The beloved science fiction author – best known for her Dragonriders of Pern novels – has passed away, reports Galleycat.
She passed away at her home in Ireland following a stroke says her publisher. She was 85, and is survived by two sons and a daughter.
McCaffrey published her first novel, Restoree, in 1967. She later became the first woman to win a Hugo for fiction and the first woman to win a Nebula, plus became the first female science fiction author to appear on The New York Times best seller list with The White Dragon in 1978.
The Pern books were some of the first ‘adult’ books that I read, and one of my earlier obsessions. While I drifted away from the series a decade ago, it still remains one of my early favorites. McCaffrey was not without her faults, but her books – with their focus on female protagonists when such things were uncommon in the genre – opened up the world of SF/F to many of us.