See also:
Anne McCaffrey interviewed
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Sally's Reading Corner
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The Talents (Psychic, Rowan, Tower) Series

Like her friend Isaac Asimov, McCaffrey managed to link together two apparently disparate series, the psychics in Earth's Jerhattan, and the Lady in the Tower (the Rowan).

She begins with establishing that psychic abilities are true, and demonstrable, and objectively provable, and from there postulates the growth of psychic commerce and social and technological ramifications.

The early Pegasus titles are examples of science fiction in its truest form -- the examination of people and society affected by a technological change. That technology can be 'soft' (like a political change) or 'hard' (like a development in science). Here the technology is the development and exploitation of a human skill, and the way in which it affects people, as individuals, as a society and as a 'race'.

Set in the near-future in North America where people live in city-sized hives, overpopulated, under-skilled, and resource-hungry, McCaffrey looks not only at the impact of psychic practitioners in everyday work life, but also at a possible future.

The Rowan, the lady in the tower, also began as a short story and developed into a book. Set further in the future, the Rowan is a Prime psychic, capable of using her mind to propel spaceships between the stars with the help of lesser 'talents' in a gestalt between humans and machinery.

Compiled by Ali Kayn