Flinging Across Space

Hi Readers!  How was your weekend?  Mine was insanely busy...but what else is new :-)  I did however manage to blaze through a book, which I will now ramble about.  The book The Rowan by my favorite Anne McCaffrey is an old school sci fi book that is always a perfect go to book.  We have been watching The X-Files here at my house and it made me nostalgic for some of my old school reading so The Rowan was grabbed and read.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Rowan is about an orphan colonial child who is found to have great telekinetic and telepathic abilities.  In this future universe, people with any sort of mental abilities are called Talents and the people who posses the high level and rare combination of telekinesis and telepathy are called Primes and are invaluable to keeping the now space fairing human race going.    These Primes have the ability to fling any object, large or small across an set amount of space.  This includes ships, drones, packages and any other thing a new planetary colony may need.  The Rowan is the child rescued from a devastating mudslide on the colonial planet Altair.  She is deemed to be Prime material and is so trained.  We follow the Rowen as she grows from a child to a teenager, encountering many hardships, growing moments along the way.  She also develops her talents, showing a promise to become one of the most talented Primes alive.  The next part of the book shows the Rowan taking over her own Prime station.  She is adept at her job and continues to grow but she if very lonely.  Although she tries, any person under her high level of talent just is not comfortable spending too much time around her.  This is loneliness is made worse by her inability to leave the moon on which her station is built due to dealing with a traumatizing illness anytime she tries to leave.  One day while working, the Rowan is contacted by mind from the far away colonial planet Deneb.  The contact states that the planet is under attack and requests help.  After lobbing a few missiles Earth's way to demonstrate the sever danger the planet is under.  To save the planet the Rowen merges with the other Prime talents to give the Deneb mind a chance to defeat the aliens.  After the crisis is over, the mind of Deneb in the form of Jeff Raven appears, and thanks to the intense merger discovers that he and the Rowan are in love.  The two of them spend time together, but the Rowans inability to travel makes their new love difficult.  Jeff Raven heads back to Deneb and the Rowan resumes work.  the Rowan is devastated when she loses contact with Jeff and learning he has been gravely injured transports herself to Deneb to nurse him back to health.  Jeff eventually heals and he and the Rowan are officially a pair.  Jeff signs on the the FT&T which is the impartial and neutral company that employs the Primes and pretty much controls all the instantaneous transport within the scope of humanity.  The last part of the book follows the Rowan and Jeff as they start their family and cope with the new responsibilities given to them by FT&T.  This culminates in a son with a second child on the way for the happy couple.  the Rowan and her female talents start to feel a malevolent presence that turns out to be the same aliens that had attacked before, but with infinantly more power. The Rowan merges with all the other female talents and Jeff merges with all the male kinetics and hopefully ends the alien threat for once and for all.  The book ends with Jeff and the Rowan  continuing to build their family and the FT&T finally carving a life for themselves.

World Building - I feel one of the authors strengths is world building.  The universe in which this story is set is detailed and complete.  It is set in a future Earth era where humans have expanded into space.  The FT&T and Talent set up is pretty well explained and very consistent through out the whole book.  This is one of those worlds that stays with you long after you have finished the book.  It is also one you feel infinite stories can be told in.    I found it interesting that for the purposes of this series, it was a private company and in some ways economics that was the focus of this universe.  That being said, the author was good at keeping the setting aligned with the other parts of the book.

Story - The story was fairly cohesive, following the main character through several stages of her life.  While the Rowan, Jeff and the aliens provided a thread to follow, the story was more episodic then flowing, more a series of short glimpses to make a whole then a beginning to end story. This worked for this book, setting up a universe and characters more then any over all story.  It kept me engaged from beginning to end and lived up to it's premise.

Characters - I found in this book, that along with the world building, characters were a very strong point in this book.  The characters where varied. well written and well fleshed out.  They interacted with each other in meaningful ways and every character introduced had a purpose.  My favorites were Jeff's mother Isthia of the ear, Elizara the insanely talented medic and both Ackerman and Gerolaman the stationmasters all of whom had great senses of humor.  I did feel that the Rowan had a bit of the special snowflake syndrome, being the bestest ever at being a Prime, but felt it was tempered by the hardships and personal issues she had to endure.

Editing - The book was divided into four parts, and at times it felt like four separate stories strung together.  There was a bit of choppiness and disparities between the parts as well that sometimes took me out of the world to say to myself "um that is not what was said/happened in the last part".  Part of this is the fact that the middle part of the book started as a completed short story and that the rest of the book was built around that.  Overall though the pacing and flow of the book was very good.

Talents - I love love love the concept and execution of the talents in this future universe.  The author introduced the concept and followed through with it in a very scientific, yet understandable way.  She then continued to be consistant and varied with the various types, strengths and combinations a person could have.  She also made sure to have a structured environment where a talent can and would thrive, be useful and be accepted as a valuable member of society.  It would be very easy for the author to make a book about the "normal" people vs. the "talented" people, but instead she integrated them into a economic society.  I just really love the concept and execution of the concept.
The Love Story - Sooo... not really a fan of how Jeff just happened to appear and be a perfect match for the Rowan right when she was feeling the most lonely.  I guess I understand that if you merged your whole mind with somebody you would know pretty quickly if you loved them or not...but it still seemed pretty convenient.  I also was not a fan of the proprietary bossing around of the Rowan, especially when she was pregnant by Jeff, and also a few other's, but mostly Jeff.  It felt like since he loved her, he felt he could control her when he felt it was in her best interest.  On the plus side, the Rowan usually fought back against the imposed restrictions and overall Jeff loved and appreciated the Rowan for exactly who she was.

Personal Interactions - One of my favorite parts about this book, and the author in general is how the characters interact with each other.  The book has many characters and they all play a role with their own personalities, likes and dislikes.  Not one character is perfect, they all have their positives and negatives and they all deal with each other on different levels.  Watching these interactions gives an authenticity to the book that is phenomenal and really elevates it above a lot of other books.  It is nice to see an author have a grasp on true human interactions and work them so well into the book.

Complete Randomness - I just want to say I love the original cover of this book (the first pic on the post) the colors themselves just make me happy.  Also I have an old school paperback version of the book and it smells incredible!!!  So yeah...

Overall Impression - I love this book.  It definitely has it's flaws, but I go back to this story over and over again.  It is one of those that get's in my brain and stays there.  I feel this is mostly due to the amazing universe the author has created.  This is a great start to a great series and I will continually go back to it as both a nostalgia piece and just a good book.  I recommend it to anybody who wants to read incredible world building, sci fi with a more domestic bent or just really loves Anne McCaffrey.

Score - I give this book 8 out of 10 pukah's

That is today's rambling...not to bad considering I've taken care of and transported close to a ton of human flesh this week.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!!

Online Extra's

One of the best things about a good series is the world building.  Some authors have created such complete worlds that they cannot put all of their ideas and stories into the actual books.  I love it when this happens 'cause now a days they tend to create online sites for all the extras!  To me reading through some of these sites makes the books that much richer and more complete.  Chalk up another plus for technology.  Here are some of my favorite extra's sites.

The Harry Potter Lexicon - This all inclusive website gives us page by page info, extras and links to even more Harry Potter goodness.  There is so many cross links and rabbit hole possibilities that I can (and have) spent almost as much time clicking through the site as reading the books.

