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The Talents Universe
Get Off the Unicorn: Stories
Open these pages and discover 14 remarkable stories of fantasy by a grand master of the genre. A wonderful writer, as well as successful and beloved by fans across the world, Anne McCaffrey has created an exciting collection of telepaths, secret gifts, dangerous missions, dragonriders, and more.
Contents:
Lady in the Tower.--A Meeting of Minds.--Daughter.--Dull Drums.--Changeling.--Weather on Welladay.--The Thorns of Barevi.--Horse From a Different Sea.--Great Canine Chorus.--Finder's Keeper.--A Proper Santa Claus.--The Smallest Dragonboy.--Apple.--Honeymoon.
Contents:
Lady in the Tower.--A Meeting of Minds.--Daughter.--Dull Drums.--Changeling.--Weather on Welladay.--The Thorns of Barevi.--Horse From a Different Sea.--Great Canine Chorus.--Finder's Keeper.--A Proper Santa Claus.--The Smallest Dragonboy.--Apple.--Honeymoon.
303 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
348 people are currently reading
2678 people want to read
About the author
Anne McCaffrey
483 books7,793 followersAnne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969). Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
January 10, 2021
This one is both incredibly good:
- I can't not love Anne McCaffrey's telepath concepts, and
- all the worlds of both Machines and Talents and Dragons and Riders, etc) and
incredibly datedly cringey:
- like "I am the image of masculinity." as one of the MC's says with a straight face and
- all the female, uh, swooning, I guess, must be what they all keep doing).
And don't even get me started on the Barevi 'boys'.
The 'masculine' cringe!
Q:
Unable to resort to a mental touch, she saw Afra for the first time with only physical sight. And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine. (c)
Q:
"You feel compelled to preserve the image of masculinity?" she had asked.
He had shrugged, his almond, greengreen eyes expressionless.
"I am the image of masculinity." (c) OhGawwwwd!
- I can't not love Anne McCaffrey's telepath concepts, and
- all the worlds of both Machines and Talents and Dragons and Riders, etc) and
incredibly datedly cringey:
- like "I am the image of masculinity." as one of the MC's says with a straight face and
- all the female, uh, swooning, I guess, must be what they all keep doing).
And don't even get me started on the Barevi 'boys'.
The 'masculine' cringe!
Q:
Unable to resort to a mental touch, she saw Afra for the first time with only physical sight. And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine. (c)
Q:
"You feel compelled to preserve the image of masculinity?" she had asked.
He had shrugged, his almond, greengreen eyes expressionless.
"I am the image of masculinity." (c) OhGawwwwd!
Read
April 5, 2013I've always been ambivalent about McCaffrey. I gave up on the Pern books fairly far into the series, because the elements of sadism and rape I'd had trouble with earlier became, in my opinion, the predominant elements. I'll probably never know if I should have given up on only that particular book.
The sex life of dragons is a disturbing but small part of their lives, and the use of the mating flights to overcome the wills of the riders (to celibacy, for example, or to other priorities, some worthwhile, some not, or to the desire to choose their own mates) is less concerning than the fact that the riders also vicariously indulge in the bloodlust of feeding dragons. Mating flights are overwhelming but rare--feeding occurs comparatively often.
So it's not surprising that I found many of the stories in this book disturbing when I first read them. And I appreciate the reminders from other reviewers, that at least one of these stories involves rape. I'll try to detect that one early and skip it.
Contents:
Introduction: McCaffrey explains that the title of the book comes from a misreading of an earlier anthology with the title Get of The Unicorn (The misreading could have been prevented if it'd been given a less ambiguous name: say, The Unicorn's Children.).
Lady in the Tower: So why SHOULD high-powered telepaths all be raging agoraphobes?
A Meeting of Minds: One of the reasons the Rowan stories are so disappointing is the repetition of tired cliches. Yet ANOTHER monstra ex machina? (In this case, both literally and figuratively. Why SHOULD an alien society be so implacably hostile that they transcend intergalactic barriers to try to attack a neighboring civilization?). Another is the idea (apparently more endemic to McCaffrey herself than to her generation; a throwback, really, to earlier attitudes) that what women REALLY want is a 'superior master'.
Daughter: If this is a true reflection of McCaffrey's own relationship with her father, it explains a lot. The extrapolation of current trends to the idea of a family farm run entirely by automation is untenable, but it might have seemed logical at the time. I'm actually more interested in the mother. She has chosen to sacrifice her own life to her family. But it's not a true renunciation, since she uses craft and subtlety to get her own way, without alienating strong stubborn personalities (too much). This sort of adaptation has always been more common among women than men, and it was rapidly dying out at the time the story was published (1971). By the time the story was set in, the adaptation would have been as atavistic as a giant sloth on the present day Pampas (it's presumed).
Dull Drums: The society in the previous story carried forward. In the Doctor Who episode "Androids of Tara", the peasantry had become engineers, and when they were almost entirely lost in a plague, the androids they'd invented took their place...sort of. Without enough peasants to maintain them, they stopped being practical for everyday use. This society is somewhat similar. Programmers and other computer science folk are low status. Their work is regarded with disdain, and a highly talented student is steered OUT of the field. The implication is that the society's development of automation is overshadowed by its development of sophisticated psychological techniques, which are used largely to reconcile people to their lots in life. Not feasible, but McCaffrey was evidently very concerned by the rebelliousness of traditional 'underlings'. It might be interesting to make up a timeline showing historical events in Ireland in the periods these stories were written, in order to see how a conservative woman writer at the time responded to (rather than led) current developments in her writing.
(Introduction to a new 'set'--these occur periodically in the book, and are more explanatory of the order and chronology than anything else.)
Changeling: I have no problem with the polyandrous relationship in the story. I do think it's bit rich to put the whole burden of household adjustments on the woman, though. A household consisting of one woman, one homosexual man, one bisexual man, and one heterosexual man may require some complex adjustments (probably will, indeed). But why is it always HER responsibility to make things work? I have to say that the homosexual man is a bizarre personality. His misogyny is carried to the point of obsessiveness. He's not only sexually unattracted to women--he seems to regard ANY touch of a woman as potentially contaminating. Hypothetical question--what would have happened if 'his' child had been a girl? I have to say, by the way, that it's not true that he could only sire one child, if artificial insemination is readily available, UNLESS there is some regulatory limitation on the number of children each person could have.
Weather on Welladay: The people in this story have no idea what's going on. Therefore I doubt the assumption that the 'whales' are unintelligent. So what is THEIR reward for permitting their thyroid glands to be 'milked'? Looks like a basis for mediation, to ME. It does seem a bit odd that any society would have a critical shortage of I-131, though.
(Another interlude)
The Thorns of Barevi: This is the story where a woman accepts being raped. But that's not the most troubling part of the story. McCaffrey has always had a tendency to accept slavery as normative. The escaped slave makes no attempt to help others escape, to put an end to the system of slavery, to establish an alternative society, to return home.... She really has no plans at all. She only escapes into the 'wilderness', and lives in hiding until she can parlay her rape into 'freedom'. I also find the supposed hostility of the environment implausible. And the habit of killing local fauna by bullfighting techniques (and about as fairly, since the humanoids have significantly greater strength and durability, and they always start the fights, and never stop until they kill the animals) is truly appalling. One thing that I did find interesting is the idea of a(n almost literal) sunset clause on blood-feuds. If people insist on having blood feuds, a time limit is a necessary amenity. Sort of a statute of limitations. And one day may be a little short, but it has definite possibilities.
Horse from A Different Sea: The men who patronize certain prostitutes are getting pregnant. And the doctor decides that he has the right to kill the babies, though he knows nothing about them. The story is a sort of defensive rumination on his justification for these murders.
The Great Canine Chorus: This is a truly horrific story. A disabled (and telepathic) little girl is exploited by her abusive father and local crime lords. And because she distrusts the authorities (whom she blames for the death of her mother), she refuses to allow them near her to try to help her. She only trusts animals, particularly dogs--but she overestimates her control of her own powers, and a call for help goes badly awry. Almost worse than the bathos of the individual story is the dystopian society, envisioned with a sort of 'gritty realism' that distorts by failing to show the 'big picture' of how we got to this horrid day, and who besides individuals are trying to fix it. Note that there's an implication that the little girl has a sister somewhere...
