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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A living spaceship with the voice of an angel, April 6, 2002
This short story collection marks the genesis of the concept of 'brainships' in McCaffrey's Central Worlds universe: infants born so damaged that they cannot survive without life support, but whose minds are sharp and alert. Given a matchless education at Central Lab Schools, they don't strap on prosthetics - some become space stations or city managers. Those with a head for starflight mathematics, like Helva, may become brainships - the 'brain' half of a brain/brawn team, a human mind installed in a spaceship. See also "Honeymoon" in McCaffrey's _Get Off the Unicorn_ for the tale of one of Helva's missions to Beta Corvi that didn't make it into this book. "The Ship Who Sang" - Helva is unusual in that she developed her particular hobby while quite young: moving from a passion for Shakespeare, to grand opera, to overcome the technical difficulties in learning to sing. But there's a reason shellpeople don't consider themselves handicapped in any way... "The Ship Who Mourned" - Helva has just endured the funeral of her beloved brawn partner; only to be expected, given the difference in their lifespans, but that doesn't help the sharp edge of her grief. MedServ's usual lack of sensitivity has sent her straight back out to carry physiotherapist Theoda to treat the survivors of a plague that left the few surviving victims paralyzed. And Helva sees more mourning than her own... "The Ship Who Killed" - MedServ has assigned Helva a 3-year mission and a new brawn (temporary, but for the duration of the mission) with an unusual twist. Nekkar's entire population has been left sterile by a radiation flare from their star, and Helva and Kira now have Assignment Stork: delivering thousands of embryos to Nekkar from worlds all over known space. Something about the mission seems to be troubling Helva's new brawn, whose service record has some interesting gaps... "Dramatic Mission" - The Beta Corviki have a great knowledge of physics, and can give humanity the ability to build starships with a far greater range - but they want something unusual in exchange after sampling the archives of the survey ship that made first contact. Helva is to carry a company of Shakespearean actors to Beta Corvi, to perform _Romeo and Juliet_. Will the company manage to satisfy their alien audience, given the personal strife between the stars of the show? (This mission marks Helva's first face-to-face meeting with her supervisor Parollan, incidentally.) "The Ship Who Dissembled" - Helva is fed up with her current brawn, and is finally frustrated enough to face not only the financial penalties for breaking up the partnership, but the inevitable I-told-you-so from her supervisor, the abrasive Niall Parollan. But just as Helva is about to initiate formal proceedings over an open communication channel, hijackers strike, who know the vulnerabilities of a shellperson all too well. "The Partnered Ship" - In only ten years of service, Helva has paid off the huge debt of her early medical care and ship construction, and can now be a free agent. Central Worlds, particularly her supervisor Niall Parollan, are crafting an offer to tempt her to stay, while Broley (a fellow shellperson, though a city manager) wheels and deals to line up job offers. Who (if anybody) will get their just desserts?
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A song that doesn't fade, May 28, 1999
By A Customer
I read The Ship Who Sang when it first came out in the late 60s, and have read it a frightening number of times since. As a teenager I was entirely captivated by the wonderfully real Helva, one of the most genuine characters I had ever come across in SF at that time. She got mad, she exulted, she loved, she mourned, while all around her cardboard SF characters were moving in their puppet dance. There are scenes in this book that have stuck in my imagination for 30 years, powerful images of a world sprung from the mind of the author - but I never associate this work with the writer. It is too vibrant in its own right to need any other references. Anne McCaffrey has created, in The Ship Who Sang, an enduring classic of Science Fiction. This is a work with a brilliantly realised idea of a particular future, combined with enough passion to ensure that the characters will outlive all of us. Brava, Ms McCaffrey, and thank you.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT ON MANY LEVELS, May 2, 2001
It never occured to me to write, or even read a 'customer review' of Anne McCaffrey. I've enjoyed her since I was eighteen years old. Simply, She is one of two SF/Fantasy authors I buy in hardback. I'm enjoying reading the thoughts of people just discovering her, and also the controversy! That said, THE SHIP WHO SANG is marvelous on many levels. Ms. McCaffrey has said that what she does best are love stories and Helva is as heroic yet soft-hearted as anyone could wish. As a silly little escape from the realities of the working world, this book succeeds. As a homage to her father, she overwhelms. In a purely sci/fi vein, McCaffrey took the concept of cyborgs to a great extreme at a time when artificial heart valves and kidney transplants were in their infancy. The first functional pace maker didn't debut until 1960. The first of the Helva stories that make up this book came out in 1961. THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN didn't appear until twelve years later, when Helva and her peers (shell people) were already the elite of space exploration, single-handed managers of major metropolis's and coordinators of space mining platforms. STAR TREK didn't boldly go here until 1966! While it's not Jules Verne, this ain't too shabby! I see the Helva stories as perfect to spark high school discussions. McCaffrey's unified galaxy, Central Worlds presaged our current move to a global economy by forty years. Her social consciousness emphasizes the need for the arts in a civilized society and serious issues like euthanasia, drug use and civic responsibility are all major themes. The entire concept of social protestors evolving into 'Dylanists' should set the stage for historical discussions of the Viet Nam Era and extrapolating Shakespearean universality into alien societies should do the same. Her use of language has also greatly improved my vocabulary! (I won't even start on the military's way of honoring its members with parades and such and hypocritical senators who fight for NEA cuts. Attending a Memorial Day parade should be enough to convince ANY of them!) I greatly enjoy the way the author took short stories and incorporated them into one book. I like her characters, their intelligence, their strength, their firmness of conviction, especially her women. Yes there are stereotypes, yes there's implied sex but the only 'graphic' passage has to do with overcoming one's baser instincts, a positive in my opinion. I also greatly admire the way McCaffrey's works overlap. Helva turns up briefly in the Crystal Singer series, where other brain ships play a major role, which I think is great fun. Look at this book from any view point, and it should turn out to be enjoyable. I give 4 stars, because, written as it was in the 60's it's slang seems dated now!
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