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Restoree
Sara has been a "plain" girl... but now she was not.
She had been a human on Earth... but now she was not.
She had certainly been alive... now she didn't know.
The only thing Sara felt sure of was that she knew more than anyone else suspected she did.
And that she had to get out -- from whereever, or whatever, she was.
She had been a human on Earth... but now she was not.
She had certainly been alive... now she didn't know.
The only thing Sara felt sure of was that she knew more than anyone else suspected she did.
And that she had to get out -- from whereever, or whatever, she was.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Anne McCaffrey
487 books7,419 followersAnne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969). Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
March 13, 2020
A soft 3 stars for this one. I bought this 1967 space opera romance - Anne McCaffrey's first published novel! - as a paperback, back in the day when I was a huge fan. (Not so much now, sorry, Anne.) It might even still be hidden somewhere on my overstuffed basement bookshelves.
In Restoree, Sara, an unattractive, virginal Earth woman, the typical lonely librarian, is kidnapped by aliens. What happens next is mostly gone from her memory, but when she fully comes to she finds that she's a caretaker for a man in a mental institution. (Oh and also: she has a new, more attractive face and body. Yay!) Sara is suspicious of the whole set-up, so she continues to act witless (as the guys in charge expect from her, because of Reasons). Eventually she figures out that her patient, Harlan, is Somebody Important, and that the guys in charge of the institution are drugging him into a stupor.
So Sara sneakily starts feeding Harlan her own, undrugged food. When Harlan shakes off the drugs after a few days, they escape. There's political and military conflict, mixed with a love story, and several people in Harlan's world are suspicious that Sara is a restoree - a person captured by the Mil spaceships who was physically stripped of her skin, which invariably causes the restoree to go insane. And there Sara is, in her nice new golden skin. But not crazy. Hmm.
Lots of old-fashioned romance tropes here, surrounded by a plot that has occasional memorable bits encased in a lot of utterly forgettable space opera-y stuff and hand-wavy science. Go read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga books instead if you're interested in this kind of book.
In Restoree, Sara, an unattractive, virginal Earth woman, the typical lonely librarian, is kidnapped by aliens. What happens next is mostly gone from her memory, but when she fully comes to she finds that she's a caretaker for a man in a mental institution. (Oh and also: she has a new, more attractive face and body. Yay!) Sara is suspicious of the whole set-up, so she continues to act witless (as the guys in charge expect from her, because of Reasons). Eventually she figures out that her patient, Harlan, is Somebody Important, and that the guys in charge of the institution are drugging him into a stupor.
So Sara sneakily starts feeding Harlan her own, undrugged food. When Harlan shakes off the drugs after a few days, they escape. There's political and military conflict, mixed with a love story, and several people in Harlan's world are suspicious that Sara is a restoree - a person captured by the Mil spaceships who was physically stripped of her skin, which invariably causes the restoree to go insane. And there Sara is, in her nice new golden skin. But not crazy. Hmm.
Lots of old-fashioned romance tropes here, surrounded by a plot that has occasional memorable bits encased in a lot of utterly forgettable space opera-y stuff and hand-wavy science. Go read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga books instead if you're interested in this kind of book.
August 15, 2012
I read this mostly as a historical analysis of science-fiction as it was the first book published by Anne McCaffrey in 1967. (She has said that she wrote it in response to the misogynistic tropes of 1960s science-fiction where women were helpless addendums to the male-driven plot.) Reading it almost 50 years later), the actions of the female protagonist are still completely dictated by the alien men in the story. Yes, the protagonist is head-strong and capable (she can sail a ship and saves the life of one man".) However, the alien society is entirely male dominated and women are "claimed" by men with little female self-will being evident. Women are expected to bear children and men are ridiculed for being virgins (seems pretty close to a 1960s mentality.) So while the female protagonist has a personality, she still faints at various times and isn't free within this half feudal/half technological society. It was a disappointment - the dialogue was weak and unbelievable and the main plot lacked suspense or interest.
Anne McCaffrey was later able to fashion more nuanced and believable female characters in less ridiculously derivative settings in her later Pern novels.
I would skip this book unless you want to see how even when an author attempts to write a new novel with female achievement in a different society, she still cannot break free of the gender biases and prejudices of her own time.
Anne McCaffrey was later able to fashion more nuanced and believable female characters in less ridiculously derivative settings in her later Pern novels.
I would skip this book unless you want to see how even when an author attempts to write a new novel with female achievement in a different society, she still cannot break free of the gender biases and prejudices of her own time.
April 21, 2012
Wow! This book still stands up today! Written in '67 it's a good, solid sci fi romance. I first read this as a teenager in the '80's. I loved it then and I love it now. Fun to reread something I enjoyed as a kid and enjoyed it just as much as an adult. This one would make a great movie! I haven't read Ms. McCaffrey in a long time but she used to be one of my top 10 authors. It's too bad it's so hard to find books like this today. This is one of those books that needs to be "rediscovered" by readers everywhere; along with Tarzan, and the Mars series. They stand the test of time and are good, clean, and fun crowd pleasers.
July 23, 2010
This will be my 3rd go around of this book. It has been several years since I last read it and from what I remember, I really liked it. We'll see if my tastes have changed.
Update --- Just finished reading and I still love this book. I've often wished that Anne would have written a sequel or at least continued on for a few more chapters. Granted there are a few corny lines and at times I found myself skipping a few paragraphs because there was too much description on the scenery (which often bores me) but overall it's a good story with action and romance.
Update --- Just finished reading and I still love this book. I've often wished that Anne would have written a sequel or at least continued on for a few more chapters. Granted there are a few corny lines and at times I found myself skipping a few paragraphs because there was too much description on the scenery (which often bores me) but overall it's a good story with action and romance.
March 27, 2023
3.3 stars
A pesar de varias historias cortas publicadas antes, "Restoree" se considera la primera novela publicada de Anne McCaffrey en 1967.