Finder's Keeper: McCaffrey consistently conflates different psychic gifts. It's less so in this story. The child in this story has a form of psychometry, which enables him to 'find' things. His challenge is to keep himself from being exploited until he can reach maturity. And then exploit himself, apparently. Unlike other literary characters, this one is not motherless. He has quite a good mother, really, who advises him well. But has he no other family? Where are his aunts and uncles? Grandparents? Cousins?
A Proper Santa Claus: A small boy has the ability to realize his artworks, but he begins to doubt himself when lectured in altruism. In fairness, he's only about five. He's likely to be able to resolve this quandary, eventually.
The Smallest Dragonboy: Not one of the worst Pern stories. It would be better as a standalone children's book, I'd think, with illustrations. I don't think much of Pernese technology as represented in this story, by the way.
(Another interlude--mostly these are descriptions of how the stories came to be written, and suggested rewrites)
Apple: I'd always realized that the stories in To Ride Pegasus were dystopian. This is worse than most. McCaffrey evidently had no quarrel with the idea of disposable people, who can be killed or abused without quarter or concern. The fugitive in this story is a lost little girl, who has powers beyond the ordinary, including, apparently, significant apportive ability. She's murdered by the authorities, then the murder is dismissed with an attitude of 'good riddance to bad rubbish'. The general attitude of the police is that the people SHOULD be afraid of the authorities 'unless they behave properly', which is, of course, no exception at all, because the standing definition on 'proper behavior' is cowed acceptance of the commercial norms of the rich. Be poor, labor, and MAYBE we'll let you have a modicum of our loot, and not murder or otherwise abuse you...if we feel like it. The Talented in these stories are trying to carve a niche in this exploitative situation: but they're hampered by prejudice of those who are all too aware that they could be powerful rebels, if they chose. What, after all, did the little girl (she's not much above 12, apparently) steal? Baubles. Toys. Things that shouldn't even be for sale, some of them (sable coats? Come ON.) Conspicuous consumption, reserved for the rich, while the poor get subsistence food, housing, clothing, etc. I should point out that the Romani Anti-Defamation League could quite reasonably take issue against this story, since the victim is a 'Gypsy' child, and it's presumed that she has become so alienated from her society almost solely because of her ethnicity.
(The last interlude)
Honeymoon: Ever wonder how Helva and Niall Parollan consummated their relationship? Here's how. As sex scenes go, this one's more than a little weird.
The sex life of dragons is a disturbing but small part of their lives, and the use of the mating flights to overcome the wills of the riders (to celibacy, for example, or to other priorities, some worthwhile, some not, or to the desire to choose their own mates) is less concerning than the fact that the riders also vicariously indulge in the bloodlust of feeding dragons. Mating flights are overwhelming but rare--feeding occurs comparatively often.
So it's not surprising that I found many of the stories in this book disturbing when I first read them. And I appreciate the reminders from other reviewers, that at least one of these stories involves rape. I'll try to detect that one early and skip it.
Contents:
Introduction: McCaffrey explains that the title of the book comes from a misreading of an earlier anthology with the title Get of The Unicorn (The misreading could have been prevented if it'd been given a less ambiguous name: say, The Unicorn's Children.).
Lady in the Tower: So why SHOULD high-powered telepaths all be raging agoraphobes?
A Meeting of Minds: One of the reasons the Rowan stories are so disappointing is the repetition of tired cliches. Yet ANOTHER monstra ex machina? (In this case, both literally and figuratively. Why SHOULD an alien society be so implacably hostile that they transcend intergalactic barriers to try to attack a neighboring civilization?). Another is the idea (apparently more endemic to McCaffrey herself than to her generation; a throwback, really, to earlier attitudes) that what women REALLY want is a 'superior master'.
Daughter: If this is a true reflection of McCaffrey's own relationship with her father, it explains a lot. The extrapolation of current trends to the idea of a family farm run entirely by automation is untenable, but it might have seemed logical at the time. I'm actually more interested in the mother. She has chosen to sacrifice her own life to her family. But it's not a true renunciation, since she uses craft and subtlety to get her own way, without alienating strong stubborn personalities (too much). This sort of adaptation has always been more common among women than men, and it was rapidly dying out at the time the story was published (1971). By the time the story was set in, the adaptation would have been as atavistic as a giant sloth on the present day Pampas (it's presumed).
Dull Drums: The society in the previous story carried forward. In the Doctor Who episode "Androids of Tara", the peasantry had become engineers, and when they were almost entirely lost in a plague, the androids they'd invented took their place...sort of. Without enough peasants to maintain them, they stopped being practical for everyday use. This society is somewhat similar. Programmers and other computer science folk are low status. Their work is regarded with disdain, and a highly talented student is steered OUT of the field. The implication is that the society's development of automation is overshadowed by its development of sophisticated psychological techniques, which are used largely to reconcile people to their lots in life. Not feasible, but McCaffrey was evidently very concerned by the rebelliousness of traditional 'underlings'. It might be interesting to make up a timeline showing historical events in Ireland in the periods these stories were written, in order to see how a conservative woman writer at the time responded to (rather than led) current developments in her writing.
(Introduction to a new 'set'--these occur periodically in the book, and are more explanatory of the order and chronology than anything else.)
Changeling: I have no problem with the polyandrous relationship in the story. I do think it's bit rich to put the whole burden of household adjustments on the woman, though. A household consisting of one woman, one homosexual man, one bisexual man, and one heterosexual man may require some complex adjustments (probably will, indeed). But why is it always HER responsibility to make things work? I have to say that the homosexual man is a bizarre personality. His misogyny is carried to the point of obsessiveness. He's not only sexually unattracted to women--he seems to regard ANY touch of a woman as potentially contaminating. Hypothetical question--what would have happened if 'his' child had been a girl? I have to say, by the way, that it's not true that he could only sire one child, if artificial insemination is readily available, UNLESS there is some regulatory limitation on the number of children each person could have.
Weather on Welladay: The people in this story have no idea what's going on. Therefore I doubt the assumption that the 'whales' are unintelligent. So what is THEIR reward for permitting their thyroid glands to be 'milked'? Looks like a basis for mediation, to ME. It does seem a bit odd that any society would have a critical shortage of I-131, though.
(Another interlude)
The Thorns of Barevi: This is the story where a woman accepts being raped. But that's not the most troubling part of the story. McCaffrey has always had a tendency to accept slavery as normative. The escaped slave makes no attempt to help others escape, to put an end to the system of slavery, to establish an alternative society, to return home.... She really has no plans at all. She only escapes into the 'wilderness', and lives in hiding until she can parlay her rape into 'freedom'. I also find the supposed hostility of the environment implausible. And the habit of killing local fauna by bullfighting techniques (and about as fairly, since the humanoids have significantly greater strength and durability, and they always start the fights, and never stop until they kill the animals) is truly appalling. One thing that I did find interesting is the idea of a(n almost literal) sunset clause on blood-feuds. If people insist on having blood feuds, a time limit is a necessary amenity. Sort of a statute of limitations. And one day may be a little short, but it has definite possibilities.
Horse from A Different Sea: The men who patronize certain prostitutes are getting pregnant. And the doctor decides that he has the right to kill the babies, though he knows nothing about them. The story is a sort of defensive rumination on his justification for these murders.
The Great Canine Chorus: This is a truly horrific story. A disabled (and telepathic) little girl is exploited by her abusive father and local crime lords. And because she distrusts the authorities (whom she blames for the death of her mother), she refuses to allow them near her to try to help her. She only trusts animals, particularly dogs--but she overestimates her control of her own powers, and a call for help goes badly awry. Almost worse than the bathos of the individual story is the dystopian society, envisioned with a sort of 'gritty realism' that distorts by failing to show the 'big picture' of how we got to this horrid day, and who besides individuals are trying to fix it. Note that there's an implication that the little girl has a sister somewhere...
