Anne McCaffrey

Yeah, her, she's to blame. All those dragon sites that are related to her world of "Pern."  Don't get me wrong, I'm as fond of dragons as the next person, but I feel that the Pern novels over shadow her other works, which I've enjoyed as much, if not  more than those set on that fabled planet.

But, first, for you die hard Pernese, here's an excerpt from Jody Lynn Nye's   "The Dragon Lovers Guide to Pern,"  copyright  1989 by Bill Fawcett and Associates.    Anne McCaffrey's comments on Impressing a dragon:

 

    "It's love at first sight across a crowded room -- one of the most magical things that could possibly happen to anybody.  To me, it's like getting up on a horse that's been schooled, and the minute you give him the aids, he knows exactly what you want, perfectly, only there's much more of a rapport.  Impressing a dragon is the amalgam of everything you wanted in your pet as a child and couldn't have, because your pet wasn't up to it.  It's suddenly having the whole candy store window yours.

"At the instant of Impression, part of the miracle is that you realize now you will never be alone, you will always be supported for the rest of your life -- the feeling of total surrender to another mind which understands you totally.  It is completely in rapport with you, and suddenly a great weight has been lifted from your shoulders, because you know that there is that support system there. And with it comes a tremendous responsibility, because you know if something happens to you, that dragon will suicide.

"Now, the dragon will take care of you, so it's really up to you to take care of the dragon.  You have the feeling of one mind suddenly encasing yours, and every ounce of your blood, every tissue in your body, is suddenly linked to another living creature.  It cannot be but the most ecstatic moment.  If the kids were old enough, they'd have orgasms.

"You feel pain through the link, and you would do anything to stop your dragon's pain.  If you were happy or comfortable, the dragon would also share in the pleasure, but not necessarily the sensory feeling.  Dragons would be peripherally aware of "mechanical duties" (such as eating, or sex, or sleeping) and they'd know right away if you were sick.  They would start to get worried, not knowing why.  Unusual occurrences or sensations would come to the dragon's awareness."

Dragon's of Pern Cover Art

Addtional Pern Art


Anne McCaffrey is one of the world's most popular authors.  Her first novel "Restoree" was published in 1967.  Since then, she had written dozens of books, of which there are more than twelve million copies in print.  Before her success as a writer, she was involved in theater.  She directed the American premiere of Carl Orff's "Ludius de Nato Infante Mirificus" in which she also played a witch.

McCaffrey lives in Wicklow Country, Ireland, in a house of her own designing, Dragonhold-Underhill, so named because she had to dig out a hill to build it.  There she runs a private livery stable, raising and training her beloved horses for horse trials and show jumping.

              (Bio from cover jacket of "The Master Harper of Pern")


