Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Eos (1998), Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages
Description
"Something's Alive In There!" She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free. But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper" -- a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own. . .… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jshillingford
I enjoyed this book much more when it was released (and I was younger). Acorna is an orphan from a race of people who look like unicorns. Human space farers rescue and adopt her. This is the first in a series about her adventures and that of her children.
Unfortunately, this is really a young adult
Unfortunately, this is really a young adult
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series and doesn't offer as much for adults as McCaffrey's other work. Subsequent volumes are less, and less interesting. Recommended for the younger crowd, but adults may want to find something else. Show Less
LibraryThing member willowcove
Not one of McCaffrey's better series. This first volume though was pretty good.
LibraryThing member senbei
I was in some ways impressed and tickled by Acorna, and in other ways unimpressed and chagrined. Being an avid reader of Anne McCaffrey since I was in junior high school, there are many traits that I’ve come to enjoy in her writing: tying mythical beasts and the paranormal to modern and future
Although I now feel that I am older and wiser in regards to romantic settings (and McCaffrey’s stance on homosexuality being little more than effrontery to me), I still find her universes complex and interesting. The Talent/Pegasus series has always been a favorite of mine and I am constantly rereading Damia and To Ride Pegasus for their science fiction/romance blend. In Acorna’s case, we have a book that is ostensibly young adult literature, set in the far future, while incorporating elements of the unicorn mythos. Since I’ve never taken the time to read up on unicorns from a mythological perspective, I feel as if I have earned an insight into their makeup that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Additionally, a great many science fiction and science non-fiction made up a tremendous part of this story and it was all composed and inserted well and aptly.
However, one could argue the dynamics of Acorna stop there. The plot is, to say the least, confusing. If the reader is to take the three miners as the story’s protagonists, the book should have ended when they reached Kezdet. I had actually been under the mistaken assumption that Acorna was going to feature… oh I don’t know, the character named Acorna? Instead, so many characters are introduced, their stories overlapping well, that one quickly loses sight of just who and what Acorna really is. One reads Dragonsong because they identify with and become empathic to its protagonist. One reads Damia because of her vivacious personality. Why is it then, that a book just called Acorna, doesn’t feature really any personal growth for the character. It is fitting that this book brings us from her infancy into her young adulthood with nary a stop along the way, because that is exactly how I feel her character was developed through out. I felt as if I was reading an abridgement of her story. I kept holding out hope for the text to become feminist or at least sympathetic to Acorna and her plight. I guess that would have required her to have a plight.
I am really upset that I didn’t enjoy Acorna more. I have recently acquired the other books in her series, and I’m quite sure they introduce some interesting characters and funny scenarios, but… I don’t know if I’ll be able to muster up the will to read them. The question of whether or not the books begin to actually center on Acorna and who and what is unsettles me because I’m afraid I’ll never find out. I have to question the wisdom of having a female character-driven series begin with an episode-driven, masculine trio. What sense I do get from Acorna is that she has little regard for social niceties, a traint I do find appealing. Yet, I am also stymied by her utter lack of interest in the opposite sex (no doubt this is due to McCaffrey/Ball’s wish to make her a “late bloomer” as the story closes on her being all of three years old). As McCaffrey has rarely used homosexuality in her books, I find it highly unlikely that she would choose to make Acorna one (although I will look for fanfics to that end). Instead, I see Acorna becoming like Nimisha—a soul searching for something she knows not what and is willing to settle for the mundane and take on stereotypical female maternity roles in anti-feminist fable. Given that side characters have already recognized Acorna as being motherly, I have to wonder if Acorna will ever morph into a Lessa-like character that truly controls the fate of the story. I do not attempt to posit that motherly characters are anti-feminist or even that they don’t make good protagonist: I merely wonder if Acorna does.
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settings, abused and neglected children’s retribution against a world that would not have them (a facet of literature that I later came to hate with the mediocrity of Harry Potter), and her talent to develop characters into romantic chess pieces. Although I now feel that I am older and wiser in regards to romantic settings (and McCaffrey’s stance on homosexuality being little more than effrontery to me), I still find her universes complex and interesting. The Talent/Pegasus series has always been a favorite of mine and I am constantly rereading Damia and To Ride Pegasus for their science fiction/romance blend. In Acorna’s case, we have a book that is ostensibly young adult literature, set in the far future, while incorporating elements of the unicorn mythos. Since I’ve never taken the time to read up on unicorns from a mythological perspective, I feel as if I have earned an insight into their makeup that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Additionally, a great many science fiction and science non-fiction made up a tremendous part of this story and it was all composed and inserted well and aptly.
However, one could argue the dynamics of Acorna stop there. The plot is, to say the least, confusing. If the reader is to take the three miners as the story’s protagonists, the book should have ended when they reached Kezdet. I had actually been under the mistaken assumption that Acorna was going to feature… oh I don’t know, the character named Acorna? Instead, so many characters are introduced, their stories overlapping well, that one quickly loses sight of just who and what Acorna really is. One reads Dragonsong because they identify with and become empathic to its protagonist. One reads Damia because of her vivacious personality. Why is it then, that a book just called Acorna, doesn’t feature really any personal growth for the character. It is fitting that this book brings us from her infancy into her young adulthood with nary a stop along the way, because that is exactly how I feel her character was developed through out. I felt as if I was reading an abridgement of her story. I kept holding out hope for the text to become feminist or at least sympathetic to Acorna and her plight. I guess that would have required her to have a plight.