Finder's Keeper: McCaffrey consistently conflates different psychic gifts. It's less so in this story. The child in this story has a form of psychometry, which enables him to 'find' things. His challenge is to keep himself from being exploited until he can reach maturity. And then exploit himself, apparently. Unlike other literary characters, this one is not motherless. He has quite a good mother, really, who advises him well. But has he no other family? Where are his aunts and uncles? Grandparents? Cousins?
A Proper Santa Claus: A small boy has the ability to realize his artworks, but he begins to doubt himself when lectured in altruism. In fairness, he's only about five. He's likely to be able to resolve this quandary, eventually.
The Smallest Dragonboy: Not one of the worst Pern stories. It would be better as a standalone children's book, I'd think, with illustrations. I don't think much of Pernese technology as represented in this story, by the way.
(Another interlude--mostly these are descriptions of how the stories came to be written, and suggested rewrites)
Apple: I'd always realized that the stories in To Ride Pegasus were dystopian. This is worse than most. McCaffrey evidently had no quarrel with the idea of disposable people, who can be killed or abused without quarter or concern. The fugitive in this story is a lost little girl, who has powers beyond the ordinary, including, apparently, significant apportive ability. She's murdered by the authorities, then the murder is dismissed with an attitude of 'good riddance to bad rubbish'. The general attitude of the police is that the people SHOULD be afraid of the authorities 'unless they behave properly', which is, of course, no exception at all, because the standing definition on 'proper behavior' is cowed acceptance of the commercial norms of the rich. Be poor, labor, and MAYBE we'll let you have a modicum of our loot, and not murder or otherwise abuse you...if we feel like it. The Talented in these stories are trying to carve a niche in this exploitative situation: but they're hampered by prejudice of those who are all too aware that they could be powerful rebels, if they chose. What, after all, did the little girl (she's not much above 12, apparently) steal? Baubles. Toys. Things that shouldn't even be for sale, some of them (sable coats? Come ON.) Conspicuous consumption, reserved for the rich, while the poor get subsistence food, housing, clothing, etc. I should point out that the Romani Anti-Defamation League could quite reasonably take issue against this story, since the victim is a 'Gypsy' child, and it's presumed that she has become so alienated from her society almost solely because of her ethnicity.
(The last interlude)
Honeymoon: Ever wonder how Helva and Niall Parollan consummated their relationship? Here's how. As sex scenes go, this one's more than a little weird.
January 3, 2018
The usual collection of rape, slut-shaming and misogyny from an author I used to think was pretty cool.
TL;DR
Not Terrible: Horse From a Different Sea, The Great Canine Chorus, Finder's Keeper, Apple.
Avoid At All Costs: A Meeting of Minds, The Thorns of Barevi, Honeymoon
Lady in the Tower: This later became part of the novel The Rowan. It's actually less terrible on its own, but still kinda cringe-y.
A Meeting of Minds: In which the daughter of The Rowan eventually realizes the dude who was formerly, unrequitedly in love with her mother is in love with her, ew ew ew.
"And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine. How could she have blundered around so, looking for a *mind* that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's most important function in life begins with physical domination?"
That's when I threw the book across the room, but sadly, I eventually retrieved it and read the rest.
Daughter / Dull Drums: This actually had some promise, as it's about a young woman studying to be a computer scientist, and kicking ass at it, despite her father being a misogynist and a seemingly endless stream of dudes manhandling her "affectionately". But then it transpires that she has TOO MUCH EMPATHY to be a scientist!!!! And needs the men in her life to paternalistically tell her to change majors, because they know better than she what will make her happy. ARGH
Changeling: I knew this was going to be... interesting... when McCaffrey's introduction emphasized how many "homosexual male friends" she had.
I don't really know what to say about it, because on the one hand it's... almost... a pretty positive polyamory story, but ALSO this woman is in (unrequited) love with the gay dude and agrees to have his child and then she goes into labor and he kidnaps her to a mountain cabin instead of taking her to the hospital (despite her protests) and it's just... all a little weird. Also stories about giving birth give me the heebie-jeebies.
Weather on Welladay: First non-terrible story! Though personally I found it a bit dull.
The Thorns of Barevi: In which a woman gets kidnapped and enslaved by aliens, escapes them, then reveals herself to aid one....... who shows his gratitude by raping her. AUGH NO STOP BAD
In her introduction to the story, McCaffrey states that it was "an attempt to cash in on the lucrative market for soft- and hard-core pornography in the 60's", so, that's charming.
Horse From a Different Sea: Okay actually kind of funny.
The Great Canine Chorus: Probably best thing in this collection.
Finder's Keeper: Another pretty okay story, though the ending was pretty weak.
A Proper Santa Claus: I give McCaffrey credit for not pulling the punch at the end of this grim tale, though I found it needlessly depressing.
The Smallest Dragonboy: It's like someone asked McCaffrey to write the most generic Pern story possible. Like you know from the very beginning that Keevan is going to Impress a hatchling -- it's in the title, ferchrissakes -- which pretty much undermines any dramatic tension this extremely straightforward underdog-gets-his-comeuppance story could possibly have.
Apple: Another pretty good telepath story, similar to "The Great Canine Chorus", although I'm getting a bit tired of this "women Talents are all unstable psychopaths" thing??
Honeymoon: The Ship Who Sang is actually pretty cool, except what is this nonsense where she is worried her "brawn" will rape her, and then some weird alien stuff happens that seems to amount to "he and a group of aliens pressured her into having sex with him"?
TL;DR
Not Terrible: Horse From a Different Sea, The Great Canine Chorus, Finder's Keeper, Apple.
Avoid At All Costs: A Meeting of Minds, The Thorns of Barevi, Honeymoon
Lady in the Tower: This later became part of the novel The Rowan. It's actually less terrible on its own, but still kinda cringe-y.
A Meeting of Minds: In which the daughter of The Rowan eventually realizes the dude who was formerly, unrequitedly in love with her mother is in love with her, ew ew ew.
"And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine. How could she have blundered around so, looking for a *mind* that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's most important function in life begins with physical domination?"
That's when I threw the book across the room, but sadly, I eventually retrieved it and read the rest.
Daughter / Dull Drums: This actually had some promise, as it's about a young woman studying to be a computer scientist, and kicking ass at it, despite her father being a misogynist and a seemingly endless stream of dudes manhandling her "affectionately". But then it transpires that she has TOO MUCH EMPATHY to be a scientist!!!! And needs the men in her life to paternalistically tell her to change majors, because they know better than she what will make her happy. ARGH
Changeling: I knew this was going to be... interesting... when McCaffrey's introduction emphasized how many "homosexual male friends" she had.
I don't really know what to say about it, because on the one hand it's... almost... a pretty positive polyamory story, but ALSO this woman is in (unrequited) love with the gay dude and agrees to have his child and then she goes into labor and he kidnaps her to a mountain cabin instead of taking her to the hospital (despite her protests) and it's just... all a little weird. Also stories about giving birth give me the heebie-jeebies.
Weather on Welladay: First non-terrible story! Though personally I found it a bit dull.
The Thorns of Barevi: In which a woman gets kidnapped and enslaved by aliens, escapes them, then reveals herself to aid one....... who shows his gratitude by raping her. AUGH NO STOP BAD
In her introduction to the story, McCaffrey states that it was "an attempt to cash in on the lucrative market for soft- and hard-core pornography in the 60's", so, that's charming.
Horse From a Different Sea: Okay actually kind of funny.
The Great Canine Chorus: Probably best thing in this collection.
Finder's Keeper: Another pretty okay story, though the ending was pretty weak.
A Proper Santa Claus: I give McCaffrey credit for not pulling the punch at the end of this grim tale, though I found it needlessly depressing.
The Smallest Dragonboy: It's like someone asked McCaffrey to write the most generic Pern story possible. Like you know from the very beginning that Keevan is going to Impress a hatchling -- it's in the title, ferchrissakes -- which pretty much undermines any dramatic tension this extremely straightforward underdog-gets-his-comeuppance story could possibly have.
Apple: Another pretty good telepath story, similar to "The Great Canine Chorus", although I'm getting a bit tired of this "women Talents are all unstable psychopaths" thing??
