The Crystal Singer & Killashandra by Anne McCaffrey
Bloody Hell.
I knew I shouldn't have been attempting to read anything by Anne McCaffrey even before I turned past the front page on The Crystal Singer.. I used to love her Pern/Dragon books as a teenager and still harbor some love for her Tower and Hive series, not to mention The Ship Who Sang series but really, upon re-reading the Pern books, my love for her has gone out the window. Why? Easy. Bossy dragon riders with wimpy overly dramatic dragons that commit suicide on a whim in a sexist society that thinks its unbecoming for a woman to aspire to be a musician or whatever but it's ok for a Holder to allow the people he is supposedly taking care of to freeze to death or be horribly raped by his soldiers... and none of the other holders stand up to him over this because it takes a unanimous descion to get something done and none of them can be sure that it will be a unanoumous choice so they just ignore it and hope for the best!! Yes, I am summing up a couple of books in a couple of cranky sentences but my neuralgia is playing up and I'm cranky!! (grrrr.. argh!)
Killashandra is an overly dramatic Mary-Sue who excels in everything she does or will do in the future. Ugh. Because she couldn't be the bestest singer in the whole universe Mary-Sue walks out on 10 years hard work at music school and shags the first interesting man she meets.. all because she refuses to be in the chorus! She doesn't even bother packing up her student room or informing her family, instead, leaving them to wonder if she had committed suicide or been raped and killed! Literally weeks go by and she cares so little for them, she doesn't tell them what is happening in her life, instead, she is happy being a temporary girlfriend of a man who likes to throw money at her.. (gold digging whore!)
He karks it, she accompanies his body back to a crystal planet and decides to be a crystal singer because she has perfect pitch or whatever. She still doesn't tell her family what is happening and they have probably already had a wake for her because they assume she is dead? Lets see, what does a Mary-Sue do? Oh, obviously she has the easiest transition into being a Crystal Singer and she does it weeks before the rest of her class.. some symbiot takes over her body and allows her to mine crystal.. ugh. She is the bestest at flying lessons, the cranky dude who fits her for her crystal cutter obviously likes her but no-one else, the guild leader shags her because he can tell she is speshul, the first time out on her own to cut crystal.. she magically finds the rare black crystal and cuts enough of it to be awarded a speshul assignment to fit the crystal into wherever it needs to go... not only that, in the second book, she is sent on a spy mission to another planet! (sigh!!)
Killashandra is speshul in the way she is unable to say simple words such as; thank you, please, excuse me. Instead, she shoves people out of the way, deliberately insults officials over their food choice by flipping her dinner plate over at an official dinner party before stalking off in a snit, can't be bothered remembering peoples names and gives them insulting nicknames by which she then uses to their faces, assumes she is better than everyone else in the whole universe because she is a Crystal Singer and doesn't hesitate to point it out.. repeatedly!
Killashandra is a character fail of the highest degree and really, if this is McCaffrey's idea of a strong, independant woman... I'll take being barefoot in the kitchen anyday!
I knew I shouldn't have been attempting to read anything by Anne McCaffrey even before I turned past the front page on The Crystal Singer.. I used to love her Pern/Dragon books as a teenager and still harbor some love for her Tower and Hive series, not to mention The Ship Who Sang series but really, upon re-reading the Pern books, my love for her has gone out the window. Why? Easy. Bossy dragon riders with wimpy overly dramatic dragons that commit suicide on a whim in a sexist society that thinks its unbecoming for a woman to aspire to be a musician or whatever but it's ok for a Holder to allow the people he is supposedly taking care of to freeze to death or be horribly raped by his soldiers... and none of the other holders stand up to him over this because it takes a unanimous descion to get something done and none of them can be sure that it will be a unanoumous choice so they just ignore it and hope for the best!! Yes, I am summing up a couple of books in a couple of cranky sentences but my neuralgia is playing up and I'm cranky!! (grrrr.. argh!)
Killashandra is an overly dramatic Mary-Sue who excels in everything she does or will do in the future. Ugh. Because she couldn't be the bestest singer in the whole universe Mary-Sue walks out on 10 years hard work at music school and shags the first interesting man she meets.. all because she refuses to be in the chorus! She doesn't even bother packing up her student room or informing her family, instead, leaving them to wonder if she had committed suicide or been raped and killed! Literally weeks go by and she cares so little for them, she doesn't tell them what is happening in her life, instead, she is happy being a temporary girlfriend of a man who likes to throw money at her.. (gold digging whore!)
He karks it, she accompanies his body back to a crystal planet and decides to be a crystal singer because she has perfect pitch or whatever. She still doesn't tell her family what is happening and they have probably already had a wake for her because they assume she is dead? Lets see, what does a Mary-Sue do? Oh, obviously she has the easiest transition into being a Crystal Singer and she does it weeks before the rest of her class.. some symbiot takes over her body and allows her to mine crystal.. ugh. She is the bestest at flying lessons, the cranky dude who fits her for her crystal cutter obviously likes her but no-one else, the guild leader shags her because he can tell she is speshul, the first time out on her own to cut crystal.. she magically finds the rare black crystal and cuts enough of it to be awarded a speshul assignment to fit the crystal into wherever it needs to go... not only that, in the second book, she is sent on a spy mission to another planet! (sigh!!)
Killashandra is speshul in the way she is unable to say simple words such as; thank you, please, excuse me. Instead, she shoves people out of the way, deliberately insults officials over their food choice by flipping her dinner plate over at an official dinner party before stalking off in a snit, can't be bothered remembering peoples names and gives them insulting nicknames by which she then uses to their faces, assumes she is better than everyone else in the whole universe because she is a Crystal Singer and doesn't hesitate to point it out.. repeatedly!
Killashandra is a character fail of the highest degree and really, if this is McCaffrey's idea of a strong, independant woman... I'll take being barefoot in the kitchen anyday!