  I am talking about the wonderful Anne McCaffrey.  I love her for reasons too numerous to put into a single blog post...unless you all have about three hours to read this?  No...nobody?  Ok I'll keep to my top reasons.  The main reason is probably very nostalgic, I found her book Dragonsong, the first of the Harper Hall Trilogy my freshman year of high school during a rough period of life and it really took me away to another world. 

The second reason is she really was one of the first accepted females in the SciFi genre.  She was the first female winner of both the Hugo and Nebula award which is a pretty big deal, she is probably the reason I read as much SciFi as I do.  The third reason as I mentioned before is her ability to blend SciFi with Fantasy so seamlessly.  Her most famous of books is probably her Pern series in which the Harper Hall Trilogy is set. 

The original trilogy The Dragon Riders of Pern tells of a technologically regressed world that fights a mindless menace from space know as Thread, a spore that aggressively eats all organic matter.  The people of Pern use Dragons and there empathetic riders to protect the world from Thread.  Now I know what your thinking, dragons are totally fantasy and have nothing to do with SciFi and yet Ms. McCaffrey manages to convey the genetic and scientific reasons for the dragons existence in this world.  There are many other books in this series detailing the arrival, history and current situation on this planet, really cementing the marriage of the two genres. The series is so popular is even was it's own Pern Wiki

Ms. McCaffrey has written numerous other novels and short stories some with other authors in some wonderful collaborations.  One of my other favorite series of hers is definitely more SciFi, but still has elements of the fantastical is the Talent Series comprised of the Pegasus books and the Tower and the Hive books.  These are about the emergence of people with amazing mental powers and the ensuing changes that come about because of there abilities.  The Coelura is a short read that is essentially a fantasy set in space, really transporting.

 Like I said I could go on and on and on and on about Ms. McCaffrey and her works but I think I will stop now and let you go read some of these for yourself.  Let me know which books you have discovered.  What books/authors have really made an impact in your literary life? Is this a really long post?  Did you actually read the whole thing?