I have a collection of short stories by McCaffrey, but I realized when I got it down to reread and review it that one was a sequel to this book. So I searched around until I found a copy, which took longer than I expected.First, the table of contents:The Ship Who SangThe Ship Who MournedThe Ship Who KilledDramatic MissionThe Partnered Ship.The book, in other words, is a collection of short stories. McCaffrey did write novels, but this isn't one. But since all the stories at least involve the 'brain-ship' Helva, and since they're consecutive, this is sort of a crossover between short stories and a novel. It's evident from the copyright information that the stories were essentially serialized, and only after the publication of Dramatic Mission were they collected into this book.Though Helva's development is thoroughly chronicled (up to about age 16) in the first story, too many readers don't seem to have read it in detail. Thus many think that the brain was removed from her body. It wasn't. The body's still in there. It's essentially paralyzed, and the motor nerves, sensory nerves, etc are rerouted to operate first the shell, and then the ship. But it's there.McCaffery accepts too readily that persons born severely disabled will be routinely killed, unless they can be meshed with machinery in this way. Further, the children are given no say whatEVER in their fate. If they pass certain unspecified 'tests', they're immured in the shells. Otherwise they're killed. They're heavily propagandized to accept choices that are made for them before they have the capacity to make informed choices themselves. Fairly early on those who object to this high-handed manipulation of people's lives are mocked as interfering do-gooders--but though it's not clear who makes these decisions, whoever it is are not described as interfering--it's just taken for granted that the unnamed 'authorities' know better than ordinary citizens, and are better able to make such decisions as the disabled children themselves would be. As for any family decisionmaking, this is completely ruled out.That said, the character Helva isn't anybody to feel regret for. She's healthy-minded, and has an enviable role--if it's taken into account that she won't be able to have one partner lifelong (she'll outlive all ordinary humans, barring accidents). These partnerships are informal marriages. They're not platonic, despite the impossibility of sex (it's accepted that the human partners will have sexual, and even marital, involvements while off-duty). They're genuine marriages. And they're often homosexual marriages, at that. Though most scout 'brawns' appear to be male, the ship 'brains' may be either. The relationship is the same, whatever the matchup. And in either case, any permanent partnership is ideally a romantic relationship. If ship and scout are not in love, it doesn't work out anything like as well, by all accounts.Several of these stories are more than a bit harrowing. Having read the book before, I find myself tensing up in a 'reach for the stuffed animal, or the Kleenex, or whatever you use to comfort yourself' way, and I have twice put down the book before I reached the first harrowing landmark.If I were recommending only one story in this book, it would be 'Dramatic Mission'. I'm not sure if one could understand it without reading at least the stories of Helva's upbringing. But I liked it best, and I think I'm not alone in that. Having read right through (I can recommend skipping bits, but that doesn't mean I can implement my own recommendations), I find that there's a lot I'd forgotten. Some of it is better than I'd remembered, some more disturbing. There's a casual racism that doesn't seem to reach the level of consciousness. Why should planets (ANY planets) be settled by people who are ethnically/culturally homogeneous? At one point in the book the entire population of a planet is rendered sterile by a common accident. The embryos that are brought in (and the older children brought in from other sources) are deliberately selected, not for variety, but for similarity with the 'Nekkarese'. Note for contrast that in Norton's Zero Stone books the narrator, Murdoc Jern, is specifically identified as a 'duty child', brought as an embryo onto Korwar specifically to INCREASE genetic variation, and carried to term by a host mother--who argues that such a 'duty child' has no rights of inheritance; an argument that Jern could probably have contested legally, but chooses not to.McCaffrey's casual assumption that people would seek out 'their own kind' and live, not generally in exclusive enclaves (most planets have regular commerce with other worlds, and interstellar travel, though 'too slow' by the standards of the society, is in fact quite fast), but still in self-segregated groups, is not consistent with what has happened on Earth, mostly. Why would it be so in an interstellar federation?McCaffrey also apparently had quite a strong repugnance for drug use. The evidence indicates that drug use is rarer in the galactic federation than in our own societies (due largely to restrictive policing by the quasi-military 'Service'), but McCaffrey still shudders away from the idea that people might become addicted to drugs, and demonizes the addicts.I should point out that the Corviki understanding of Romeo And Juliet is perhaps not quite so similar to that of creatures of other cultures as the characters (and the author) seem to think. There's some recognition of the differences in interpretation of the universe at large and Shakespeare in particular, but there's too much of a tendency to assume that Shakespeare is universally explicable. For a counternarrative, I might recommend Laura Bohannon's Shakespeare in The Bush.Women in general in this federation are treated with an odd mixture of separatism and integration. That is, they're generally present in all segments of society, but they're still often treated as if they were not quite human. What else they might be is not clear. It reminds me of the James Thurber essay in which Thurber, having heard that some humans might be of feline rather than primate ancestry, concludes that this may include all women, and that when his hostess asks him if he'd like some coffee with his milk, she might not be joking, after all.
