The Ship Who Searched

Brainship

De: Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey

Narrado por: Constance Towers

Hypatia Cade—a headstrong, smart, and spunky 7-year-old girl—falls ill after contracting an alien virus that renders her a quadriplegic. Robbed of her mobility, Tia's only hope to be free of the prison of her body is to train to be one of the legendary star travelers, a brainship—a cyborg human being and interstellar spacecraft. Following her training, she must find the right partner to be her brawn, the human element every brainship requires.

When the disease that debilitated Tia threatens thousands more, selecting a brawn who is her true soul mate may allow Tia to find the origin of the terrible plague—and perhaps even a cure.

©2013 Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey (P)2022 Phoenix Books

Prefer unabridged but not too bad

The abridged version leaves out much of the soul searching and parentheses that Ms Lackey indulges in, which is good. But this version, as other readers have said, goes a little - just a little - too far. The scene where Hypatia chooses a 'brawn' is cut drastically and looses it's coherance. The bits with the bear are cut too much. Lars is cut too much. Etc. The book is cut to a little more that two hours. A three hour version would be much better.

The story is still enjoyable

However, as others have commented, the abridgement is very poorly done, with characters making reference to comments made earlier in the story that were cut, and, in one case, a character "replies" to a question that was not asked.

As this is a story I know very well (I have lost count of the number of times I've reread it), I'm frustrated by the editing. While some of the edits don't noticeably interrupt the flow of the tale, others are so glaringly obvious, I find myself pausing the book for a period of time.

I love all the Brain Ship Books

I’ve read the actual paper back copies of the entire book. My only regret with the audio version is that it isn’t the entire book. I think the narrator’s voice is perfect for this book. At least as far as Hypatia goes. Listening to the abridged version does make me want to go out and buy the actual print version, which of course I already had long before I ever heard of Audible. Excellent job, in any case!

My trust in the quality of audiobooks on amazon is greatly diminished

This audiobook with Constance Towers as the narrator is just terrible. Instead of “abridged”, it should say is hacked and slashed. Both parts that gave the story it's special something and parts that connected the different scene changes were haphazardly skipped. It was common for there to not even be a 1 second pause between one scene and the next, leaving you confusion as to how things had just progressed.

This book is my favorite of the Brain Ship series, so i am upset that this book has been so mangled by the “editing.” If i did not know the original work, i may have become too confused to be able to follow this glitchy version of the story.

One of my favorite brain ship books

My favorite. of all the MCCaffrrey series. This one had some new twists on the brain/brawn relationship

Great story... but

Unfortunately for Audible, as this is my favorite book of all time, I memorized the original complete work and clearly noted the missing parts in the audible version. However, the story runs together well enough for anyone who has never read the original. My first book experience from audible and I enjoyed it.

Won't buy abridged book ever again

I really enjoyed this story and Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors. This abridgement, however, was horribly done. Some parts of the story made no sense because pertinent information was taken out earlier in the story. OR, frustratingly, a plot point is begun, but never brought to fruition. I have since purchased the book, read it, and loved it. If this was a performance of the full, unabridged book, I would easily rate it 5/5.

A good story and clear narration

I have loved Anne McCaffrey's books for years now. In fact, I'd had this audiobook on tape long ago, and was happy to see it here on Audible. Listening to it was like visiting with an old friend.

The story line itself is about the 'brain ships'. It starts off with Tia being this perfect child, who then gets seriously ill and is paralyzed. Her only option for a full life is being a brain ship. She's smart and real, as she remembers her happy childhood and is a well adjusted adult who happens to be the brain running the ship. Her partner or 'brawn', Alex, is very likable too.

The story is a bit implausible, but I still like it. I'm happy to have purchased it again and would recommend it for a light read. There's no stress, bloodshed, etc., that so many of todays stories have. It's a good old fashioned science fiction/fantasy. The world Anne McCaffrey has painted is easy to visualize and follow along with. I'm sorry that she has passed away and there will be no more of these fun stories. Her mind worked in mysterious ways!

The narrator is good, but I felt her voice was way too older sounding to be reading the part of a 7 year old girl. Of course, that was only the first half hour of the audiobook, and after that it didn't bug me anymore. Her voice is clear and easy to listen to, but she's definitely suited to more adult roles.

Abridged- not full audio

Well performed and read but I bought the audio version to supplement my reading and it is , unfortunately, abridged. I kept thinking I was missing things. I had to go back and reread the chapters I had listened to for everything to make sense. Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey are excellent authors and don’t need their works shortened. I am disappointed. I rated three overall and four for the story because of the abridgment. The original is great- especially considering what was known about prosthetics, plagues and AI at the time they were written,

Unabridged Version

This is my favorite of Anne MacCaffrey's Ships series - however, the abridgement detracts from the story. I would love to hear this as an unabridged version.