FUnny- I tried to read a couple of the Pern books and they did nothing for me, while I devotedly read the vast majority of McCaffery's other books, including the really bad later sequels to the Ship Who Sang and the Rowan. It's sad how series go downhill so often. Even if some of those original books were probably theoretically trash... My first McCaffery book was Crystal Singer, which I acquired with all the other books my uncle didn't want to bother taking to his own place when I was about 7 (and he was therefore 27)... (This event was what made me an SF/F fan.)