Pottermore - Just like the name implies, this site is more of Harry Potter.  More illustrations, more stories, more details, more interactions.  It is a great way for those of us who love the series to continue to explore the rich wizarding universe.

InCryptid Field Guide - This handy little field guide give those of us who want to delve into the varied and rich history of Cryptids in Seanan McGuires IncCryptid world need look no further then her website.  Add to this a great listing and description of the series books and a whole TON of short stories (seriously gonna have to take a sick day to read them all) makes this site a massively cool extension of an awesomly great series.

A Wheel of Time Wiki - Anybody who has read the Wheel of Time series can tell you that as awesome as it is, a guide is definitely needed (unless you have a photographic memory) to try and keep the people, cultures, places and story lines straight.  I had a friend who tried to do this using colored pennies but had to stop after he almost when bankrupt (teeheehee).  This guide is much easier and bit less bulky.

Tolkien Gateway - When Tolkien wrote his famous Lord of the Rings trilogy, he intended it to be one piece in a larger mythology...that he then proceeded to write.  If one has the time and enough pots of coffee you can discover on of the most detailed worlds in literary existence, with each story and character linking to each other in fantastic ways.  This wiki helps us keep all the strands of this beautiful tapestry from getting to tangled.

Dragonriders of Pern - One of my first introductions to a series where the world was as important as the story and characters, the books of Anne McCaffery and Pern in particular have inspired my imagination and fueled my devouring of books like no other series.  This wiki gives us just a bit more information, and a bit more time in the world I love so very much.

There are a ton other great sites dedicated to other literary worlds of awesome that I can't wait to explore...so off I go down the rabbit hole, you all start on these and we will meet back here and talk ok?  Happy Reading Everybody!

Parallel Earth Resources Negligable

Today we get to go back to Pern YAY!  The book The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall by Anne McCaffery is a collection of stories giving us a quick history of our beloved Pern.  It takes us from the initial survey of the planet, to the mass exodus to the Northern Continent, to the spreading out of the colonists to one last rescue run.  Here is a quick overview of the stories in the book, as always SPOILER AHEAD!

The Survey of P.E.R.N. - This is the shortest story of the bunch and just gives us a quick overview of the planet before anybody arrived to colonize it.  The survey group is tight on time so they just do enough of a look to declare it habitable.  There are hints of the menace of Thread, but nobody realizes what it is.  This story ends with the suggestion that the planet be colonized.

The Dolphin's Bell - With the double menace of Thread and the volatile seismic activity of the local volcano's the entire colony has to move to the north.  This story follows them through storms, volcano's and the sheer logistics of moving an entire population with dwindling resources.  We see the dolphins which play a roll in later books and meet some of the people that places are named after.  We start to see how the society moves from high tech to survival and the beginnings of the dragon riders becoming their own group.

The Ford of Red Hanrahan - The colonist have all been crowded into Fort Hold and are ready to start expanding to the rest of the continent.  Red, his family and a portion of the colonists go to found the new Ruatha Hold.  This story shows how the colonists make the transition from well colonists to true people of Pern.  They start there own traditions, names, and social structure all while morphing into the Pern we know and love.

The Second Weyr - The dragons are outgrowing their first Weyr, and with the people of Pern spreading further out, the need for more Weyr's has become pressing.  We follow the young dragon riders as they establish new Weyr's, new customs and cement their role as protectors of Pern.  It is cool to see the stuff that is accepted as the norm in later books get developed here.

Rescue Run - A passing space ship picks up an almost 50 year old distress signal sent by an individual when Thread first started falling.  When the crew arrives they find Stev Kimmer and his family the sole survivors of the Southern Continent.  Due to the low level of technology and the thickness of the caves, the Northern contingent are not noticed and it is assumed that they are the only ones.  They (with a few mishaps) are rescued and the planet is marked as dangerous and no other ships come.

The coolest part about this book is if you have read the other ones, it makes thing very clear.  The Pern books tend to start from their present with no more then hints of the history of the people who live there.  This book gives us quick glimpses into the major events that shaped Pern into the form it is now.  It's a pretty straight forward, easy read that is broken up in perfect chunks.  I give it 8 out of 10 air sleds and recommend it to anybody who is a fan of Pern.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Song Of The Really Expensive Crystal

Grabbed this book literally on my way out the door for my trip last week.  I had a bunch of new books I was very excited about reading, but grabbed this one just because.  I'm glad I did 'cause as I was chilling at the airport awaiting my flight, eating a big girl lunch I had the urge to read this exact book!  Thanks to the literary fates, I had it with me YAY!  The book is Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey the first of the Crystal series.  Was this the perfect book for the moment?  Find out, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Killashandra Ree has just found out that she will never realize her dream of becoming a star concert singer on her home world of Fuerte.  She has spent the last ten years training, only to be told that she has an unbearable burr in a specific range that pretty much will never be fixed.  Understandably upset Killashandra takes off to find adventure when she runs into a man who takes her on a whirlwind tour of her own planet, flashing credit (this books version of money) and status where ever he goes.  Turns out that he is a Crystal Singer, a rare individual with perfect pitch and total recall.  After an accident render's her companion essentially a vegetable, Killashandra decides to become a Crystal Singer herself.  Despite (or maybe because of) numerous warnings against it, Killashandra travels to Ballybran, the headquarters of the Heptite Guild, for which the Crystal Singers are trained and work.  During her research Killashandra finds the planet is under an isolation edict, with no one being allowed to set foot on the planet until full disclosure has happened.  Still undeterred Killa and several others start the process.  We follow the potential recruits as we learn about the Crystal industry.  We learn that as humans expand into the universe, communication has become an issue, as the distances create a time lag.  The discovery of the unique crystal of Ballybran has solved that problem and provided many other uses as well.  This has led the Heptite Guild and it's members to be able to become quite well off and also amass prestige.  Of course with all good things there is a downside and that is why the planet is isolated.  It is revealed that any human who lands on the planet is instantly exposed to a spore.  If a person fully adjusts to the spore, they are rewarded with sharper senses and a long life...sounds great right?  Well there are two HUGE downsides, the first is even if you make a full adaption, a person has to constantly return to Ballybran to recharge the spore, apx every 400 days at a maximum, this means you can never go more then 200 days away from the planet.  If a person fails to return, the ageing process proceeds very rapidly and you can age hundreds of years in seconds.  The other danger is that you will not make a full adaption and will never be able to leave the planet again.  There is no real way to determine 100% who will  make the adaption and who will only partially adapt so there is a real risk.   After this has all been revealed, Killa and her fellow hopefuls go ahead and land on the planet.  While they wait for the spore to adapt they learn all about Crystal, the cutting, the tools, the value, the types, all kinds of stuff.  They also learn about the devastating storms called mach storms that can seriously hurt or kill a Singer.  Killa makes a full transition and turns out to have an affinity for the super rare, super valuable black crystal.  She also catches the eye of Lanzecki, the Guild Master in both a professional and personal capacity.  Killa finishes her training and gets out on the ranges, finding and Singing black crystal on her first trip out.  To get her off planet during the devastating Passover storms, she is sent to install her crystals, finding herself desperate to get back to Ballybran, Killa completes her full cycle as a Crystal Singer.

