Pegasus in Flight [Hardcover]

Anne McCaffrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1990

As director of the Jerhattan Parapsychic Center, telepath Rhyssa Owen coordinated the job assignments for psychically gifted Talents. And though she had her hands full dealing with the unreasonable demand for kinetics to work on the space platform that would be humankind's stepping-stone to the stars, she was always ready to welcome new Talents to the Center.

Feisty and streetwise, twelve-year-old Tirla used her extraordinary knack for languages to eke out a living in the Linear developments, where the poor struggled to make ends meet and children were conscripted or sold into menial work programs. Young Peter, paralyzed in a freak accident, hoped someday to get into space where zero gravity would enable him to function more easily. Both desperately needed help only other Talents could provide.

With the appearance in her life of one extraordinary man with no measurable Talent at all, Rhyssa suddenly found herself questioning everything she thought she knew about her people. And when two Talented children were discovered to have some very unusual -- and unexpected -- abilities, she realized that she would have to reassess the potential of all Talentkind...


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McCaffrey continues to develop her future world in which psionic Talents, once feared and despised, are by now necessary to the comfort and conduct of society. Following the events in To Ride, Pegasus and set a generation or so before The Rowan , this era finds mankind not yet having settled planets outside the solar system. Even with officially mandated birth control, the world teems with too many people. Essential to the construction of a space station being built to serve as springboard to the stars are the services of the Talents--particularly the telekinetics, who can move objects by mental power. Telepath Rhyssa Owen, a top official of the Center for Parapsychic Talents, must contend with the station's construction manager, who treats Talents brutally and otherwise discourages them from working for her. Meanwhile two youngsters are found to be unusually Talented: Peter Reidinger overcomes paralysis to develop the first gestalt with electrical generators (this becomes the basis for future space travel), while Tirlap, an illegal child from the vertical slums, facilitates communication among a wide variety of cultures. Meanwhile, kidnappers prey on children for pederastic pursuits and for spare parts. McCaffrey's world of the Talented is as vivid as that of Pern and its dragons. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- This book is set shortly after To Ride Pegasus (Ballantine, 1986) and centuries before The Rowan (Putnam, 1990). Rhyssa Owen, telepathic granddaughter of Daffyd op Owen, is now director of the Center for Parapsychic Talents, a nonprofit organization that works for the betterment of humanity by predicting disasters, controlling crime, locating missing persons or things , and manipulating material , from heavy equipment to the microscopic. The Center becomes involved with a ruthless head of construction who uses and abuses these talents in the dangerous task of building the first space platform. Tirla, 12, and adolescent Peter become involved in the growing crisis. McCaffrey continues her fascinating parapsychic chronicle in this fast-paced, easy read, and readers are sure to care about her multidimensional, believable characters.
-John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st edition (October 31, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345368967
• ISBN-13: 978-0345368966
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #746,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A cinemagraphic style of writing - hard to put down, April 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (London England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pegasus in Flight (Talent, Bk. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my first encounter with the work of Anne McAffery and initailly I found the plot confusing and hard to follow - particularly as the environment, characters and even the language were described but not explained. After a short while however, the pieces began to fit together and the world of the Talants started to take shape so that by the end of chapter 2 I was spellbound, caught up in the high tension and pacy plot. For me reading the book was like watching a movie. I put this down to the effective use of 3 writing techniques. First the extensive use of dialogue - either in the form of thought or words gave the impression that I was observing rather than being told throught narrative what was going on between the characters. Second the use of "sets" which drew largely on the familiar but with plausible futuristic twists enabled the writer to create a new world without the need to give lengthy descriptions. Lastly the use of short chapters which cut into each other like scenes, heightened the whole cinema feel to this book, particularly toward the end of the book when the plot began to move more quickly towards its final climax. I will definately read more of her works.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy successor to To Ride Pegasus, July 19, 2001

By 

"byrkit" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pegasus in Flight (Talent, Bk. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This one is even better than the first Pagasus book - tighter writing, characters drawn with more assurance, the implications of life in a society where some have Talents more carefully explored.

DON'T read this book first. They must be read in order to get the full impact of McCaffrey's rare ability to create a consistant and delightful premise, then work out all the implications logically.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The stuff of legends, September 16, 2000

By 

Bm Levitan "brucelevitan" (Glossop, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pegasus in Flight (Talent, Bk. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This, the second book in the Pegasus series, which predates (in timeline) the Rowan and its successors, is a good book an many levels. As pure, nail-biting adventure it rates highly in any genre. Add Anne McCaffrey's unique blend of the personal elements and the SF/Fantasy which she does so well and you get a real winner. It is, as the other reviewers here point out, about the "early history" of the Talented (i.e. people with telekinetic, telepathic and other realted abilities). I must say I found the first book in the series a little disappointing - I think because it was rather disjointed. However this one is much better and really whets one's appetite for more. Pegaus in Space comes next...