The Rowan is about a woman who was found orphaned as a baby on a small mining planet. Her entire town was destroyed during a mudslide leaving her as the only survivor. She may not have survived anyways due to her being trapped inside a vehicle under the mud. However, Rowan has incredible psychic powers in telepathy and telekinesis which caused people from other planets to hear her crying. She was eventually saved and placed with someone to watch over her. Due to her strong powers, they thought t More...

I picked this as my first reread of her books - not because I don't have loads of others I could reread but I have realised that I know the plots of almost all books still to a pretty large degree of detail - although my last time rereading is probably ten years in the past.

That's because I discovered her as one of the major female sf&f authors in print in the UK when I went over there for the first time as an au-pair in 88/89. And even in Germany's university towns later one I could get her More...

The inhabitants of the planet Altair are understandably shocked and horrified when they hear the psychic screams of a young child shockwaving across the surface. The child is "The Rowan," a powerful Prime (i.e. top psychic) whose parents were killed in a catastrophic sinkhole collapse.

Half the book is about The Rowan coming into the full force of her powers. At first, people constantly have to remind her to use her "indoor voice," and to stay out of people's heads unless invited. She learns the More...

The Rowan is an orphaned girl with incredible psychic power and a cute little psychic pet. Oh the pain she suffers from being an orphan! Oh the oppression of being so powerful! Oh the agony of no one understanding your Speshulness!

A Stellar Experience!!!: THE ROWAN is the first book in the wonderful TOWER AND HIVE series (the other titles being; DAMIA, DAMIA'S CHILDREN, LYON'S PRIDE, THE TOWER & THE HIVE) and is easily the best.

We are now in the universe envisaged by Henry Darrow and the first Peter Reidinger (see PEGASUS series), a world where mankind has reached beyond the stars; where inter-planetary transport and communication is achievable predominantly through the powers of the scarce and extremely valuable PRI

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The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey is the first novel I ever read that I could not put down. I read it straight through cover to cover. I do that fairly often these days, but at the time it was an event that rocked my world. I once heard a male sci-fi author call McCaffrey’s books a gateway drug for getting girls into sci-fi, but for me this book clued me in on what was missing from the sci-fi books I’d already been reading—romance. The Rowan catapulted to the top of my all time favorites list and here More...

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The cover of this book may lead the unsuspecting Sci-fi enthusiast to get his or her hopes up for a cinematic-like adventure full of action and intrigue, but in truth it is a love story. The Sci-fi aspect of this novel is very thin and lightly detailed, barely enough to be considered Sci-fi.Now don't let this small fact get your Superman undies in a twist because the author does a wonderful job of leading up to the eventual contact between the Rowan, our dashing heroine, and Jeff, our suave dams More...

This book had some lovely moments, but they were few and far between and in no way made up for the inferior plot writing of this book. Plot strands died with little or no explanation (what on Earth happened to the Barquecat?!). At one point, McCaffrey contradicts herself, saying that the Rowan's parents have specific names when she confronts Reidinger, then saying that the Rowan had no idea what there names were ten pages later. Also, the beginning of the book was typical alienating sci fi: the More...

Ugh.
I am so annoyed I wasted a whole day on this book. But, I am even more annoyed that is was voted the book of the month under Women in Sci-Fi.
This is space romance. Telekinesis and TElepathy joined in one person, albeit on a space station, does not Science Fiction make, even if there is an alien invasion. And no, I do not beleive in 'Love at first mind-brush'.

To be fair, this book starts well. A small child is the only survivor of a landslide, and her anguished mental state calls for her re More...

The Rowan is the first book in "The Tower and the Hive" series (also known as "The Rowan" series) by Anne McCaffrey. It is set in the universe of the "Pegasus" trilogy, against a backdrop of a technologically advanced society in which telepathy, psychokinesis and other psychic Talents have become scientifically accepted and researched. Telekinetic and telepathic powers are used to communicate and teleport spaceships through space, thus avoiding the light barrier and allowing for the colonization More...

I used to love this series when I was younger and it did stand up to re-reading for me.

The Talents are spread out over the Nine Star League using their psionic abilitiies to help things along. Among these abilities there's a lot of variety and power, but there are very few high-powered telepaths, the ones who can help push cargo, and onto a small mining colony one is born. Orphaned at an early age and known as The Rowan she's trained by the Prime on her planet. The first part follows her youth. More...

An organization of telepaths help transport goods from planet to planet with the help of their minds. When a hostile race of aliens try to invade, the telepaths must use their talents to save the human race. This series from Anne McCaffrey has always been a favorite of mine and I've been in the mood to reread the books again.

Since it has been several years since I read these, I found there was quite a bit I had forgotten. Her style of writing is a bit choppier than I remembered and there were c More...

I read this book when i was in high school and really liked it. I recently reread it and was amazed i had such warm memories for it. It was kinda boring. It follows the life of the rowan a girl with great telekenetic powers who becomes a prime, someone who is in charge of moving people and supplies through space. There are only a few of them so she is special but there is nothing really exciting that happens until the end. It is mostly about her growing up lonely then falling INSTANTLY in love w More...

I first read this book when I was 7 or 8 years old. I have read it EVERY year since. I love this book. I sincerly hope that they never make a movie about this book so that they cannot ruin it for me.
The thing that I love the most about her is that she is strong and fierce, but also soft and feminine. That is how I strive to be. She has influenced me throughout my adolescence and I will continue to read her story probably for the rest of my life. I will give this book to my children to read. I h More...