Acorna


Acorna's Quest
Fred Gambino

Acorna's Search
Fred Gambino

Acorna's Triumph
Fred Gambino

Second Wave
Chris McGrath

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl
w/ Margaret Ball
She was just a little girl. With a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her home to sizzling controversy. Officious bureaucrats wanted to put Acorna in a home and cut off her 'deformity.' Ambitious scientists wanted to isolate and study the 'unicorn girl.' Which was worse?
Acorna's rough-and-ready 'uncles' weren't' about to hang around long enough to find out. They took their foundling back at knife point, airlocked out, and ran with her - all the way to the bandit planet Kezdet, where no questions are asked, and a girl might grow up free.
But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on an unseen horror - armies of pale, silent children toiling in the factories and mines; unnamed, unseen, and unloved. A hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by the mystery man known as 'the Piper.'
The Piper has special plans for Acorna, whose shining horn promises wealth and power. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women. And Lukia, Lady of Light, is about to teach the Piper and his minions a much-needed lesson about honor, liberty - and the precious value of childhood.
        ***It's all right, but, I read through it in about two hours.  It's a sweet little story, but I've decided to wait until the lot of 'em come out in paperback.  Too expensive for sacchrine.***
Acorna's Quest w/ Margaret Ball
Now Acorna has become a young woman, with all of youth's dreams and sorrows. She still has the tiny, translucent horn in the center of her forehead. She still has her 'funny' feet and hands, her beautiful silver hair, as well as her miraculous ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal human sickness. But Acorna has troubling dreams of a shining world with blue grass and green skies, and of a gentle folk who mind-speak by touching their horns together. She years for answers to questions about her past: who taught her the alien language she has all but forgotten? Who gave her life and then abandoned her? Why was she left alone in a tiny escape pod?
With one of her 'uncles,' the gruff miner Calum, Acorna sets off on a quest to find her own kind. But even as the spaceship Acadecki sets off for unknown worlds, new developments back home are shaping Acorna's destiny. For a mysterious craft has appeared, piloted by the Linyaari, a gentle race with telepathic powers. These telepaths are roaming the galaxy spreading the alarm about the Khleev, terrible invaders devoted to torture and death. The Linyaari are also searching for a beloved infant they had given up for lost, long
Acorna's People w/ Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Acorna's quest has paid off. With the help of her "uncles" and the thousands of humans who love and admire her, she has found her true people at last.
And they have found her Khornya, daughter of the illustrious Feriila and the valiant Vaanye, who was given up for lost after the insect-like Khleevi destroyed their home planet.
Abandoned in space as a baby, rescued and raised by gruff human asteroid miners, Acorna is at last among her own. The beautiful healing horn in the center of her forehead and the "funny" feet and hands that once set her apart now make her one with the telepathic Linyaari who live on as lush agrarian planet where they pursue their peaceful dreams.
Acorna's people welcome her with a lavish costume ball and an already-chosen mate! But Acorna still has much to do before she can enjoy the peaceful home she is offered. The legendary resting place of the lost Linyaari ancestors has yet to be found. With the help of the rogue spacetrader Becker and his cat, RK (RoadKill), Acorna must strive to right an unspeakable wrong and defeat an enemy even more cruel than the Khleevi themselves.
In the search, Acorna and her new friends rescue another survivor, also given up for lost. Most importantly, though, Acorna at last uncovers the Universe's most carefully guarded secret: the true nature of the ancient link between the hoofed, telepathic Linyaari and the space-faring humans she has come to think of as her "people" as well.
Acorna's World w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Although she has made peace with her Linyaari heritage, Acorna knows that only by returning to the frozen stillness of space will she ever feel truly at home.
Acorna's Search w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
In this new tale, Acorna's people, the Linyaari, have survived an attack from a mortal enemy, but their planet, naarhi-Vhiliinyar, and their original homeworld, Vhiliinyar, have been ravaged. Now, they are determined to restore both.
But as their work begins, Linyaari begin disappearing, including Acorna's lifemate, Aari. Searching for him, Acorna discovers the remains of a subterranean world that belonged to the Friends, an advanced society that populated Vhiliinyar long ago. What happened to the Friends? Acorna knows that to save Aari, she must find the answers—a quest that will take her back into deep space to uncover the origins of her people.
Acorna's Rebels w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Acorna's people, the Linyaari, have started to reclaim their homeworld from the ravages of the brutal alien Khleevi. But the expedition has unlocked a larger mystery about the origins of the Linyaari people - one that has led Aari, Acorna's lifemate, into a dangerous journey through time and space.
Acorna's Triumph w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Now, with Acorna's Triumph, they turn to the dramatic conclusion of the series, as Acorna faces her most difficult challenge ever. She has defeated slavers, a deadly international conspiracy, and the vicious alien Khleevi, only to endure the loss of her beloved Aari, distant in both time and space.
Now, finally, Aari has returned, and together they can finish rebuilding their home world. But Aari is oddly changed, to the point where he barely remembers Acorna - much less their love - and his actions grow more and more sinister ... As Acorna tries to stop a vicious criminal from destroying innocents, a new complication arises. Sensing the Linyaari weakness, the deadly Khleevi return, determined to take back the planet—for good. In this dark time, it will take all of the unicorn girl's courage and determination to rescue Aari and stop the alien menace once and for all.
Acorna's Children
First Warning
w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Khorii, daughter of the near-mythic Acorna and her lifemate, Aari, must contend with an overwhelming legacy to forge a path of her own through a universe filled with new adversaries and adventures.
A simple journey home to visit her parents turns into a race against time when Khorii happens upon a derelict spacecraft drifting in space, its crew dead in their seats. But this gruesome discovery is only a dread harbinger - a deadly plague is spreading across the universe and not even the healing powers of the Linyaari can slow its horrific advance. Khorii, one of the few unaffected by the outbreak, must find the nefarious perpetrators and a cure before the disease consumes all in its path - including her beloved parents.
Second Wave w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Khorii, the rebellious daughter of the near-mythic Acorna and her lifemate, Aari, must contend with an overwhelming legacy to forge a path of her own through a universe filled with new adversaries and adventure...
Third Watch w/Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
   