This book was perfect for when I was reading it, it had a lot of travel, a lot of discovery and a lot of awesome, and reading it at O'Hare Airport with it's big open windows and gray skies was the perfect setting for it.  I have to say, I am sometimes hard pressed to explain why I reread this book so often as it really does not have a plot.  It has a beginning, middle and end, but it is much more about a world and industry then it is anything else.  Ms. McCaffrey in case you have forgotten is one of my absolute favorite authors and this book highlights one of her strengths and that is world building.  This book has top notch world building and gives you a glimpse of an almost unlimited universe, all while detailing what amounts to mining and industry.  This book should not be as interesting as it is, as it is full of technical details and procedures...but I don't know...I still find it fascinating.  As much as this book is about world building, there are some very strong characters in here as well.  This author is great at giving everybody, even minor characters a believable and distinct personality, and she does it by showing, not telling so that you don't feel bogged down by descriptions of people.  Killashandra is of course the most fully developed and I identify with her very closely.  She comes from a theatre arts background and see's things in those terms, which with my background works perfectly.  She also likes to know things, and be the best at what she does.  She get's frustrated when people keep things from her, and she gets fed up with theory very quickly...yet she is a personal research fiend, all things I relate to.  Killa herself acknowledges her tendency to get conceited and tries to make a conscious effort to reign it in, but quickly gets frustrated with petty people.  I love a lot of the support characters who teach Killa and her fellow recruits their jobs, they all are long lived and have their own little quirks and talents.  I did find the relationship between Lanzecki and Killa a bit forced and convenient, since Killa is so good at everything she does, this relationship just made her journey a tad to easy for my taste.  Near the end when Killa heads out to install the black crystal there is a bunch of political type references made that kind of come out of no where and to me just muddy it a bit, but I think she was trying to set up the whole universe so eh, I know that Ms. McCaffrey use some of her own experiences as a singer and theatre person to inspire this book, and I feel that really comes through.  Killashandra and her story feel very personal and I really enjoyed that.  Overall I would recommend this book for any McCaffrey fans, science fiction fan, or world building fan.  I give it 7 out of 10 dodecahedrons.

What aspect of a book is most important to you?  What industry can you read a lot about?  How into random stuff do I get?

The Back End Of Erehwon

I have stacks and stacks of books I have never read before.  I have a massive lists of books I have never read that I want to read.  There are thousands of unread books out there for me to discover...but sometimes a girl just has to go back and reread a book.  To this end I just finished rereading Nimisha's Ship by my beloved Anne McCaffery. With this authors death, no new books from her are forth coming so I have to get my fix by rereads and this one fit the bill this time around.  Let's get to it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This story is set in the world we were introduced to in the novelette The Coelura, though one does not have to read it to understand what is going on as the stories are completley seperate.  The world is set in the future after Earthlings have colonized a good chunk of their quadrent of space.  This future world is a highly stratified world in which the First Families are at the top of the totem pole and secure their place with what are called body-heir's, a child born by contract to inherit the name, line, and most of the assests of the great families.  Lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense is one of these body-heir's, scion of one of the top families in the known galaxy.  She also shows a disturbing, non-aristocratic pentient for designing space ships.  Her biological father, who is not only First Family, but owns a most succesful shipyard leaves it to her upon his death.  This inheratance allows Nimisha to design the ultimate ship.  Unfortunalty while testing the ship on her own she is caught by a wormhole and flung across the universe, away from here mother, daughter, friends and civiliazation in general.  She lands on a liviable, if inhospitable planet she names Erehwon, because a) it is in the back of nowhere and b) after a book by the same name by Samuel Butler (the bookworm in me loves this!).  She meets up with survivors from a previous wreck and with the significant resources her ship brings, makes the planet habitable.  The survivors also find a group of aliens called the S'him whom have also survived the wormwhole and work with the humans to found a new society.  Meanwhile back on the other side of the wormhole, Nimisha's daughter, mother, and her former co-workers have built another advanced ship and take it to find Nimisha.  Eventually the survivors are found, but decide to stay, along with some new recruits to colonize the new world.

This book, as with all Anne McCaffery books, has so many layers it is hard to put into words.  It is a science fiction book set in the future with space travel and advanced technology.  It is a social commentary on class, government, military, and survival systems.  It is a romance, a survival tale, an inventors story.  It is all of these and more.  I am always amazed at the coherancy in which the author writes.  What do I mean by this?  I mean she writes her worlds to make sense, she studies and puts in enough scientific detail to make the story seem plausible, all the while making us fall in love or hate or exasperation with the various characters.  This book hits all the sweet spots, world building, character and story. The contrast between the civilized galaxy and the wild primative Erehwon shows both sides in their best and worst lights, highlighting why we need some structure and resources, while at the same time showing the pointlessness of certain types of formality.  I will say, this is one of the few romances in the Anne McCaffery books I am not totaly into, it seemed rushed and progressed from perfect strangers to total love without a whole lot of in between, which is not how she usually writes them, but to be honest it felt a bit shoehorned into the overall story.  I loved seeing the various ways the survivors and the S'him learned to communicate and work together.  I loved the contrast of the two worlds, I loved the various characters, who all had their own personalities, talants and specialties.  I even liked how the overall book was set over about 40+ years, the author making the time skip foward to the important parts.  Ms. McCaffery even put in a plausible longevity treatment to make the extended time line plausible.  Ok this rambling is pretty rambly and incoherant so I'm gonna give it a rest and hope that you all read the book and understand what all this gibberish means.  I recommend this book to anybody who likes a good story, a lighter scifi book, or Anne McCaffery in general.  I give it 7 out of 10 AI Helms.

How technical do you like your scifi?  Do you get sick of me saying the same happy things about Anne McCaffery?  Should I get more then 2 hours of sleep before I start ramblings?

Drums And Dragons

Hello all, how are you?  I'm a wee bit tired from various shifts at various stations, so please forgive any non-normal incoherancies.  I realized as I was rereading my beloved Haper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffery, that I had neglected to ramble about the final book in the series, Dragondrums.  I am here to remedy that egregious oversite (I'm in a big word mood today).  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you can remember back to the second book in the series, our heroine Menolly makes friends with the precocious Piemure, who not only befriends her, but assists in the feeding of her nine fire lizards.  Piemure is gifted with a beautiful soprano voice and the is currently rehearsing his role as the Dragonwoman Lessa in a new performance.  Unfortunately our little scamps voice breaks and he is sent to the drum towers until his voice settles.  Piemure's mischievousness proceeds him, and the older apprentices haze him to an unfair degree.  To compound this problem, Menolly, Sebell and Masterharper Robinton decide to use him as their special apprentice.  Piemure travels with the two journeymen to various holds and sees first hand the havoc the Oldtimers, and the not so wonderful Lord Holder Meron can cause.  Eventually Piemure's fellow apprentices play a trick that goes to far and results in Piemure in the infirmary with a head injury.  This convinces Masterharper Robinton to pull him from the drum heights and make him exclusively his apprentice until his voice settles.    Piemure is sent with Sebell to a gather (which is like a festival or fair) at the hold of Lord Meron, who is deathly ill, yet refuses to name a successor.  They also learn that the hold has an unusual number of fire lizards given out to pretty much everybody.  After discovering that most of the dragon lizards are the lesser greens, and the Lord Meron is secretly trading with the contentious Oldtimers, Piemure steals a queen fire lizard egg and hides in a shipment going to the Southern Continent.  Piemure ends up on the Southern Continent and hides until his egg hatches and he impresses the little queen Farli.  He also "adopts" an orphaned runner beast that he names Stupid.  Menolly and Sebell meanwhile have had a quiet and subdue almost romance through out the book, which culminates in one of the bestest, most simplest, most tender, most perfect declerations of love ever!  This all happens while they search for Piemure.  Eventually everybody finds each other and Piemure is made a drum journeyman of the Southern Continent.