Honeymoon: The Ship Who Sang is actually pretty cool, except what is this nonsense where she is worried her "brawn" will rape her, and then some weird alien stuff happens that seems to amount to "he and a group of aliens pressured her into having sex with him"?
November 28, 2017
This is a wonderful collection of short stories. I am usually not a fan of short stories but pretty much all of the 14 stories in here work. It helps if you have read McCaffrey's various series, particularly in the one titled Honeymoon (Ship Who Sang series). However, a number are complete stand alone titles. Several are short stories that she thought could be books someday, such as the Raven women. These later did become books. A general theme tends to be telepathy and variations of it in one way or another. I picked this up as a vacation from life and it worked very well.
Addendum: Lots of people are complaining about how McCaffrey condones rape and sexism. I don't really agree. While they do make the point that there is some, and I won't disagree, I also think that people are getting too hung up on it. I agree Thorns on Barevi is about a woman who comes to like the man raping her and that isn't so great. However, I also think people are reading too much into it. She starts liking the guy well before he raped her. I'll agree that attitudes have changed. However, I'll also point out that it isn't uncommon for people to start liking their kidnappers, liking used in both a physical and non physical sense (Stockholm Syndrome). There is no hint in this story that the heroine is ever going to get back to her home, so she needs to move on in life. I also think people are getting way too hung up on potential rape in the Pern series. You could just as easily say the men are being raped by the other men (green and blue dragon riders) or by the women (queen dragon riders) who essentially chose the Weyrleader through the act. I do have some issues with the Helva series, but not so much the sex scenes. I'm not comfortable with hiding the disabled in ships before the kids have any choice as to career. McCaffrey does have some of these disabled assume other careers, such as Broley, the one in charge of a city. But it seems rather limited in terms of careers. On the other hand, the kids are alive. It is pretty well spelled out they would be extremely limited in their original bodies, if even alive.
Not changing my rating of 4 stars.
If you are going to get so upset over this author, stop reading her.
Addendum: Lots of people are complaining about how McCaffrey condones rape and sexism. I don't really agree. While they do make the point that there is some, and I won't disagree, I also think that people are getting too hung up on it. I agree Thorns on Barevi is about a woman who comes to like the man raping her and that isn't so great. However, I also think people are reading too much into it. She starts liking the guy well before he raped her. I'll agree that attitudes have changed. However, I'll also point out that it isn't uncommon for people to start liking their kidnappers, liking used in both a physical and non physical sense (Stockholm Syndrome). There is no hint in this story that the heroine is ever going to get back to her home, so she needs to move on in life. I also think people are getting way too hung up on potential rape in the Pern series. You could just as easily say the men are being raped by the other men (green and blue dragon riders) or by the women (queen dragon riders) who essentially chose the Weyrleader through the act. I do have some issues with the Helva series, but not so much the sex scenes. I'm not comfortable with hiding the disabled in ships before the kids have any choice as to career. McCaffrey does have some of these disabled assume other careers, such as Broley, the one in charge of a city. But it seems rather limited in terms of careers. On the other hand, the kids are alive. It is pretty well spelled out they would be extremely limited in their original bodies, if even alive.
Not changing my rating of 4 stars.
If you are going to get so upset over this author, stop reading her.
June 22, 2007
In an effort to clear my shelves I am "forcing" myself to read books I've had for just about forever. Take for instance Get off the Unicorn, I think I've had this copy for 20 years! That would have made me 13 or 14 when I bought it — right at the peek of my love for Anne McCaffrey's books. I should have read it back then; I would have enjoyed it more.
This book contains a dozen short stories, many of which exist in the worlds of her various series. Of her series I've mostly read the Pern books so most of the stories in this book didn't grab my attention on familiarity nor did they keep me interested enough to want to seek out their series.
Collectively they seem to center on ideas of gender, age and the burden of power. There are only so many times I can stand to read about how hard it is to be a girl, or how hard it is to make grownups listen, or how hard it is to control one's psychic power, or how hard it is to be the youngest (or smallest), etc. If I were still an angsty teenager this book would probably speak more to me than it does now.
This book contains a dozen short stories, many of which exist in the worlds of her various series. Of her series I've mostly read the Pern books so most of the stories in this book didn't grab my attention on familiarity nor did they keep me interested enough to want to seek out their series.
Collectively they seem to center on ideas of gender, age and the burden of power. There are only so many times I can stand to read about how hard it is to be a girl, or how hard it is to make grownups listen, or how hard it is to control one's psychic power, or how hard it is to be the youngest (or smallest), etc. If I were still an angsty teenager this book would probably speak more to me than it does now.
August 23, 2024
This is a collection of short stories dating in publication from 1959 to 1973 and first published in 1977, with my British Corgi edition dating from 1979. Some were subsequently expanded into novels. There is some interest in the author's introduction to each group of stories and the explanation that the title came about because of an orphaned title on the publisher's schedule, 'Get (meaning offspring) of the Unicorn' which her editor asked if she could do something about. Thus, a short story collection.
The first two stories became novels - 'The Rowan' and 'Damia' - I have a vague recollection of reading the second years ago but either got it from the library or didn't enjoy it enough to keep it. They concern a far future in which interstellar commerce is enabled by powerful telekinetics/telepaths. The first story is set on Callisto station where the star player is The Rowan, a woman with enormous ability but who languishes without love, and is the tale of how she finds it over interstellar distances. Her second-in-command, Afra, an alien from Capella, is a main character in the sequel which is about the daughter of The Rowan (the nickname is never explained) and husband Jeff. Damia, like her mother before her, contacts a mind across space but this one gives grave cause for concern on the part of her parents and Afra. As in the previous story, she, too, is bereft without love, and the closing paragraphs include an explicit statement of what has troubled me in the Pern books by this author, when Damia is temporarily unable to use her telepathy and has to rely on sight: "And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine.
How could she have blundered around so, looking for a mind that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's most important function in life begins with physical domination?"
Well! That explains a lot about the various non-consensual sex scenes in the Pern novels where people are either swept up in the lust of their mating dragons, or the man just decides that the woman needs a good 'seeing to' to sort out her hangups as in a particularly disturbing scene in 'Dragonquest', where F'nor decides to "initiate" Brekke, a reluctant virgin who naturally gets over her refusal and decides she likes it. And in 'The White Dragon ', Jaxom is wound up after proximity to raunchy dragons - not even his own, which is asexual - and overpowers his girlfriend though his dragon assures him that it's OK because she likes it. There are many pernicious assumptions in that statement, not least being the implication that women's most important role is childbearing, but also the idea that they just need to be forced and then they will enjoy the 'physical domination'. It does suggest a certain masochism on the part of the author which she projected onto women as a whole.
'Daughter' and 'Dull drums' are stories written for young adults about a young woman from a futuristic collective farm in a society where everything is based on social cohesiveness and conformity. Nora Finn's father has little time for her despite the fact that she has more aptitude for farm work - rather implausibly handled by computer control and automation - and has helped twin brother Nick with the assignments he is too bored to do. Things come to a head but societal rules come to her rescue: her father can't prevent her going to university. In the second story, incomprehensibly to modern readers, Nora is thrown off the computer course and told to do socio-pysch dynamics, a much better use of her talents apparently. The author obviously had no idea that the real interest in the field of IT is in the applications to which it might be put. Disturbingly, Nora's boyfriend spends quite a bit of time shaking her in every interaction and of course is against her studying computer science.
The misogyny hits a new low in a story which the author admits was never previously published, having been rejected by Harlan Ellison for his 'Dangerous Visions' anthology (to his credit, Ellison wasn't a misogynist). In it, Roy, a gay man, has a friendship with a woman despite finding other women repellent - she's the token exception - and she ends up in a household with him and his boyfriend and her own husband. She agrees to become a surrogate mother so that Roy can fulfill his dream of having a son - no daughters allowed - and he kidnaps her and takes her to a cabin in the woods to deliver HIS child. The idea for this story apparently stemmed from bitterness among her gay friends at being unable to adopt. Given the fairly widespread prejudice at the time this collection was published, it's a pity this very nasty story, which could only have exacerbated such prejudice, was included.