Sara es una bibliotecaria con sueños de independencia que es abducida y despierta en otro planeta y otra piel. La idea es bastante interesante, pero se va por el lado de scifi romance, o lo que se reconoce como flash-romance más bien. Claro que entre medio esta la amenaza de los aliens come-gente (que me hacen acordar bastante en cierto sentido a las aliens de SG-Atlantis), y el pequeño detalle que debe escapar de un sanatorio para enfermos mentales con un paciente VIP a cuestas. Lo que da pie a toda una intriga política.
Los Lothar son tal como me figuro uno de esos mundos de la galaxia Pegaso con un fuerte contraste de tecnologías, por un lado con carretas y aparatos voladores, con clanes y un Warlord ligado a una familia, y cientificos obsesivos.
Por más que la autora queria una heroina fuerte, el hecho de que Sara se pegue al sujeto fuerte bueno le vale como sobreviviente, pero por otro lado denota el lado machista con comentarios de la mujer que solo le vale sonreir al ser bonita y que son reverenciadas por dar hijos para la guerra... a más que alguien es invalidado de gobernar con rumores sólo por rumores de impotencia.
Igual ,es corta , se lee rápido. Pero se quisiera que hubiera desarrollado la idea de estar en otra piel. Sara es como 'yay soy linda' y shrug.
A pesar de varias historias cortas publicadas antes, "Restoree" se considera la primera novela publicada de Anne McCaffrey en 1967.
Sara es una bibliotecaria con sueños de independencia que es abducida y despierta en otro planeta y otra piel. La idea es bastante interesante, pero se va por el lado de scifi romance, o lo que se reconoce como flash-romance más bien. Claro que entre medio esta la amenaza de los aliens come-gente (que me hacen acordar bastante en cierto sentido a las aliens de SG-Atlantis), y el pequeño detalle que debe escapar de un sanatorio para enfermos mentales con un paciente VIP a cuestas. Lo que da pie a toda una intriga política.
Los Lothar son tal como me figuro uno de esos mundos de la galaxia Pegaso con un fuerte contraste de tecnologías, por un lado con carretas y aparatos voladores, con clanes y un Warlord ligado a una familia, y cientificos obsesivos.
Por más que la autora queria una heroina fuerte, el hecho de que Sara se pegue al sujeto fuerte bueno le vale como sobreviviente, pero por otro lado denota el lado machista con comentarios de la mujer que solo le vale sonreir al ser bonita y que son reverenciadas por dar hijos para la guerra... a más que alguien es invalidado de gobernar con rumores sólo por rumores de impotencia.
Igual ,es corta , se lee rápido. Pero se quisiera que hubiera desarrollado la idea de estar en otra piel. Sara es como 'yay soy linda' y shrug.
December 24, 2011
Usually when I'm going to review a book, I'll start writing it around the 2/3rds mark. By then, I have a pretty good handle on the plot, the writing style and I can get my initial impressions down, so that when I finish the book, I simply do the edit/rewrite and add the conclusion based on how it all turns out. But with Anne McCaffrey's Restoree, I hit that point and realized I had no idea how I felt about the book yet. Then I read to about the 75% mark and still wasn't sure how I felt. It wasn't until I was maybe a dozen pages from the end when I finally started to get a sense for where the story was going or have some investment in what was going to happen (or what was not).
Restoree is the tale of Sara, a lonely New Yorker who is kidnapped by aliens and loses all but flashes of her memory between the abduction and her coming-to, when she discovers she has been made to perform rote caregiver tasks as a sort of mindless drone on behalf of a comatose man. As an act of self-preservation she maintains her facade of witlessness until she discovers that there is a sinister purpose for her state and that of her ward, so she hatches a desperate plan to escape the situation and in the process discovers that the man she's been attending to is the Regent of a faraway planet. This planet, Lothar, has been under constant threat of attack by an invading alien force known as the Mil, and following several decades of relative peace, the planet has fallen under political turmoil. The majority of the book deals with the Regent, a man named Harlan, and Sara trying to escape and right the plot that put Harlan into a drugged stupor under Sara's care.
Through the story Harlan and Sara fall in love, and Sara has a knack for getting herself into sticky situations since Harlan suspects her of being a Restoree, which is a condition punishable by death, so her origin cannot be revealed. But Sara is ignorant of a lot of Lotharian custom, history and geography so there is some tension about whether or not she will reveal herself at the wrong time, increasing as she gets ever more entangled in the politics of the planet while she tries to reveal the plot against Harlan and re-instate him as Regent.
I think the main issue I had with Restoree is that it's kind of directionless, and for a short, 250 page book, it really wanders and meanders and takes forever getting to the stuff that really matters to the reader. A lot of the decisions in the writing process are very odd ones, to me. For example, the book reads a bit like a romance between Sara and Harlan, but there is very little romantic tension here. Sure, there are some for-show complexities as Sara becomes a means for a Warlord-elect to undo some baseless rumors which makes her ability to be with Harlan somewhat complicated, but the end result isn't really a divide between Sara and Harlan, but simply a lack of public declaration. At no point is their relationship really in question or in jeopardy. Additionally, the key plot point of Restoration and Sara being a Restoree is hinted at throughout but isn't really explained until very late in the book at which point all the fears about it that Harlan hints at end up being more or less unfounded which cheapens a lot of the tension that propels the book forward, such that it is.
There are parts of the book that really work, such as the initial chance encounter that leads Sara to the palace without her allies where she has to resourcefully find a way to make the right friends and navigate the unfamiliar social customs. Additionally an astoundingly late-breaking subplot (which serves also as a very convenient contrivance to interrupt a potentially difficult tribunal) involves a military action that takes place remotely. The effect is like a story told about a space shuttle mission where the point of view never leaves ground control. The level of tension, aided in large part by the lack of concrete knowledge of what is really happening out on the battlefield, is gripping. But these segments only fill a few dozen pages. Way too much time is devoted to things like hatching a scheme for Sara to infiltrate the palace—a plan that is almost immediately scrapped, after it's been mapped out in great detail over five or six pages—or to Sara expressing dismay over certain people or events while everyone around her says, "Nah, don't worry about it."
