Restoree

Long ago and far away I pulled a coverless, dog-eared paperback out of a used book pile, expecting another McCaffrey gothic, and found a door to Pern and ultimately to the amazing genre of science fiction. This book holds a place on so many levels. It remains a suck-you-in entertaining read with wonderful characterizations ,thoughtful themes, and a perfect degree of otherworldness for a first tentative dip into SF or for a frequent revisit to a world and characters who I have always felt asked for a sequel (?series.) It remains a favorite reread.

Fun, as always. Sara is nicely depicted - her competencies are explained and given both a basis and limits (she can sail, being an East Coast tomboy, but she's not all that good at it...), so she doesn't come over as a Mary Sue. And Harlan is actually both described, and depicted (on my cover, at least) as ugly! It's basically a romance, with SF and political settings and complications. Single viewpoint - we get to see absolutely everything through Sara's eyes, which gives lots of excuses for explaining the simplest stuff. It also leaves motivations of several others - Harlan and Monsorlit, in particular - very fuzzy for a long time. That is, neither Sara nor the reader understands why, for instance, Harlan keeps calling her my show more lady...until the meaning in his culture finally becomes clear. And it's an interesting culture - human to the point of being physically indistinguishable (not explained, or even questioned), but with some really nasty history behind some very odd cultural quirks. I wonder how similar the Tane are...and how many of those 60 are female (speaking of cultural quirks). I would _love_ to read the story of a) the arrival at Earth and first contact and b) the first Terran visit to Lothar. And maybe some stories a few generations down the line...Not going to happen. But I'd love to see them. Fluff, but excellent fluff. A comfort read. show less

A small town girl who is smarter than she is pretty escapes to New York City to start a career as a librarian for an advertising agency. Life is going well for Sara until she finds herself working as a caretaker in an insane asylum on another world in a beautiful but unfamiliar body. When Sara discovers that the man for whom she is caring is the mentally disabled former Regent of the world things start getting messy.

Sara is believable as are many of the supporting characters. Further, the people of the alien world are interesting and the culture could easily support additional novels and stories. I’d love to read a story by Anne McCaffrey explaining why there are humans on this world, for example.

Over all Restoree is an entertaining show more book. Anne McCaffrey delivers politics and surprises with a dash of romance. show less

It is a silly marysue with a plucky capable heroine who implausibly is in a position to save the deposed leader and win herself a ringside seat to the restoration of his side and an equally imaginative space victory. Ever so mid-20th, but fun.

This novel is an oldie, but goody. It is an excellent blend of science fiction and romance genres. I liked the main characters and found the alien culture interesting and understandable as I was seeing it through Sara's eyes and she was from Earth. Did it feel a bit dated? Sure, but so am I. I like "girl meets boy (alien), falls in love, lives happily ever after" types of romances. And there are enough SF themes (alien abduction, alien culture) and suspense (will Sara be outed?, how will the political intrigue end?) to keep the novel truly interesting.

If you like science fiction and romance novels, you should surely give this a whirl.

After Anne McCaffrey's death recently I decided that I had to re-read some of her works. This is one I've read a few times before and it did survive re-reading again. Granted some of the attitudes of people are a bit dated (though not as dated as you might hope) but this story of a woman abducted from this world and brought to another where she's initially drugged into a drone to work as a nurse but her intelligence and will overcomes to help her patient. Harlan has a pivotal role to play in the politics of this world, she is going to help as well.

It's somewhat dated and occasionally clunky but not a bad first novel at all.

This was Anne McCaffrey's first book, and still in print after fifty years. I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to her. This doesn't have the awesome world building that make her Pern Dragon books, or her Crystal books, or her Ship books special. A lot in the plot is pretty creaky. Much more romance novel in feel than something you find in the science fiction section (See, cover, at least in my edition, of woman held in man's arms.) Woman is abducted by aliens and finds herself in new body. Woman meets alien. Woman loves alien. This is an old-fashioned romance, in ways I do find dated, even eye-rolling. But did I enjoy it? Absolutely! Just not as much as many of McCaffrey's other books, so don't start here. When it came time to show more make room on my bookshelf, this didn't make the cut--others by McCaffrey did. show less