After all the foregoing, 'Weather on Welladay ' came as a refreshing mouthwash to dispel the sour taste of so much internalised misogyny. It concerns piracy on a remote planet where someone is killing docile whales by over milking their glands of a radioactive iodine used to control plant diseases throughout the populated galaxy. Shahanna is shot down as the story begins, and her mercy ship - she has been sent to obtain iodine as shipments have dried up - crash lands in a remote lagoon during one of Welladay's fierce storms. There is plenty of action, misdirection as suspicion falls on various characters who might be in league with the pirates, and thankfully a female character who is allowed to be competent and brave with absolutely no pining for men or having any need to be overpowered. This was the first story I liked.
Unfortunately, the following story - 'The Thorns of Barevi' - was a return to all the things wrong in the collection. Weirdly, the author introduced it as one of her humorous stories. I saw nothing funny in a tale of Christin, a student from Denver, abducted by aliens and sold in their slave market. As the story opens, she has been living off the land for a few weeks after stealing her master's flitter, a flying vehicle. She helps one of the master race evade others who shoot down his flitter, but even while they are hiding from his enemies, he rapes her and, this being a McCaffrey story, she 'enjoys' it. The author states that this story was an attempt to "cash in on the lucrative market for soft- and hard-core pornography in the 60s". Another one she should have consigned to the round file.
'Horse from a Different Sea ' is an odd story about the varied visitors to a brothel and what happens after their liaison with a woman there who happens to be an alien. 'The Great Canine Chorus ' features a police dog the author knew while living in the town in which it is set. The dog and his handler are contacted by a telepathic child whose father exploits her for criminal purposes. They try to help her, but gradually she becomes a hardened character. Given the story 's downbeat nature, its label of humorous is odd.
The next three were written for Roger Elwood, a prolific editor of fantasy and science fiction anthologies at the time. In 'Finder's Keeper ', Peter has an uncanny knack of finding lost things, so uncanny that the police became interested and he and his mother had to move town. Now their precarious breadline existence is threatened by a greedy insurance investigator who plans to exploit Peter's ability for his own gain. 'A Proper Santa Claus' concerns a small boy with a magical talent and what happens when that comes into contact with prosaic reality: the author implies that she had to give it a happy ending in its first publication as she reinstated the original ending here. And 'The Smallest Dragonboy ' as might be expected is about a boy small for his age who has to overcome bullying - there's an awful bullying culture among children on Pern - to have the chance to impress a dragon. A sweet story but nothing new if you've already read the first few Pern novels. There do seem to be some contradictions though: here the prospective candidates are encouraged to touch the eggs whereas in the novels that is a strict no-no. It is set in Benden Weyr as F'lar and Lessa feature. Yet in ' Dragonquest ' , their son and his friend Jaxom had to sneak through a back way to get near the hatching ground and both boys were concerned Jaxom would be punished for touching an egg. Also, Lessa isn't the only person who can receive telepathically from all dragons: so can Brekke.
The penultimate story is 'Apple' set in a future in which psychic talents have almost won legal protection when the telekinetic thefts of a wild talent threatens to unravel everything. There's a certain racist assumption in the identity of the thief.
The final story is 'Honeymoon' , a follow up to 'The Ship Who Sang '. The author says that it won't make sense to anyone who hasn't at least read the short story if not the novel of that name. I definitely read it years ago but remember very little about it. Again, some of the assumptions, this time that a 'cripple' is good for nothing but to be brain-wired to a space ship, is problematic when read today. Compounded by her having to have paid off a debt for her upbringing and even her installation into the ship. There's also the dodgy references that Niall, who runs the ship in partnership with her as her "brawn" is so highly sexed that he might be tempted to open the shell encapsulating her mid flight for some 'light
relief '.
I initially thought this would just about reach 3 stars but having worked through the stories for this review, I've realised I didn't like many of them so I think I will have to designate this as an OK 2 star read.
The first two stories became novels - 'The Rowan' and 'Damia' - I have a vague recollection of reading the second years ago but either got it from the library or didn't enjoy it enough to keep it. They concern a far future in which interstellar commerce is enabled by powerful telekinetics/telepaths. The first story is set on Callisto station where the star player is The Rowan, a woman with enormous ability but who languishes without love, and is the tale of how she finds it over interstellar distances. Her second-in-command, Afra, an alien from Capella, is a main character in the sequel which is about the daughter of The Rowan (the nickname is never explained) and husband Jeff. Damia, like her mother before her, contacts a mind across space but this one gives grave cause for concern on the part of her parents and Afra. As in the previous story, she, too, is bereft without love, and the closing paragraphs include an explicit statement of what has troubled me in the Pern books by this author, when Damia is temporarily unable to use her telepathy and has to rely on sight: "And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine.
How could she have blundered around so, looking for a mind that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's most important function in life begins with physical domination?"
Well! That explains a lot about the various non-consensual sex scenes in the Pern novels where people are either swept up in the lust of their mating dragons, or the man just decides that the woman needs a good 'seeing to' to sort out her hangups as in a particularly disturbing scene in 'Dragonquest', where F'nor decides to "initiate" Brekke, a reluctant virgin who naturally gets over her refusal and decides she likes it. And in 'The White Dragon ', Jaxom is wound up after proximity to raunchy dragons - not even his own, which is asexual - and overpowers his girlfriend though his dragon assures him that it's OK because she likes it. There are many pernicious assumptions in that statement, not least being the implication that women's most important role is childbearing, but also the idea that they just need to be forced and then they will enjoy the 'physical domination'. It does suggest a certain masochism on the part of the author which she projected onto women as a whole.
'Daughter' and 'Dull drums' are stories written for young adults about a young woman from a futuristic collective farm in a society where everything is based on social cohesiveness and conformity. Nora Finn's father has little time for her despite the fact that she has more aptitude for farm work - rather implausibly handled by computer control and automation - and has helped twin brother Nick with the assignments he is too bored to do. Things come to a head but societal rules come to her rescue: her father can't prevent her going to university. In the second story, incomprehensibly to modern readers, Nora is thrown off the computer course and told to do socio-pysch dynamics, a much better use of her talents apparently. The author obviously had no idea that the real interest in the field of IT is in the applications to which it might be put. Disturbingly, Nora's boyfriend spends quite a bit of time shaking her in every interaction and of course is against her studying computer science.
The misogyny hits a new low in a story which the author admits was never previously published, having been rejected by Harlan Ellison for his 'Dangerous Visions' anthology (to his credit, Ellison wasn't a misogynist). In it, Roy, a gay man, has a friendship with a woman despite finding other women repellent - she's the token exception - and she ends up in a household with him and his boyfriend and her own husband. She agrees to become a surrogate mother so that Roy can fulfill his dream of having a son - no daughters allowed - and he kidnaps her and takes her to a cabin in the woods to deliver HIS child. The idea for this story apparently stemmed from bitterness among her gay friends at being unable to adopt. Given the fairly widespread prejudice at the time this collection was published, it's a pity this very nasty story, which could only have exacerbated such prejudice, was included.
After all the foregoing, 'Weather on Welladay ' came as a refreshing mouthwash to dispel the sour taste of so much internalised misogyny. It concerns piracy on a remote planet where someone is killing docile whales by over milking their glands of a radioactive iodine used to control plant diseases throughout the populated galaxy. Shahanna is shot down as the story begins, and her mercy ship - she has been sent to obtain iodine as shipments have dried up - crash lands in a remote lagoon during one of Welladay's fierce storms. There is plenty of action, misdirection as suspicion falls on various characters who might be in league with the pirates, and thankfully a female character who is allowed to be competent and brave with absolutely no pining for men or having any need to be overpowered. This was the first story I liked.