Sara herself is a well-realized, admirable heroine. Harlan is a bit too superman-ish, but he's a reasonable foil for Sara. My biggest problem with the rest of the cast is that Ms. McCaffrey chooses too many names that are similar to others: Jessl and Jokan, Sara and Fara, Gleto and Gorlot. It gets kind of confusing and is just unnecessary.
I didn't dislike Restoree, but it had too many weird tangents and too little focus for me to really enjoy. I liked McCaffrey's style and her imagination and attention to certain details that might have been overlooked by other authors (the technology level of Lothar was particularly interesting and novel) indicated there is enough promise on display here for me to want to dive into some of her other work. But I just can't give more than faint praise for a book that reads a bit too much like a first draft.
Restoree is the tale of Sara, a lonely New Yorker who is kidnapped by aliens and loses all but flashes of her memory between the abduction and her coming-to, when she discovers she has been made to perform rote caregiver tasks as a sort of mindless drone on behalf of a comatose man. As an act of self-preservation she maintains her facade of witlessness until she discovers that there is a sinister purpose for her state and that of her ward, so she hatches a desperate plan to escape the situation and in the process discovers that the man she's been attending to is the Regent of a faraway planet. This planet, Lothar, has been under constant threat of attack by an invading alien force known as the Mil, and following several decades of relative peace, the planet has fallen under political turmoil. The majority of the book deals with the Regent, a man named Harlan, and Sara trying to escape and right the plot that put Harlan into a drugged stupor under Sara's care.
Through the story Harlan and Sara fall in love, and Sara has a knack for getting herself into sticky situations since Harlan suspects her of being a Restoree, which is a condition punishable by death, so her origin cannot be revealed. But Sara is ignorant of a lot of Lotharian custom, history and geography so there is some tension about whether or not she will reveal herself at the wrong time, increasing as she gets ever more entangled in the politics of the planet while she tries to reveal the plot against Harlan and re-instate him as Regent.
I think the main issue I had with Restoree is that it's kind of directionless, and for a short, 250 page book, it really wanders and meanders and takes forever getting to the stuff that really matters to the reader. A lot of the decisions in the writing process are very odd ones, to me. For example, the book reads a bit like a romance between Sara and Harlan, but there is very little romantic tension here. Sure, there are some for-show complexities as Sara becomes a means for a Warlord-elect to undo some baseless rumors which makes her ability to be with Harlan somewhat complicated, but the end result isn't really a divide between Sara and Harlan, but simply a lack of public declaration. At no point is their relationship really in question or in jeopardy. Additionally, the key plot point of Restoration and Sara being a Restoree is hinted at throughout but isn't really explained until very late in the book at which point all the fears about it that Harlan hints at end up being more or less unfounded which cheapens a lot of the tension that propels the book forward, such that it is.
There are parts of the book that really work, such as the initial chance encounter that leads Sara to the palace without her allies where she has to resourcefully find a way to make the right friends and navigate the unfamiliar social customs. Additionally an astoundingly late-breaking subplot (which serves also as a very convenient contrivance to interrupt a potentially difficult tribunal) involves a military action that takes place remotely. The effect is like a story told about a space shuttle mission where the point of view never leaves ground control. The level of tension, aided in large part by the lack of concrete knowledge of what is really happening out on the battlefield, is gripping. But these segments only fill a few dozen pages. Way too much time is devoted to things like hatching a scheme for Sara to infiltrate the palace—a plan that is almost immediately scrapped, after it's been mapped out in great detail over five or six pages—or to Sara expressing dismay over certain people or events while everyone around her says, "Nah, don't worry about it."
Sara herself is a well-realized, admirable heroine. Harlan is a bit too superman-ish, but he's a reasonable foil for Sara. My biggest problem with the rest of the cast is that Ms. McCaffrey chooses too many names that are similar to others: Jessl and Jokan, Sara and Fara, Gleto and Gorlot. It gets kind of confusing and is just unnecessary.
I didn't dislike Restoree, but it had too many weird tangents and too little focus for me to really enjoy. I liked McCaffrey's style and her imagination and attention to certain details that might have been overlooked by other authors (the technology level of Lothar was particularly interesting and novel) indicated there is enough promise on display here for me to want to dive into some of her other work. But I just can't give more than faint praise for a book that reads a bit too much like a first draft.
December 24, 2023
I’ve had this book since the seventies. Not a great novel but still enjoyable.
Read
November 26, 2012Sara, a country girl living in New York City, is kidnapped by aliens intent on stocking their larder. After the horrors of a human abattoir, she comes gradually to her senses to find herself playing nurse to a non-responsive patient, on a different planet, with a new face. And discovers that her charge is being deliberately drugged into insensibility...
"Restoree" is one of the earliest examples of science fiction romance. The romance itself is not too bad - a little overly quick to establish, but at least based on admiration for bravery and action (as well as the pretty face Sara now possesses). Sadly, Sara gets less and less opportunity to exhibit bravery or action as the book moves on, and does a lot of wailing and being afraid. Along with plenty of blushing in response to grinning. The world she's on also has a system of men "claiming" women, and Sara is the only woman who is a mover in the story.
The set up is one which keeps tripping you up, but never so completely you give up and stop reading. Why do the Mil eat sentient beings instead of, say, vast herds of wildebeast? Why do they skin but not kill people? Don't people store better with their skin on? The over-the-top horror toward restorees (of a kill-nearly-on-sight variety) also doesn't make a huge amount of sense. And her acquisition of their language is very unlikely.
