Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner—male or female—to share her exhilirating excapades in space!Her life was to be rich and rewarding . . . resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest … wildest dreams of mere mortals.
Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructable, Helva XH-834 antipitated a sublime immortality.
Then one day she fell in love!
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Enjoyable!
One of my favorite books of all time
Classic science fiction
Classic Anne McCaffery sci-fi. Not to be missed!
I’ve always been a fan of Anne McCaffrey. I read this book when first came out many years ago and enjoyed it very much. It’s action packed and had an interesting story. Then I would have rated it five stars without hesitation.
I find that in this second reading, as my life has more experience, that the premise of the book disturbed me more. Helva is born with club feet and hearing and sight issues. Her parents are given two choices – euthanize her or allow her to become part of a program that lets infants like this be used as “computers.” They retain their human personality, but this society would not accept them in their imperfect human form. Helva gains skills that she might not had she remained in her human shell, but I wonder now if the cost is too high.
Great start to the b and b books
The seminal science fiction book series involving shell people — peole who live in shells who are able to control things like spaceships and space ports. One shell erson, Helva, has a unique ability to sin. The book contains a series of relationships as Heva (the brain) works with various brawns. Wonderfuly written, this is one of McCafferty’s best.
Not to technical but enough to understand the concept.
everything Anne writes is amazing.
I would rate all her books the same way.
Was so great , I started read more of her works. I can not get enough.
Helva’s life has sharp highs & lows, joys & deep sorrows. It’s the first book I read that had a disabled protagonist & it was fascinating to see her adaptations & adjustments to suceed & wildly exceed expectations. It’s not all happy, but it ends well. This is the best of the ‘ship’ books, in my opinion.
I liked it, left me thinking.
I just began rereading Anne McCaffrey and I loved this story. SHe is a great writer with very innovative stories.
I love anything McCaffrey wrote but this series is so great and different it captured my imagination and made me feel hopeful that things maybe someday could be better for humans who were born with life altering disabilities. My faith in humanity and in God were reaffirmed.
Terrific
good idea but seriously dated.
This book is a true SF classic.
This book is waiting to be made into a movie. Every scene and dialog seems as if it were composed as the storyboard for a film. It is the first of her books about human/ship amalgams. I thought the book was wonderfully lyrical and quite imaginative.
I don’t believe this author ever wrote a book I didn’t LOVE.