Unfortunately, the following story - 'The Thorns of Barevi' - was a return to all the things wrong in the collection. Weirdly, the author introduced it as one of her humorous stories. I saw nothing funny in a tale of Christin, a student from Denver, abducted by aliens and sold in their slave market. As the story opens, she has been living off the land for a few weeks after stealing her master's flitter, a flying vehicle. She helps one of the master race evade others who shoot down his flitter, but even while they are hiding from his enemies, he rapes her and, this being a McCaffrey story, she 'enjoys' it. The author states that this story was an attempt to "cash in on the lucrative market for soft- and hard-core pornography in the 60s". Another one she should have consigned to the round file.
'Horse from a Different Sea ' is an odd story about the varied visitors to a brothel and what happens after their liaison with a woman there who happens to be an alien. 'The Great Canine Chorus ' features a police dog the author knew while living in the town in which it is set. The dog and his handler are contacted by a telepathic child whose father exploits her for criminal purposes. They try to help her, but gradually she becomes a hardened character. Given the story 's downbeat nature, its label of humorous is odd.
The next three were written for Roger Elwood, a prolific editor of fantasy and science fiction anthologies at the time. In 'Finder's Keeper ', Peter has an uncanny knack of finding lost things, so uncanny that the police became interested and he and his mother had to move town. Now their precarious breadline existence is threatened by a greedy insurance investigator who plans to exploit Peter's ability for his own gain. 'A Proper Santa Claus' concerns a small boy with a magical talent and what happens when that comes into contact with prosaic reality: the author implies that she had to give it a happy ending in its first publication as she reinstated the original ending here. And 'The Smallest Dragonboy ' as might be expected is about a boy small for his age who has to overcome bullying - there's an awful bullying culture among children on Pern - to have the chance to impress a dragon. A sweet story but nothing new if you've already read the first few Pern novels. There do seem to be some contradictions though: here the prospective candidates are encouraged to touch the eggs whereas in the novels that is a strict no-no. It is set in Benden Weyr as F'lar and Lessa feature. Yet in ' Dragonquest ' , their son and his friend Jaxom had to sneak through a back way to get near the hatching ground and both boys were concerned Jaxom would be punished for touching an egg. Also, Lessa isn't the only person who can receive telepathically from all dragons: so can Brekke.
The penultimate story is 'Apple' set in a future in which psychic talents have almost won legal protection when the telekinetic thefts of a wild talent threatens to unravel everything. There's a certain racist assumption in the identity of the thief.
The final story is 'Honeymoon' , a follow up to 'The Ship Who Sang '. The author says that it won't make sense to anyone who hasn't at least read the short story if not the novel of that name. I definitely read it years ago but remember very little about it. Again, some of the assumptions, this time that a 'cripple' is good for nothing but to be brain-wired to a space ship, is problematic when read today. Compounded by her having to have paid off a debt for her upbringing and even her installation into the ship. There's also the dodgy references that Niall, who runs the ship in partnership with her as her "brawn" is so highly sexed that he might be tempted to open the shell encapsulating her mid flight for some 'light
relief '.
I initially thought this would just about reach 3 stars but having worked through the stories for this review, I've realised I didn't like many of them so I think I will have to designate this as an OK 2 star read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2022
This collection contains one of my favorite short stories ever, “A Proper Santa Claus”. It’s not a feel-good story, but rather one about trying to be your own self even when no one else gets you or your art.
I don’t clearly recall some of the other stories, but a few stand out, such as the Pern short “The Smallest Dragonboy”
I don’t clearly recall some of the other stories, but a few stand out, such as the Pern short “The Smallest Dragonboy”
December 5, 2012
Yes, this is how far I have sunk- reading McCaffrey books, which I read as a virgin teen. This stuff I wouldn't recommend bec it was written way before "women's lib" and the sexism and racism is so casual and endemic, it's rather chilling. Actually what's shocking is her seeming lack of recognition that there are extremely sexist and even anti-female elements in some of the stories. I mean, sure, your Dad (Daughter, et. al.) is a big sexist asshole, but the number of times one female protag is grabbed by men and doesn't protest the manhandling, instead sees it as sign of caring- it was sickening.
Or in "Honeymoon" (HAH!)the assumption that a "brawn" must be watched for signs of obsession with the brain, for fear he might be so overcome by lack of sexual stimulation during long space flights that he might crack open the shell of his defenseless "brain" and rape a physically stunted person covered in nutritive fluid whos brain is exposed and connected with wires to the very functions of the ship which keep him alive? What???
True, I did not read " The Ship Who Sang" and now, I don't really want to , if that's the dynamic. and I had been looking forward to it. Helva was nervous at first during the trip: "Can I trust him not to crack my shell?". Basically, "Can I trust him not to rape me in a fit of crazed lust inspired by lack of available vaginas to poke?". and his wanting to "join with her", and the jibe about " don't play that virgin crap with me!" What? You're on a methane gas alien world without your usual physical body, potentially dangerous beings watching you and you press the advantage to merge by yelling abuse?! Hello, not the time for gettin' it on no matter that it's sex by proxy!
It's just depressing that in her world we can have hyperspace, sophisticated ships and explore strange peoples and lands, but there is no way to deal with the male mammalian sex drive. Oh yeah, that's the point: no matter what, a woman's a woman and a man is a man and he's gotta have it, and she's gonna give it, one thousand years of techinical advancement notwithstanding. Sheesh. How backward. Sign me up for some Cherryh, Reeves, Aguirre or Liz Moon!
Or in "Honeymoon" (HAH!)the assumption that a "brawn" must be watched for signs of obsession with the brain, for fear he might be so overcome by lack of sexual stimulation during long space flights that he might crack open the shell of his defenseless "brain" and rape a physically stunted person covered in nutritive fluid whos brain is exposed and connected with wires to the very functions of the ship which keep him alive? What???
True, I did not read " The Ship Who Sang" and now, I don't really want to , if that's the dynamic. and I had been looking forward to it. Helva was nervous at first during the trip: "Can I trust him not to crack my shell?". Basically, "Can I trust him not to rape me in a fit of crazed lust inspired by lack of available vaginas to poke?". and his wanting to "join with her", and the jibe about " don't play that virgin crap with me!" What? You're on a methane gas alien world without your usual physical body, potentially dangerous beings watching you and you press the advantage to merge by yelling abuse?! Hello, not the time for gettin' it on no matter that it's sex by proxy!
It's just depressing that in her world we can have hyperspace, sophisticated ships and explore strange peoples and lands, but there is no way to deal with the male mammalian sex drive. Oh yeah, that's the point: no matter what, a woman's a woman and a man is a man and he's gotta have it, and she's gonna give it, one thousand years of techinical advancement notwithstanding. Sheesh. How backward. Sign me up for some Cherryh, Reeves, Aguirre or Liz Moon!
January 15, 2013
I rather suspect I liked the same stories this time round as when I first read it.
I've often reflected that over the last decade that Nora's analysis of people in the early 21st century and their online data store use (in Dull Drums) was eeireely accurate. On rereading it, I definitely think so and I suggest anyone interested in cases where the SF author pretty much got the future right (in the concepts rather than the specifics), take a read of this 1973 short story.
My favourites remain:
Lady in the Tower
A Meeting of Minds
Dull Drums
Finder's Keeper
The Smallest Dragonboy
Honeymoon
I still think the most problematic story is Thorns of the Barevi as it is basically a rape fantasy and not a very good one at that. (So if that is an issue for you, skip that one.)
Three of the stories here later went on to be novels (Lady in the Tower --> The Rowan; A Meeting of Minds --> Damia; Thorns of the Barevi --> Freedom's Landing). I find myself eager to get to The Rowan and Damia but, as per my comments above, find myself a little concerned about Freedom's Landing. But I've never read the latter, so it may not fit as closely to the short story as the first two do.
After two Anne McCaffrey books in two days, I'm taking a quick break, but I intend to be back for Dragonsinger soon. I'm really enjoying my journey through her books.
I've often reflected that over the last decade that Nora's analysis of people in the early 21st century and their online data store use (in Dull Drums) was eeireely accurate. On rereading it, I definitely think so and I suggest anyone interested in cases where the SF author pretty much got the future right (in the concepts rather than the specifics), take a read of this 1973 short story.