Still, it's an entertaining enough read and holds up on re-read quite well for a 1960s novel. Interesting to note that Bujold's "Shards of Honour" has a very similar plot - woman from another planet gets tangled in politics of militaristic world and ends up marrying the regent - though Bujold does it a great deal better.
"Restoree" is one of the earliest examples of science fiction romance. The romance itself is not too bad - a little overly quick to establish, but at least based on admiration for bravery and action (as well as the pretty face Sara now possesses). Sadly, Sara gets less and less opportunity to exhibit bravery or action as the book moves on, and does a lot of wailing and being afraid. Along with plenty of blushing in response to grinning. The world she's on also has a system of men "claiming" women, and Sara is the only woman who is a mover in the story.
The set up is one which keeps tripping you up, but never so completely you give up and stop reading. Why do the Mil eat sentient beings instead of, say, vast herds of wildebeast? Why do they skin but not kill people? Don't people store better with their skin on? The over-the-top horror toward restorees (of a kill-nearly-on-sight variety) also doesn't make a huge amount of sense. And her acquisition of their language is very unlikely.
Still, it's an entertaining enough read and holds up on re-read quite well for a 1960s novel. Interesting to note that Bujold's "Shards of Honour" has a very similar plot - woman from another planet gets tangled in politics of militaristic world and ends up marrying the regent - though Bujold does it a great deal better.
January 7, 2015
I loved this book so much I stole it from my college roommate. I reasoned that she didn't love it as much as I did (she really didn't) and she'd probably just throw it away or leave it behind at the end of the semester anyway, so...I borrowed it and never returned it. I was right to do so. She turned into a colossal jerk and our friendship ended. But my love for the book remains! This is one of the coolest books I've ever read. I love the premise and the adventures. It's like two stories in one. I used to read it about once a year, but I haven't done that in a while. Next time I do, I will write a much better review.
Addition to review
I read this again over Christmas break and I don't love it as much as I used to. It's kind of a romantic sci-fi novel with the main character (human female) falling in love with bad-ass non-human male. It's still an entertaining read though.
Addition to review
I read this again over Christmas break and I don't love it as much as I used to. It's kind of a romantic sci-fi novel with the main character (human female) falling in love with bad-ass non-human male. It's still an entertaining read though.
November 17, 2022
3.0⭐
One of Anne McCaffrey's earlier novels (1967). Despite its science fiction trappings, to my eyes it's more of a fantasy or romance story.
An ordinary and unattractive (in her mind) young woman is abducted by evil creatures (aliens) as food. She regains consciousness on a fantastical new world, in a beautiful new body. She's been conditioned to act as nurse to a supposed mental patient, who in reality is the wrongly imprisoned ruler (Regent) of the planet Lothar. She helps him escape and multiple adventures, not to mention true love, ensue.
It's decent enough escapist fare, though dated. The main character (Sara) vacillates throughout the book between capable heroine and " trembling" (a term McCaffrey uses often) damsel in distress. The world the author creates is a feudal mix of starships and ox-carts. The suspension of disbelief required is, needless to say, substantial. I found it an old fashioned but nonetheless enjoyable book. The setting reminds me somewhat of Pern, from McCaffrey's Dragon-rider series and Sara's transformation resembles The Ship Who Sang ( to a degree). A solid three stars. -30-
One of Anne McCaffrey's earlier novels (1967). Despite its science fiction trappings, to my eyes it's more of a fantasy or romance story.
An ordinary and unattractive (in her mind) young woman is abducted by evil creatures (aliens) as food. She regains consciousness on a fantastical new world, in a beautiful new body. She's been conditioned to act as nurse to a supposed mental patient, who in reality is the wrongly imprisoned ruler (Regent) of the planet Lothar. She helps him escape and multiple adventures, not to mention true love, ensue.
It's decent enough escapist fare, though dated. The main character (Sara) vacillates throughout the book between capable heroine and " trembling" (a term McCaffrey uses often) damsel in distress. The world the author creates is a feudal mix of starships and ox-carts. The suspension of disbelief required is, needless to say, substantial. I found it an old fashioned but nonetheless enjoyable book. The setting reminds me somewhat of Pern, from McCaffrey's Dragon-rider series and Sara's transformation resembles The Ship Who Sang ( to a degree). A solid three stars. -30-
September 4, 2014
-¿Se puede luchar contra ciertos estereotipos mientras se usan sin el menor pudor?.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Una mujer que camina por Central Park sufre una extraña y desagradable experiencia que la mantiene en un estado de duermevela onírico. Cuando despierta, está en otro lugar, otro planeta, en el que hay algún tipo de guerra y en el que se mantienen unas costumbres distintas y extrañas a las que nuestra protagonista debe acostumbrarse poco a poco, igual que a su nueva ocupación y, lo que es más importante, a los cambios físicos que ha sufrido y que han supuesto una mejora desde el punto de vista estético.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Una mujer que camina por Central Park sufre una extraña y desagradable experiencia que la mantiene en un estado de duermevela onírico. Cuando despierta, está en otro lugar, otro planeta, en el que hay algún tipo de guerra y en el que se mantienen unas costumbres distintas y extrañas a las que nuestra protagonista debe acostumbrarse poco a poco, igual que a su nueva ocupación y, lo que es más importante, a los cambios físicos que ha sufrido y que han supuesto una mejora desde el punto de vista estético.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
November 22, 2022
I have read this book several times and I can't seem to get enough of it. I read somewhere that McCaffrey wrote this book because she was tired of not seeing strong female characters in sci fi/fantasy stories. I don't know if that's true, but I like the fact that Sara is a librarian and just happens to have the knowledge or skills needed by Harlan during their lucky escape. She didn't start out a beauty, but ends up one on this new planet and handles the new attention well. When I need a shot of strength in the face of insurmountable odds, I bring out this book and know I can do anything as long as I have a good bit of patrol issue lol...it's a fun book that lightens the load a bit.
