The Ship Who Sang

ANNE MCCAFFREY

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Del Rey Books, 1985.

How acquired: Through Book Mooch.

First lines: She was born a thing and as such would be condemned if she failed to pass the encephalograph test required of all newborn babies. 

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I debated between three and four stars for so long that I finally decided the fact of my indecision merited the book four stars. The book has only six chapters, and each chapter is almost like reading a short story, but continuing on from where the previous story ended. Helva is a brain ship. When a child is born with a deformed or disabled body but a sound mind, the child's parents are given two choices - the child can be euthanized, or turned over to Central Worlds to 'become an encapsulated "brain", a guiding mechanism in any one of a number of curious professions.' Helva is raised to become a brain ship, meaning her body is encased in an indestructible titanium shell while her brain is basically hooked up as a computer. In Helva's case, she is now a spaceship, with her brain running literally everything on board. Brain ships are partnered with a "brawn", a man or a woman of their choice who handles all the things that the brain half of the ship cannot.

The first chapter, "The Ship Who Sang", where Helva is ready to go into service and chooses her first brawn, Jennan, is the best chapter of the book, and the ending of that chapter was very unexpected. Of the other five chapters, some were better than others. "Dramatic Mission", the fourth chapter, was my least favorite, with Helva and a temporary brawn transporting an acting troupe to a planet where the inhabitants appear to be bundles of emotions contained in shells...I don’t even know how to explain it but I just found most of that chapter confusing.

This book was first published in 1969, and yet it does not feel dated at all. Ms. McCaffrey had a rich imagination. I read most of her Pern books when I was in my teens/early twenties, but none of her other books. After rereading a couple of Pern books, I felt I should explore more of her writing, and decided to start with her very first published book, after which I decided to read all of her work in publication order. This is only her fourth book (one of which was the first Pern book), and it’s already been quite an adventure!

Goodreads synopsis: Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner—male or female—to share her exhilarating escapades in space!

Her life was to be rich and rewarding . . . resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest dreams of mere mortals.

Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructible, Helva XH-834 anticipated a sublime immortality.

Then one day she fell in love!

Decision at Doona

ANNE MCCAFFREY

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Del Rey, 1978.

First line: The planet receded to a small, blue-green sphere, the lesser of its two satellites beginning to pass across the retreating face of its primary, a pearly tear in the northeast hemisphere.

(For Goodreads synopsis, scroll down.)

My thoughts: One of the author's early books, pre-Pern, set in the future, though the exact year isn't specified. Earth has become so overpopulated that people live in extremely tight conditions, with small apartments and narrow corridors where walking fast or swinging your arms while you walk are outlawed due to the congestion of people. Ken is excited to be part of a group of men sent to Doona to set up a colony, where he gets to breathe fresh air and walk in forests for the first time. He and the other settlers have been on Doona for about a year, and their wives and children are on the way to join them, when they discover a village inhabited by a race of cats. Intelligent cats, who walk on their hind legs and who seem to have appeared overnight, except for the fact that they live in a fully functional community with homes and buildings and livestock. So now the Terran colony will have to be abandoned, because their laws state that they cannot cohabit a planet with another sentient race.

While the three main governing bodies of Terra battle it out as to who has authority and control over the situation, the Terrans become friends with the Hrrubans, and begin to discover it is possible to co-exist peaceably with another species.

Regarding the date, there are references to past incidents in Terran history, starting with "the Egyptian treatment of the wandering Semitic tribes...the German massacre of the Jews", and then (keeping in mind the book was first published in 1969) "...the Chinese attempt in 1974, the Black Riots of 1980. One goes on indefinitely until the Amalgamation of 2010 which was probably bloodier than any previous pogrom." I would have liked to learn more background about those incidents and what Ms. McCaffrey imagined would or could happen to our planet in the future!

Another thing that puzzled me was the use of the word "unprintable", such as in this exchange:

"I'm going back to the bed I never should have left this unprintable morning."

"And Toddy?" she quavered, following him to the door.

"Todd is the only one on this whole unprintable planet willing and able to take care of himself."

Are the characters actually saying "unprintable" as a cuss word, or was that the equivalent of replacing the cuss words with symbols as in "Todd is the only one on this whole &$%&@# planet..."

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, which is still timely today regarding race relations, except unlike our world now where we have constant systemic racism, this future Terra have all become one race and avoid interacting with other sentient races, not through fear or racism, but to prevent any negative affect on or to those other races.

Goodreads synopsis: After the first human contact with the Siwannese, that entire race committed mass suicide. So the Terran government made a law--no further contact would be allowed with sentient creatures anywhere in the galaxy. Therefore Doona could be colonized only if an official survey established that the planet was both habitable and uninhabited.

But Spacedep had made a mistake—Doona was inhabited. Now the colonists' choice was limited. Leave Doona and return to the teeming hell of an overpopulated Terra. Or kill the catlike Hrrubans. Or learn, for the first time in history, how to coexist with an alien race.

Restoree

ANNE MCCAFFREY

Goodreads synopsis: SHE WAS A RESTOREE

KIDNAPPED  Torn from Earth by a bizarre and nameless black force, Sara had no idea where she was or why she was in a beautiful new body...

ENSLAVED  Controlled by brutal guards and tamed by terror, she could not comprehend her role as a nurse for a man who appeared to be an idiot...

AWAKENED  But once she discovered that the plane she had been brought to was Lothar and that the man she was caring for was its Regent, Sara knew they had to escape -- and fast.

And when they did, they became fugitives on a world of multiple evils -- bound together on a daring adventure that would either join them for all time...or separate them forever!

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Del Rey Books, 1982.

How acquired: Book Mooch.

First line: The only warning of danger I had was a disgusting wave of dead sea-creature stench.

My thoughts: When I was young, late teens/early twenties I think, I devoured all of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, but I never read any of her other books. About ten years ago I did read one of her non-science fiction/fantasy books, THE LADY, which I enjoyed. But after starting a reread of the Pern books, I decided I wanted to branch out and began collecting everything of hers I could find. RESTOREE was her first published novel, so it seemed like the perfect place to start.

The writing put me in mind of Mary Stewart, though I haven't read anything by Stewart in several years. Sara is walking in Central Park one minute, then the next minute she is nursemaid to a nearly catatonic man on a different planet, with her memories of the events in between hazy. For the first part of the book I was completely captivated as Sara becomes more aware of her surroundings and the man she is caring for, and then as she and Harlan escape from a sanitarium and travel to (relative) safety. After that, some of the fascination wore off as Sara found herself involved in the politics surrounding Harlan. But towards the end it picked up again, and overall I really enjoyed it.

I'm on a quest now to read all of Ms. McCaffrey's other books, preferably in publication order, which should probably take me about ten years or so!