I was in some ways impressed and tickled by Acorna, and in other ways unimpressed and chagrined. Being an avid reader of Anne McCaffrey since I was in junior high school, there are many traits that I’ve come to enjoy in her writing: tying mythical beasts and the paranormal to modern and future settings, abused and neglected children’s retribution against a world that would not have them (a facet of literature that I later came to hate with the mediocrity of Harry Potter), and her talent to develop characters into romantic chess pieces. Although I now feel that I am older and wiser in regards to romantic settings (and McCaffrey’s stance on homosexuality being little more than effrontery to me), I still find her universes complex and interesting. The Talent/Pegasus series has always been a favorite of mine and I am constantly rereading Damia and To Ride Pegasus for their science fiction/romance blend. In Acorna’s case, we have a book that is ostensibly young adult literature, set in the far future, while incorporating elements of the unicorn mythos. Since I’ve never taken the time to read up on unicorns from a mythological perspective, I feel as if I have earned an insight into their makeup that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Additionally, a great many science fiction and science non-fiction made up a tremendous part of this story and it was all composed and inserted well and aptly.However, one could argue the dynamics of Acorna stop there. The plot is, to say the least, confusing. If the reader is to take the three miners as the story’s protagonists, the book should have ended when they reached Kezdet. I had actually been under the mistaken assumption that Acorna was going to feature… oh I don’t know, the character named Acorna? Instead, so many characters are introduced, their stories overlapping well, that one quickly loses sight of just who and what Acorna really is. One reads Dragonsong because they identify with and become empathic to its protagonist. One reads Damia because of her vivacious personality. Why is it then, that a book just called Acorna, doesn’t feature really any personal growth for the character. It is fitting that this book brings us from her infancy into her young adulthood with nary a stop along the way, because that is exactly how I feel her character was developed through out. I felt as if I was reading an abridgement of her story. I kept holding out hope for the text to become feminist or at least sympathetic to Acorna and her plight. I guess that would have required her to have a plight.I am really upset that I didn’t enjoy Acorna more. I have recently acquired the other books in her series, and I’m quite sure they introduce some interesting characters and funny scenarios, but… I don’t know if I’ll be able to muster up the will to read them. The question of whether or not the books begin to actually center on Acorna and who and what is unsettles me because I’m afraid I’ll never find out. I have to question the wisdom of having a female character-driven series begin with an episode-driven, masculine trio. What sense I do get from Acorna is that she has little regard for social niceties, a traint I do find appealing. Yet, I am also stymied by her utter lack of interest in the opposite sex (no doubt this is due to McCaffrey/Ball’s wish to make her a “late bloomer” as the story closes on her being all of three years old). As McCaffrey has rarely used homosexuality in her books, I find it highly unlikely that she would choose to make Acorna one (although I will look for fanfics to that end). Instead, I see Acorna becoming like Nimisha—a soul searching for something she knows not what and is willing to settle for the mundane and take on stereotypical female maternity roles in anti-feminist fable. Given that side characters have already recognized Acorna as being motherly, I have to wonder if Acorna will ever morph into a Lessa-like character that truly controls the fate of the story. I do not attempt to posit that motherly characters are anti-feminist or even that they don’t make good protagonist: I merely wonder if Acorna does.
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures:http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...I’ve loved Anne McCaffrey ever since I first discovered her Crystal Singer trilogy when I was in high school. I’ve long admired McCaffrey’s ability to bring to life strong and competent heroines who are independent and a little bit Type A. Acorna is no exception.The novel begins when an alien couple’s ship is attacked. They realize they are doomed, and because they know that they would meet a slow and painful demise if they allowed themselves to be taken, they decide to blow themselves up so that they can take their enemies with them. Their only regret is their small child. On a whim, they decide to jettison the child in an escape pod. Even though they know that the odds of her being rescued are slim, they want to give her that chance.Luckily, there are three asteroid miners who just happen to be passing by. Calum, Gill, and Rafik are socially awkward misfits who like the freedom of mining in space, and when they find a pod with a baby unicorn alien in it, they become her reluctant guardians. At first they are bewildered, but the child, whom they call Acorna, quickly grows on them. It soon becomes apparent that Acorna is indeed something special. She grows crazy fast and has the ability to purify air, help plants grow, heal small wounds, and perform complex computations in her head.As other people become aware of just how special Acorna is, the three miners and Acorna find themselves on the run from people who see her only for her body. They arrive on the planet Kezdet, which reminds me a bit of Tattoine in Star Wars. It’s a rough and lawless world, and most industries there make a profit by using mistreated child slave laborers. This infuriates Acorna, who takes it upon herself to try to save as many children as possible. This requires some growing up, as in human years, she’s really just a child herself. Despite the fact that she now has the appearance of someone in her late teens/early 20s, she doesn’t know a lot about how the world works planetside.Even as she’s finding fulfillment in her cause, Acorna feels a certain loneliness, because she’s reached physical maturity but is the only one of her kind. She’s constantly being sexualized by other people, but doesn’t have any real understanding of her own sexuality. Throughout the book, Acorna’s friends are able to make some progress into guessing where she might have come from, and the book ends with a note of hope that maybe one day Acorna will find her people. I’m just hoping that nothing bad happens when she does; it’ll be the first time that humans make contact with them, and I’m not so naive as to think that everyone would get along without conflict. But that’s all speculation, because apparently McCaffrey wrote a whole series of books that follow Acorna’s story.Acorna felt like a space opera version of Snow White, but without handsome princes or glass coffins, and instead a plot to destroy repugnant child slavers. Maybe it’s just that Calum, Gill, and Rafik remind me a little bit of dwarves. For a book with such dark themes, it had a feeling of lightheartedness and a happy ending for everyone involved. Definitely worth the read.
