Encounters with aliens and
other marooned wormhole survivors ensue, as do several rescue attempts
and a hostile takeover of the family shipyards that can only be prevented
by Nimisha's daughter.
McCaffrey keeps the suspense
going, but this is a warm and pleasant book. Nobody gets hurt, and grandmotherly
humor pervades the narrative.
Space through a matron's
eyes
Much like Neal Stephenson's
novel The Diamond Age, McCaffrey carefully describes the technology
of this neo-Victorian world. She filters the world through the eyes of
her three female characters, however, creating a very different sense of
what's important and why.
Clothing is described in
great detail, with up to an entire page for a significant ritual outfit.
Children are very important, and their education and development is a constant
concern.
There's a striking contrast
to Stephenson, who introduces technology like "testosterone pumps" and
devotes as much attention to the inner workings of his "Young Lady's Illustrated
Primer" learning device as to the lessons his younger characters learn
to it.
It's a difference McCaffrey
acknowledges in an interview included with the paperback edition of Nimisha's
Ship.
"Each sex brings its own
perspective to writing," she says -- though which sex is writing a book
isn't always clear to the reader. In another part of the interview, she
tells of having "a long argument with a 16-year-old guy who insisted that
Andre Norton had to be male, even when I said that I had stayed with her
and her cats in Florida."
It's hard to imagine a McCaffrey
reader being similarly confused. Nimisha's Ship is comforting story,
that for all its futuristic trappings feels like a tale told on a wintry
day during a visit to grandma's.
What do you think? Send your
comments to the editor.
advertisement
