Customer Reviews

Second Wave (The World of Acorna)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Second Wave (2006) is the second SF novel in the Acorna's Children series, following First Warning. In the previous novel, Khorii succeeded in healing plague victims on various planets, moons and ships, but could not heal her parents. She and her friends frustrated and abandoned Marl Kidd, a wannabe pirate and pillager of dead planets. She also decided that the plague was not natural and determined to find and stop the beings who have used it.

In this novel, Khorii is part of the plague cleanup effort, but is resting between missions on Palodura, where the plague had started. Sesseli, the youngest member of the Mana crew, wakes her with a loud scream. She has just seen movement of a grave marker in the makeshift cemetery in the former city square. Convinced that Sesseli is imaging things, the rest of the crew reassures her and Alviiz goes down to check out the graveyard. Unfortunately, Jalonzo the gamer has more colorful ideas and Sesseli spends the rest of the night in bed with Khorii and Khiindi.

Subsequent events make Khorii and others reconsider their scoffing of Sesseli's fears. Several children in the building claim to have seen the ghosts of their relatives. Others start to see such ghosts, including Elviiz the android, who is unlikely to be hallucinating. Still, many comment that the behavior of these ghosts is not consistent with the persons that they resemble.

Marl Kidd breaks out of jail and uses the communications center to call some of his associates. Strange things start to happen while he is there and the child on duty is quite happy to leave him alone with the zooming couches. After contacting a pirate crew, Marl is startled to notice that something dead-looking occupies each of the misbehaving couches. He barely makes it out of the comm center before the couches can catch up with him, but the undead creatures are not stopped by the closed door.

As he hurries to the shuttle port, an unwholesome crew follows behind him. Even though the shuttle pilot comments on his companions, Marl notices nothing unusual until the vessel starts to fall apart around him. The pirates are rather irritated at him when they receive a chewed up shuttle with a dead pilot.

The pirates follow the Mana to Rushima and send Marl down with two of their men to overcome the crew. Marl tries to scare Khorii into cooperation, but people with guns keep interrupting his efforts. The final straw comes with the collapse of the pirate shuttle, which is apparently eaten by ghosts.

Meanwhile, Narhii -- a previously unknown twin of Khorii -- learns that she has family in her future and escapes from the Friends to reunite with her sister. When she appears among the sii-Linyaari, her statements are questioned at first, but everything proves out and she is welcomed into the family. She is given a new name -- Arrinye -- after her father and the nickname of Ariin.

Ariin lacks prior experience with Linyaari or humans, but does know the true identity of Khiindi: Grimalkin the Ancestral Friend. Khiindi is hampered by his inability to shapechange, but has been very protective of Khorii in his own way. At first he tends to avoid Ariin because of her belligerent attitude (he had stolen her egg from Acorna's womb), but finally decides that she would make a good ally.

In this story, Khorii finds herself restricted by her ability to see the plague. Nobody wants to risk her for ordinary duties. Even the pirates want her for this ability. She is really tired of being protected from everything; just being alive always involves some risks. She feels more like a public resource than a living person.

Of course, there are times that she is glad to have someone protective like Elviiz available. Then the roof falls down on Elviiz and he needs more protection than she does. Being the protector of someone else is different from, but no better than, being overprotected. Sometimes nothing works out right.

This young adult novel may not be as complicated as some others -- The Wheel of Time series comes to mind -- but it does portray the potential dangers that surround each of us. Moreover, it raises some good questions about responsibilities and independence.

Highly recommended for McCaffrey & Scarborough fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of adventure, misadventure and perseverance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

It becomes clear that Anne McCaffrey is not doing the writing any more. The names are so convoluted and difficult to remember that one loses any sense of the story line of the original book that began this series. It is a shame that the dialogue no longer has Ms McCaffrey's poise and spirit. If you must continue this series, check it out from the library, do not waste any more of your money.

Khorii is a member of the Linyaari race created from the DNA material of a unicorn sentient species rescued from Old Terra by the Ancestral Friends, a shapeshifting, time traveling space voyaging race. She, like all Linyaari, has a horn that heals her people and humans. Khorii follows in the footsteps of her famous Mother Acorna by discovering a new way to heal an entire planet from a plague that killed billions (see FIRST WARNING).

Now the Linyaari are mopping up as the plague seems to have finally burned itself out; Khorii is in the thick of the operation as she is only one who can see the plague. On planets where the plague has been reported, strange phenomena occur. The ghosts of dead plague victims appear and inorganic objects abruptly implode. Khorii and her newfound twin, who traveled from far back in time to be reunited with her family who never knew she existed, must figure out what is going on before civilization comes to a halt in a very large inhabited sector of the galaxy.