 The Crystal Universe


Crystal Singer
Michael Whelan

Killanshandra
Michael Whelan

Crystal Line
Rowena Morrill

Coelura
Ned Dameron

Nimisha's Ship
Chris Moore

Crystal Singer
Killashandra's voice has a defect that keeps her from attaining her goal to be a concert singer. Dejected by the bad news, she leaves school for good. She meets a Crystalsinger of the Heptite Guild, and their time spent together brings a desire in her to join his profession. Killashandra does join the Heptite Guild, learning the benefits and misery of mining crystal on Ballybran.
Killanshandra
Killashandra's old black crystal claim was destroyed in a storm, and she has little to show for eighteen months work. Her last find provides enough credits to get her off Ballybran - but not far. Killashandra learns the planet Optheria needs a set of white crystals installed in one of their organs for a summer music festival. She obtains the contract to repair the organ and a secondary assignment to find out if the government there is controlling the population against the planetary charter. All goes smoothly until she is kidnapped by an Islander named Lars Dahl, and discovers in time she has fall in love with him.
Crystal Line
When Killashandra Ree joined the mysterious Heptite Guild, she knew that she would be forever changed. Crystal singing brought ecstasy and pain, near-eternal life . . . and gradual loss of memory. But Killashandra had a lot of painful memories she could afford to lose. Forgetting other singers; names and faces and needing a locator to find her own apartment were only small annoyances. What she hadn't counted on was the loneliness she felt when her heart still remembered what her mind had forgotten . . . Fortunately, someone still cared enough to try and salvage what was left of Killashandra's mind. But she would have to learn to open herself - to another person, and to all her unpleasant memories.
***Killashandra Ree and her universe are definitely worth your time.  This is another fine example of Anne Mccaffrey's talent at creating believable universes.***
Coelura
Caissa, body-heir of a high level family, discovers intrigue and love in the Oriolis Islands and the abandoned Yellow Triad city.
***bought it for my daughter, its a lovely little tale.***
Ned Dameron interior Illustrations for Coelura
Nimisha's Ship
Lady Namisha Rondymense has succeeded her father at the helm of the family shipyard where he had been owner and principal starship designer. On a solo test flight of an experimental ship, Namisha is marooned light years from home. Now only Cuiva, Namisha's ingenious child, stands in the way of a rival branch of the Rondymense family who wish to reclaim the ship-yard by any means necessary.
Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense was the body-heir of Lady Rezalla and, as such, was the heiress of one of the First Families on Vega III. But even as a child she eschewed the formalities of her aristocratic background and was happiest in her father's shipyard. By the time she was in her twenties she was the designer of the most advanced space yacht in the galaxy, and was owner of the Rondymense shipyards.
It was on a test of her Mark 5 prototype that things went wrong. In an empty space field, suitable for test runs, she was suddenly confronted with the boiling white pout of a wormhole, and was sucked in, only to be thrown out into an unknown dimension of space. She was not the first. As she explored this new, unfamiliar section of the universe she found traces of ships that had been marooned over many centuries. Not knowing if she would ever return to the world she knew, Nimisha chose to land on 'Erehwon' - fascinating, terrifying, beautiful and frightening - and inhabited not only by three survivors of a previous Vegan ship but by something else . . .

