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A review by shuly
The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey
2.0
This was my first Anne McCaffrey and all I can saw is: goddammit Jeff!!! A number of people encouraged me not to pick this up as my first attempt of a book by her and now I can definitely see why!
The world she's building with this series is really unique, which is what convinced me to go ahead and pick it up. In The Rowan, shipping and telecommunications across the worlds of the Nine Star League is handled by psychic Talents of the Federal Telepaths and Teleporters (FT&T). This creates an interesting and unique government structure—one of the characters describes FT&T as more of a shipping service than military government. I love the idea of the USPS managing an inter-galactic government. It's a really creative idea, dismissing the problems of interstellar space travel with psychics, which facilitates this wonderful space opera!
The book is broken up into four parts and the first one was really strong to me. At the beginning, a freak mudslide destroys a whole mining town, killing everyone but one 3-year old girl, the Rowan. I felt like McCaffrey was really trying to explain her views on raising children, especially those who have survived trauma. There were also some delightfully '90s moments, like when she gets into a huge fight with another girl because she psychically makes herself tan faster on a beach trip.
But then things go completely off the rails as soon as Jeff shows up. I was totally entranced by the portrait she was painting of the coming of age of the titular character and the world she was building, but Jeff sucks all the energy out of the plot. And, seriously, in a world with characters named Lusena, Siglen, or Isthia, you picked the name Jeff for your mysterious love interest?! The rest of the book is about putting her life aside to take care of Jeff, make sure he eats, and be pregnant with his baby. Don't get me wrong, I love domesticity in literature and I think women should be empowered to choose whatever path they want in life, but there are literally multiple alien invasions (including what I think I'm supposed to believe was their first contact with alien life?!) that take all of 15 pages of the narrative, while the main focus is this inexplicable life-changing infatuation she has with the blandest love interest I've ever read.
That being said? I'm definitely going to pick up some more of Anne McCaffrey's work, including other books in this world. As irritating as this romance is, there were many elements that felt successful. I enjoyed the attention to domesticity and surviving trauma (even if it didn't all work for me) and her depiction of women, their lives, and motivations felt very ahead of her time. In the end no matter how many elements seemed like they were taking off, Jeff managed to bungle it all. I couldn't justify giving it 3 stars because, honestly, I didn't really enjoy reading this and had it been even slightly longer I would have DNF'd.
The world she's building with this series is really unique, which is what convinced me to go ahead and pick it up. In The Rowan, shipping and telecommunications across the worlds of the Nine Star League is handled by psychic Talents of the Federal Telepaths and Teleporters (FT&T). This creates an interesting and unique government structure—one of the characters describes FT&T as more of a shipping service than military government. I love the idea of the USPS managing an inter-galactic government. It's a really creative idea, dismissing the problems of interstellar space travel with psychics, which facilitates this wonderful space opera!
The book is broken up into four parts and the first one was really strong to me. At the beginning, a freak mudslide destroys a whole mining town, killing everyone but one 3-year old girl, the Rowan. I felt like McCaffrey was really trying to explain her views on raising children, especially those who have survived trauma. There were also some delightfully '90s moments, like when she gets into a huge fight with another girl because she psychically makes herself tan faster on a beach trip.
But then things go completely off the rails as soon as Jeff shows up. I was totally entranced by the portrait she was painting of the coming of age of the titular character and the world she was building, but Jeff sucks all the energy out of the plot. And, seriously, in a world with characters named Lusena, Siglen, or Isthia, you picked the name Jeff for your mysterious love interest?! The rest of the book is about putting her life aside to take care of Jeff, make sure he eats, and be pregnant with his baby. Don't get me wrong, I love domesticity in literature and I think women should be empowered to choose whatever path they want in life, but there are literally multiple alien invasions (including what I think I'm supposed to believe was their first contact with alien life?!) that take all of 15 pages of the narrative, while the main focus is this inexplicable life-changing infatuation she has with the blandest love interest I've ever read.
That being said? I'm definitely going to pick up some more of Anne McCaffrey's work, including other books in this world. As irritating as this romance is, there were many elements that felt successful. I enjoyed the attention to domesticity and surviving trauma (even if it didn't all work for me) and her depiction of women, their lives, and motivations felt very ahead of her time. In the end no matter how many elements seemed like they were taking off, Jeff managed to bungle it all. I couldn't justify giving it 3 stars because, honestly, I didn't really enjoy reading this and had it been even slightly longer I would have DNF'd.