Customer Reviews

The City Who Fought

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

City Who Fought is an amazing book which I really love. The characters are all very real and three-demensional. I found myself so drawn into the story that I forgot about many other things, including my favourite tv show. I stayed up til...bout 2:30 AM reading this book, so that I could find out what happened to Simeon, Joat, Channa, and the rest of them. My favourite character was Simeon, of course, but Joat, Channa, Joseph, Seld, Patsy, Chaundra -- okay, all of them, just about -- are also wonderfully three-demensional. Simeon is my favourite brain -- favourite character -- from any of Anne McCafferey's B&B books. The only problems I found with this book were a) that it was much more militaristic than I like, but I knew that when I began reading it, so I can only blame myself, and b) the Kolnari were a bit..flat, and 2-demensional, not something I personally like in a book, especially for the villians. One thing that I read in another review of this book was that it was not a good book for children, having a lot of sex and violence in it. My opinion on this is: It's not MEANT for children! It's an adults book, and the person who wrote that review should have realized that.

I've always considered Anne McCaffrey a lightweight. She's superb at characterization but she doesn't put her characters through destructive testing. Her favorite plot is the _deux ex machina_.

Not so here. This is NOT a book for children, and not just because of sexual tension between main characters. S.M. Stirling writes very good, very hard-core military fiction in which the bad guys sometimes win and the good guys _suffer_ even if they are lucky enough to survive.

The mix of the two is incredible, better than either on their own. _The City Who Fought_ forces McCaffrey's characters to the next level of courage and heroism, realistically mixing personal concerns and the horrors of war. _And_ they measure up to the challenge in distinctly different ways.

Oh, and see _The Ship Avenged_ by Stirling for the sequel. If you still want more "military McCaffrey", I suggest _Sassinak_.

The Brainship series is set in a far future, when mankind has long out grown Earth and the immediate vicinity and spread to the stars. The bureaucracy of this vast empire known as Central Worlds is run by a few powerful families who have raised nepotism to an art form. Despite the great techological advances Central Worlds enjoys they are still plagued with the age old human problems of greed, corruption, incompetence and graft. They have also not yet managed to prevent or cure all forms of birth defects or injuries either although they have come up with a unique way of helping at least some of the victims. Infants who have catrostrophic birth defects but normal brain function are placed in shells which take over all the functions that their bodies are incapable of. Upon adulthood these shellpersons have a choice of careers available, piloting brainships, running cities, planets or, like Simeon of this story, a space station.

As the story opens Simeon has been running a remote space station servicing various mining colonies located at the fringes of Central Worlds. Simeon is upset because his long time 'brawn', the able bodied partner that each shell person relies on handle those tasks they cannot has finally retired, much to Simeon's displeasure. Central Worlds has managed to find a candidate that meets Simeon's rather extensive list of requirements much to the displeasure of both Simeon and Channa, the brawn in question. The one thing the pair could agree on is that while they were stuck with one another for the short term, they definitely needed the term to be as short as possible. Unknown to them however, events were conspiring to keep them together.

In an even more remote area vicious raiders had laid waste to a long forgotten colony of religious zealots. The original colonists had fled Central Worlds' decadent society with it's many races, machines and other abominations to follow their own beliefs. A small group of colonists has managed to escape from their ravaged world, heading for Central Worlds' protection, unfortunately with the raiders in close pursuit. When they arrive at the nearest outpost, Simeon's unarmed station, it takes the combined forces of Simeon, Channa and an orphaned child to defend the station and it's inhabitants.

Some of the entries in this series are young adult fare and the plot outline of this one could suggest that this one would be as well, however it most definitely is not. There are many scenes and plot themes here that are of an adult nature, including incest, rape, graphic violence and child abuse.

It is a well written, interesting story in this long running series, one that introduces characters that will return in later volumes as well as referring to characters introduced earlier. It would not be absolutely necessary to have read any earlier volumes in this series to enjoy this one. After reading this one most readers will probably be looking for more stories from this series.

S.M. Stirling and Anne McCaffrey mix their unique styles to form this compelling book. While other McCaffrey books are/were family-level entertainment, The City Who Fought is MUCH more of an ADULT book. The sexual tension between Simeon (the "brain" of the spaceship) and Channa Hap (the foxy lady who doesn't like to admit it, also his "brawn") definitely heightens the enjoyability. Add an "intruder" type who tries to muscle in on Simeon, who is "courting" Channa, and you've got everything a good book needs, adventure, a heroine, the aforementioned sexual tension, a "bad" guy. I highly recommend this book

Although I enjoyed this book I was quite shocked initially at the extreme violence and the sex in the book. This was not at all what I expected from an Anne McCaffrey book. Recommended for adults or older teenagers with a warning. I enjoyed Stirling's sequel better than this one.

I really couldn't get into this book. I am a diehard fan of Anne, and I have read 99% of her books. This was the first one that I didn't even finish. I gave it about half the book, and then gave up because of the violence and awkward writing style. In fact, the style itself was nothing like Anne's! I would venture to say that Stirling wrote the majority of this work, and I found his style to be crude at best. Although, if you are into violence, hey this is the book for you! In fact, I bet it would be really good for folks who are into that. Anyway, I found it nothing at all like Anne's books, and I wondered how much of a part she had in the writing. I love the rest of the series though, and give the series a 4 star rating. :)

I rarely have such a severe reaction to a book as I did to this, not even to those by the redoubtable Ms McCaffrey, but this really is a lamentably bad book. Set in the same universe as the Ship Who Sang series, this falls far short of even the worst of those. The plot and characterization are about at the level I would expect from a McCaffrey book - thin to nonexistent. Unfortunately, this book also lacks the redeeming feature of most of her books - it is neither fun nor diverting. I usually read McCaffrey for mind candy, but this book possesses too many flaws (superficiality, racism, homophobia, lack of plot, lack of excitement) to commend itself even for this purpose. Don't bother to read it.

I absolutely love this book! It's a little mature for young audiences, but it's sooo good!

While most Anne McCaffrey fans seem to gravitate towards her Dragons books, I love her brainship books.

If you aren't familiar with the series, start with "The Ship Who Sang" and enjoy the ride! The premise of the series is that infants who have too many physical birth defects to survive, but have intelligence unaffected by their unfortunate births are cherished and grow as "shell persons" they live encapsulated in life support which also connects their brains to a web of databanks, computers, and to spaceships or cities. This makes them superhuman, but still very human.

In this book Simeon, a city-bound shell person, is attacked by hostiles while also breaking his a new partner ("Brawn").

The story is rich in it's supporting characters, villians, children, victims, and heroes! If you've read any of the brainship books, you need to read this one, it is one of the very best.

I've been a McCaffrey fan for over a decade, I've read 98% of her books and the Brain/Brawn books have become my favorites. Joat, Channa and Amos are interesting characters, though I think Simeon steals the show. While there is more violence than most of Ms. McCaffrey's other works, with the exception of the Generation Warriors trilogy, I feel it fits the plot and situation and is not excessive. The comic relief is great and the plot interesting and solid. A must read along with The Ship Who Sang and The Ship Who Searched.