Nimisha's Ship

by Anne McCaffrey

Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF McCaffrey

Publication

Corgi Adult (1999), Paperback, 447 pages

Description

On Vega III, where the jaded inhabitants pursue lives of malicious intrigue and decadent pleasure, Lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense has always been an anomaly. Disdainful of the frivolity of her fellows, she prefers the exciting and challenging world of her father, Lord Tionel, owner and principal starship designer of the famous Rondymense shipyards. Precociously gifted, Nimisha becomes Lord Tionel's secret assistant - and, in the aftermath of a shocking tragedy, his chosen successor at the helm of the shipyards. But supplanting her father's designated body-heir, the callow Lord Vestrin, is a slight that Vestrin and his mother, Lady Vescuya, will not easily forget. Or forgive. Preoccupied with carrying on her father's ambitious plans for the Mark 5, an experimental long-distance cruiser, Nimisha dangerously disregards Vestrin's animosity - until a solo test flight of the Mark 5 goes horribly awry, marooning Nimisha light-years from home on a planet as deadly as it is beautiful. Now, Vestrin and Vescuya are given the chance they've been waiting for: to reclaim the shipyards. . . by any means necessary. Only Nimisha's child, Cuiva, a girl every bit as ingenious as her mother - stands in their way. But for how long? For just when her daughter needs her most, Nimisha is unable to help - and in a precarious situation herself. But Nimisha has never given up in her life - and she's not about to start now . . .… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member juniperSun

Nimisha doesn't follow the social expectations for young women of her elevated social status. She's interested in engineering and good at it, developing a faster space ship. While on a test run she is sucked in by a wormhole and spat out in an unknown sector of the universe.
McCaffrey speeds thru

the first 30 years of Nimisha's life, then double times us thru the adventure. I can't figure out why I remembered her as a great author--have I matured that much, or has her writing become more rote? Maybe teens would enjoy this, but I wouldn't recommend it to any I know because of the old-fashioned roles women have. Yes, they might be engineers and astrophysicists, but their interactions with men show nothing has changed.

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LibraryThing member shrew

This was an interesting read, and I was eager to finish it. However, I did find that it was a bit too easy on the characters at times. They had a long-distance time-lag, but they lived longer and could go into cold sleep. Everyone was conveniently beautiful; bad guys were conveniently stupid.

Everyone paired up, because that was the thing to do, and no hard feelings, etc. Despite these naggings, I did find McCaffrey's universe very intriguing, as I've come to expect from her work.

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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

It's odd - usually I really dislike books that spend ages getting to the real story. But this one - it starts with Nimisha as a little girl, spends about a quarter of the book with her growing up, learning to design and build complex machines, developing her skills and habits, then (after she's had

a child), gets on to the 'real' adventure, and makes all of it interesting. The largest part of the book is when Nimisha, alone in her own ship, falls through an unexpected wormhole and ends up in a distant part of the galaxy; meets survivors and (previously) spacefaring aliens, finds a permanent partner and a task that will truly occupy the rest of her life. Her daughter Cuiva is the only thing she misses from before, and even that is eventually remedied. Happily ever after. Still, even the set-up portion of the story is interesting in its own right. Nimisha as a child, her mother, her father, her bodyguard/best friend; more information on the First Families universe (this is in the same universe as The Coelura - Nimisha mentions them once); and the fact that the relationships set up in the first part of the story become rather important in the latter part make the setup enjoyable to read and not merely an appendage to the 'real' story. A good book.

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LibraryThing member Sorrel

Nimisha's Ship (by Anne McCaffery) is a book that I enjoy despite the fact that it is soft SF that sometimes gets its science wrong. A highly born female decides to be an engineer; builds a spaceship; gets sucked through a wormhole (through no fault of her own); and colonises a new planet. It’s a

light, pleasant read with a happy ending.

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LibraryThing member MissJessie

Set in the future when space travel is commonplace, Nimisha's Ship is a light and enjoyable scifi book.

Nimisha is the Body Heir of a powerful woman who has the courage and ability to separate herself from what is expected of one of her class and birth.

She shows talent for designing space ships and

is able to have the life she wishes, doing so.

On a trial run shakedown cruise of her latest design, she is lost in space. The book deals with how she copes with her new, alternate lifestyle.

This book is pleasant, nonviolent, very very minimal sexual references that are necessary for plot development (definitely low PG) that would offend only the very strictest Evangelical families. It is a good portrayal of a strong self sufficient but not obnoxious woman.

I recommend it highly for ya's over 10-12 depending upon maturity and also for adults who like a good, fast moving, light read.

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