What do You think about Acorna: The Unicorn Girl (2000)?
I first read Acorna: The Unicorn Girl when I was in grade school. This review is for a reread. I remembered the major strokes of this book, but had forgotten the details.This is the story of three miners and how they find purpose and romance in their lives, catalyzed by the discovery of an extraterrestrial named Acorna. It is the story of the start to the overhaul of an economy in which labor is ill treated - very reminiscent of what happened on Earth in the not too distant past - by a few rich souls who have ethics rather than just morals. It is the story of hope provided to the downtrodden laborers in the person of Acorna. But what it decidedly is not, is the story of the eponymous Acorna.This book deals obliquely with the concepts of extreme poverty, selling children into slavery, pedophilia, and sadomasochism. It also has a scene or two that remind me of Disney's Aladdin when Jasmin escapes the castle and heads out into the market, not understanding that she is going to need money.I cannot speak to the feelings of suspense or not, for as I mention that I have read this novel before, whenever a tricky situation was encountered, I vaguely remembered how it would be resolved and so read on to see that resolution take place. Perhaps you should read a first-read review to see if the tensions are as tense as they are supposed to be.
—Jen
It was an interesting book, but I thought the character of Acorna could have better developed. She didn't seem to have much personality. There were long stretches in the book, where Acorna was all but forgotten. There just seemed to be a lot of questions to be answered when the book ended. Maybe they will be answered in the next book, but it was frustrating to me as the reader. I did enjoy the story, and would like to see where it goes in the next book. The ending did seem a little abrupt, and not quite what I was expecting.
—Kim
I first grew interested in Ann McCaffrey and Margaret Ball’s Acorna when I was a young girl. I was captured by the cover of a pretty silver haired girl with a horn and hooves. But this book unfortunately proved the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” right. My attempt to read the book failed and I ended up getting rid of it. Fast forward to present day and I decided to give the book another chance. I was hopeful after reading and enjoying McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern that maybe I was just too young to read Acorna previously. And what could be more fun that reading about a girl who was part unicorn? Unfortunately, I found that the answer was anything.I was dismayed that this book was not really focused on Acorna at all. Instead, it was a story about the three miners that found the little unicorn girl and took care of her. Of course, many people were fascinated by Acorna and wanted her for experiments or other dark purposes. So the miners were forced to whisk her away to new planets to keep her safe. While this may sound exciting, it really wasn’t. There was no sense of urgency or growing danger at all—even when they relocated to the most dangerous planet in the galaxy. Any people that threatened Acorna or her companions were magically and easily dealt with.What’s more, is that none of the miners seemed very upset that they had to give up their lives and careers in order to take care of their new ward. Acorna too, felt no guilt at the changes she had wrought on her caretakers’ lives. When Acorna magically aged over night into a stunning young woman, she still remained unconcerned about things that should have been important—who she was and where she came from, what happened to her race of people—and to my horror, she instead focused on the child labor on the planet. And suddenly, I found that I was reading a book about a female activist who was determined to free all the enslaved and abused children on the planet. Needless to say, this was not at all what I expected. Sure, Acorna sometimes used her horn to heal the wounds of these poor children, but that was about as magical as the book got. Though the children revered her as the goddess Epona, I however, felt no attachment to Acorna or any of the other flat characters. I simply didn’t care if Acorna and her companions ran into any trouble, because I knew they’d easily find a solution. Any parts of the story that had interested me were either glossed over or ignored. Ultimately, this book had enormous potential and such an original idea, but fell so unbelievably short . I was really disappointed to find a book that wasn’t about a unicorn girl who struggled to overcome prejudices, danger, and other adversity to find her place in society. What McCaffrey and Ball gave me was a bland young woman, who felt very little fear or curiosity at her differences and was immediately loved by everyone who met her. As such, Acorna and its characters were completely uncompelling and I will not be reading the next books in the series.
—Kate Jessop