Like the other two books, this one is a simple story compared to the more complex world of the main series.  This book however is easier to read if you have at least read the first two books in the original Dragonrider series.  This book also puts Menolly, who was the main character in the first two books into a secondary role.  As for my personal feelings on this book, they are mixed.  On one hand I miss having Menolly be the main character and I miss the more micro story telling of the first two books.  I do however like seeing some of the other holds and halls, and having Piemure travel around lets us see a lot more then we have in previous books.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the romance between Menolly and Sebell.  It is so natural and understated.  None of this giant declarations, or misunderstandings, or love triangles.  It is just basic love between two quiet, yet passionate people.  I really can't give you specifics on what get's to me so much about these two, but they are in my top 10 of literary couples.  I think it may be because it seems so real and not EPIC and STAR FATED, it just is.  I also like that the love story is just a subtle simple fraction of the whole story.  I was sad to see this trilogy end and always am a bit biased against this book for being the last one, but in the end it is just as good as the first two and the trilogy as a whole will forever be a favorite of mine.  I give this book 8 out of 10 bubbly pies.

What love story do you love the best?  Should a trilogy/series stick with the same main characters or branch out?  Will I ever find a new love like this trilogy?

Flight Of The White

Hello All.  Last week was a good one for me as far as finishing books go, so many a ramble is in our future.  Let's start with The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey, the third book in the Dragonriders of Pern series.  This finishes the first trilogy in the series and sets up a lot of the future books.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This book mostly follows young Lord Holder Jaxom and his unusual white dragon Ruth.  Jaxom is frustrated, he and Ruth are not allowed to train as a normal dragon and rider team as he cannot be risked in Thread fall as this would put his Hold in contention and possibly cause more war.  He also is not actually in charge of his own Hold, as his guardian the Warder Lytol is acting as steward until Jaxom is confirmed...which seems to be a really long way off.  After a bit of an outburst, Jaxom is given more responsibility and starts to attend classes outside of his hold.  In frustration Jaxom starts to sneak off under the pretense of visiting a girl (which he does as well) to try and teach Ruth to chew firestone and breathe fire.  He along with ever other dragon are summoned to Benden Weyr when it is discovered that the queen egg has been stolen by the Oldtimers who have been banished to Southern Weyr.  This obviously makes everybody upset, but the angriest is the Weyrwoman Lessa, who vows to get the egg back, even if it means dragon against dragon violence, which is unthinkable.  Jaxom gets a visual of where the egg is from the firelizards and times it to get the egg back to Benden, getting Lessa to calm down a wee bit. Jaxom is allowed to train with the other Werylings and learn to fight Thread...as long as nobody realizes he is actually fighting Thread.   Jaxom and his harper friend 

Menolly are assigned various tasks, some which take them to the Southern continent, where they realize that a trio of stars called the Dawn Sisters do not follow normal star patterns. Jaxom falls ill with a Southern illness and is forced to a long recovery, lucky for him he fell ill at what becomes Cove Hold, a beautiful little bit of land on the Southern Continent.  While he is sick, a mating flight at Ista Weyr almost goes horribly wrong when a couple of the Oldtimers bring their old bronzes to try and fly the new queen dragon.  One of the old bronzes dies in flight and his rider goes mad and is killed by the Benden weyrleader F'lar.  D'ram, one of the reasonable Oldtimers takes over Southern Weyr and restores it to true dragonrider standards.  During this whole mess, Masterharper Robinton suffers a heart attack, and is ordered to rest.  Back at the cove, Jaxom has fallen in love with Shara, the younger sister of the only Holder on Southern, and one of the people to nurse him back to health. A proper hold is built in the cove and Master Robinton is brought down to recover and live in the newly dubbed Cove Hold.  While everybody is down there, they decide to survey the continent on dragon back.  They discover a mountain that shows evidence of being a volcano, and many regular mounds that they assume cover old holds.  They also observe the Dawn Sisters with what they call a far viewer and discover that they are actually metal ships, not stars.  After much digging they discover what is probably the original landing spot of their ancestors before the volcanic activity and Thread drove them to the rockier, stabler and more easily protected North.  The dragon riders secure half the continent for themselves to farm and sustain themselves during intervals, and open the rest for settling.  Jaxom is confirmed as Lord Holder, marrying Shara and letting Lytol go to Cove Hold to help with the excavation project.  Everybody is very hopeful for the future and they all live ever after.

So that was a really long synopsis and I only hit on the big major points.  I think that may be one of my favorite things about these books is the sheer amount of story that is packed in.  Ms. McCaffrey does not spend to much time on angst or lengthy introspection, but keeps the rich story moving.  That is not to say there is not emotion, or growth or introspection, it just means that it happens along with the story instead of grinding it to a halt as we read a chapter on how lonely so and so is.  In this book in particular I like how the personal growth and maturation of Jaxom and Ruth mirror the growth of Pern.  We get a personal story, one we are invested in and tie it into the bigger world history and growth that the author started back in the first book.  I feel this is a good way to tell a big sweeping planet wide story, while still keeping the reader 

invested in a smaller personal story.  I do get a bit sad when they talk of not needing dragon riders anymore, because I feel they are such an integral part of Pern's culture...but I guess eliminating, or at least lessening a deadly menace is a good thing :-)  I also felt that Jaxom and Ruth had a bit of special snowflake syndrome, which is to say, they get to be everything, Lord Holder, dragonrider, favorites of the ruling Weyr, favorites of the Masterharper, friends with all the important people, they are the fastest, the best at timing it, and Ruth is just the most intelligent, well spoken dragon out there.  This is tempered a bit by not having Jaxom, actually be in charge of his own life for most of the book, he is only allowed to do what Lytol  and N'ton, the High Reaches weyrleader allow him to do.  The discovery of the Original Landing, really brings this series into a more sci-fi type of story and less of a pure fantasy one.  I love this rediscovering of Pern's history and the stories that follow.  Again this book sets up more discoveries in future books, and is confirmed in really cool ways in a couple of the authors "prequal" type stories.  Overall this book is a solid entry in the dragonrider series, I give the book 7 out of 10 redfruits.  

What do you think makes a successful blend of sci-fi and fantasy?  Do you prefer epic stories, or more personal stories?  Are you a special snowflake?

