Crystal Line [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne McCaffrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1993

"A treat for long-time McCaffrey fans, a good read and a satisfying look at one of the most haunting facets of the crystal singers' profession."
LOCUS
When Killashandra Ree joined the mysterious Heptite Guild, she knew that she would be forever changed. Crystal singing brought ecstasy and pain, near-eternal life...and gradual loss of memory. What she hadn't counted on was the loneliness she felt when her heart still remembered what her mind had forgotten. Fortunately, someone still cared enough to try to salvage what was left of Killashandra's mind. But she would have to learn to open herself--to another person, and to all her unpleasant memories.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McCaffrey again explores the effects of institutionalized memory loss on a culture in the third volume of a series that began with Crystal Singer . Killashandra Ree, one of the rare individuals with perfect pitch who can find and cut the Ballybran crystals on which much of the galaxy's economy is based, turns away from her lover and partner Lars Dahl when he becomes head of the Heptite Guild and, to her discomfort, moves to bring some order into the workings of the organization that controls the crystal trade. In order to work with crystal one must adapt to a symbiotic organism that heals humans rapidly and prolongs life; as a side effect, those who handle crystal lose their memories, forgetting the locations of good mining sites as well as the identities of their friends and lovers. While Lars undertakes various projects to overcome this disability, Killashandra has an off-planet fling. Eventually she reconciles herself to change, finding possible salvation for them all. As lacking in coherence as a crystal singer's life and bereft of interesting characters, this episodic McCaffrey effort is a major disappointment.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

"A treat for long-time McCaffrey fans, a good read and a satisfying look at one of the most haunting facets of the crystal singers' profession."
LOCUS
When Killashandra Ree joined the mysterious Heptite Guild, she knew that she would be forever changed. Crystal singing brought ecstasy and pain, near-eternal life...and gradual loss of memory. What she hadn't counted on was the loneliness she felt when her heart still remembered what her mind had forgotten. Fortunately, someone still cared enough to try to salvage what was left of Killashandra's mind. But she would have to learn to open herself--to another person, and to all her unpleasant memories.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (March 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345384911
• ISBN-13: 978-0345384911
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > McCaffrey, Anne

More About the Author

Anne McCaffrey, the Hugo Award-winning author of the bestselling Dragonriders of Pern® novels, is one of science fiction's most popular authors. With Elizabeth Ann Scarborough she co-authored Changelings and Maelstrom, Books One and Two of The Twins of Petaybee. McCaffrey lives in a house of her own design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Sci-Fi, there is intelligent life over 40, August 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Crystal Line (Mass Market Paperback)

I read McCaffrey when I want to be comforted by the presence of basically decent people. The plots don't matter to me much and the attempts at true sci-fi technology are something to skipped over as quickly as possible (eg. the workings of a Hive ship.) For that reason, I have also enjoyed McCaffrey's non-Sci-fi books, in particular "A Stitch in Snow".

The Crystal Singer series is my favorite sci-fi trilogy and Crystal Line is my favorite of the three books. In Crystal Singer, we have the usual angry and mis-treated teenager who strikes out on her own and is attracted to the domineering macho types. In Killashandra, we have a woman who has matured enough to change her taste in men. But in Crystal Line we have one of the very few "middle-aged" (I know she's actually several hundred years old according to the plot) heroines in sci-fi. Her decisions about what she will do with her life, and who she will do it with, are long over. But she still has decisions to make about how she will deal with both the choices that she has made and the things that life has done to her.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the best book in the trilogy, October 24, 1998

By 

R. Sperling - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Line (Mass Market Paperback)

I was less than inspired by the first two Crystal Singer books. Killashandra was a fun heroine, but not too appealing, and her adventures were somewhat...silly. However, I hate leaving loose ends, so I started reading "Crystal Line"...and was quite pleasantly surprised! Oh, the adventures here are still rather irrelevant. Killa and Lars could have been doing anything, that's not really the point. The point is, in THIS book, the profession of Crystal Singing, the joys and triumphs it brings and the hazards of the job are finally explored, and it's...haunting. Lars is sweet, though he still doesn't do much for me. Killa, however, finally stops being the diva and faces the past she struggled for so long to suppress and has to find what her heart is searching for. Through the course of the book, several loose ends are tied up (it's recommended that the reader not wait too long between reading "Crystal Singer" and "Crystal Line"), and the ending is...perfect.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Words McCaffrey is not allowed to use anymore:, January 4, 2007

By 

T.F. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Line (Mass Market Paperback)

"Yarran beer"
"good brew"
"Jewel Junk"
"Lanzecki"

Though I greatly enjoyed Crystal Singer, and thought Killashandra, though flawed and not up to the quality of Crystal Singer, was a good enough read, though the bodice-ripper aspects of the romance were irritating. But Crystal Line promises a lot and delivers little. The characters are getting wearisome, Killashandra's memory loss is irritating and becomes a very tiresome and overused plot device, and McCaffrey falls into the trap so many series writers do - of using the same phrases and references again and again, ad nauseam, to the point where the reader wonders if the author is simply cutting and pasting lines and phrases from the previous two books. How many times must these characters drink Yarran beer in these books and act as if each and every sip is a great revelation of a "good brew"? Let them discover something else to drink, for heaven's sake! It becomes embarrassing.

For fans of the Crystal Singer series, this is a fairly satisfying ending, but a lot of red pencil wielding on the part of a good editor who was aware of how often McCaffrey was re-using tired old phrases in a misguided attempt to tie the three books together would have been a very good idea.

But then, this is the author who has used the word "dragon" in titles to the point where it's painful and gives rise to continuous jokes about the possible risque titles for the next "Dragon-whatever" book. Repetition obviously isn't a problem for her, or her devoted fan following.