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This is the first book in one of the prolific Anne McCaffrey's many series. I have never (yet) read the other Brainship books, but it is a compelling idea-- to put humans born with damaged physical bodies and capable brains into powerful, new bodies shaped like cities and ships. McCaffrey plays out many of the problems that might accompany such a society-- how to treat brainships ethically and humanly, how they might interact with normal-bodied humans, and what some of their specific weaknesses might be despite their immense capabilities. But the reason this book really works is because Helva herself, the singing ship of the title, is so compelling. Far from feeling sorry for her, you may come to envy her cleverness and her strength-- both physical and mental, along with her ability to speed through space.

This book introduces us to the world of the brainships through the character of Helva, and after her intitial training, the plot follows Helva on a series of missions-- and of course, she runs into (and handles successfully, sometimes in spite of her human partner) some of the most dangerous missions and becomes the youngest ship ever to buy back her freedom (by paying for her education and the care that turned her into a brainship).

This book was published a while back, so it is a bit funny to see the technologies portrayed-- they have technology to connect a human brain to a "shell" so a person like Helva can control a powerful space ship, but their communications are somewhat behind-- they can use a "tight beam" like a radio to communicate, but Helva's human partners often bring her tapes or reels to convey the necessary information for their mission.

By making Helva a musician, McCaffrey makes it possible to explore how the world of art might interact with a technological world like the one she has created here. One more than one occasion, Helva uses her musical ability to help or manipulate humans in significant ways. One of Helva's stranger missions involves a delegation of actors and actresses who are sent to an alien society to perform teach Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for these aliens, and then teach it to them, in exchange for certain technologies and knowledge. The aliens conceive of drama in terms of energy exchange, and by the end of this mission, those ideas and terminology for drama make a great deal of sense.

Title:	The Ship who Sang
Author:	Anne McCaffrey
Date published:	1969
Genre:	Science Fiction
Series:	Brainship series
Number of pages:	248
Notes:	Second reading.

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This book made an impression on me, but maybe not the impression you might think. I found Sahara to be so poorly written, that it made me believe I could be a writer, and sell tons of books, and get them turned into big-budget movies, since I'm pretty sure I can write better than this. Of course, most people probably can.

G and I saw the trailer for the movie based on this book; he'd read the book before, and recognized it with excitement when he saw first saw the trailer for the movie. So, since he already had a copy of the book (an old hard-cover, not the new one pictured here), and I wasn't sure what to read next, he suggested I read this book before the movie came out. As it turns out, we never saw the movie (at least, we haven't yet-- maybe we'll catch it on TV sometime, just for larks, but it's not something I will be going out of our way to see). I've heard the movie was even more poorly written than the book.

I have to admit, the basic premise is fairly interesting, as far as end-of-the-world scenarios go-- this time it is an ecological crisis. Putting the crisis in the midst of African nations in political turmoil certainly ups the ante, and allows for some interesting scenery. For the most part, I tried to just relax and enjoy the ride of this far-fetched adventure, but the writing kept getting in my way. The characters are all very clichéd, and the writing itself is a mish-mash of clichés, and often ones that don't belong together, resulting in some unintentionally humorous mixed metaphors and the like.

There are plenty of moments where this story strains credibility beyond even my limits (and I consider myself a fairly gullible reader). There are two moments in particular that I found to be completely ridiculous. When Dirk and his trusty, able (but not quite as handsome and witty) side-kick are trekking across the desert, the descriptions of their dehydration and exhaustion are extreme and even hyperbolic, as if they are about to keel over dead in any moment (no doubt this is to heighten the sense of their strength and determination); yet, when they find an old prop-plane in a gully they somehow have enough energy & intellect to convert it into a land-yacht. And then, later, when our heroes are under siege, the beautiful and intelligent love-interest (whose life Dirk has saved twice now) manages to find the energy - despite the fact that she was just recently dehydrated, exhausted, and malnourished (how sexy is that?) - and a quiet spot - despite falling bombs and the like - for a quick fling with Dirk.

Sahara did give me a few hours of diversion and entertainment - which I enjoyed, particularly since I was stuck on a plane for some of those hours; but I don't particularly recommend it to readers who actually pay attention to the words and phrases and characters in the books they read.

Title:	Sahara
Author:	Clive Cussler
Date published:	1992
Genre:	Popular Fiction / Adventure
Series:	Dirk Pitt Adventures
Number of pages:	541

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