September 2, 2011
I came up with this longterm plan to read Anne McCaffrey's Pern series so willy nilly I started picking up her books in second hand shops. The willy nilly aspect led to me buying more than a couple of books not in the Pern universe. And this little gem seemed like as good a place to start reading McCaffrey as any.
While I wasn't blown away by "Restoree", I liked it well enough. It's a sci fi romance, with emphasis on sci fi. I haven't read a lof of sci fi and certainly not from the 60's but I thought this had held up well in that aspect. The romance, well, not as much. While it was sweet and Harlen sure was both manly and romantic in a nice "ugly" package, Sara's whole going from ugly duckling to golden skinned beauty queen with a perfect nose was a bit cheesy. I have to hand it to the girl tho, she managed herself well, she was plucky and smart and she her best in a mind-blowing situation.
Another thing that has improved a lot since the 60's is the cover. I don't know if the neanderthal look was considered hot back then but I definately had to make a serious effort to erase that image of Harlen in order to enjoy the story...
While I wasn't blown away by "Restoree", I liked it well enough. It's a sci fi romance, with emphasis on sci fi. I haven't read a lof of sci fi and certainly not from the 60's but I thought this had held up well in that aspect. The romance, well, not as much. While it was sweet and Harlen sure was both manly and romantic in a nice "ugly" package, Sara's whole going from ugly duckling to golden skinned beauty queen with a perfect nose was a bit cheesy. I have to hand it to the girl tho, she managed herself well, she was plucky and smart and she her best in a mind-blowing situation.
Another thing that has improved a lot since the 60's is the cover. I don't know if the neanderthal look was considered hot back then but I definately had to make a serious effort to erase that image of Harlen in order to enjoy the story...
December 30, 2013
I can't believe this book was written in 1967 because except for a few small things it felt like a modern sci-fi book. I'm finally starting to read this author's books and loved this one. Seems like a precursor to modern sci-fi romance books.
October 17, 2012
This was Anne McCaffrey's first book, and still in print after fifty years. I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to her. This doesn't have the awesome world building that make her Pern Dragon books, or her Crystal books, or her Ship books special. A lot in the plot is pretty creaky. Much more romance novel in feel than something you find in the science fiction section (See, cover, at least in my edition, of woman held in man's arms.) Woman is abducted by aliens and finds herself in new body. Woman meets alien. Woman loves alien. This is an old-fashioned romance, in ways I do find dated, even eye-rolling. But did I enjoy it? Absolutely! Just not as much as many of McCaffrey's other books, so don't start here. When it came time to make room on my bookshelf, this didn't make the cut--others by McCaffrey did.
July 8, 2011
An earth-girl-stolen-to-alien-planet political drama with a great romantic thread and a light breezy tone. It has a summer read feel to it. Don't worry, the aliens are amorphous ~ no bugs. There is some plastic-surgery kind of experimentation, but it's very light. The romance element is wonderfully well done.
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March 10, 2016I read this several decades ago but remember little about it. Looking forward to reading this again.
July 4, 2018
When I was young, late teens/early twenties I think, I devoured all of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, but I never read any of her other books. About ten years ago I did read one of her non-science fiction/fantasy books, THE LADY, which I enjoyed. But after starting a reread of the Pern books, I decided I wanted to branch out and began collecting everything of hers I could find. RESTOREE was her first published novel, so it seemed like the perfect place to start.
The writing put me in mind of Mary Stewart, though I haven't read anything by Stewart in several years. Sara is walking in Central Park one minute, then the next minute she is nursemaid to a nearly catatonic man on a different planet, with her memories of the events in between hazy. For the first part of the book I was completely captivated as Sara becomes more aware of her surroundings and the man she is caring for, and then as she and Harlan escape from a sanitarium and travel to (relative) safety. After that, some of the fascination wore off as Sara found herself involved in the politics surrounding Harlan. But towards the end it picked up again, and overall I really enjoyed it.
I'm on a quest now to read all of Ms. McCaffrey's other books, preferably in publication order, which should probably take me about ten years or so!
The writing put me in mind of Mary Stewart, though I haven't read anything by Stewart in several years. Sara is walking in Central Park one minute, then the next minute she is nursemaid to a nearly catatonic man on a different planet, with her memories of the events in between hazy. For the first part of the book I was completely captivated as Sara becomes more aware of her surroundings and the man she is caring for, and then as she and Harlan escape from a sanitarium and travel to (relative) safety. After that, some of the fascination wore off as Sara found herself involved in the politics surrounding Harlan. But towards the end it picked up again, and overall I really enjoyed it.
I'm on a quest now to read all of Ms. McCaffrey's other books, preferably in publication order, which should probably take me about ten years or so!
October 23, 2014
The edition I read was, I think, the first paperback edition. It was the first book I read by her & I'd call it a SF Romance. I really liked it, although it is kind of a hackneyed plot. Alien abduction & a Prince riding to the rescue. I can't really give it 4 stars, although I'd like to because of the place it holds in my reading - an early step to her work.
August 20, 2020
This is one of my favourite of Anne McCaffrey’s books. The story grabs you quickly and it’s a page turner that’s hard to put down from then on.
March 23, 2018
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures: http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...
“The only warning of danger I had was a disgusting wave of dead sea-creature stench.”
One day a young librarian named Sara is walking around Central Park, only to be abducted by aliens. A multitude of horrors occur, and Sara loses consciousness. When she starts coming to, she finds herself playing the role of a mindless servant who is nursing a man at a mental institution. She is careful not to let on that she is conscious and can think for herself again. She doesn’t know where she is, but she’s far away from home, and in an unfamiliar body. Oh, and she’s pretty sure that the man she’s taking care of has been poisoned.
