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A review by bookwyrm_lark
Dragonholder: The Life and Dreams (So Far) of Anne McCaffrey by Todd McCaffrey, Anne McCaffrey
2.0
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
Don’t go into Todd McCaffrey’s Dragonholder expecting a thorough and insightful portrait of Anne McCaffrey. Instead, the book is a self-described “scrapbook” of memories, stories, and background information about Todd’s famous mother. Like most scrapbooks, it’s somewhat superficial and not at all critical; it’s also choppy, jumping back and forth in time in ways that are usually but not always clear.
The book was written back in the late 1980s, with Anne McCaffrey’s full blessing and cooperation, and was re-released in December 2014 by Open Road Media with a new cover and a new foreword by Todd. The writing style of the original text is conversational, and I have to say that Todd’s writing has improved in the years since he wrote Dragonholder; the prose here is a bit pedestrian and lacks polish.
Open Road graciously gave me an ARC of their edition, and it was only on reading it that I realized I had actually read the book before, back in the 1990s or early 2000s. My impression then was similar. The book is worth reading if (like me) you are a die-hard McCaffrey fan, because you do get a sense of her background and where various story ideas came from, but it’s not a deeply engrossing biography. On the other hand, it is a very fast read, so if you can put up with the temporal quirks and lack of depth, you’ll be rewarded with some interesting facts about McCaffrey’s life and work.
2.5 stars
Don’t go into Todd McCaffrey’s Dragonholder expecting a thorough and insightful portrait of Anne McCaffrey. Instead, the book is a self-described “scrapbook” of memories, stories, and background information about Todd’s famous mother. Like most scrapbooks, it’s somewhat superficial and not at all critical; it’s also choppy, jumping back and forth in time in ways that are usually but not always clear.
The book was written back in the late 1980s, with Anne McCaffrey’s full blessing and cooperation, and was re-released in December 2014 by Open Road Media with a new cover and a new foreword by Todd. The writing style of the original text is conversational, and I have to say that Todd’s writing has improved in the years since he wrote Dragonholder; the prose here is a bit pedestrian and lacks polish.
Open Road graciously gave me an ARC of their edition, and it was only on reading it that I realized I had actually read the book before, back in the 1990s or early 2000s. My impression then was similar. The book is worth reading if (like me) you are a die-hard McCaffrey fan, because you do get a sense of her background and where various story ideas came from, but it’s not a deeply engrossing biography. On the other hand, it is a very fast read, so if you can put up with the temporal quirks and lack of depth, you’ll be rewarded with some interesting facts about McCaffrey’s life and work.
2.5 stars