Nimisha's Ship was my second venture into the world of Anne McCaffrey (this first was Dragonsong in Grade 9). I didn't want to start into one of her series of novels so when I found Nimisha's Ship, I was delighted! Finally, an Anne McCaffrey book I can read! Surprisingly, I read this book in less than a days. I normally don't read fantasy and am not used to the style of writing, so it was a bit surprising. The story is about Nimisha, who's family owns the largest space ship building yards in this part of the galaxy. They live on another planet, off of Earth, where they have advanced technology but also seem to have a strict societal code that's like medievil England (you're stuck in one class and there's no hope of moving out of it). Nimisha takes over the family business and creates this super-ship that is supposed to cut down on space travel time. However, on her maiden voyage, Nimisha and her ship get sucked into a worm hole and end up in a solar system on the other side of the galaxy almost. She finds a habitable planet and settles down waiting for help, and also finds other humans stranded there when their ship was sent through the worm hole. The story is basically about them trying to live on a new planet and also make first contact. I've heard a lot of bad things about this book and I wonder why. Ok, so it might not be up to Anne McCaffrey "standards" but it's not so bad that you'd never read her work again. At first, I thought this might be a series of books because McCaffrey gets right into the story of both the people and the planet. It's not based on Earth and she never really says how we got to another planet or even what year it is. There are some minor mentions of Earth suggesting that we've branched out and colonized other planets, but that's it. That's one of the downfalls to the book. I also like the fact that although we're starfaring, we haven't met any sentient beings (intelligent beings). When Nimisha goes to the strange planet after being sucked through the wormhowle, she meets another race of beings. I find it interesting about how they make first contact and get to know one another. Also, they find traces of even more lifeforms in the strange part of the galaxy, where Nimisha's stranded. After reading this book, I know I have to read more of Anne McCaffrey's work as I was highly impressed.
Title: Nimisha's Ship |
10/2/04