Sara’s intuition is correct, and when she rescues her patient, she learns that his name is Harlan, and that he was Regent to a Warlord before his illness. And by aiding Harlan’s escape, Sara becomes entangled Lotharian politics, and in their fight against the Mil, a race of aliens that prey on humanoids as if they were cattle.
The Mil remind me of something straight out of Lovecraft. We see what happens to people who encounter the Mil, and it’s pretty damn horrifying. But aside from their awful smell, we never see what the Mil look like. It’s left entirely in the readers’ imagination, which makes them all the more terrifying.
The Lotharians have been fighting the Mil for a long time, but their society went from your run-of-the-mill medieval barbarian society to stealing Mill spacecraft. So you’ve got this planet that’s pretty much the most fun elements of sci-fi and fantasy wrapped into one, and society there is based around the threat of high-casualty space warfare. It’s technology is both ahead of and behind our own–the kind of society that’s got space travel but not paper.
The relationship between Sara and Harlan is like something out of a vintage romance novel, except that Sara has skills and talents and is a competent human being. That’s why it’s particularly noticeable that Harlan always takes the lead, to the point that aside from rescuing Harlan, Sara doesn’t take the initiative on anything for the rest of the book. Their sexual relationship is definitely more attuned to the cultural norms of the 1960s than today, as the lines of consent are not as clear-cut as one would like them to be. But Restoree is a product of its time, and I’m not going to judge it too harshly for it.
I loved Restoree, even though it doesn’t stand the test of time as well as some of McCaffrey’s other books. It’s got that late 1960s pulpy sword and planet vibe that I absolutely adore and can’t get enough of.
“The only warning of danger I had was a disgusting wave of dead sea-creature stench.”
One day a young librarian named Sara is walking around Central Park, only to be abducted by aliens. A multitude of horrors occur, and Sara loses consciousness. When she starts coming to, she finds herself playing the role of a mindless servant who is nursing a man at a mental institution. She is careful not to let on that she is conscious and can think for herself again. She doesn’t know where she is, but she’s far away from home, and in an unfamiliar body. Oh, and she’s pretty sure that the man she’s taking care of has been poisoned.
Sara’s intuition is correct, and when she rescues her patient, she learns that his name is Harlan, and that he was Regent to a Warlord before his illness. And by aiding Harlan’s escape, Sara becomes entangled Lotharian politics, and in their fight against the Mil, a race of aliens that prey on humanoids as if they were cattle.
The Mil remind me of something straight out of Lovecraft. We see what happens to people who encounter the Mil, and it’s pretty damn horrifying. But aside from their awful smell, we never see what the Mil look like. It’s left entirely in the readers’ imagination, which makes them all the more terrifying.
The Lotharians have been fighting the Mil for a long time, but their society went from your run-of-the-mill medieval barbarian society to stealing Mill spacecraft. So you’ve got this planet that’s pretty much the most fun elements of sci-fi and fantasy wrapped into one, and society there is based around the threat of high-casualty space warfare. It’s technology is both ahead of and behind our own–the kind of society that’s got space travel but not paper.
The relationship between Sara and Harlan is like something out of a vintage romance novel, except that Sara has skills and talents and is a competent human being. That’s why it’s particularly noticeable that Harlan always takes the lead, to the point that aside from rescuing Harlan, Sara doesn’t take the initiative on anything for the rest of the book. Their sexual relationship is definitely more attuned to the cultural norms of the 1960s than today, as the lines of consent are not as clear-cut as one would like them to be. But Restoree is a product of its time, and I’m not going to judge it too harshly for it.
I loved Restoree, even though it doesn’t stand the test of time as well as some of McCaffrey’s other books. It’s got that late 1960s pulpy sword and planet vibe that I absolutely adore and can’t get enough of.
July 9, 2019
This is a definitely dated romance space opera from the 1960s. Sara, a human, is kidnapped by aliens. She's believed to be a simplistic slave functioning at the level of a three yr. old because of whatever they've done to her but her human physiology overcomes the stresses (with time) and she becomes self-aware enough to realize that she is being forced to take care of a man who is mentally ill. The language here is very un-pc and Sara herself has moments where I found her rather caustic towards others. She finds out the man isn't actually mentally ill but being drugged into a stupor as part of a nefarious plot and cures him. The two escape, and Harlan turns out to be a rich alien politician of great influence. Naturally, they fall in love and live HEA.
The book depicts a very chauvinistic society in which women are "claimed" and single women can't walk anywhere without men accosting them regarding their marital status. It reminded me in many ways of Johanna Lindsey's Warrior's Women only better written and slightly less cheesy. There is a an actual plot to this story involving an interstellar war, a mad scientist and a conniving despot. I can't really recommend this but I can't completely condemn it either. For its time, it's a very good story. But the world has changed.
The book depicts a very chauvinistic society in which women are "claimed" and single women can't walk anywhere without men accosting them regarding their marital status. It reminded me in many ways of Johanna Lindsey's Warrior's Women only better written and slightly less cheesy. There is a an actual plot to this story involving an interstellar war, a mad scientist and a conniving despot. I can't really recommend this but I can't completely condemn it either. For its time, it's a very good story. But the world has changed.
May 28, 2020
Just thinking back on this book, which I read not too long ago while binge-reading a stack of Anne McCaffrey's other works. Even considering the time period this was written in, it's very hard to believe this is by the same author who wrote Dragonflight and The Ship who Sang, and all 3 books were written within a year of each other or less! (Restoree - 1967, Dragonflight - 1968, The Ship who Sang - 1969). Sara, the protagonist, seems to have so little agency compared to Lessa or Helva, and is completely at the mercy of the (entirely male) planetary administration for most of the book. I had a hard time identifying with her even in the beginning; even though she was intelligent and resourceful, she was shallow and had bigoted feelings toward other people. It's very disappointing. I also didn't appreciate the horribly graphic descriptions of what happens to people who become restorees. I don't think there's anything else quite like it in McCaffrey's other books. I'd probably recommend reading this for historical purposes only, and not for entertainment. I certainly wasn't entertained.
