Acorna's Triumph: The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl (Hardcover)

~ Anne Mccaffrey (Author), Elizabeth A. Scarborough (Author) "Just as she was sure her death was certain, she was grabbed and shaken..." (more)
Key Phrases: catseye chrysoberyls, sulfur people, birth disk, House Harakamian, Captain Becker, Singing Stones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

More episodic than its predecessors, McCaffrey and Scarborough's finale to the charming Acorna saga will please the two authors' many fans and lovers of horses and cats generally. Last seen in Acorna's Rebels (2003), the unicorn girl has finally located her missing life-mate, Aari, though his exile in time has resulted in a disturbing personality change. Besides helping Aari to recover, Acorna must retrieve a hoard of jewels-chrysoberyls used in terraforming, stolen by a troupe of dancing girls with anti-gravity belts-from three races of sulfur-based beings, the Liquids, Solids and Mutables. She must also contend with the return of the Khleevi, disgusting insectoid aliens with evil designs on Acorna's home planet. And of course there is Grimalkin, the felinoid shape-changer, whose antics delay the well-deserved happy ending after all the bopping back and forth through time, across space and in flight from the Khleevi. While this light SF/fantasy romp is a hopeless proposition for newcomers to Acorna's travels, it serves as a fitting coda to the series. Both Acorna and Aari and their creators can ride off into the starlight with clear consciences.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This coda to McCaffrey's popular series packs plenty of action into 320 pages. Although Acorna has found her people, defeated their enemies, and, with the aid of friends of various species, is helping to restore her ancestral planet, something is wrong with Aari, her newly found lifemate. He barely remembers her, and the past interests him more than the present. But then the chrysoberyls--gems used in terraforming--are stolen, and they must be retrieved from the planet of sulphur beings. And then the insectoid Khleevi turn up, still out for everything they can grab. Acorna has to keep watch over the timestream machines of the Ancestors, especially since they can constitute a true menace, even in the hands of those with good intentions. McCaffrey and Scarborough have each written more serious books than this light space opera, but lack of seriousness will hardly prevent fans of the Acorna series from enjoying its conclusion. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Eos; 1 edition (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380979004
• ISBN-13: 978-0380979004
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #288,934 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 7 in The Acorna Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Abrupt, choppy, and in the end . . ., March 14, 2004

By	Amberblade (New England, USA) - See all my reviews

The one word I find that comes to mind to describe this book is, unsatisfying. I've loved the Acorna books since the very beginning, but I've found that the last few were disappointing, and Acorna's Triumph was no exception.
The story was light, and missing the detail and emotion that I'd grown to expect from the Acorna series. The storyline itself was so flighty, jumping around from one time to another with no purpose, but rather with the randomness of a bad dream. The ability to move from time to time so easily cheapened all of the struggles that the characters had gone through before.
And was it just me, or were there some strange gaps in the story?
Okay, here I'm going to mention a few things that may spoil the story for those who haven't read it yet. Sorry, but I feel I must.
The fact that characters such as Aari's brother, and Acorna's parents even! were brought back in with such casual disregard for how their deaths had shaped the story up to that point was shocking to me. That, and other events that had no point but bringing in a few seemingly random characters to be used for one transparent purpose or another, made it feel like the Authors were trying up loose ends, and neatening everything up for a fairy-tale happy ending. And the reason that was so disappointing to me was that the Acorna series had never been a run-of-the-mill fairy tale, where everything is always perfect.
And now, the thing that bothered me the most. Throughout the whole series, Acorna has always been in charge of her own destiny. But suddenly, there is an unseen manipulater behind the scenes, making everything just the way he wants it.
It just seems to me that maybe the series was simply running out of steam, to use so many obvious shortcuts to bring things to a happy conclusion.
But you'll notice at the top, I gave it three stars. And that's because, in spite of everything, I still love Acorna, her people, and her world.
Plus, I have to admit, sometimes I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Even if it's missing some of the trials and triumph that I'd enjoyed, and respected, in the books preceading it, there's still something about Acorna' Triumph that makes you smile.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fne end to tis great series, March 2, 2004

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Ancestral Hosts are near immortal shapeshifters, who rescued the Ancestors (unicorns) from earth because they were hunted to near extinction by humans who wanted their magical healing horn. The hosts mixed their DNA with that of the Ancestors leading to the creation of the Linyaari race. They made their home on Vhiliinyar until the insectoid race known as the Khleevi destroyed their home world. Acorna, who as a baby was found and raised by three space miners, finally is reunited with her people and meets her lifemate Aari.

Together they help to rebuild and terraform Vhiliinyar but below the surface of the planet they find a room meant for time traveling. Aari becomes lost in time and space and when he returns he is different and Acorna keeps her distance from him. After rescuing a previously unknown sentient race, Acorna begins to believe that Aari is really an Ancestor host that he traveled with and the real Aari is trapped on Vhiliinyar in the past during a Khleevi attack. A rescue mission is mounted but will they be in time to rescue Aari before the Khleevi torture him once again.

The Acorna novels are great space opera filled with non-stop action and enough romance to appeal to fans of that genre. Fans of Star Trek, Star Wars and Lost in Space will find ACORNA'S TRIUMPH a wondrous delight and a fitting end to this breathtaking series. Readers who liked this book will want to read the previous six works in this series starting with the aptly named ACORNA.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Happy Ending but so many Plot Holes, August 31, 2004

By	Seorgia "Seo" - See all my reviews

Like many others I have enjoyed the Acorna series for years. I started when I was a kid and have looked forwarding avidly to each new book being released. I'm afraid all my waiting was a bit of a let down this time.

While the book was an enjoyable read, it didn't really have the same viseral appeal of the other few books. It was very much like eating a large amount of cotton candy, you may like it at the time but you beginning to doubt how wise a chioce it all was towards the end. While not something I was hoping for it wasn't something I take major points away for, even I love a happy ending.

What truly got to me was the rules set down about time travel in the previous books were basically ignored and tossed aside. It seemed to me that two books back, "Acorna's Search" if I remember correctly, it was basically established that even though you didn't know you were going to effect the past you already had. As established by the rock paintings already being there about what Acorna had done in the past. Here in "Triumph" that is ignored with people and objects suddenly appearing where they should have easily already been discovered.

Also I am confused as to why people bother to appear later on in the time stream from when they left. Why didn't Grimalkin just appear right after Aari left Acorna the first time? Why wait all those many months? Though I must thank him because I enjoyed "Acorna's Rebels". They explained this away with the double helix which only makes a moderate amount of sense considering all the other time sliding they did. The concept of time being a double helix, while interesting, seems to need more thought to it.

All in all I enjoyed this book and the entire series. It became a bit heavy in the story book ending feel but was still enjoyable, I just wish a few more of the concepts were either explained or atleast stuck to in their original forms. It does seem to me with so many unanswered questions that we might see further works in this world maybe centered around a second generation? That I think I shall enjoy reading. But even if not it was a fun, if sweet, ride while it lasted.