I am really upset that I didn’t enjoy Acorna more. I have recently acquired the other books in her series, and I’m quite sure they introduce some interesting characters and funny scenarios, but… I don’t know if I’ll be able to muster up the will to read them. The question of whether or not the books begin to actually center on Acorna and who and what is unsettles me because I’m afraid I’ll never find out. I have to question the wisdom of having a female character-driven series begin with an episode-driven, masculine trio. What sense I do get from Acorna is that she has little regard for social niceties, a traint I do find appealing. Yet, I am also stymied by her utter lack of interest in the opposite sex (no doubt this is due to McCaffrey/Ball’s wish to make her a “late bloomer” as the story closes on her being all of three years old). As McCaffrey has rarely used homosexuality in her books, I find it highly unlikely that she would choose to make Acorna one (although I will look for fanfics to that end). Instead, I see Acorna becoming like Nimisha—a soul searching for something she knows not what and is willing to settle for the mundane and take on stereotypical female maternity roles in anti-feminist fable. Given that side characters have already recognized Acorna as being motherly, I have to wonder if Acorna will ever morph into a Lessa-like character that truly controls the fate of the story. I do not attempt to posit that motherly characters are anti-feminist or even that they don’t make good protagonist: I merely wonder if Acorna does.
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LibraryThing member zjakkelien
A nice and uncomplicated SF novel. Typical Anne McCaffrey with a captivating story about the only unicorn girl among humans who helps fight child labor on the planet Kezdet.
LibraryThing member BrynDahlquis
Honestly, it's a fairly enjoyable read.
But there are a lot of weird things with it, mostly having to do with the characters. Hafiz goes from a villainous scumbag to a swashbuckling hero (well, sort of). And I love him as a good guy, but his turnaround is a little unexpected and hard to believe.
The Piper is not as impressive as he should be. He just doesn't live up to his reputation, honestly.
And the whole plot... is just very hard to take seriously.
Of course, the heroine is an alien unicorn girl.
Who, unfortunately, isn't quite as awesome as I wish.
Nevertheless, I will keep reading the series.
But there are a lot of weird things with it, mostly having to do with the characters. Hafiz goes from a villainous scumbag to a swashbuckling hero (well, sort of). And I love him as a good guy, but his turnaround is a little unexpected and hard to believe.
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Likewise, the various romances throughout the story seem very forced, obvious, and stereotypically expected.The Piper is not as impressive as he should be. He just doesn't live up to his reputation, honestly.
And the whole plot... is just very hard to take seriously.
Of course, the heroine is an alien unicorn girl.
Who, unfortunately, isn't quite as awesome as I wish.
Nevertheless, I will keep reading the series.
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LibraryThing member BellaFoxx
Recently I watched a review for “The Last Unicorn”, it was based on a book, however when I went looking for the book I couldn’t find it. I found this book however. Having read all of the “Dragonriders of Pern” series by Anne McCaffrey I decided to give this series a try.
This was an
The story starts with 3 space miners finding a floating escape pod and inside it is a little girl, human-like, but not human. Before they can back to their planet they take care of her, they become her ‘uncles’ and as such decide to keep her and raise her as their own. They discover she has some special abilities. Upon returning to their planet they find things have changed, this leads to the first encounter with ‘evil’ and they end up on the run and on a planet Kezdet, which uses child slave labor.
What follows is Acorna trying to free the children and acting impulsively, which disrupts the carefully laid plans already in place to save the children.
This could almost be considered a young adult book, but there is some violence and adult situations in it.
This was an
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enjoyable book. It seemed to lack somewhat in characterization and plot. My memories of Dragonriders are a little fuzzy as it was several years ago I read them, but it seems they were much better written. These books boil down to good vs evil. The good being Acorna and her friends, the evil practically everyone else. I say practically everyone because not everyone is evil, but it seems that everyone who is not a friend of Acorna, if they are not evil, they end up becoming her friends.The story starts with 3 space miners finding a floating escape pod and inside it is a little girl, human-like, but not human. Before they can back to their planet they take care of her, they become her ‘uncles’ and as such decide to keep her and raise her as their own. They discover she has some special abilities. Upon returning to their planet they find things have changed, this leads to the first encounter with ‘evil’ and they end up on the run and on a planet Kezdet, which uses child slave labor.
What follows is Acorna trying to free the children and acting impulsively, which disrupts the carefully laid plans already in place to save the children.
This could almost be considered a young adult book, but there is some violence and adult situations in it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member zjakkelien
A nice and uncomplicated SF novel. Typical Anne McCaffrey with a captivating story about the only unicorn girl among humans who helps fight child labor on the planet Kezdet.
Subjects
Original publication date
1997
Physical description
416 p.; 6.88 inches
ISBN
0061057894 / 9780061057892