The Book that hooked me on McCaffrey

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	• The Ship Who Sang Anne McCaffrey Del Rey, 1985 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 29 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

SHE SINGS

I BOUGHT THIS TO REPLACE MINE THAT WAS FALLING APART. I JUST WISH I KNEW WHAT HELVA IS DOING NOW. THIS BOOK IS A LOVELY AND FUN READ.

Not Free SF Reader

In this setting, severely physically handicapped children are trained to be the 'brains' of spaceships, and are partnered with more physically able people who become the ship pilots.

This follows one such person or ship in particular, who likes the whole music thing. She must also deal with the loss of a pilot and the introduction of another.

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Classic Sci-Fi with a unique concept

Anne McCaffrey is good at creating new worlds or new concepts; her "Crystal Singer" series was my favorite, a whole world created around crystal miners who use voice to tune their cutting instruments to mine delicate and temperamental crystal.

In "The Ship Who Sang", music is also a factor, but it takes a backseat role to the concept of the brain/brawn ships. Helva is a crippled human who has a completely excellent brain trapped in a handicapped body. She is offered training to become a "Shell" person; one whose brain will be encased in a metal shell and imbedded in some kind of equipment needed intelligent direction. In Helva's case, she becomes a spaceship, her shell set in the middle of an entire ship partnered with a "brawn" or a physically able human.

The book is a collection of short stories featuring adventures for Helva with and without a brawn partner. The stories are only linked in time--Helva can work off the cost of her training and become a Free Ship (in time, in a lot of time.) Meanwhile, she is sent on a variety of missions. The one story I appreciated the most was "The Ship Who Dissembled" which has a most exciting hijacking; Helva is taken over by a crew of criminals who exploit her most tender weakness to get her to comply with their orders. But Helva is no idiot, despite being at somewhat of a disadvantage. This story is worth the entire book, in my opinion.

McCaffrey goes on to create more novels with the brain ship motif. This is a good one to read first to get the idea of the concept. And it's an absolute classic in the world of science fiction.

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The Book that hooked me on McCaffrey

In wonderful detail McCaffrey leads us through the birth, early childhood and training of Helva. She was born a cripple and would have died had she not been encased in her Shell. She takes an interest in music and finds with her vocal equipment she can reproduce any tone, and with her memory banks can retrieve any number of plays or songs instantaneously. After she is commissioned several Brawns (to her brain) arrive aboard her and a 'Brawn picking party' commences. She decides on the one she wants almost immediately and they set out to pay off their debts to Central Worlds. In a mission to save several planets from an exploding sun, she tragically loses her brawn, and mourns him terribly. CenCom takes an interest in her and continues to give her temporary assignments and temporary brawns, and she pays off her debt in record time. After she is a free ship she is called upon (tricked or bullied really) into taking another assignment that her singing capabilities particularly require her service. The mission is accomplished, and very well indeed, but there are side effects and she loses 3 passengers (but not by her fault). There is a wonderful ending and many times throughout the book I wanted to cry. Wonderful read, excellent story. Very well thought out story line. The plot varies depending on the stage of the book, but it all goes together very well.

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Good fun book

This was a good fun book. If you like a good story and don't require your science fiction to be strong on realism you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for hard SF and need everything to be realistic this isn't the book for you.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved and implanted into the titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner, to soar with her through the daring adventures and exhilarating escapades in space.

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