Flight Of Sorrow

Hello all, are we ready to continue on our saga of the dragonriders?  I am...sort of.  See this book is one of those books I tend to skip in this series because it is just so darn sad, good, but sad.  What book am I rambling about?  Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey, the second book in the Dragonriders of Pern series.  I remember first reading it a couple months after finishing the Harper Hall trilogy and being both "aha that's what they are talking about" and completely bummed out at the same time, but I'm getting ahead of myself...as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We start this book about 7 months after we left off on the last one.  We learn very quickly that the Weyrs that were brought forward in time are not fitting in so well 400 turns (years) in the future.  F'lar and Lessa had given up much of their leadership role to the older Weyrs, believing that their vast knowledge and experience in fighting the deadly Thread would make them the natural leaders of the dragonriders.  Alas this is not so, apparently 400 turns changes a lot of things and the Oldtimers (as they have taken to calling the dragonriders from the past) cannot deal with the more independent Holds and Crafthalls.  This all comes to a head when a couple of the dragonriders from an Oldtimer Weyr try and take an expensive knife by force from one of the Crafters.  F'nor, a brown rider from Benden (not an Oldtimer) intervenes and gets an injured shoulder for his trouble.  After it become's clear that the Oldtimer Weyrleaders have not only no intention of not doing anything about this problem, but blame the Crafter for not handing over this valuable knife, F'lar decides to take charge.  Meanwhile down in the newest Weyr, on the Southern Continent the elusive fire lizards are discovered to be Impressionable by just about anybody who is willing to feed them.  Most of the Southern Weyr ends up with at least one of these miniature dragon type creatures (in fact it is from these
creatures that the Pernese ancestors bred the great dragons of Pern) and they are then distributed among the Holds and Crafthalls to ease some of the jealousy of  those who have not, or cannot Impress a dragon.  Also at Southern Weyr, the Queen rider and Weyrwoman Kylara is causing no end of trouble, doing as she pleases and foisting off all her duties onto Brekke, a junior queen rider who is all responsibility.  F'nor and Brekke fall in love while he is convalescing at Southern Weyr and helps her with her various troubles.  Eventually the conflict with the Oldtimers comes to a head, resulting in a duel between F'lar and T'ron, the Oldtimer leader, which results in most of the Oldtimers being banned to the Southern Weyr and the rest of the Weyrs being populated by the current generation.  This leads to F'lar and Lessa being essentially named the leaders of the dragonriders, much to the relief of the Holders and Crafters.  To add to the problems of our poor Weyrleaders, Jaxxom, the boy who took Lessa's spot as Lord Holder of Ruatha has Impressed a runty white dragon...something that may put his Lordship in jeopardy, but that is for the next book.  Also causing...if not trouble, then at least speculation is the discovery of a series of lab like rooms in the older Weyrs, containing mysterious devices and indecipherable records.  From what they can puzzle out they discover that certain grubs can consume Thread, keeping them from burrowing into the ground and destroying the plants.  They also discover a telescope, causing the Lord Holders to try and pressure the dragonriders into getting rid of Thread at it's source, the Red Planet.  Kylara and her people move from the Southern Weyr to High Reaches Weyr to make room for the Oldtimers.  This ends in tragedy when Brekke's dragon rises to mate and Kylara is not there to take her dragon away in time.  This results in a brutal battle between the two queens, ending in both of their deaths.  This is beyond devastating for Brekke and reduces Kylara to a babbling child.  Brekke becomes catatonic with F'nor trying to make her live.  He also decides to quiet the Lord Holders demands by attempting to go to the Red Star with his dragon with near fatal results...turns out there was reason it wasn't done before.  This and the protection of her fire lizard bring Brekke back, sad but back to help nurse F'nor back to health.  The book ends on a slightly hopeful note for a better, more modern future.

Obviously lots of stuff happens in this book, and the information helps the rest of the series make sense, but dang if I don't hate how sad it is.  It is as all Ms. McCaffrey's books, extremely well written and continues on the world she started in the last book.  In fact that is one of the reasons it is so sad.  You come to understand the bond between the dragon and their rider so well, that when Brekke loses hers you feel the pain and agony right along with her.  You leave the last book so hopeful that the Oldtimers will be the answer to saving Pern, and then come to find out that they are in no way adaptable and are in fact way more trouble then they are worth is kind of very upsetting.  When F'nor goes to the Red Star you can feel the heat, the airlessness, the scoring, the heaving mass of Thread...Ugh, no wonder he barely survived!  It's the excellent writing that makes you care about this world that makes this book so hard for me to read.  I am not trying to
dissuade anybody from reading this, I promise.  I think everybody should read it as part of the series.  It is an excellent book that just furthers the amazing story the author started and sets up numerous future stories.  The characters are well written, the world building is as perfect as it gets and the storylines are not only plausible, but compelling.  I do have to admit that this whole series gets to me on a gut level, every time I read any of the Dragonrider of Pern books, I get stuck in that world in my head weeks, I hate being torn out of it and I hate anytime anything bad happens in it...though that is part of what makes it real.   As I'm sure you are sick of hearing words cannot describe the love I have for this series, it is one of the reasons I fell in love with reading as an escape and am so glad I can go back to it anytime I want.  Even this book, a book that if I'm not careful, will actually leave me as sad as if it happened to somebody I know is a treasure to me.  So now that all that babbling is over with, I give it 8 out of 10 cups of klah and recommend it to anybody who is reading this series.
On a side note, my lovely Mamma will be here this week, running me ragged so posting may be a bit spotty, my apologies in advanced.
What book(s) do you both love and hate at the same time?  What book makes you sad on a gut level?  How badly do I need some therapy to remind me that a book is not real?

First Flight

Hello All, how is everybody?  Did you all have a good weekend?  I was at the station for 60 hours hence the lack of post yesterday, I will try and do better having them ready to go in the future.  Today though lets talk about one of my favorite books that starts off one of my favorite series.  Dragonflight is the first book in the amazing Anne McCafferey's Dragon Riders of Pern series and is just awesome.  Considering it was written in 1968 you would think it would be old fashioned, but it is so perfect for any time period.  But enough gushing (for now) as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Pern is a planet that has reverted back to a feudal type system of government consisting of the Lord Holders and their underlings, these are the people who live, farm, work, and do the things you would consider most feudal system people would do.  There are the Crafters who are responsible for the fine work, weaving, beastery, music, healing and so forth.  Then there are the Weyr folk.  These folk are either Dragonriders or people who help take care of the dragons and their riders.  These dragonriders are needed to help protect the planet of Pern from a menace called Thread.  Thread is essentially a crazy hungry spore that devours ANY organic matter at an extreme rate.  The only things that stop thread are metal and stone, and can only be killed by fire or by drowning in water. Thread falls on the planet for 50 years at a time and then stops for 200 giving everybody a break until the next pass of the Red Star (the rouge planet from which the Thread falls).  For more detailed info check here.  At the time the story is set, Thread has not fallen for close to 400 years (or Turns as they call them on Pern) and the Lord Holders are starting to resent the tithe they have to give the Weyr folk.  At this time the normal 6 Weyrs have been reduced to the one Benden Weyr with

