Rating: 
Summary: Still "THE" best Brain/Brawn story
Review: The best place to start discovering brain/brawn stories and always a good re-read. Helva's quirks, determination and compassion make her a great protagonist. An enduring classic and the base on which the growing number of brain/brawn stories have been built.Helva is one of many born with physical birth defects which trap a briliant mind in a useless body. Science has a solution, hook the brain to something beyond the limited body. Hence the creation of "Brain" ships, stations and cities. Combined with a mobile "brawn" partner, these "brains" have abilities far beyond what a "normal" human could achieve. Called "shell-people" because their physical forms are encased, they experience the fear and prejudice of others' ignorance, as well as the full range of their very human emotions. Their special abilities when "hooked into" a space ship or station control don't diminish their very human traits. Helva's adventures, along with the other B&B teams, give everyone something to enjoy and discover.
Rating: 
Summary: Danger. Danger Will Robinson.
Review: The premise of this book is admittedly intriguing; it is the story of a genius born with congenital defects who, by the cruel dictates of an intolerant society, is cybernetically wired to the central control of an interstellar spaceship under contract to a central galactic government. One would think that this concept would offer the reader a great deal of enjoyment as we learn how 'brainships' think and deal with their extraordinary lot in life. The wonder of science fiction is that it allows us to see how an ordinary story would be transformed by the presence of scientific advancement; surely, a human dwarf/spaceship cyborg as a protagonist would make for an interestingly transformed story. Yet the book itself fails to follow through on the potential it initially offers. The reader will find themselves stumbling from one clumsy, cookie-cutter plot segment to another, continually bumping into cheesy symbols and underexplained plot devices every few feet, and generally dodging shovelfulls of authorial intent that ply the reader with all the subtlety of a crowbar. As you dredge your way through this book, you will find yourself wishing that the author had either not tried to accomplish so much in one book and subseqently avoided a lot of threadbare development, or else stuck to writing about dragons. Her sci-fi/intellectual romance skills leave much to be desired and we get very little sense of Helva as a maturing being as opposed to a weak character that is written to fit whatever scene she is in. The sense of gender in this text is about as clumsy as one can imagine, moreover. If you must buy this book, give it to someone you don't like.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fabulous!
Review: The Ship Who Sang is a wonderful book. The touching story of Helva, bold and fearless, is a winner, and one I've read over and over. And, what's more, it's the only book I can think of that ended the way I wanted it to! The tale of how Helva loses her one true love, then finds another where she least expects it, is sure to make you want to read it over and over
Rating:
Summary: Reality
Review: This book was one of the most realistic books I have ever read. McCaffrey created Helva to be such a powerful character, that I couldn't once find fault with her work. I only read the book in spans of three or four hours because it took that long to be able to put it down again. I was completely surprised by every twist the plot took and could only figure out the ending at the very end of the book. When I didn't have my head stuck in the book, I felt I need to go "talk" to Helva as if she were real. I've read others of McCaffrey's books, but this is by far the best.
Rating:
Summary: Reality
Review: This book was one of the most realistic books I have ever read. McCaffrey created Helva to be such a powerful character, that I couldn't once find fault with her work. I only read the book in spans of three or four hours because it took that long to be able to put it down again. I was completely surprised by every twist the plot took and could only figure out the ending at the very end of the book. When I didn't have my head stuck in the book, I felt I need to go "talk" to Helva as if she were real. I've read others of McCaffrey's books, but this is by far the best.