My favourites remain:
Lady in the Tower
A Meeting of Minds
Dull Drums
Finder's Keeper
The Smallest Dragonboy
Honeymoon
I still think the most problematic story is Thorns of the Barevi as it is basically a rape fantasy and not a very good one at that. (So if that is an issue for you, skip that one.)
Three of the stories here later went on to be novels (Lady in the Tower --> The Rowan; A Meeting of Minds --> Damia; Thorns of the Barevi --> Freedom's Landing). I find myself eager to get to The Rowan and Damia but, as per my comments above, find myself a little concerned about Freedom's Landing. But I've never read the latter, so it may not fit as closely to the short story as the first two do.
After two Anne McCaffrey books in two days, I'm taking a quick break, but I intend to be back for Dragonsinger soon. I'm really enjoying my journey through her books.
October 12, 2008
Hopefully you don't mind a side story instead of an objective review.
I still remember my mother coming into my 6th grade English classroom, talking about our library of over 500 books at home, and reading The Girl Who Heard Dragons to our classroom. Everyone was rapt (though of course, I'm sure some were just being polite), but I was never more proud of my mother, nor more excited about reading, than at that moment.
I remember asking my mother if I could read that book, and while I think The Girl's story was the best of the lot, they were all a good minor read. She eventually made that story into it's own book, which I could tell you the quality of it. Of course, they're always better when you had a teaspoon of nostalgia.
I still remember my mother coming into my 6th grade English classroom, talking about our library of over 500 books at home, and reading The Girl Who Heard Dragons to our classroom. Everyone was rapt (though of course, I'm sure some were just being polite), but I was never more proud of my mother, nor more excited about reading, than at that moment.
I remember asking my mother if I could read that book, and while I think The Girl's story was the best of the lot, they were all a good minor read. She eventually made that story into it's own book, which I could tell you the quality of it. Of course, they're always better when you had a teaspoon of nostalgia.
November 30, 2010
These short stories, all by McCaffrey were fascinating to me when I found this book. I had previously only read her Pern books, and seeing her write about different worlds and times was eye-opening. (As was the sex in a couple of the stories- I was probably only fourteen at the time!) One of her more memorable collections of short fiction.
By the way, there is no unicorn in any of these stories. The original title was Get OF the Unicorn, as in "offspring" of the unicorn, meaning that these stories were spawned by the fantastic. Yeah, still a bit weird, but the rumor around town is that the copyeditor didn't understand the title, and added the extra 'f', which no one noticed until the books were printed . . .
By the way, there is no unicorn in any of these stories. The original title was Get OF the Unicorn, as in "offspring" of the unicorn, meaning that these stories were spawned by the fantastic. Yeah, still a bit weird, but the rumor around town is that the copyeditor didn't understand the title, and added the extra 'f', which no one noticed until the books were printed . . .
February 22, 2015
A strange little book from a generally great author. Some good stories in here (The Littlest Dragonboy stands out for me, for all its simplicity) but there is a large amount of sexist behaviour which simply wouldn't be tolerated today. One story, 'Thorns if Barevi', made me particularly uncomfortable with its depiction of a woman enjoying being raped. I also felt the Talent stories (later developed into The Rowan and Damian) did not work very well outside the context of their later expanded story. Also, the whale story was weird and made no sense and the Santa story was depressing. My recommendation - stick to her full novels, which are generally very good!
September 22, 2018
This book is a collection of fourteen short stories. These are mostly boring, rather tedious sci-fi renditions that, frankly, don’t hold up well over the decades. A couple of the stories, supposedly for the Young Adult market, are especially dull. The story about the Smallest Dragon Boy and the Thorns of Barevi might be of interest to McCaffrey fans.
April 6, 2020
One of the BEST SciFi Writers of All Time
These stories included some parts of her various series. Pern was, of course, an excellent, fan favorite series. Mine was the Pegasus in Flight series, and I enjoyed Brain Ship series. Both are represented in this book of short stories. I haven't read any of her series in years and years. It's time to revisit those wonderful worlds.
These stories included some parts of her various series. Pern was, of course, an excellent, fan favorite series. Mine was the Pegasus in Flight series, and I enjoyed Brain Ship series. Both are represented in this book of short stories. I haven't read any of her series in years and years. It's time to revisit those wonderful worlds.
November 30, 2020
ReedIII Quick Review: Great short stories by a great author. Well written full of imagination transporting you to new worlds and situations some with dated morality. Better if you have read and enjoyed related McCaffrey novels.
June 29, 2017
I had an Anne McCaffrey two-day reading fest, going through three of her books from the Talent Universe. "Get Off the Unicorn" short story collection contained stories from McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, the Ship that Sang, and Talent Universes as well as several stand-alone stories. I always loved McCaffrey's short stories and novellas more than her novels.
Below are short reviews of each story and the date it was originally published. All of them are over 40 years old and many of them are showing their age, even though, for their day, they were cutting edge.
Lady in the Tower (1959 - Talent Universe) & A Meeting of Minds (1969 - Talent Universe) - These two together are a great combination of hope and caution. I totally fell for Afra because of them.
Daughter (1971) & Dull Drums (1973) - These two together made me think about what I wanted to be in relation to my family. Dated for today's world, yet still fresh for the constant struggle of becoming your own person while not walking away from those you love.
Changeling (1977) - This story STUCK with me. Crawled in my mind and stayed there for some reason. LTGB before it was even a thing.
Weather on Welladay (1969) - This mystery shows how everyone can only see things visible to them.
The Thorns of Barevi (1970) - Forget this story unless you need to see when Ms. McCaffrey failed at something - she even admits in the notes on page 153 it didn't work.
The Great Canine Chorus (1971) - A weird character study of a character going bad. Not Ms. McCaffrey's normal fare of hope.
Finder's Keeper (1973) - A young Talented Finder tries to avoid being taken over by a man with gray morals.
A Proper Santa Claus (1973) - Everyone outgrows Santa Claus and magic.
The Smallest Dragonboy (1973 - Dragonriders of Pern Universe) - I think this is the only story in the book which hasn't become out-dated, mostly because it wasn't set on contemporary earth.
Apple (1969 - Talent Universe) - Sometimes even the FT&T had failures; not everyone is salvageable.
Honeymoon (1977 - Helva, the Ship that Sang Universe) - I loved this as a bookend to the Helva story. Not really canon like the rest of the series, this is more like a fanfic - only written by the author.
Below are short reviews of each story and the date it was originally published. All of them are over 40 years old and many of them are showing their age, even though, for their day, they were cutting edge.
Lady in the Tower (1959 - Talent Universe) & A Meeting of Minds (1969 - Talent Universe) - These two together are a great combination of hope and caution. I totally fell for Afra because of them.
Daughter (1971) & Dull Drums (1973) - These two together made me think about what I wanted to be in relation to my family. Dated for today's world, yet still fresh for the constant struggle of becoming your own person while not walking away from those you love.
Changeling (1977) - This story STUCK with me. Crawled in my mind and stayed there for some reason. LTGB before it was even a thing.
Weather on Welladay (1969) - This mystery shows how everyone can only see things visible to them.
The Thorns of Barevi (1970) - Forget this story unless you need to see when Ms. McCaffrey failed at something - she even admits in the notes on page 153 it didn't work.
The Great Canine Chorus (1971) - A weird character study of a character going bad. Not Ms. McCaffrey's normal fare of hope.
Finder's Keeper (1973) - A young Talented Finder tries to avoid being taken over by a man with gray morals.
A Proper Santa Claus (1973) - Everyone outgrows Santa Claus and magic.
The Smallest Dragonboy (1973 - Dragonriders of Pern Universe) - I think this is the only story in the book which hasn't become out-dated, mostly because it wasn't set on contemporary earth.
Apple (1969 - Talent Universe) - Sometimes even the FT&T had failures; not everyone is salvageable.
Honeymoon (1977 - Helva, the Ship that Sang Universe) - I loved this as a bookend to the Helva story. Not really canon like the rest of the series, this is more like a fanfic - only written by the author.
August 11, 2014
I first read this collection of McCaffrey short stories when I was a kid, and, having devoured both the Dragon Rider series and the Brain Ship series, I wanted more of her work. I loved it then, just for giving me another visit to Pern and the Federated Planets. I also loved it for clearly being something I probably "shouldn't" have been reading.