nobody knowing where the other five went, the people, the dragons just dissappered, leaving the Weyr's empty. Also at this time Lord Fax has conquered several of his neighbors Holds going against the strict tradition of one Lord one Hold.  One of the holds Fax has captured is Ruatha, a hold famous for producing dragonriders of great renown, especially Queen riders.  Fax has done his best to wipe out all of the Ruathan blood line, but has missed one girl, Lessa who had the good sense to hide.  Lessa has now been living as a drudge, waiting for the day she can overthrow Fax and reclaim her home.  Meanwhile F'lar a bronze dragon rider is going on search to find suitable candidates for the Queen dragon egg, hoping to find somebody strong and able to lead the dragon riders back to their former glory.  See F'lar is one of the few people who not only believe that Thread is real and is returning, but is imminent.  F'lar draws out Lessa by challenging and killing Fax after he attacks the dragonman.  F'lar makes a deal with Lessa to let a newborn boy take over Ruatha, and Lessa can come to the Weyr to hopefully impress the soon to be hatched Queen Dragon and become the Weyrwoman (the leader of the Weyr).  Lessa agrees and all seems to go as planned.  After impressing Ramoth (the queen dragon) Lessa has a crash course in the ways of the Weyr, adding her own brand of fire and chaos to the mix.  F'lar's bronze fly's Ramoth, making him Lessa's Weyrmate and the Weyr leader of the entire Weyr.  After some much needed reminding, the Holds and Crafthalls start preparing for the arrival of Thread, even though most people still don't believe.  This denial is swiftly put to an end as the Thread comes pouring down and the people are saved only by the valiant efforts and sacrifice of the dragons and their riders.  The effort is aided by Lessa and her rare ability to hear and talk to all the dragons, not just her own.  It is painfully apparent that the one understaffed Weyr will not be able to protect the whole of Pern and solutions are sought.  Lessa finds the answer in an unlikely source a teaching ballad called The Question Song.  She discovers the dragons can go between times as well as space and goes back to the end of the last Pass to convince the dragon riders to come to her time to fight Thread.  The Oldtimers as they are called are amiable as the idea of sitting idle does now work for them.  They come forward in time, solving the mystery of the missing Weyr's and saving Pern.  This is the state we leave our beloved planet of Pern, safe for the moment, but ripe for change...which will come in the next book.

I love this book, I love this series, I love this author, I love this mix of fantasy and scifi, I love it all.  So many things work for me.  I love that even though this was written in 1968 (as I mentioned before) that you would not know it from reading it.  It will work for any time period it is read in, which is very hard to do.  I also love that Ms. Mcaffrey seems to have worked out the whole story and timeline out before she ever wrote this first book.  There are things and hints that tie in to later books so well, like the ballad of Moreta's ride or the fertilizer called angenothree, which turns out to be a chemical formula originally called by it's chemical

name HNO3 which the scientific part has been lost.  Eh it's hard to explain how well it is set up without going into later books.  I love the strong, sassy, cranky, touchy Lessa, I love her so much.  I love that she is a spitfire, but she is also kind of extremely touchy, a flaw to be sure, but one that makes her human.  One of my pet peeves is addressed beautifully in this book, I hate when miscommunication is used as a means to further the tension, or create discord if their is no real reason for it, and Lessa calls out the leaders on this type of stupid secrecy in a spectacular fashion.  I still think that the world building in this series is one of the most complete and incredible example I have ever read, this is a place I can fully inhabit long after I put the book down. On a rare downside, their is a bit of proprietary shaking of Lessa by F'lar that irritates me.  I am never ok with any sort of violence against another person, and when it is a big, strong man against a tiny scared woman...well it really makes me mad.  I can never be ok with even minimal violence toward another person, especially when it is done in anger.  Other then that their is not a whole lot for me to complain about.  I don't even mind the ending for once...because it is not a real ending because the story keeps going YAY! My Hubbin is always trying to get me to define why I love this book so much and I have a hard time pinpointing any one thing.  I think over all the feeling of freedom and triumph and working together to achieve a goal while maintaining your own person is just awesome!  I give this book 9 out of 10 Queen Dragon Eggs and recommend it to EVERYBODY!
What color dragon would you ride?  How do you feel about this odd mix of fantasy and scifi?  How obsessed with dragons am I?

A Tale of Two Women

Hello my lovely readers, how are you all this fine morning?  Have you been staying up until all hours watching the Olympics?  I may have been trading sleep for extra Olympic hours so if I seem a little loopy...well I'm always a little loopy so carry on.  So this rambling will be a bit different.  I am going to be combining two books into one big synopsis and rambling because I think they fit together to well and offer way to much comparative goodness to do separately, besides I would be constantly referring to the other book so this will be much easier...I think.  The books are two from my beloved Anne McCaffrey's Pern series.  Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern and the companion novelette Nerilka's Story.  I love both of these books for two very different reasons. The first book (which I shall refer to as Moreta) is one of Ms. McCaffery's signature Dragonrider tales, complete with many characters, various places and sweeping story.  The second book, (which is more of a novelette and will be referred to as Nerilka) is about the exact same event/story but told from a much smaller more personal view.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD

We start our story in the past...well the past compared to the first Dragonrider books...well just go with it.  Moreta is the current Weyrwoman of Fort Weyr and is stuck with Sh'gall a capable but humorless Weyrleader.  Moreta is on her way to the Ruathan Gather where she hopes to watch runner races, drink Benden white, and dance the night away in her new dress.  She and her queen dragon Orlith go and do just that with the added bonus of the company of Alessan, the new Lord Holder of Ruatha.  Alessan is a younger man, vigorous, wry and also an avid runnerbeast racer.  He is most known for the tragic death of his young bride Suriana, whom in a world where marriages are usually made for alliance was a rare one of love.  His wife was thrown from an untrained runnerbeast and broke her back, sending Alessan into a deep mourning.  He is finally recovering and is now trying to dodge the numerous attempts at the high-born daughters of his fellow Lord Holders to take her place.  As the races progress, a runnerbeast collapses and dies, apparently from an unknown respiratory illness.  While sad, the runner is cleared away and the Gather continues.  Moreta is meets Oklina, Alessans youngest sister who is in turn introduced to the bronze dragon rider
B'lerion.  After dancing the night away with Alessan, Moreta returns to her Weyr with her dragon who is near to clutching.  They do their duty and fight the menace Thread (which is explained in the start of every book), looking foward to it ending in the next eight turns and a chance at least 200 years of Thread free life to look forward to. Unfortunately a crimp is put into all the happiness when a plague brought up from the Southern Continent threatens all human and runnerbeast life on Pern.  We eventually find out that it is a flue like illness and its initial outbreak kills off a huge percentage of people who catch it.  Hardest hit are the two holds that held gathers, Ista and Ruatha, with Keroon being hard hit as it is an area known for its runnerbeast breeding.  Even worse is that the dragonriders start succumbing to this illness, causing riders to die and their dragons to go between, unable to live without their riders.  This is the biggest calamity possible as it inhibits the ability of the dragonriders to do their first duty which is to protect Pern from the deadly Thread, which is not kind enough to stop falling just because the whole world is sick and dying.  The healthy dragonriders decide to pool resources and miraculously discharge their duty. Eventually it is discovered that a vaccine can be made out of the blood of the people who have recovered from the disease, unfortunately the vaccine has to be given to every living person and runnerbeast on Pern before the next outbreak hits, or they will probably not survive the next wave.  Moreta, Alessan, Olkina, B'lerion, and the healers Capiam and Desdra use a technique called "timing" which is essentially a dragon ability to go between times as well as space.  This is incredibly dangerous and is discouraged for the most part.  They use timing to go to a remote island in the future to gather supplies enough to inoculate all of Pern.  As they do this Moreta and Alessan finally give in to the intense attraction they had been feeling, as do the rest of the party (insert eyebrow waggle here).  They decide the best way to distribute the serum is via dragonback, using a very tight timing schedule.  Plans are put into dissary when on of the Weyrs refuses to help.  Moreta decides to finish of the route, riding the old queen Holth as her Orlith is stuck on the Nesting Grounds with her eggs.  Old Holth and Moreta finish the grueling task and take of one last time...and never come out from between.  The death of Holth and Moreta are a huge loss to the planet,

