Crystal Singer by Anne Mccaffrey

One thing about this reread season I'm doing, is that it's forcing me to reexamine books that were important to me in my past through a modern lens. One of the authors I was most nervous to revisit was Anne Mccaffrey. Mostly because I spent so much time with her when I was in my teens. Could she hold up to my modern standards?

The great news is that she mostly does - there are places where her descriptions of those with disabilities felt old to me - but I found her depiction of sexuality, decision making and a strong female character felt more familiar than antiquated.

Though she half wanted and half feared meeting a fellow student who would question her tears and commiserate with her disaster, she was inordinately relieved to reach her study cubicle without having encountered anyone. - Mccaffrey, Anne. Crystal Singer: A Novel (Crystal Singer Trilogy Book 1)

In the Crystal Singer, which first appeared as a serial published in a fiction magazine in the 1960s, our main character is Killashandra (16 year old me thought it was painfully cool that her nickname was Killa).

Killa has been training for decades to be a singer, but during a final test she is given feedback that she will never be the soloist of her dreams because of a flaw in her voice. Perfect pitch, diligence and personality be damned - she will not be getting her dream fulfilled.

As any young person would, this leads Killa down a path that is a little reckless but which gives her new options to explore and takes her to worlds she's never seen. In the process of finding a new dream, Killa learns about the mysterious Crystal Singers. They work for the most powerful and wealthy guild in the galaxy on a planet that only guild members can access. How and why and what a Crystal Singer actually does is a mystery. But rumors abound about "silicate spiders" as the ageless Crystal Singers are sometimes called. Everyone she meets reminds Killa that there is a hidden price she doesn't know right now and she should be sure she wants to pay it before she dives all the way in.

“You want what you can’t or shouldn’t have or are denied. Human nature.” - Mccaffrey, Anne. Crystal Singer: A Novel (Crystal Singer Trilogy Book 1)

I was really tickled by the truisms in this book - I found myself wondering if they struck me so deeply as true because my life experiences reenforces them or if it's because I read these books during my formative years. I tend to think it's a mix of the two.

That was ever the way of technology: to take the worthless and convert it into wealth. - Mccaffrey, Anne. Crystal Singer: A Novel (Crystal Singer Trilogy Book 1)

One thing to call out - there were places where the turns of phrase or sentence structure felt ... off? There were definitely words used that have fallen out of fashion, but there were sentence structures that felt clumsy to the modern mode.

Orders were given him, and as he left, complaining that his back would be broken, the others settled at the table and looked expectantly at Killashandra. Mccaffrey, Anne. Crystal Singer: A Novel (Crystal Singer Trilogy Book 1)

The final thing to call out is that the cover art was designed by Michael Whelan. His style is a signature of the 80s and 90s High Fantasy and SciFi books. You can view (and even buy) a copy of the cover art on his website.

Overall, I had a great time revisiting Killashandra and her journey to find a new future. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in sci-fi or fantasy who enjoys stories where characters define a new path for themselves while exploring worlds unlike ours but with familiar social structures.

If you liked my review and want to support me you can purchase this book using the following bookshop link, I do make a commission on any purchases used with it, though you are likely able to find this book at your local used book store or library.