So of course I'd read this before, many times — I used to love it, even. I saw it at the library's jumble sale, along with a bunch of its sequels. It was cheap and I was gripped by nostalgia, what can I say.

You can guess by that opening that I'm a bit embarrassed. Well, I am. How did I ever think this was a great romance? Look at it as the story of a charismatic megalomaniac coming along at a time and with the Talent to be helpful to humanity and feed his ego at the same time, and not a romance, More...

An important aspect of making stories believable is in the character development; instead, Anne McCaffrey spends hundreds of pages describing how spaceships and goods are teleported around the galaxy. (This is about as interesting as reading a UPS manual.)

McCaffrey tends to over-do her female leads sometimes, and the Rowan and Damian are prime examples of this (no pun intended). I still liked the books very much however because they're an easy fun read. They're more sci/fi-romance-adventure really.

The only reason I picked up this book was because there was a short story in Get off the Unicorn and it peaked my interest - I was NOT a reader. I read this book and loved it and it basically was the spark that started my love of reading. While it reads almost like a biography, going from infancy through to marriage and all the struggles in between of a talented girl and the expectations thrust up on her, the world Anne McCaffrey has created and her characters leaves you wanting more. I have rea More...

I first read this series in middle or high school, and while I couldn't remember much of the plot I recall enjoying it immensely. So when I saw this for $2 in a used bookstore the other day, I couldn't resist picking it up. It's a fast, engaging read with beautifully developed characters. I love the mechanics of space travel and teleportation as well. It's also possible that the nostalgia of reading something I haven't looked at in ages made it even more enjoyable. Definitely curious to read the More...

This book first hit my reading list over ten years ago and on my third attempt I was finally able to read the whole way through. This is only the second truly sci-fi story (and first by McCaffrey) that I've ever read so it took some getting used to. The story is enjoyable enough - McCaffrey is great at taking the reader on an emotional journey but the way she dealt with the passage of large chunks of time was a little jarring to me. I will save my final judgement for a time when I have a better More...

Although I enjoyed this book on a superficial first read, on a more careful second read I percieved some of the flaws. I loved the original Talent series and much of her earlier work but this one didn't quite measure up to that standard. The beginnings of the relationship between the Rowan and Jeff felt somewhat fake and unrealistic and the danger posed by the Hivers seemed slightly contrived. The account of the Rowan's earlier life on Altair flowed nicely and most of the minor characters were More...

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I first read it when I was 13 or 14 and continued to pick up Anne McCafrey's entire catalog afterwards. I've read it every few years since (I'm now 34) and still adore it! I even have a signed copy from when I met Ms. McCaffrey back ing 2005. Sadly, the reason I picked it up again was because Ms. McCaffrey passed away just a few days ago - on November 21, 2011. It seemed fitting to read it again now as a celebration of her life and the role she played i More...

I have to admit that when I first read the blurb I thought it would be a very complicated sci fi story and that I wouldn't love it as much as Anne McCaffrey's dragon books. Well... I was WRONG! This is one of the best book (and series) I have read in a long time. It ranks close to Harry Potter, if not higher. And I stand by what I just said.

Anne McCaffrey wrote two series in the Talents universe which involves Earth functioning thanks to the Talents of telepathic or telekinetic persons in an int More...

When a mudslide overwhelms the Rowan mining settlement, the only survivor is a three year old girl whose psychic powers alert everyone on her moon to the fact that she is trapped in a mud-covered skiff alone. Ann McCaffrey’s novel, The Rowan, follows the growing up of a unique and powerful child into an isolated womanhood, where she finally meets that strong, sensitive man who saves her from loneliness, achieving a merging of the minds and perfect unity, etc. (Yeah, I got a bit impatient with t More...

This is one of my favorite novels, even though it is definitely not one of the best novels I've read.

When I read anything, I tend to enjoy it more when the character development is strong enough that I care about what the characters think and feel, and especially what happens to them.

Anne McCaffrey may be weak at creating actual science fiction—I consider this book to be more of a futuristic fantasy than hard science fiction—but she is fantastic at showing you who a character is as a person, and More...

I can't help it, I love these books. I have read this one four times now over a 17 year period. I highly recommend the Pegasus series followed by the Rowan series.

Told in the timeless style of Anne McCaffrey, The Rowan is the first installment in a wonderful trilogy. This is sci-fi at its best: a contemporary love story as well as an engrossing view of our world in the future.

The kinetically gifted, trained in mind/machine gestalt, are the most valued citizens of the Nine Star League. Using ment More...

The first part of the book--the Rowan's childhood--is excellent. Everything that follows feels rushed, especially her love interest and the alien attack. So much time was spent building up her relationships in the first part of the book, and then barely any time was spent doing so in the later parts. Everything happened too fast and it felt artificial. So, while the last part of the book (Rowan's adulthood) is all right, it is disappointing given how terrific the first part of the book (her chil More...

Dreadfully disappointing. The character build-up nearly became interesting, and then just fell flat in one fell swoop. As did the romantic interest! The heroine is stuffy, bitchy, and predictable. The hero (? a term I use loosely here) is too pompous, too perfect, and totally unbelievable as a person. The characters fall in love in a within-seconds-mind-meld, as though the author was afraid to attempt the complexities of a growing relationship. The action is anti-climatic.