Crystal Singer

I really enjoyed this one! It is dated in some ways (an amusing amount of space casseroles!), but it's a pleasure to read a science fiction book where the stakes are one woman's satisfaction with her career instead of the fate of planets or the entire universe. Killashandra is likely to draw broad condemnation from a certain type of reader as a Mary Sue- she's ambitious, competent, smart, _and_ incredibly lucky, other characters envy her, and she has a surprising amount of (off-screen, non-explicit) happy, judgment-free casual sex especially for an older SF novel- but personally, I'm always happy to read about such female characters, and look forward to the next book in the series, Killashandra.

I couldn't help but think of Jo Walton's show more essay Knights Who Say "Fuck" about swearing in genre fiction, though- this 1982 book may represent some kind of transition point, as invented swears like "fardles" coexist with "shit" and "piss" as neutral narrative descriptions at parts. (The life of a would-be Crystal Singer is not always glamorous!)

One content note for a one-line comment sort of making light of rape, roughly a quarter of the way through the book- the Crystal Singers' superhuman senses and endurance are provided by a symbiont that infects everyone on the planet, a transition which some will not survive, and one of Killashandra's fellow recruits compares the forced transition to rape: "Rape is inevitable, huh?" show less

Anne McCaffrey is the first author that I chose to read for myself and I have been a lifelong fan since. The Crystal Singer showcases her truly original world-building, and excellent character development. Anne created a richly complex character: brave, impetuous, brilliant and flawed. Though it was the dragons that first attracted me to her writing, it was Killashandra and Helva and Rowan that kept me coming back for every series she wrote. Killashandra has a gift for "singing" crystal. Tuning crystal for use in interstellar communication and other advanced technologies is straightforward enough - mining the crystal is a dangerous and addictive job that has killed more than one singer. They can all too easily become enraptured while show more singing the crystal - in particular the exceptionally rare Black Crystal. Worse still, over time they lose their memories. Even of those they love...

A brilliant novel with an equally brilliant sequel. I think I may need to get lost in this world again. show less

In my quest to read every book I own, I picked this one up that has been in a TBR pile since I was a kid. I had high hopes for it. Those hopes did not hold up.

Killashandra is an unlikable protagonist. She is arrogant and conceited, which can work for characters, but she's also a hypocrite. She constantly judged another female character for certain thoughts and actions while having those thoughts and wanting to do those same things. Also, I recognize that this story was written in the 1980s, but I got 20% of the way through the book and realized that Killashandra had not had any shown conversations with another named female character, which was very jarring.

Killashandra was a bit of a Mary Sue, a comment I hate to make but fits show more exceptionally well in this case. show less

It's rather refreshing to read a book whose protagonist is...well, kind of a jerk. I think that this sci-fi series has kept me coming back because it's so different from many of the other "space-colony" types out there. The premise lends itself very well to provoking the imagination and in the end you feel like you've not only seen a great film with spectacular special effects, but heard and smelled and felt an entirely different world, one that could never possibly exist in nature (at least, not on our planet).
The characters are all well-developed and McCaffrey keeps the narrative spinning along on a good pace. It's engaging and satisfying.

Crystal Singer - McCaffrey
3 stars

This is an early McCaffrey book. I don’t even want to think about how young I was the first time I read it. The book is the first of a trilogy concerned with a character called Killashandra Ree. I remembered very little about this book, but I thought Killa could easily qualify as a strong woman.

This book begins as the young Killashandra is crushed by a failing evaluation at the end of her music education. A true diva in personality, if not ability, she will be a star or she will leave the stage. Leaving sets her on the path of a new career as a Crystal Singer.

McCaffrey uses her own background in music performance to create this world as she did with the Harpers in the Pern series. It’s an show more interesting and frequently brutal world. The culture is very high tech, full of interplanetary space travel and adaptations to alien environments. One adaptation allows Killa to wipe out the painful memories of her failures while making her a star in her new occupation. The memory theme adds some depth to this bit of escapist pulp.

What I did not remember at all was a minor character early in the book who spoke like Yoda.
Smile, I did. show less

One of my favorite books growing up, I may even prefer it to the Pern books in many ways.

I loved how realized and detailed the world of Ballybran felt while reading it and I remember wanting to be a Crystal Singer myself (though I don't have anywhere near perfect pitch), and I probably would have accepted being one of the support staff.

I do remember finding Killashandra Ree to be both annoying and at times unsympathetic in many ways, but believable as a diva so she felt like a real and natural character and I wanted her to succeed and felt very caught up in her story.

Another from my uncle's box of paperbacks, this is my first Anne McCaffrey (I know) and it was an oddly compulsive read yet also weirdly dull.

The novel starts with Killashandra, a young musician in her late twenties, being turfed from the music school she has been studying at for the past decade. Her pitch is perfect but her higher register isn't good enough. She meets a Crystal Singer and basically decides this is how she's going to spend her life, cutting crystal for an obscure guild on a remote planet. The rest of the novel is Killashandra going to the planet, joining the guild, being trained and cutting crystal. Once.

Killashandra is a strange character. She's driven, but she's also not quite sure what she's driving towards. show more There's virtually no romance, yet she sleeps with pretty much every second guy she meets. There's a nebulous quality to her character that actually makes her quite compelling.

I enjoyed McCaffrey's writing style enough to try more, though I do hope her other novels have a little more happening than just a woman learning a trade. show less