 



Catteni Sequence


Freedom's Landing
Paul Youll

Freedom's Choice
Romas Kukalis

Freedom's Challenge
Paul Youll

Freedom's Ransom
Scott Grimando

Freedom's Landing
When the Catteni ships descended on earth it was one of the most terrifying experiences humankind had ever known. Kris Bjornsen, along with thousands of others, found herself herded by forcewhips into the hold of giant spaceships to be transported to the slave compounds of an alien planet. And even then it wasn't over. For, after a partially successful escapee attempt, Kris was once more shipped across space - to an apparently empty and untamed planet. The Catteni just dumped an assorted load of humans and aliens on the strange world and left them to see what would happen.
Brilliantly the refugees began to organize themselves into a pattern of survival. The planet was eerie and not as empty as it seemed. For someone - something - had built giant storage barns - the planet was being used as a huge larder - for an entity they could not comprehend.
As Kris and her patrol set out to explore the enigmatic world she had yet another problem to contend with - the presence of Zainal, the high-ranking patrician Catteni who had been abandoned with the rest of them. Zainal was strong, brilliant, and . . . kind, and Kris was puzzled by this presence, his personality, and above all by the tenuous tie she felt towards this man - who was not a man but one of the hated Catteni.
Freedom's Choice
In time, this new world became more than a home - it became something to fight for.
But now Kris Bjornsen and her comrades have found evidence of another race on their planet. Are they ancients long dead and gone? Or could they still exist . . . to join their fight?
Freedom's Challenge
The Botanists had received mysterious and unexpected help from the great beings they knew only as 'Farmers'- for the 'Farmers' had thrown up a huge impervious space bubble round Botany. Even as the Eosi ships tried to pulverize the rebellious planet, the bubble held firm.
But, safe though they were behind the protective device, Kris Bjornsen, Zainal, and all of the Council knew they had to go out and destroy the Eosi on their own ground. It fell to Zainal to risk his life in a desperate and daring mission to vanquish the monster life forms forever.
Freedom's Ransom
The inhabitants of the penal planet Botany had fought a grim and dangerous war to free themselves from their Eosi overlords. Now the Eosi were gone, and both Botany and Earth were free again - free, but in serious trouble as the theft of all their communications satellites by the Catteni (working for their Eosi masters) had left them isolated and in a desperate situation.
Hoping that everything stolen from them would be returned, they found that Catteni greed had triumphed. The merchants of Barevi refused to give up the stolen goods unless a substantial ransom was paid.
Earth was in a particularly bad way: disease, vandalism, starvation and the breakdown of their mechanical world had left it's people fighting for survival. They desperately needed the goods the Barevi were hoarding.
And so Zainal, Kris, and a courageous team from Botany set off to try and outwit the thieving merchants. It was an expedition that led to a horrifying replay of an old nightmare for Kris - and only Zainal could save her and the future of both Earth and Botany.

***This series is a "must" read.   Her heroine is wonderfully down to earth and her love interest is, literally, out of this world!*** 


