It was first published as short stories in various SF magazines from the early 1960s. This time, I’ve been reading one of Anne McCaffrey’s earliest novels, from 1969, The Ship Who Sang.

the cover I like best, a glorious watery seascape Fantasy is no good for this sort of speculation, because science has rules, plots have to obey them, and fantasy is so deliciously soggy and woolly, you can’t follow any proposition to its logical conclusion when wizards and magic get in the way. I do enjoy novels where the gender thing is unimportant: where feminism has done its job, or, in the science fiction canon, shows how the job ought to be done to produce a future society, how society ought to be.

It also follows up on the things I had to say about James Blish last week, by looking at how women writers wrote about science and society in science fiction, even if it’s made-up science. This post draws a line under the mini-series of podcast scripts about gentlemanly thrillers that ended here last week, and begins a new series on feminist science fiction. 'Readers will find themselves riveted by the nonstop action adventure that constantly surpasses even the most jaded reader's expectations, and by a relationship as beautiful as it is indestructible.I’m having a private Anne McCaffrey festival today, since I’m simultaneously posting a review of her son’s memoir of her, Dragonholder, over on Vulpes Libris. 'Readers will find themselves riveted by the nonstop action adventure that constantly surpasses even the most jaded reader's expectations, and by a relationship as beautiful as it is indestructible.' -Affaire de Coeur 'Bright and bubbly entertainment.' -Kirkus Reviews 'Fast, furious and fun.' -Chicago Sun-Times Two Top-Selling Sequels to Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang in One Volume And it's beginning to look as if the beings who caused this are the very globe-frogs they have just made friends with. 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. 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. Unfortunately, they were slaves to a race of sorcerers, who possess powers of frightening potency, and who were neither polite nor the least bit eager to please.

Searching the galaxy for intelligent beings, they found fuzzy little aliens, polite and eager to please. Two complete novels in one huge volume: The Ship Who Won: Like Helva, the Ship Who Sang, Carialle was born severely physically disadvantaged and like Helva, Carialle decided she would strap on a spaceship.

The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey