The Ship Who Sang

The Ship Who Sang
by Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011) was, perhaps, best known as the creator of the Dragonriders of Pern series of novels that began in the late 1960s and has continued even beyond her passing, now written by her son. Back in the day, McCaffrey was known by the nickname "The Queen of Science Fiction", and she was one of the best-known and most beloved of science fiction and fantasy authors. Part of the reason for that is the expanse of different types of stories she told; one of her best-known non-dragon series was the Brain Ship series, starting with The Ship Who Sang. Helva is a seriously deformed child, whose parents submit her for a government program in which her human brain and wasted body are installed in a starship, which she controls mentally. Brain Ships, partnered with normal human pilots (brawns) then work for the interstellar government on a variety of spacegoing missions, until they can pay off the financial debt they own for their own modifications. The Ship Who Sang is a collection of novellas or novelettes, originally each published seperately, which have been reworked slightly to create a unified story. Though there's a highly "romantic" flair to the storytelling, the ideas behind these stories are intriguing and thought-provoking, even 40 or more years later. This is not "hard SF" by any means, but if you're looking for an excellent example of McCaffrey's early writing style, I recommend The Ship Who Sang. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of McCaffrey's other works, particularly those in her Pern series.]

[ Wikipedia page for The Ship Who Sang ] | [ official The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!