The City Who Fought

In McCaffrey's Brainships universe, children who are born with an immobilizing or other severe disability are raised and educated to be the 'brains' that steer Starships, as well as other large-scale establishments. They are also assigned a "Brawn" to be their companion and assist with activities that can only be done by a person with a functional body.
This is the first book in the series that focuses around the "brain" that runs a space station instead of a ship. Since Simeon is stationary, his adventures are not as wide ranging as previous protagonists in the series, but no less fascinating.
In addition to an engaging and suspenseful storyline involving a invasion of Simeon's city by some evil alien pirates, the book also deals with show more some fascinating philosophical and psychological themes. Simeon was quite comfortable with his previous Brawn and resents having been assigned a new one, particularly a female. I was not a fan of him at first due to his chauvinistic and patronizing treatment of Channa. She teaches him a lesson, though, and proves herself a formidable foe to the Kolnari. show less

Much of my McCaffrey collection has become somewhat less attractive since I left adolescence behind me, but this is one of the books I keep coming back to.

One thing this book has is a treatment of gender that's actually something approaching thoughtful. Part of what fascinates me, I think, is the character of Simeon himself, and the way he, fairly consciously, performs the role of a macho manly man - despite being a brain-in-a-jar whose body of choice is an (okay, somewhat phallic-shaped) space station rather than a man. As he learns to deal with his new brawn (who is not putting up with any macho BS, thank you) we slowly get to see what parts of the macho pose are put on and which parts really are Simeon himself.

The other thing I like show more about this book is that the bad guys are just bad enough that you get all the vicarious pleasure you could want from watching our scrappy heroes mow them down one by one with various increasingly vicious methods. We get to see enough of them to understand them - a few of them even approach likable from a distance - but none of them are in any way *sympathetic*, and that's just what one needs in an adolescent revenge fantasy.

Which at core this is. But it's a very *satisfying* one.

This novel contains several rape and attempted rape scenes and various other graphic and violent content that might be disturbing. show less

This is one of my favorites of Mccaffrey's Brainship series - mainly because Simeon isn't a ship, but a city! Simeon is the shell-person who runs an out of the way mining station. When that station is attacked by pirates, he must work with the crew to hold them off until the Navy can arrive. Exciting, with a lot of action, fun characters, and witty dialog. Highly recommended!

What can I say, I just love brainships! This book consists of two halves: in the first half brainship Simeon gets to know his new brawn Channa. In the second half, the space station needs to defend itself from atrocious pirates. I liked the characters and their interactions, and this book was quite relaxing to read.

I hadn't read the Brainship books in years so I decided it was time for a re-read and I happy to report that they stood up to the test of time. I really enjoyed the story and found myself very interested in the characters in these books. I am super glad I read them again.

This series was my guilty pleasure for a while. It's extra weird, but kept me going back for the next in the series. It's been about 7 years since I've read this, and I'm kind of tempted to reread these as a winter break treat.

I enjoyed at well enough. I still think I would enjoy being a "shell person"… This was just not the best of the series.