Maintained by Jerry Cullingford (Click here to mail)
This is one of those rare exceptions - a co-authored sequel to a single author original, that not only works, but works better than the original.
The original book (and an associated short story) were written by Anne McCaffrey some years ago. The basic premise is that otherwise incurably handicapped babies/children can be wired into starships, or equivalently complex setups. _The Ship who sang_ followed the fortunes of Helga; the sequels are loosely connected, with few if any common characters, but using the same background, with (so far) different co-authors for each book.
The first sequel was - to me, anyway - highly disappointing. The technology was the same, but the feel was totally different.
The Ship Who Searched, with Mercedes Lackey, is a refreshing return to form - if feels like the original book, only better. The book reads (to me anyway) like pure Lackey.
Both Anne and Misty are people authors - they do best at creating interesting people, rather than hard SF, and the strengths of their books usually lie in the characters. I think Misty has the edge on creating characters that the reader gets involved with, and that she does extremely well in this book.
Yes, possibly there's a little bit of technological fudging towards the end - but then, that's not what the book is about, and you'll probably only notice it in hindsight.
The original book was good - this sequel is excellent. Highly recommended.
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%A Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey %T The Ship Who Searched %D date %G ISBN ? %P ? pp. %V Book 3 %O price ?