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BRAIN SHIPS
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The Ship Who Searched / PartnerShip
Baen, Reissued Nov
2003
Reviewed by Joy
Calderwood
Science Fiction
In 1970, a series
of short stories by Anne McCaffrey was gathered into one book and
published as THE SHIP WHO SANG. If McCaffrey had gone no farther than
the mental leap from placing people’s brains in mechanical bodies, to
placing their brains in starships, space stations and engineered cities,
it would have been an accomplishment. But she didn’t stop there. She
made those transplanted brains piercingly human. Then she turned them
loose in adventures so fascinating that THE SHIP WHO SANG became a
beloved classic.
For twenty years it
seemed to be a standalone concept. Suddenly, in 1992, McCaffrey released
two brainship novels in collaboration with authors at the beginnings of
their careers: THE SHIP WHO SEARCHED with Mercedes Lackey and
PARTNERSHIP with Margaret Ball. BRAIN SHIPS is a combination volume of
these two novels.
THE SHIP WHO
SEARCHED
Seven year old Tia
is already an oddity, dragged by her scholarly parents from one
archaeological dig to another, on one isolated, unfamiliar planet after
another. She has no child companions; her precocious mind has been
trained by computers and her parents. Her best friend is the brainship
who visits occasionally. When Tia is permanently paralyzed by an unknown
virus, her only chance to fulfill her potential is to become a brainship
herself.
As the brainship
AH-1033, Tia has a personal mission: to find the homeworld of the dead
civilization which harbored the virus that destroyed her body. With
Alex, her eccentric “brawn” or human partner, Tia is sent on a series of
assignments tracking down newly discovered plagues, a danger that must
be expected in a civilization which is constantly exploring new planets.
I have read almost
everything by Anne McCaffrey, and in my opinion THE SHIP WHO SEARCHED is
her best collaboration. It has an emotional and literary richness which
is rarely equaled before or since in her career. The story is especially
deeply moving during Tia’s progression from human to brainship, and also
in the relationship between Tia and Alex. My personal preference is for
the type of relationship Helva has with Parollan in THE SHIP WHO SANG
rather than the culmination between Tia and Alex, but that is because I
love the idea of working out such mismatched matings as these between
ship and human.
PARTNERSHIP
Nancia, the XN-935,
has an advantage most brainships don’t have. Her father is a
highly-placed official and a member of the High Families. The idealistic
Nancia would rather die than take advantage of this to “pull strings”
for her own benefit, but such things do happen all the time. For
example, her first assignment. She finds herself, a Courier ship with a
Singularity drive, trained for high-speed essential services, assigned
to ferry five High Families youngsters, just to save them the time of
getting to their first jobs in a faraway star system at the slower FTL
speeds.
The youngsters are
all spoiled but bright, and Nancia wonders why each is being sent into
what looks like exile. Gradually the five reveal what their crimes were
and how they intend to enrich themselves in their new positions. By the
end of the trip, Nancia has an entire criminal conspiracy recorded by
her cameras – and she can’t show the tapes to anyone.
Nancia is only
sixteen human years old. Already idealistic, her indecision is
reinforced by the impracticality of her brawn Caleb and a too cynical
brainstation. It takes a brawn change and extreme circumstances to
resolve the dilemma presented by five High Families criminals whose
ambitious plans are coming to fruition.
Character is the
focus in PARTNERSHIP. The five criminals are varied, interesting, and
chilling, especially in the cases of the beautiful Polyon and Fassa. A
bonus for readers is the sheer joy that Nancia takes in Singularity
flight, which she likens to wave surfing. A bit spoiled and arrogant
herself, she will have to do some growing up in high pressure
situations. By getting to know some of the older members in Central
Worlds service, Nancia comes to understand and appreciate what it means
to be a “softshell” human, instead of a nearly-invulnerable maiden in a
titanium ship.
The
sparkle of THE SHIP WHO SEARCHED will be enjoyed by readers as yet
unfamiliar with the Brainships
series. If you already like the series and haven’t read these, do so. It
was time we got them back in print.
Feb 2005 Review
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