Petaybee Universe


Powers That Be
Rowena Morrill

Power Lines
Rowena Morrill

Power Play
Rowena Morrill

Changelings

Maelstrom
Chris Spollen

Deluge
Chris Pollen

Powers That Be

Strange things were happening on the icy planet called Petaybee. Unauthorized genetically engineered species had been spotted. Geological survey teams sent to locate newly dtected mineral deposits were either coming up empty-or disappearing altogether. And the locals weren't talking-especiaslly not to the company bent on exploring the planet. At Diego's touch, the wall gave way, and a soft, eerie light from within sent a shaft to meet them. He pressed forward into the room, where flame-colored liquid bubbled up in a central pool and the walls glowed with phosphorescence. Roots and rock formations twined and curled into strange designs in the elongated rough shapes of animals and men. And there was a humming so loud, so perfect, so beautiful that after a while Diego thought he must be hearing the voices of the angels he had once read about - and they were telling him things. He listed so closely he could not hear his father screaming.
Power Lines
He didn't notice when he first heard the slithering sound, a soft rustle followed by a dry, whispering, crackling noise, as if paper had fallen - or leaves. The he felt something slide across the toe of his boot and curl to brush his pant leg, and as he turned back to the cave entrance, he saw that a thick net of greenery had replaced what he had hacked away a bare hour before. He tried to kick off the vines clinging to him, but succeeded only in embedding the thorns deeper into his ankles. Feeling and edge of panic, he jumped, hopped and ran, hacking as he went. He never saw the root looping down form the ceiling to lash itself around his throat while another knocked him to the floor.
Power Play
Petaybee was growing up. Day by day, the sentient planet - like any child - was learning to recognize and understand the meaning of outside stimuli, to respond to those stimuli, to communicate its own needs and desires . . . even to use human speech. Yanaba Maddock had appointed herself defender of her adopted planet, and she had even succeeded in proving its sentience to all the nonbelievers. But despite all her efforts, few outsiders truly cared for the feelings and intelligence of what they perceived to be a giant hunk of rock - or a mere oddity to be gawked at. Then Yana was kidnapped. The price of her freedom - the planet itself. But the only one who could speak for Petaybee was Petaybee - and no one knew what a living planet could do once it found its voice . . .

Changelings
Maelstrom
Deluge

***Strains credulity a might, but if you put aside pragmatism, these stories are a delight.  I always root for the little guy stiffing the powers that be.***


Doona


Decision at Doona
Darrell K Sweet

Crisis on Doona

Treaty at Doona
Decision at Doona
Terrans have set up a colony on Doona only to discover that a catlike race, the Hrruban, are also there. Both groups look for a way to stay on the planet without violating their planetary colonization laws.
Crisis on Doona
Over twenty-five years ago, the first humans came to the beautiful, unspoiled planet called Doona. Their initial survey had ignored one important fact: They were not alone. The alien, catlike Hrrubans had settled there first. This conflict led to the Decision at Doona - a 25 year experiment in cohabitation . . . Now the contract is up for renewal. The wild planet they tamed, the home they fought for, and the delicate alliance they share could all be destroyed forever .
Treaty at Doona
Several years after resolving a crisis of treachery on Doona, the Humans and Hrrubans encounter a new threat to their peaceful coexistence . . . The Gringgs are not the first alien visitors to Doona, but they are the first to offer friendship - and a proposal to partake in a trade agreement being drawn up by Doona's leaders. Some are willing to trust the Gringgs; others question their true motives . . . and a battle of diplomatic unrest ensues. With Doona's military forces at the ready, the planet once again falls under the dark shadow of uncertainty - and self-destruction.

***Personally, I believe this would have been better left at the original book.  Not one of my faves.***


The Ship Who Sang


The Ship Who Sang
Greg & Tim Hildebrandt

Partnership
Stephen Hickman

The Ship Who Searched
Stephen Hickman

The City Who Fought
Stephen Hickman

The Ship Who Won
Stephen Hickman

The Ship Errant
Stephen Hickman

The Ship Avenged
Stephen Hickman

Brain Ships
Tom Kidd

The Ship Who Sang

Helva was born with massive debilitating physical deformities. Her brain, however, was unaffected and highly intelligent. Placed inside a capsule which overcame all her physical disabilities through advanced cybnetic enhancements, Helva was a formidable individual. Beyond her other distinctions was a love of music. Placed inside a spaceship with her Brawn at her side, she became The Ship Who Sang.

Partnership

Nancia is her name, NX-928 her designation. A brand new member of the elite Courier Service of the Central Worlds, she's the 'brains' within one of the most advanced interstellar ships around.
Several hundred years after Helva was commissioned, Nancia takes her commission as XN-935. Her first trip is to transport five troublesome progeny of high-level families. Nancia finds her cargo have no respect for her or others, so she does not communicate with most of them. Most of the passengers do not realize Nancia is a Brain-ship, so under assumption she is a Drone-ship they conspire to break laws. After five years the passengers will see who has accumulated the greatest wealth. Her recording systems capture the conspiracy, and years later her travels bring her up against the network that the five have been operating.