just as it was getting back on its feet.  Leri (Holth's rider) and Orlith stay until the eggs hatch (with Olkina Impressing the Queen) and then they to go between.  Two year later Nerilka's Story was published here is that story.  Nerilka is the daughter of Lord Tolocamp and his wife Lady Pendra of Fort Hold.  She is tall, ungainly and likes to be useful.  She is left behind when her father, mother and her older (and prettier) sisters go to the gather at Ruatha, presumably to try and get the new Lord Holder Alessan to marry one of them.  While they are there the plague appears and Nerilka does her best to help her brother (who was left in charge while her father was away) maintain the quarantine placed on the planet.  She also offers her help at Healer Hall (which is located in Fort Hold) and any of the over abundance of supplies her Hold has. While they accept the supplies, her help is rejected.  Nerilka's father returns, breaking quarantine...though he holes himself up in his room to "protect" the hold leaving his wife and other daughters in Ruatha where they end up dying.  As as soon as word reaches him of his wife's death, he installs his mistress the simpering and incapable Anella as his wife and Lady Holder.  This young twitty thing (who to add insult to injury is younger then Nerilka) takes control of the Hold.  The Healer Hall applies to Lord Tolocamp for extra supplies as they are running short, and are denied.  They are also denied the ability to help the people in the internment camp that had been set up outside the Hold.  For Nerilka this is the last straw.  She cuts her hair, dresses as a drudge and takes matters into her own hands.  After securing supplies for the Healers Hall, she goes into the camps to work as a nurse (at this point she has been vaccinated).  She eventually ends up in Ruatha where she had dreamed about ever since her foster sister Suriana had married her Lord Alessan.  Nerilka or Rill as she is now known proves how helpful she can be and is asked to stay on and help restore Ruatha.  Rill is as happy as can be and gets right to work.  She is there when news of Moreta's death comes and is the one to attempt to comfort Alessan in his grief.  For Alessan this is one more tragedy in a long string and it is more then he can take, he tells Rill that he just wants to die.  Rill tells him that he can't die, at least not until their is a Ruathan heir, or the hold will fall to another holder.  Alessan (who knew all along that Rill was Nerilka, from Suriana's sketches) makes a deal that he will marry Nerilka and as soon as their is an heir, she has to mix him his cup (his way of committing suicide).  Not knowing what else to do she agrees.  Eventually Oklina impresses her queen, and Nerilka bears Alessan a child, but instead of dying, he decides to live.  Nerilka knows that he will never be the light hearted man Suriana married, or the reckless racer Moreta loved, but he is a good man who loves and cares for his family and readily recognizes Nerilka for her work and effort and that is enough for him.

Whew that was really really really long...you ready for some more?  Good.  I love reading these two books together, not only 'cause they are companion pieces but for the complete and different views you get.  With Moreta you see a strong, older woman who has not only born several children but is in charge of one of the largest Weyrs and is responsible for the care and safety of essentially a whole planet.  She is capable, decisive, fun-loving, and knows how to take responsibility.  I love that she is not some young supple waif of a girl, but a mature woman, who is described at being near the end of her child-bearing years, which puts her in her 30's or 40's, yet she is also described as desirable and fun and lovely...despite the cropped hair and fine lines on her face.  This is not the type of heroine we see a lot, usually it is the young, the new, the virginal, the unattached that the story centers around.  I love that we have a mother, who as much as she loves her

born children, knows she must be more then that, she is a mother figure that is not at all homey or hearth bound.  Then we have Nerilka, who's story is told in the first person, which is one of the few times I have heard this style from this author, but it works for this story.  Nerilka was born and raised in a completely different way then Moreta, she is a high-born Holder, taught to be much more decorous and dainty (even if she is not) she knows that arts of running a household, she knows how important a well run hold is.  She is well aware if costs, supplies and help get out of hand it could spell disaster.  It is her diligence in this sort of "homey" work that not only saves her Hold (which is the biggest and oldest on Pern) but potentially many others as well.  She does things on a smaller scale then Moreta, yet what she does is just as important if not more so to the overall survival of Pern.  Moreta is passionate and free, partly because of her being part of the Weyr (which by virtue of the dragons have to have a different code of conduct) and partly because of her nature.  Nerilka is more aware of her duty and is willing to fulfill it to the point of honor.  Moreta has a passionate, if ill-advised love affair with Alessan while Nerilka does what needs to be done after her death in helping Alessan continue forward.  In Alessan we see three different yet very valid kind of romantic loves.  We here about his first bloom of wild, young love with his wife Suriana, we get a more passionate, plunging love of Moreta, and finally a dutiful, which eventually turns into a mature and deep love for Nerilka.  I like that between these two books we see that not every love has to be a wild flame of desire at first sight with a pretty young unknown yet dangerous factor...you know what I mean.  I also like that these books show you
can have more then one love, that you can move on without being disloyal, or loving somebody any less. The best part is, after all my rambling on love, neither of these books is a love story, in fact in Moreta the page count of Alessan and Moreta together is fairly minimal compared to the rest of the book.  As far as the story there is so much for me to dive into full force.  I love that medicine was a central part of this story as that is one of my personal passions. The science was fairly accurate and the methods well thought out.  I liked learning about the healing aspect of dragons and their riders (this is so what I would do if I lived on Pern!) I also love how this book fits into the history of Pern.  In the original trilogy the song Moreta's Last Ride is sung and is also mentioned several times in the Harper Hall trilogy so to actually read the story is pretty cool, and adding Nerilka to the mix made it even better. The stories also remind us that this is actually a science fiction story when they talk about the Crossing and their ancestors and the old records that talk about influenza, connecting to an even deeper history. So obviously I love these books and think you should read all of them, and will know continue my Anne McCaffery kick 'cause I just LOVE LOVE LOVE reading her stuff! I give this combination of books 9 out of 10 golden queen dragons!

What do you think of companion books?  How do you feel about non-stock characters?  What do you like to see in your stories (e.g. medicine, music, sports)?  How obsessed am I with Anne McCaffrey?