What makes this series special is the reader is thoroughly immersed in the Linyaari culture. SECOND WAVE picks up where FIRST WAVE left off and proves exciting and past-paced though newcomers should start with the previous tale first as references are frequent to the events in that thriller. The heroine, though young, is a feisty fighter willing to do what it takes to save worlds and those who live on them though this time a sense of foreboding that Khorii and readers feel climaxes into a shocking final revelation.

Harriet Klausner

This series just doesn't have the charm that the original Acorna series had. I don't know if it's because we're not discovering as many different worlds and cultures or if it's due to having Khorii as a main character, but there's definitely something missing. However, for fans of the series, this is still enjoyable and worthwhile. It's a fast read and this one does a better job of tying into the latter part of the original series than First Warning did.

This book is a good set-up for what's to come. I think the last book of the series is going to be extremely exciting. Not only is the plague transforming into an unknown entity that even Khorii doesn't seem able to fight, old enemies are coming back (as the summary says).

Khorii is a bit whiny for my taste, but she does what she needs to do. She has some awesome moments in this book, one with a shady trader, and some others with futuristic pirates. Sometimes I really miss the presence of Acorna's adoptive fathers. Instead, Khorii hangs out with kids whose parents were the victims of the plague. It fits into the story line, but I don't think there are any really strong characters in this series, which bothers me a bit.

What I like about this book is that Khorii seems to be coming into her own. Without the help of her parents, she's maturing and learning how to manage by herself. Also, the entire book is suspenseful. You know something really bad is going on, but all the characters seem to pass it off as something odd but not incredibly important. In the end, the begin to figure it out. This is at once frustrating and necessary, because it most definitely kept me turning the pages.

I would recommend this for those who have already read the original Acorna series. If you're just now getting into this series, don't start with Acorna's Children. It's not as good and you won't catch the references made to the previous series.

I'm an avid fan of Anne McCaffrey's but only halfway through this book, I find myself asking why I keep struggling through it. The intent of the book seems to be to find as many plot twists as possible to muddy the waters. The wonderful relationships Anne McCaffrey developed between her many other characters in other series is sadly missing from the whole Acorna book series. The characters all seem one dimensional, and I couldn't care less what happens to them. I find most of the plots (and there are many going on in this book) unbelievable. Too bad I've already bought the 3rd book in this series already.

I seldom cannot finish a book. This was an exception. However I did read enough to realise that this is the product of a franchise with no original thought, ponderous cliche ridden writing and cardboard cut out characters of no interest at all. When McCaffrey wrote the first Pern books, published I think in Worlds of If, they were fresh and exciting. I know writers need to earn enough to pay for rent and groceries but this book demonstrates that the use of franchise series is a mistake. The premise of the book lacks any logical basis and is plain silly. Please avoid this book at all costs.

I wish it were possible to give this 0 stars.

This book is clearly an unfinished (poorly edited) manuscript. The typos are glaring and painful. Sentences are repeated, sometimes slightly differently, indicating that the author hadn't finished forming that part of the story. Sometimes the wrong character's name is written (when the character indicated is on the other side of the universe). It is also painfully obvious that Anne didn't write this book. It's not her style of writing at all.

Overall, this is an extremely disappointing read. As another reviewer said, check it out from the library if you must read it. It was a waste of money for me.

The first books in this series were mediocre, but not too bad. This last one was awful, very hard to come up to speed on because it did not start where the last one left off.

Like most of her work alone and with co-writers, this is another rousing tale. Takes place in the Acorna universe and is geared as usual to a young teen audience, although enjoyable as a quick read for adults. This is the nineth in the series and carries Acorna's daughter towards a meeting with her unknown twin sister. A galactic plague precludes her meeting up with Acorna and Arii, as well as the twin sister who also does not know of the connection. Only the ship's cat does and he's not talking. But all's well that ends well, if not here then in the next volume: Third Watch. McCaffrey has come a long way since the early days of the world of Pern 30 odd years ago. Her writing has been a constant ever since. As much as I enjoy her characters and plots, the one criticism I'd level, is the lack of depth. Neither the characters nor the plots have much, unlike those of C. J. Cherryh or Marion Bradley which come with great depth and complexity. Still, the subjects she chooses get decent treatment and aren't meant to be literary tracts in the first place.

I got this book on a friday and was reading the last page by Sunday night. I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed this book as much as the rest of the Acorna Series. I can't wait for the next one.