The Ship Who Searched

A precocious seven-year-old girl has been afflicted by a paralyzing alien virus, and cannot survive outside a mechanical support system. She straps on a spaceship and sets out to find what it was that laid her low.
It all began when Tia, a bright and spunky seven-year-old accompanying her exo-archaeologist parents on an EsKay dig, was afflicted by a mysterious neural disorder, one whose progressing symptoms finally permit her no life at all outside of some total mechanical support system. But like The Ship Who Sang, Tia won't be satisfied to glide through life like a ghost in a glorified wheelchair; like Helva, Tia is going to strap on a spaceship!
But Tia has also set herself on a special mission: to seek out whatever it was on the EsKay planet that laid her low, to come to understand and then eliminate it - so that no other little girl will ever suffer the fate of The Ship Who Searched.
The City Who Fought
Simeon was bored, not with being a shellperson, but with running the mining and processing station that made up his 'body'. So when the arrival of an out-of-control refugee ship interrupted his latest wargame (Simeon's hobby) the excitement was welcome.
Simeon was a shell-person - the brain who ran Space Station SSS-900, on the fringes of human space. But things hadn't been going too well lately, and he was more than a little discontented. Though normally he enjoyed his work, these days it seemed boring. To make matters worse, his long-time parner had just retired and he was having a hard time adjusting to his newly assigned brawn - a strong-willed woman named Channa Hap, who seemed to feel it her duty to keep him in line. Simeon's love of wargaming would find unexpected uses when the brutal Kolnari attack the nearby colony planet, Bethel. Sheltering the colony's refugee's brought 'the city' an invitation to serious trouble with Kolnari pirates.
The Ship Who Won
Carialle was born so physically-disadvantaged that her only chance for life is as a shellperson. So, like others before her, she decides to 'become' a spaceship, with a man called Keff as her 'brawn'. Their mission is to search the galaxy for signs of intelligent life.
The brainship Carialle and her brawn, Keff, find a habitable planet inhabited by an apparent mix of races and cultures and dominated by an elite of apparent magicians. Appearances are deceiving, however, and by the time the explorers have discovered the planet's secrets-not to mention other intelligent races-they find themselves in a desperate battle to save it.
The Ship Errant
Carialle and Keff had succeeded in liberating the “globe-frogs” from their servitude to dictatorial humans, but now they must return them from whence they came. And to get there, they must transit a sector where Carialle was stopped and boarded, experiencing a trauma so intense it nearly destroyed her mind. And it’s beginning to look as if the beings who caused this are the very globe-frogs they have just made friends with. . . .
The Ship Avenged

*** I fell in love with Helva, the ship who sang and this universe is filled with exciting characters and thrilling plots.  Quality, Quality, Quality!

