(You're not babbling, you're discussing. It's different.) I've imprinted recently on Moist von Lipwig, from Going Postal. He's both multifaceted enough to support a novel and flat-out weird enough to hold my interest, and he's the type of character who is usually not found on center stage. Besides, he has masks; and those fascinate me.

I've never actually read Pern. Do I need to?

Depends on how you feel about telepathic dragons. From about fifth to seventh or eighth grade, I read the books intently, and I'm sure they formed some crucial element of my fictional worldview.* I am still rather fond of the original novel (Dragonflight, which is incidentally much grittier and in some strange way harder science fiction than the rest of the series), the young-adult Harper Hall trilogy (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums), and the prequel (Dragonsdawn). The series slumps as it continues, however, and Anne McCaffrey's romantic tendencies really start to run away with her. I stopped reading with All the Weyrs of Pern, which I figured was an ideal stopping point for the series—and then she wrote another, and I gave up. I still think they're a landmark in science fantasy. And certainly changed the image of dragons in the genre . . .

*Other than making me want my own telepathically-bonded dragon, or at least fire-lizard, which I'm sure happened to everyone.