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The Ship Who Sang 1: The basics
What did you think of the book? The characters? The various challenges and scenarios? Would you be inclined to read any other books in the series (which don't follow Helva any more, but instead involve other encapsulated brains, either in ships or static installations)
Comments
It's a McCaffrey book, it reads like one - over the years I have read enough of her work to tell. I have a slight problem with her writing style. She gets all excited about something and somehow jumps ahead without saying she is jumping ahead. I am continually saying to myself "How exactly did that occur?" or "How did we get to this place?" Thing is, she writes so energetically and sweeps along so quickly that I just accept it and let it bug me in the back of my mind where it won't disturb the fun. So - I like her even though her style bugs me. The characters were OK, but mostly stock. That doesn't mean she can't tell a good story, though! I can definitely feel the period it was written in the words - the cultures and attitudes behind the stories - but that doesn't bother me too much. I lived through that time after all. The challenge were interesting and fun, and Helva was smart and likeable. I wouldn't seek more stories like this out, but I wouldn't say no either.
The book was nice, and easy to read, but like @clash_bowley I wouldn't go out of my way to read more. If I fell on it, I think it would be a good way to waste an afternoon.
As I mentioned last week, I've taken up reading aloud (not this book), and I don't think that as a novel this is particularly good material for that. Running everything through one narrator is too much. The short story form though doesn't have that problem, so reading one would be fine, but I think the listeners would get bored of always hearing Helva's tale. Did anyone listen to an audiobook version?
I feel much the same. I liked it well enough. If I happen to see a copy of one of the sequels, I'd pick it up. But I'm not going to hunt for them. I didn't have any issue with the style, either.
> The book was nice, and easy to read, but like @clash_bowley I wouldn't go out of my way to read more. If I fell on it, I think it would be a good way to waste an afternoon.
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> As I mentioned last week, I've taken up reading aloud (not this book), and I don't think that as a novel this is particularly good material for that. Running everything through one narrator is too much. The short story form though doesn't have that problem, so reading one would be fine, but I think the listeners would get bored of always hearing Helva's tale. Did anyone listen to an audiobook version?
An interesting thought about who narrates the story. I personally prefer the strategy of, as it were, walking alongside one character, with all the associated limitations and areas of ignorance, rather than multiple narrators filling in different views of the whole. But I can totally see how both ways of telling a story can work. And how the impression might well be different depending on whether one is reading or listening.
The first McCaffery book I've read. As is the consensus here, I'm not eager to read another one. It's OK, but very much of its time. I think I'd have enjoyed it more in my youth, when I was reading more Heinlein and Asimov; this would have been a good counterpoint. But now, the field of SF has moved on.
I've been having a little McCaffrey-fest lately - I read most of the Pern series years ago so have not yet dipped into that, but have been looking at others.
I find it interesting that she (like Andre Norton) co-wrote a fair bit with different authors - I find it hard to imagine how that would work, but some people make it work so fair enough.