i keep seeing her associated with fantasy since yesterday. i thought she considered her stories science fiction? just curious.

I think Pern seemed like fantasy at the beginning but then she brought science pretty decisively into it. Whether that was a retcon type of thing I guess is open to interpretation.

i see. i've never read any of her stuff, but i know she was well loved

She wrote both actually but because of her Pern series, was considered more of a fantasy writer. I loved The Ship Who Sang and her Dragonsinger books. May she rest inpeace.

see my friends who are hardcore fans - and there was one blog post i read by another famous writer who had known her well (whose name is escaping me right now) - who say she wrote sci-fi, and i had thought she self-described as sci-fi. i'm guessing it's a tossup.

I consider her sci fi. Her later book about the beginning of Pern, colonized by settlers arriving in a ship, makes it clear that Pern is sci fi, not fantasy, and that the dragons were genetically engineered.

If you ever want to read her stuff and don't like the idea of the Pern series, I might suggest The Ship Who Sang and The Crystal Singer. Her earliest book was Restoree, also clearly sci fi, and I've always enjoyed it though clearly her later work was better.

i've been told restoree was wonderful.