Brains and Brawns

We all know I am an Anne McCaffrey freak and have yet to find a book of hers I do not like.  I had been stuck on her Pern and Talents and have reread every entry in these series several times over. Lately though I have been expanding into her other works.  I was trying to figure out which one I should read next...should I go for an oldie but goodie that I had read 1000 times but knew would give me what I wanted...or should I be brave and hunt down a new book.  Enter the new used book store by our house (heh heh new used) and lo and behold, sitting front and center for $2.14 was a paperback version (with the old school cover no less) of The Ship Who Sang.  Who was I to mess with the book gods, so into my basket and to the top of the reading pile it went.  I had read a couple short stories concerning these brain ships before, so I had a bit of an idea of what to expect, and it was awesome. As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Helva was born with sever physical deformities, but a highly functional brain and in this future universe parents are given to options.  To euthanize the child as a kindness or allow her to become a shell person.  A shell person is one who's body will be stunted and ecapsulated in a titanium life support shell that is capable of being wired into a computer.  The child will then be raised to become the "brain" of a star ship, city, or any other number of things.  Since this conditioning takes place at birth, these shell children know no other life and are taught to enjoy and value the benefits of having a ship or city as a body.  Helva learns quickly, loving life in her shell and is eventually installed in a star ship.  The down side to all of this is that it is very very very expensive to raise a shell child to adulthood and the shell person must pay of their debts to the Federation. It is the goal of every brainship to clear their debt as quickly as possible and become their own master.  Once a brainship is deemed to be sufficiently trained and education they then pick a brawn.  A brawn is the "normal" human half of the team, sometimes called the mobile partner.  These brawn's are specially trained to work 

with brainships, to respect them as humans, and to work with them as equal partners.  Helva's first brawn Jennan is a bright, intelligent man who has no trouble treating Helva like a human. Jennan and Helva soar across the universe together, performing tasks for the Federation and racking up credit to erase Helva's debt.  Helva falls in love with Jennan in an oddly appropriate way...not really sure how to describe this relationship, but it works.  The two pass time and express emotion through song, making Helva the Ship Who Sings. This is used by Helva through out the book to deal with various situations. Sadly Helva's happiness is cut short when a mission goes bad and Jennan is killed in the airlock of the ship.  Helva buries her brawn and mourns him deeply.  She is then boarded by Theoda a Physiotherapist who is sent to a plague ridden planet to try and find a way to help people who have become vegetables recover.  Helva, using her heightened senses realizes that the people are not brain dead (yet) but are trapped in their own bodies, eventually leading to madness and death. Theoda surmises that with intense physical therapy the victims may recover use of there bodies.  Helva and Theoda try this on the young son of one of the hospital administrators, proving to the plague ridden world that there is hope. The planet begins recovery efforts and Helva learns that Theoda lost her family to a similar plague on a different world years ago.  They grieve and start to heal together.    Helva is given a temporary brawn by the name of Kira and it is their mission to deliver thousands and thousands of human embryos to a planet that has been left sterile by a radiation flare.  Along the way Helva learns that Kira is suicidal, wanting to die after her husband was killed.  The Federation gives Helva strict orders to stay away from certain planets where suicide is considered legal.  As they go about there mission they end up on a planet that seems to have a strange death cult.  Turns out an old brain ship who has gone mad over the death of her brawn years ago tried to fly into a volcano but got stuck out side of it.  The people of the area built a cult around the ship and have been controlled by a breathable narcotic.  Helva recognizes the ship for who it is and with Kira's assistance delivers a mercy killing to the ship.  Helva and Kira discuss the loss of Thorn (Kira's husband) and Jennan (Helva's former brawn) and the desire to no longer live with out them.  They again help each other grieve and heal and finish there mission.  After the three year mission is finished Helva she is given the task of ferrying a troop of actors to the newly discovered Beta Corvi to perform and teach Romeo and Juliet to a new form of life. One the way there is much strife as the lead actor/director is suffering from a fatal illness and the lead actress is pretty much as shrewish as they come. During rehearsals the director discovers Helva has 

an impressive acting range and casts her as the nurse in the performance. The people of Beta Corvi are essentially bags of gas that float around in an almost aquatic environment. The actors (including Helva) have their brain essentially downloaded into an empty Beta Corvi body to perform the play.  The response of the new life forms is devastating and wonderful all at the same time, with the actors brains becoming more and more Corvi like the longer they stay in these "bodies"  Eventually the director, his lover and the lead actress end up staying in there borrowed bodies on Beta Corvi, essentially allowing the actor to continue living even with his fatal disease.  Helva is tempted to stay, having finally experienced what having a real body is like, but then decides to return to her ship where she is happy.  She demands her own pick of brawns and ends up with an insufferable little prick of a man who treat Helva like she is nothing more then a sophisticated computer. After rumors of brainships dissapering with their brawns her pilot becomes paranoid that she is going to turn on him and double checks everything she does.  They are called to transport highly needed yet highly dangerous medications to various planets.  Along the way they are tricked and taken captive.  Helva is removed from her ship and deprived of her senses which starts to drive her mad.  She is given limited senses back as long as she does as she is told.  She eventually tricks her captors into giving her more power and fries them.  She and the other captured ships are rescued and she immediately dumps her crappy brawn.  She then has enough money to pay her debt and becomes a contract ship.  The Federation immediately bribes/contracts her back for a new drive and she demands that Niall, the sweet-talking supervisor (and protector of Helva throughout the book) becomes her new brawn.  He confesses that he is in love with her and is not sure if that would be good for a brawn/brain pairing.  She eventually convinces him and they sail off into the stars ready for more adventures.

The format of this book was kinda quirky in that all but the last chapter was actually a collection of short stories.  Each chapter while part of a whole timeline was its own complete story.  This made for a bit of a choppy read, but overall it was amazing as is all Ms. McCaffrey's books.  This book is unique because it is her one of her first work to be published and remained one of her favorites.  It is interesting to see the development of this amazing woman's skills from the beginning to her death.  As far as content goes, it is still amazing to me how advanced Ms. McCaffrey's thinking was, some of her ideas far outpaced what was the norm for the 60's and 70's when these stories were published.  During those times it was not uncommon for children with any sort of perceived defect, whether it be physical or mental to be institutionalized and forgotten. It was also assumed a lot of the time if you had a physical deformity then you were also slow in the brain, something we now know is not always true.  The idea to give these kids not just a life, but a life of near immortality with freedoms and respect is pretty cool.  I have read several criticisms of the premise of these stories, how the children never had a choice and that they were essentially sold into indentured servitude, which in some ways is not entirely incorrect, but I think there is more to it then that.  First of all just about any time a parent makes a decision for their children, especially health related, they are essentially altering that child's future, whether it be to pierce their ears, circumcise them, institutionalize them, heck even name them, that is what happens when you are a parent, you try and make choices that are best for your kid, and in 

these stories a life of living in the stars was a much better alternative to pretty much anything else this era had to offer.  As far as paying off their debts go, well this is probably the most plausible way for something on this scale to actually happen.  It would cost a lot of time, effort and resources on an unsure outcome...so yeah it's gonna cost somebody and the shell person arguably is the one getting the biggest bargain in the deal.  I like that the author made a point of having Helva be a person, no a brain hooked up to a computer, not a ship that was super smart, but a real flesh and blood (albeit one stunted and encased in titanium) human with emotions, wants, needs, and preferences.  I love that she is not a cold, calculating android, but a women with emotions and a need to express them through song (Anne McCaffrey's ever pervasive love of music appears in all of her books).  The conditioning that the shell people go through to accept their lot in life, the training the brawns go through to see the ship as an equal partner, not a machine to be driven, the emphasis on treating the brains as humans all points to how we need treat our own special needs friends here in the real world.  This book is among other things a call to see all humans, regardless of their form, color, shape, size, or disability as first and foremost a human.  I very much enjoyed getting into this authors earlier works and am now going to go read my whole shelf full (which is now spilling onto a second and third shelf) of her works and also I am going to go hunt down the few I don't own yet.  I give this book 8 out of 10 singing ships.

Would you choose to be encapsulated if you were born with sever deformities?  Do you think it is ok to take the choice away from a newborn infant if it is the only hope you have?  What would you sing if you could soar through the stars?