Subject: Review: Acorna's Quest by McCaffrey & Ball

From: [email-masked] (HKlaus6073)
Date: 20 Jul 1998 16:52:28 -0400

ACORNA'S QUEST by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
	Review Copyright 1998 Harriet Klausner

[This is a review of a second book in a series; as such it may be
considered a spoiler for the first "Acorna" book.  --AW]

     Acorna is now a young adult, who desperately needs questions answered
about her heritage and who her people are.  Years ago, three asteroid
miners found the infant Acorna floating through space in an escape pod.
Knowing her horn would make her the abject study of science and
government, they safely hid her safety while her unique, special powers
evolved.
      Acorna knows it is time to break out in search of her ancestry.
Accompanied by one of the prospectors who raised her, she begins her
journey across the universe.  However, her trek is temporarily aborted
when her ship malfunctions, forcing her to land on Rushima, where people
are being starved to death by a dastardly group of Starfarers.  Even as
Acorna is caught up in the plight of Rushima, a strange people with
telepathic powers have suddenly appeared in the sector.  The Linyaari have
come to raise the alarm concerning vicious invaders who are wrecking havoc
throughout the galaxy while also seeking the whereabouts of a missing
person who was lost as an infant several years ago.
     The second novel in the Acorna series will intrigue die-hard
McCaffrey fans and readers who enjoy a clear cut good vs. evil science
fiction story line.  Many other readers will be turned off by the lack of
subtlety that make up the various races, who easily can be classified as
good or evil.  Though the story line is a bit flimsy, there is the usual
Anne McCaffrey trademark of plenty of action and easily identifiable
races.  Ms. McCaffrey and co-author Margaret Ball have a good series that
needs more shades of gray to turn it into a complex, great series.

Harriet Klausner

%I HarperPrism
%D Jul 1998
%O $23.00
%P 292 pp.
%G ISBN 0-06-105297-3