The City Who Fought (Brainship) [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne McCaffrey (Author), S.M. Stirling (Author)

Book Description

Series: Brainship | Publication Date: April 1, 1994

Simeon was the "brain" running a peaceful space station--but when the invaders arrived, his only hope of protecting his crew was to become "the city who fought". Previous titles in this bestselling series include "The Ship Who Searched, The Ship Who Won", and "PartnerShip".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This space adventure further develops McCaffrey's vivid future universe of diversified cultures, technological wonders and twisted, sometimes corrupt, politics. Space Station SSS-900C, a profitable but out-of-the-way trading and mining center, is attacked by Kolnari, pirates from a planet of sociopathic exiles. While awaiting the arrival of the Central Worlds' Navy, the inhabitants play for time with a major deception planned by Simeon, the shellperson operating the station, whose hobby is the study of early warfare, including guerrilla tactics. (Shellpeople, damaged while young by accident or birth defect and encased in life-support systems, are wired into and control sophisticated technology such as space stations, cities and spaceships, while maintaining their own personalities and emotions.) Central to the scheme is obedience to all the Kolnari's demands while keeping secret the fact of Simeon's existence, since if the Kolnari gained control of the technically sophisticated shellperson they would have an intolerable advantage. As Simeon clandestinely builds his trap for the Kolnari, he wistfully watches and encourages a love affair between Channa Hap, the woman he loves and cannot have, and a noble refugee. McCaffrey (The Dragonriders of Pern series, The Ship Who Sang ) and Stirling (the Draka series) create vivid heroes and villains in a complex and deadly game.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Baen (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067187599X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671875992
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #830,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite B&B book, January 8, 2000

By 

Kali (Lancre, Discworld) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The City Who Fought (Brainship) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McCaffrey's characters fight real war Stirling-style, July 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The City Who Fought (Brainship) (Mass Market Paperback)

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_.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adult installment in the Brainship series, August 4, 2008

By 

Jeanne Tassotto (Trapped in the Midwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The City Who Fought (Brainship) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.