It was Thanksgiving, I was out of town, had just gotten ready to head out for dinner when I heard that Anne McCaffrey had passed. It hit me like a punch in the gut. I couldn't quite shake it all evening. What was going on? Sure, I've read her books but she has never been on a list of favorite authors, why was I so affected? I knew L'Engle would be a tough one for me. Butler was just so unexpected. Le Guin is going to turn me into a wreck. But McCaffrey? I've never listed her as an influence or put her on a list of people I want to meet or authors I want to write like (L'Engle, Le Guin & Borges, if you are curious). Yet I was mourning her passing like she was a dear friend.Turns out, I've spent a lot more time with Anne McCaffrey than I would have guessed. There is the Crystal Singer series, and the PTB, I never got into Acorna, of course Pern, the Freedom series, The Rowan (which I recently reread) and its sequels, the Pirate books (including Sassinak - not only a personal favorite but introduced me to Elizabeth Moon for which I am grateful). And then there is The Ship Who Sang. Who doesn't remember reading this book for the first time. Did you cry? If you say no then you don't have a heart. I enjoyed the other Brain books but Helva stole my heart. When I got back from vacation I looked for my copy of The Ship Who Sang but couldn't find it. Not surprising since I tend to give my favorite books away. I started looking in bookstores, new and used, but no one seemed to have a copy. So last week I gave in and ordered it online. Doubt I'll have this copy long as I already have a list in my head of people I need to give it to.Do I need to review this book? It is a classic, if you haven't read it, you should. I don't feel the need to "sell" it. However, I do have a few observations from this latest rereading. Perhaps the most superficial but obvious is how well the book stands the test of time. The Ship Who Sang is 50 years old. FIFTY YEARS! Think about how technology has changed in that amount of time. Yet there are very few startlingly out of date references. "Gay" is used to mean fun & festive. And if that is the biggest tell that this book is half a century old, how impressive is that? The rest still works well enough that it doesn't jerk you out of the story like many (most) older works. The story is still as strong, the technology as impressive, the characters as real, and the hope as powerful as ever. This is what science ficiton is supposed to do - it shows us the very best of who we are and who we might become. Not perfection (boring) but something to strive towards.So what is it about Anne McCaffrey that makes me read her books (lots and lots of her books) but not mention her when people ask who I read? I recently had a discussion online about the difference between the books we say we read and the books we actually read. I don't have answers yet, but it is a question I am pondering. If you ask me for my top ten favorite science fiction books I would be able to come up with a reputable list off the top of my head. And they would be books I really do adore, books that changed my perspective, changed my mind, changed my life. But you know what science fiction book I have reread the most? Sassinak. True story.
What do You think about The Ship Who Sang (1985)?
Born with a disorder that would have left her a living vegetable, Helva is one of many children who are wired into the brains of ships, so that they may have a semblance of a real life. They are conditioned from an early age not to miss human life, and to follow orders so that they fail to go rogue. Each of the brain ships are partnered with human brawns that serve as their co-pilots on interplanetary missions. The Ship Who Sang tells Helva's 25 year journey to find a brawn who can keep up with her. I love this book so, so much. Helva refuses to see her disability as a limitation, and usually pities humans who retain their natural mobility. Instead of seeing herself as a prisoner in a shell, Helva sees herself and other brain ships as the most autonomous humans in the galaxy, until she is powerless to save her brawn from being burned alive by a dying star. She has a wry sense of humor and a love for books. Helva also has a great sense of urgency, which is so rare for a female character in a science-fiction novel. Despite her disability, her gender, and her station, Helva controls her own destiny. Like Parollan, I didn't want Helva's service to the Central Worlds to end. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
—Sara
A personal anecdote: I distinctly remember *nearly* buying this book many years ago, when I was first buying science fiction books. I saw the cover read the cover copy, was intrigued by the premise--but for whatever reason decided to buy another Asimov book instead. Recently I finally decided to give the book a try...And, anticlimactically, I wasn't impressed.I think this is a book that hasn't aged well. Mostly it is an articulation of one premise: a human brain placed into a mechanical and inhuman body (a space ship), with a human-but-inhuman mindset and human emotions, and the story being told from this brain's point of view. The trouble is, the idea of a human-like mind in an inhuman body has now become commonplace in science fiction, so the premise no longer seems interesting. The setting, apart from the presence of brainships, is standard-issue space opera reminiscent of E. E. Smith: Helva tears around the galaxy on missions from the occasionally dysfunctional but basically decent Central Worlds, performing diplomacy, delivering valuable cargoes, fighting villains, and so forth. Mostly this is a backdrop to the real stories about her relationships with her human partners.
—John Ayliff
At first I was a little disappointed because I felt I needed more evidence of the four years or so that Helva spent with her love to deserve such a grieving process. However, I found that I eventually, felt there was no need. The relationships throughout the novel are quite compelling and speak to the many types of relationships I see in my life. The novel seems to be an expansion of the idea that everyone you know, was put into your life for a reason. You know them for the time it was important for you to know them.Of course, it was well-written, but I admit a little confusing at times. Sometimes McCaffrey would write about how the underlying meaning of so-and-so's argument didn't get past Helva, and then not explain the underlying meaning. I didn't always get it, on my own. Overall, beautiful language, but I think it is the relationships and Helva's funny, intelligent and witty character that made up the spine of this novel.
—Christine Ricci
