Robin Reynolds's Reviews > Restoree

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!