Space travel and aliens and romance, Oh My! Anne McCaffrey has captured me once again with her fantastic science fiction. The Rowan is the first novel in her “Tower and the Hive” series, and I first read it over twenty years ago. Picking it up again, I was engrossed from the start. The novel is set in a time when humanity has expanded to populate multiple planetary systems. Space travel and commerce is dependent on The Talents, a group of humans with psychic powers capable of teleportation and telepathy.
I don’t normally like romance in my science fiction, but MCaffrey has converted me with this series. She never loses that sci-fi edge that made me a fan in the first place, but when the Rowan makes contact with Jeff Raven I could not wait to see how their relationship developed.
If you are thinking this is just another series about people with psychic powers, don’t be fooled. The world of the Rowan is different from any I have read before. These “Talents” have become a pivotal force in every aspect of human life as humanity expands throughout the galaxy. If you want to learn how this came about, I highly recommend her “Talent” series beginning with To Ride Pegasus.
Anne McCaffrey, who passed away last year, was a master of science fiction. She has left us a lifetime of award-winning books, and was the first female science fiction writer to have a novel on the New York Times Best Seller list. Her induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame was well deserved. She will be missed.
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