The Rowan (original 1990; edition 1990)

A natural disaster on Altair has left a three-year-old girl the lone survivor of The Rowan Mining Company’s base camp. When her mental cries reach every telepath on the planet a search for her becomes a race against time. She was trapped in a hopper under a landslide of mud. No food, no water, no comfort and running out of air. The trauma has left her no memory of her previous life, so she becomes a ward of the planet Altair and is known as The Rowan. The Rowan grows up a powerful telepath/telekinetic and it’s inevitable she will become one of the few Primes of FT&T (Federated Telepath & Telekinetic).

Her life is a lonely one until she meets Jeff Raven, a Wild Talent from a far flung colony on Deneb VIII. Together they face the alien invaders pummeling his planet and then they begin a life together. Sounds easy, right? Oh, no…nothing is ever easy for a Prime, let alone two.

Picking up hundreds of years after the original Talents series, The Rowan begins a new era for FT&T. Well-written with a fast pace the story of the Rowan’s life flows by smoothly. An orphan and a powerful T-1 the Rowan is an unusual child and leads an interesting, if lonely, life. I was happy for her when Jeff entered the picture. He’s quite the character and even more of a powerhouse than she is with considerable more charm, too.

I also loved reading about a descendant of Peter Reidinger. Peter Reidinger IV is Earth’s Prime and it’s nice to see the family line continue. Another interesting part of the story is how Deneb is handling the aftermath of the devastation. A new colony only three generations old and they just lost three-fifths of their population and both of their major cities. Deneb is a cash-strapped planet that needs to get it’s major export (minerals) up and running again in order to pay off the colonization debt. It makes me appreciate all of the things I have and how I can just make a run to the store if I need something. All-in-all a great story to get lost in.

*Book source ~ My home library ( )

I used to love this series when I was younger and it did stand up to re-reading for me.

The Talents are spread out over the Nine Star League using their psionic abilitiies to help things along. Among these abilities there's a lot of variety and power, but there are very few high-powered telepaths, the ones who can help push cargo, and onto a small mining colony one is born. Orphaned at an early age and known as The Rowan she's trained by the Prime on her planet. The first part follows her youth. Her life changes when she comes into contact with another telepath, male and needing her help. She discovers more about herself and her abilities and has to face some of her fears.

I liked it, there were some casually sexist moments in it but it was published in 1990, and the author is of an age where some of that was normal. Still the attitudes have improved from the first book, I do want to continue with this series and see where and how it continues to entertain (I hope) ( )

This book is good as far as sci-fi novels go. I didn't like how the Rowan's lover just kinda popped up and all the sudden they were in love and everything was mushy and lovey-dovey. That kinda killed it for me, actually. She's also referred to as his wife, but there's never any ceremony. If it wasn't for that, I would have thoroughly enjoyed the book and would probably read all the rest of the books in the series. As it is now, I'm not sure if I want to keep reading the unreal romantic garbage. On the other hand, it isn't writted to be sexy, to the point where the characters will be having sex, and you're wondering if maybe they're just touching hands. Yeah. ( )

A fun mix of science fiction and romance novel that I think will remain popular for some time to come.

http://allbookedup-elena.blogspot.com/2011/12/rowan-anne-mccaffrey.html ( )

I've read and reread this book several times. The title character is telekinetic and pathic, and finds her niche assisting in interstellar travel. ( )