The Ship That Returned, in Far Horizons, edited by Robert Silverberg

***Giggle, chortle, chuckle, well worth reading.***


Ireta


Dinosaur Planet
Darrell K Sweet

Dinosaur Planet Survivors
Darell K Sweet

The Planet Priates
Stephen Hickman

Dinosaur Planet
On Earth they died out 70 million years ago. But on Ireta they ruled in all their bizarre splendour. The dinosaurs. Relics from a forgotten age, they roamed a planet as mystifying as any in the galaxy, despite its bland appearance. And the expedition sent to explore the planet is trapped there.
An exploratory team arrives on the planet Ireta to survey its mineral wealth. Several anomalies are discoverd that cannot be explained. Before the mystery can be unraveled, teh Heavyworlders used as muscle people mutiny!
Dinosaur Planet Survivors
To escape extermination by their colleagues, Kai, Varian and their companions sought refuge in the suspended animation of cryogenic sleep. Now time has elapsed and the survivors emerge from their hibernation. But Ireta, the Dinosaur Planet, has altered beyond recognition.
After 43 years the survivors of the Heavyworlders' mutiny are wakened from cold sleep. Tor, a Thek, has finally decoded their emergency message sent at the beginning of the mutiny. Tor asks questions, but not about the mutiny. They tell him about a buried beacon they found during the survey and he immediately leaves without helping them. Forced to survive on their own, they discover that the mutineers have built a settlement and landing grid that could only be used to colonize a planet - in this case, illegally. Then several Thek arrive and seize control for their own reasons.
Sassinak
Sassinak was 12 when the raiders came. Old enough to be used, young enough to be broken -- or so they thought. But they reckoned without the girl's will, forged into a steely resolve to avenge herself on the pirates who had killed her parents and friends.
When the chance comes to escape, Sassinak grabs it, thanks to the help of a captured Fleet crewman. Returned to the Federation of Sentient Planets, she initiates her revenge by joining Fleet as a raw recruit, surprising everyone by her rapid rise to senior rank. And then her vengeance begins in earnest.
The Death of Sleep
Like every other citizen of the Federation of Sentient Planets, Lunzie Mespil knew the so-called 'planet pirates' were capable of terrible things. But - also like every other citizen of the Federation - she never in her heart of hearts believed anything would happen to her. When pirates attack the space liner on which she is a passenger, Lunzie does not panic. Keeping her head, she makes it to a lifeboat and decides not to worry: she will spend a month or two in cryogenic stasis awaiting inevitable rescue, and then proceed with her life. Only it might not be month or two . . .
Generation/Warriors
Lunzie, fresh from her adventures in The Death of Sleep, has discovered that the one good heavyworlder she ever met isn't so good after all . . . Dupaynil, having made the mistake of pushing Sassinak too far, has been exiled to Seti space aboard a tiny escort vessel - where he's discovered that the crew are in the pay of the planet pirates . . . Then there's Sassinak, ordered to report to FedCentral for the trial of the mutineer Tanegli. She's been told to disarm her ship when it enters restricted space; she'd been told her crew can't have liberty or leave; and she'd been told to follow all the rules. But the only person who might be able to stop the disaster ahead has never been one to follow the rules . . .
     The Planet Pirates
Three bestselling volumes - Sassinak, The Death of Sleep, and Generation Warriors - together in a single giant novel. McCaffrey traces the careers of two remarkable women - Sassinak and Lunzie - who work together to save a confederation of worlds.  