Reading it now, almost 40 years after its original publication, I still love it, but more for McCaffrey's notes before each story. The stories remain fresh, for the most part, though the social mores in them (in particular the gender dynamics) are dated. Her notes are a very brief window into her creative process, and she hinted at other stories she still had inside of her at the time- some she wrote, and some that died with her. It's bittersweet to read think these characters will not see the light of day past the short stories contained here.
Also, I still have the same paperback copy of this book I read as a kid, published in 1983. It smells like a musty old bookstore and was a pleasure to carry with me.
Reading it now, almost 40 years after its original publication, I still love it, but more for McCaffrey's notes before each story. The stories remain fresh, for the most part, though the social mores in them (in particular the gender dynamics) are dated. Her notes are a very brief window into her creative process, and she hinted at other stories she still had inside of her at the time- some she wrote, and some that died with her. It's bittersweet to read think these characters will not see the light of day past the short stories contained here.
Also, I still have the same paperback copy of this book I read as a kid, published in 1983. It smells like a musty old bookstore and was a pleasure to carry with me.
June 17, 2019
Get Off the Unicorn is a book of short stories from her early days that later went on to be expanded into full books so as you read there's going to be a lot of familiar characters including Helva (The Ship Who Sang), The Rowan (From the Talent series), and Keevan(The Smallest Dragon Boy.) Most of these stories are quite old and when expanding from short story to book there have to be some changes so even with the familiarity of the passages you won't be reading the 'exact' same story.
I enjoyed most of the stories in the book and my biggest frustration was that some of my favorite stories in it never got to be whole books (Though most did!). 'Daughter' and 'Dull Drums' gave the barest outlines of a very interesting society and I would have loved seeing it fleshed out more, but that never happened.
I enjoyed most of the stories in the book and my biggest frustration was that some of my favorite stories in it never got to be whole books (Though most did!). 'Daughter' and 'Dull Drums' gave the barest outlines of a very interesting society and I would have loved seeing it fleshed out more, but that never happened.
September 24, 2022
While I didn't get along with most of the stories in this collection that were set in the near future/the time of writing (I like McCaffrey's fantastical worlds far more than the almost real ones) it included a short Pern story about a boy Impressing a dragon and a sequel to The Ship Who Sang so I'm considering this a win on the whole.
A lot of these were romance stories, so be warned if you're not a fan of the way McCaffrey writes relationships – straight or gay, as one story (Changeling) is about a woman being a surrogate for a gay man who's the centre of her polyamorous relationship.
I especially enjoyed the little blurbs she provided that explained each one's provenance – getting a little bit of author insight is always interesting, and it's much harder to find those tidbits now a lot of older forums have closed down.
A lot of these were romance stories, so be warned if you're not a fan of the way McCaffrey writes relationships – straight or gay, as one story (Changeling) is about a woman being a surrogate for a gay man who's the centre of her polyamorous relationship.
I especially enjoyed the little blurbs she provided that explained each one's provenance – getting a little bit of author insight is always interesting, and it's much harder to find those tidbits now a lot of older forums have closed down.
August 21, 2012
Man, I am utterly incapable of being objective about Anne McCaffrey. I read her work at an impressionable age, and now it's just comfort reading to me. Do some of the stories feature outdated views about gender? Yes! Does the 70s soft-core porn story have strong overtones of rape-but-she-secretly-wanted-it? It sure does! Some of the stories are better than others, I guess is what I'm saying, but I love them all. Can't help it.
There's a very wide range of stories in here, and I suspect that individual mileage varies a great deal. I love the Pern stories and the ones about psi talents. And the Rowan! I love the Rowan! Like I said, totally incapable of objectivity.
(This was a re-read. I have no idea when I originally read these the first time around. High school, probably.)
There's a very wide range of stories in here, and I suspect that individual mileage varies a great deal. I love the Pern stories and the ones about psi talents. And the Rowan! I love the Rowan! Like I said, totally incapable of objectivity.
(This was a re-read. I have no idea when I originally read these the first time around. High school, probably.)
April 30, 2019
Who was the Ship Who Sang? Ever wonder who could be a Dragonrider of Pern? This is a collection of Anne McCaffery short stories. A number of them take place in the various universes of McCaffery’s well-known books. This makes it a perfect “get to know you” for those not familiar with her work. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the full length books- these stories will give you a taste for those settings and her writing style. Fair warning: these are old stories and some contain attitudes toward women than may be jarring for you reading them in the present. My advice: Read them with an understanding that they were written in different cultural times - it’s no different than reading old detective novels.
April 9, 2015
I feel weird about not loving this, since Anne Mccaffrey is usually one of my favourite authors. Some of the stories where very good; a few where too confusing and strange to form an opinion about; and far too many where so horrifically sexist that I had to do a double take to see if I had really just read what I thought I had. There is a certain amount of sexism (or racism) in fiction that I'm willing to attribute to "that was the era it was written", but this went far beyond the worst that I expected from 60-70s, and a female author at that. I have never noticed this from her books before, and hope that future reading shows this one collection of early works to be the anomaly.
August 8, 2017
Some of these stories are absolutely fascinating and others I had trouble understanding parts. Mostly, Ms. McCaffrey does a wonderful job with imaginative subjects. Four of the fourteen stories have to do with themes she has developed in other books. There is one dragonrider story, one Ship Who Sang story, and two Rowan stories. The other stories came out of her fertile imagination and deal with subjects such as a water world where whales are "milked", people with "Talent" such as kinesis, telepathy, etc, and other even odder subjects. My favorite story is The Great Canine Chorus; my least favorite Apple.
August 18, 2017
In my opinion, "The Smallest Dragonboy" was the best short story in this collection but, then again I'm more into Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" series than anything else she wrote. Though I skipped the last story, because she mentioned that if the reader hasn't read "The Ship Who Sang" they should at least read that book first so that the short story would make sense. All the rest of the stories made sense on their own, considering I've never read "The Rowan" series, I found the two stories about it every intriguing though a bit confusing at times.
April 19, 2020
Old Fashioned and Great
These early stories of the author remind us of a different time. The stories seem to be from another era, a time before the Coronavirus p, before #Metoo.
The people in the stories are normal people, some good, some bad: all human. Many are trying to do the right thing but every story does not have a happy ending.
If you like the Pern dragon riders, you will enjoy this grouping.
These early stories of the author remind us of a different time. The stories seem to be from another era, a time before the Coronavirus p, before #Metoo.
The people in the stories are normal people, some good, some bad: all human. Many are trying to do the right thing but every story does not have a happy ending.
If you like the Pern dragon riders, you will enjoy this grouping.
February 10, 2017
Collection of short stories. Some of the stories are 5 star, some 4 star, most of the rest are "read once is enough". I did not like the proper Santa Claus one. I had been searching for an ebook of The Rowan novel for some time, so was very happy to see the original shorter version included here, as well as Honeymoon which continues the Helva and Naill story from The Ship Who Sang.
May 1, 2020
My first Anne McCaffrey
Back in 1979 I picked up this paperback and inside it said I assume you've read one of my books or you wouldn't read this.
I read this and became an intense fan! I gave a lot of my paper back books to a library sale. I could not part with my McCaffrey books.
Read them all so you can become friends with her characters!
Back in 1979 I picked up this paperback and inside it said I assume you've read one of my books or you wouldn't read this.
I read this and became an intense fan! I gave a lot of my paper back books to a library sale. I could not part with my McCaffrey books.
Read them all so you can become friends with her characters!
May 3, 2020
A book of the early short stories including ones from my favourite series - Dragons of Pern, The Ship who sang and the Raven family.
It was great to read these, and the others in the book which show the great imagination that Anne McCaffrey had - wonderful
It was great to read these, and the others in the book which show the great imagination that Anne McCaffrey had - wonderful
December 2, 2014
I'm still too annoyed by the unbalanced gender roles to notice anything else.
October 9, 2012
Once I started reading Anne McCaffrey, I tried to read everything she ever wrote.
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