Rating:
Summary: A living spaceship with the voice of an angel
Review: This short story collection marks the genesis of the concept of 'brainships' in McCaffrey's Central Worlds universe: infants born so damaged that they cannot survive without life support, but whose minds are sharp and alert. Given a matchless education at Central Lab Schools, they don't strap on prosthetics - some become space stations or city managers. Those with a head for starflight mathematics, like Helva, may become brainships - the 'brain' half of a brain/brawn team, a human mind installed in a spaceship. See also "Honeymoon" in McCaffrey's _Get Off the Unicorn_ for the tale of one of Helva's missions to Beta Corvi that didn't make it into this book. "The Ship Who Sang" - Helva is unusual in that she developed her particular hobby while quite young: moving from a passion for Shakespeare, to grand opera, to overcome the technical difficulties in learning to sing. But there's a reason shellpeople don't consider themselves handicapped in any way... "The Ship Who Mourned" - Helva has just endured the funeral of her beloved brawn partner; only to be expected, given the difference in their lifespans, but that doesn't help the sharp edge of her grief. MedServ's usual lack of sensitivity has sent her straight back out to carry physiotherapist Theoda to treat the survivors of a plague that left the few surviving victims paralyzed. And Helva sees more mourning than her own... "The Ship Who Killed" - MedServ has assigned Helva a 3-year mission and a new brawn (temporary, but for the duration of the mission) with an unusual twist. Nekkar's entire population has been left sterile by a radiation flare from their star, and Helva and Kira now have Assignment Stork: delivering thousands of embryos to Nekkar from worlds all over known space. Something about the mission seems to be troubling Helva's new brawn, whose service record has some interesting gaps... "Dramatic Mission" - The Beta Corviki have a great knowledge of physics, and can give humanity the ability to build starships with a far greater range - but they want something unusual in exchange after sampling the archives of the survey ship that made first contact. Helva is to carry a company of Shakespearean actors to Beta Corvi, to perform _Romeo and Juliet_. Will the company manage to satisfy their alien audience, given the personal strife between the stars of the show? (This mission marks Helva's first face-to-face meeting with her supervisor Parollan, incidentally.) "The Ship Who Dissembled" - Helva is fed up with her current brawn, and is finally frustrated enough to face not only the financial penalties for breaking up the partnership, but the inevitable I-told-you-so from her supervisor, the abrasive Niall Parollan. But just as Helva is about to initiate formal proceedings over an open communication channel, hijackers strike, who know the vulnerabilities of a shellperson all too well. "The Partnered Ship" - In only ten years of service, Helva has paid off the huge debt of her early medical care and ship construction, and can now be a free agent. Central Worlds, particularly her supervisor Niall Parollan, are crafting an offer to tempt her to stay, while Broley (a fellow shellperson, though a city manager) wheels and deals to line up job offers. Who (if anybody) will get their just desserts?
Rating:
Summary: People of intelligence will love this book.
Review: Unfortunately, intellectual snobs will use this lovely book to go off on tangents about words like "undulate" etc. etc. Ms. McCaffrey has done an outstanding job of making Helva one of the most lovable HUMAN people ever created. Her interactions with her fellow human beings either uncovers their true worth (as in the case of Niall Parollan), or shows the baser side of humanity. Somehow characters who get to know Helva forget that she is "a deformed dwarf in a titanium column, with only a functional brain". They tend to treat her like the wonderful exciting, sexy woman she was meant to be. It is not hard to believe that a man would have unfulfilled sexual notions about a woman like Helva. And just one comment to all the teachers who have a tendency towards censorship -- this book wasn't written with children in mind. It is for adults. The snobby sounding reviews from some teachers and university elitists makes them sound like self proclaimed superior intellectuals (and it makes a few of them sound sexually repressed). Give us a break and stick to reviewing Plato.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: When I read this book I was surprised to see it had first been published in the 1960s. The idea of a ship controlled by a human brain is so 21st century I was amazed that Anne McCraffey had come up with the idea so early on in the 20th century! The story centers around Helva, born with terrible physical defects, her brain is transplanted into a metal shell until she is old enough to be put inside a Space Craft where she will merge with the technology and become part of the ship. Her relationship with her pilots and passengers is poignantly portrayed, whilst her ability to sing is nurtured by those she comes to love and trust. Helva is not just a dispossessed brain implanted into a space ship, she is totally human, she loves, she grieves, she gets angry. She is all woman but she is also part of a machine that has work to do among the many planets littered across the universe. Helva becomes aware that machines with brains also can go rouge, as humans do, but even though she looses a pilot she loves, she remains true to her designation and learns to adapt to every situation thrust upon her by the humans she works with and for. The title refers to Helva's ability to sing, something she does out of love for her first pilot, and it is her singing that teaches her more about her human/machine soul, than anything she has learnt through study or experience. This is a quirky, curious novel about a human/ship hybrid, and is well worth reading, just for the wonderful ideas it comes up with. For example Helva is paid a salary to maintain herself, as well as being allowed to choose her companions (pilots. The plot itself is fragmented in that it is not continuous, rather many little stories are being told as Helva takes on various missions and meets an assortment of people both good and bad. An interesting idea that works and reads well. Well worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: LA!
Review: You know, I long ago left behind the wonderful, yet often cheezy and poorly written world of science fiction/fantasy, but I'll always hold onto this book for some reason. I just finished it tonight for the umpteenth time and will never let go of my battered, smelly copy stumbled upon at a fleamarket one fateful day in a 12 year-old's life. Ah, the joys of surprised, then thwarted love ... I blush to admit that this little piece of science fiction fun rates up there with Jane Eyre, as far as my private, never-to-be-publically-admitted literary scale goes.
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