September 24, 2018
This book felt like the author wanted to write a really progressive female character but because it was 1967 she didn’t know how.
The woman is capable of things but not AS capable as her male counterpart.
She’s smart but not AS smart as her male counterparts.
And thank god the aliens turned her beautiful! How else would she have gotten out of her boring virginal librarian life??
Oh and she loves to eat. Hilarious.
The woman is capable of things but not AS capable as her male counterpart.
She’s smart but not AS smart as her male counterparts.
And thank god the aliens turned her beautiful! How else would she have gotten out of her boring virginal librarian life??
Oh and she loves to eat. Hilarious.
June 21, 2020
So, there was a question on Jeopardy! about Anne McCaffrey and I thought "how come I never heard of her?", so I decided to read her first book. I see why it was so different, as the heroine is very competent, and hungry all the time. But such an odd story - I don't think I'm going to read any more of her work at the moment.
November 11, 2023
Una space opera muy al gusto de los años 60 del siglo pasado, con protagonista femenina y algunos recuerdos de la revolución sexual...
Read
April 12, 2024(alte Wertung: Sowohl von der Handlung als auch von den Charakteren her recht überzeugend und spannend. 2)
February 2, 2021
This was just ok. This is McCaffrey's first book, and although it is Science Fiction, it doesn't have the same feel as either the Pern books or the Crystal singer books.
July 22, 2015
This review and many other reviews and features can be found at www.thebookeaters.co.uk
Restoree is the tale of Sara, a girl escaping the drudgery of country life in order to study in New York, who gets swept up in a mass alien abduction by a race intent on, essentially, restocking their larder. She witnesses all sorts of horrific sights in what amounts to a human abattoir which sends her into deep shock. When she recovers her sense of self, she finds herself on what she knows to be an alien (albeit populated with very human humanoid aliens) world in a skin that is not the one she remembers. She is one of a number of pretty female attendants in a strange asylum whose job it is to care for catatonically insane men. She quickly realises that her charge, a man named Harlan, has been drugged into this state and uses her wits to free him. Harlan was the Regent for the underage Warlord (and also his nephew) of the planet, Lothar, which is frequently attacked by the same aliens who kidnapped Sara- the Mil. What follows is a race to have Harlan restored as Regent in order to save the Warlord and Lothar from the machinations and greed of the usurper before his actions destroy them all.
This was Anne McCaffrey’s first book, first published in 1967, and it is well known amongst McCaffrey fans that she intended the book as a ‘jab’ against the way women were portrayed in 1960s sci-fi.
I have read this, and many other McCaffrey books many many times. My mother first introduced me to Anne McCaffrey when I was around 11 or 12 and Restoree has always been one of my favourites. It has a good premise, is an easy well-paced read, has elements of sci-fi, adventure, romance, horror and definitely fulfils the notion of a book taking you away to somewhere new. For the younger me it was exciting and adventurous; the main character had been almost as bookish as I was and yet she ended up having an incredible adventure and was an active participant in a world- changing event! It was pure escapist fun, and had the added bonus of clearly being an example of a strong independent heroine- Anne McCaffrey had said so.
Which is where it falls down a bit upon rereading as an older and wiser 30-something. McCaffrey may have meant the book to be an indictment on the portrayal on women in science fiction as passive swooning crying bystanders to the action but actually, that’s kind of what Sara is. Yes, she uses her wits to free Harlan from his drugs, she sails and runs with him, she provides valuable information and is a key part of the political manoeuvres that follow, but digging a little deeper, her character is an example of the very thing McCaffrey was trying to protest against and she does actually swoon quite a lot! As the story continues, she becomes increasingly passive and spends a lot of time being reassured, patronised and used as a political tool by the men in the story. The only other female character of note is also conspicuous in her lack of real contribution to the story. Lothar is a society where women are ‘claimed’ and all the important political and military decisions are made by men. Women aren’t even considered for anything outside of traditional occupations, looking pretty and bearing children for the good of Lothar.
So, older me is slightly disappointed. Yes, it’s still adventurous, and yes, I would still dearly have loved there to be a sequel, and yes, it’s still a pretty decent read… but it isn’t what it claims to be.
Younger me gives Restoree an emphatic 5 bites and wants it to remain on record as one of her favourite books, opening the doors to more and more sci-fi reading.
Older me gives Restoree 2.5 bites and despairs ever so slightly at how women were viewed in the 1960s.
I think averages out to 3.75 bites which is a little too specific! So….
3.5 bites
Restoree is the tale of Sara, a girl escaping the drudgery of country life in order to study in New York, who gets swept up in a mass alien abduction by a race intent on, essentially, restocking their larder. She witnesses all sorts of horrific sights in what amounts to a human abattoir which sends her into deep shock. When she recovers her sense of self, she finds herself on what she knows to be an alien (albeit populated with very human humanoid aliens) world in a skin that is not the one she remembers. She is one of a number of pretty female attendants in a strange asylum whose job it is to care for catatonically insane men. She quickly realises that her charge, a man named Harlan, has been drugged into this state and uses her wits to free him. Harlan was the Regent for the underage Warlord (and also his nephew) of the planet, Lothar, which is frequently attacked by the same aliens who kidnapped Sara- the Mil. What follows is a race to have Harlan restored as Regent in order to save the Warlord and Lothar from the machinations and greed of the usurper before his actions destroy them all.
This was Anne McCaffrey’s first book, first published in 1967, and it is well known amongst McCaffrey fans that she intended the book as a ‘jab’ against the way women were portrayed in 1960s sci-fi.