The Talents Universe


To Ride Pegasus
Peter A Jones

Pegasus in Flight
Michael Whelan

Pegasus in Space
Vincent DiFate

The Rowan
Romas Kukalis

Damia
Romas Kukalis

Damia's Children
Romas Kukalis

Lyon's Pride
Romas Kukalis

The Tower and the Hive
 

To Ride Pegasus

When a freak accident provides proof of paranormal mental abilities, the world reacts with suspicion and fear. How can ordinary people coexist with a minority able to read minds, heal with a touch, peer into the future or move objects with a thought? Harsh repression seems the only answer.
Henry Darrow discovers he and others have unique mental talents. He sets out to build a safer world for them, and to use their abilities for the assistance and betterment of the world population.
Pegasus in Flight
As the population of Earth surges and unrest spreads, a disaster of epic proportions seems inescapable. The only hope: a platform under construction in space from which starships will be launched to colonize distant planets. But the project is critically
Rhyssa Owen is the current director of the Jerhattan Parapsychic Center, where people's talents are still being discovered and utilized for mankind's needs. Rhyssa's mind is touched one day by a boy who is paralyzed. When they finally locate him they discover Peter Reidinger has vast potential powers. Another girl with talent, Tirla, is found because of her attachment to criminals. Later, Tirla is the object of a kidnapping and Peter is taken because he was with her. Together the talented youths free several other children either kidnapped or sold to the slavers. Their powers help in the destruction of an organization that sells children for slaves or as sources for transplant organs.
Pegasus in Space
For an overpopulated Earth whose resources are strained to the breaking point, there is only one place to look for relief: straight up. With the successful completion of the Padrugoi Space Station, humanity has at last achieved its first large-scale permanent presence in space. Additional bases are feverishly being built on the Moon and on Mars, stepping stones to the greatest adventure in all history: the colonization of alien worlds. Already long-range telescopes have identified a number of habitable planets orbiting the stars of distant galaxies. Now it's just a question of getting there.
But there are those who, for selfish motives of their own, want Padrugoi and the other outposts to fail. People who will stop at nothing to maintain their power or to revenge its loss. Standing in their way are the Talented, men and women gifted with extraordinary mental powers that have made them as feared as they are respected - and utterly indispensable to the colonization effort.
There is Peter Reidinger, a teenage paraplegic who happens to be the strongest telekinetic ever, his mind capable of teleporting objects and people thousands of miles in the blink of an eye. Yet all his power cannot repair his damaged spine or allow him to feel the gentle touch of a loved one . . . Rhyssa Owen, the powerful telepath and mother hen to Peter and the rest of her "children" - and a fierce, unrelenting fighter against the prejudice that would deny the Talented their right to lead happy and productive lives . . . and Amariyah, an orphan girl who loves two things in the world above all others: gardening and Peter Reidinger. And woe to anyone who harms either one of them - for the young girl's talent may prove to be the most amazing of all.
The Rowan
Even as a child, the Rowan was one of the strongest Talents ever born. Telepaths across the world had heard her mental distress calls when her family's home was suddenly destroyed . . . Years later, she became a Prime Talent, blessed with a special power which stretched across the stars. But without family, friends - or love - the Rowan's power was not enough to bring her happiness . . . Then a telepathic message came from a distant world facing an alien threat, a message sent by an unknown Talent. Now - be it power, danger, or love - the Rowan is about to meet her match.
Damia
Of all the Rowan's children, Damia was the most brilliant, the most difficult, the loneliest, and the one who had inherited the greatest Talent. It was obvious from childhood that she was going to be a Prime, with all the honours, burdens and strains of the elite class. Her one friend was Afra - older, wiser, Talented in his own way, but 'belonging' almost exclusively to the Rowan and the workings of Callisto Station. As Damia grew up, her Talent became almost too strong to control, and the solution was separation - from her parents, from Callisto, from her beloved Afra. Sent to the distant planet of Deneb, to her strange and gifted grandmother, Damia began the training necessary to turn her into a Prime of extraordinary gifts.
Damia's Children
Damia and Afra Raven-Lyon had reared their children in a brilliant and unorthodox way - 'pairing' them when six months old with the furry, one-eyed Mrdinis, the only other sentient being in the Alliance, who could communicate with humans by their 'dream messages.' Together, Man and Mrdini worked to create prosperous worlds and guard against the terrible threat of the annihilating Hivers. And now, in the depths of Space, Mrdinin scouts had crossed the path of three Hive ships - ships that were giant hulks of cell units, bearing the queens and workers out into space, to breed and multiply and destroy wherever they found a viable planet. It was the four elder children of Damia - Laria, Thian, Rojer and Zara, with their 'Dini friends who had to use their talents to prevail against the Hive.
Lyon's Pride
Telepathy is the Lyon family birthright. And now all of them must combine their individual powers to combat the Hivers - a relentless race that has slaughtered entire populations in its search for a new home . . .
The Tower and the Hive
For generations, the descendants of the powerful telepath known as The Rowan have used their various talents to help mankind. They have led Earth to ally itself with the peaceful alien Mrdini, and together the two races have held back the predatory Hivers, who once laid waste entire planets. Like all powerful families, the Rowan's descendants have also made enemies. Especially on Earth, there are those who charge that the treaties with the Mrdini gave away too much, and that the Mrdini receive more than their fair share of new living space as habitable planets are discovered. There are also complaints that the Hivers should have been exterminated, rather than contained and studied, and that such concentration of power in the hands of one family is dangerous. The Rowan and her daughter Damia, with their beloved husbands and extended families have seen their share of personal tragedy and loss. Now, with their goals of peace and plenty apparently in sight they face whispering campaigns, sabotage, and even assassination attempts aimed at destroying all they have worked for.



Novels


Restoree
Tim & Greg Hildebrandt

An Exchange of Gifts

Restoree
The Mil have been raiding the planets Tane and Lothar, raiding the population as food. The sudden and mysterious appearance of Sara, and the slow disclosure of her origins, sets in motion political and military upheavals. As the Mil approach for the final conquest, the Lotharians must save themselves, and Sara must save herself from the Loatharians!

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