I have read this, and many other McCaffrey books many many times. My mother first introduced me to Anne McCaffrey when I was around 11 or 12 and Restoree has always been one of my favourites. It has a good premise, is an easy well-paced read, has elements of sci-fi, adventure, romance, horror and definitely fulfils the notion of a book taking you away to somewhere new. For the younger me it was exciting and adventurous; the main character had been almost as bookish as I was and yet she ended up having an incredible adventure and was an active participant in a world- changing event! It was pure escapist fun, and had the added bonus of clearly being an example of a strong independent heroine- Anne McCaffrey had said so.
Which is where it falls down a bit upon rereading as an older and wiser 30-something. McCaffrey may have meant the book to be an indictment on the portrayal on women in science fiction as passive swooning crying bystanders to the action but actually, that’s kind of what Sara is. Yes, she uses her wits to free Harlan from his drugs, she sails and runs with him, she provides valuable information and is a key part of the political manoeuvres that follow, but digging a little deeper, her character is an example of the very thing McCaffrey was trying to protest against and she does actually swoon quite a lot! As the story continues, she becomes increasingly passive and spends a lot of time being reassured, patronised and used as a political tool by the men in the story. The only other female character of note is also conspicuous in her lack of real contribution to the story. Lothar is a society where women are ‘claimed’ and all the important political and military decisions are made by men. Women aren’t even considered for anything outside of traditional occupations, looking pretty and bearing children for the good of Lothar.
So, older me is slightly disappointed. Yes, it’s still adventurous, and yes, I would still dearly have loved there to be a sequel, and yes, it’s still a pretty decent read… but it isn’t what it claims to be.
Younger me gives Restoree an emphatic 5 bites and wants it to remain on record as one of her favourite books, opening the doors to more and more sci-fi reading.
Older me gives Restoree 2.5 bites and despairs ever so slightly at how women were viewed in the 1960s.
I think averages out to 3.75 bites which is a little too specific! So….
3.5 bites
October 17, 2021
It’s fair to say I adore McCaffrey’s writing, and her first novel is as delightful to me as I expected. I enjoy her writing style and pacing even if parts of her world building frustrate the hell out of me.
It has to be said that McCaffrey’s depictions of women, who are incredibly capable at all times and yet swoon into feebleness the moment a man shows ‘magnificent self-confidence’, have their own problems. Sara, the lead protagonist, hasn’t escaped this treatment but is still enjoyable. She faces everything unquestioningly (which is as frustrating as it is admirable when feminist issues and sex come into play) and is remarkably strong willed and quick thinking. She does make some strange leaps of logic I never understood, such as who to suddenly trust, but there has to be some way to push the plot along, right?
EDIT (2021): That said, there is a chunk at the beginning of the book that’s very focussed on Sara’s appearance - specifically her nose. There’s a description that talks about how (paraphrased) ‘only Jewish girls get nose jobs, but her nose looked Jewish so she thinks she should get one’ that’s both used to make the character’s parents seem ‘rural’ and behind the times, and to talk about how Sara’s restoree nose is ‘better’. As someone who isn’t Jewish I can’t speak to whether this is anti-semitic, but it certainly feels like it.
The world is tantalisingly under developed. There’s just enough information to make sense in the moment, but no where near enough to explain how the world actually manages to function. The use of the large gaps in technology to show how sudden the planet went from underdeveloped to space travel is a brilliant touch that doesn’t extend to their society. I can only assume using terms like ‘Warleader’ instead of King are meant to display the same level of displacement between the modern and the ancient - it’s no where near as effective, however, since the entire government and society resembles something akin to a tribal version of ancient Rome.
As a first novel, I can forgive the narrative’s habit of having Sara explain something from a future perspective only for the text to continue and explain what was just told to us. For example, Sara is given a dress by a character and it is explained as though in a diary entry that it was his wife’s. Not five pages later the same fact is given again, in the way it was described as being told to Sara earlier. This happens a few times later on, and wasn’t enough to really ruin the reading for me.
Restoree has firmly let Anne McCaffrey sit on my list of favourite authors and favourite creators of sci-fi worlds.
It has to be said that McCaffrey’s depictions of women, who are incredibly capable at all times and yet swoon into feebleness the moment a man shows ‘magnificent self-confidence’, have their own problems. Sara, the lead protagonist, hasn’t escaped this treatment but is still enjoyable. She faces everything unquestioningly (which is as frustrating as it is admirable when feminist issues and sex come into play) and is remarkably strong willed and quick thinking. She does make some strange leaps of logic I never understood, such as who to suddenly trust, but there has to be some way to push the plot along, right?
EDIT (2021): That said, there is a chunk at the beginning of the book that’s very focussed on Sara’s appearance - specifically her nose. There’s a description that talks about how (paraphrased) ‘only Jewish girls get nose jobs, but her nose looked Jewish so she thinks she should get one’ that’s both used to make the character’s parents seem ‘rural’ and behind the times, and to talk about how Sara’s restoree nose is ‘better’. As someone who isn’t Jewish I can’t speak to whether this is anti-semitic, but it certainly feels like it.
The world is tantalisingly under developed. There’s just enough information to make sense in the moment, but no where near enough to explain how the world actually manages to function. The use of the large gaps in technology to show how sudden the planet went from underdeveloped to space travel is a brilliant touch that doesn’t extend to their society. I can only assume using terms like ‘Warleader’ instead of King are meant to display the same level of displacement between the modern and the ancient - it’s no where near as effective, however, since the entire government and society resembles something akin to a tribal version of ancient Rome.
As a first novel, I can forgive the narrative’s habit of having Sara explain something from a future perspective only for the text to continue and explain what was just told to us. For example, Sara is given a dress by a character and it is explained as though in a diary entry that it was his wife’s. Not five pages later the same fact is given again, in the way it was described as being told to Sara earlier. This happens a few times later on, and wasn’t enough to really ruin the reading for me.
Restoree has firmly let Anne McCaffrey sit on my list of favourite authors and favourite creators of sci-fi worlds.
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