Nimisha's Ship

Crystal singers universe #0.4

by Anne McCaffrey, Chris Moore (Illustrator)

Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense was the body-heir of Lady Rezalla and, as such, was the heiress of one of the First Families on Vega III. But even as a child she eschewed the formalities of her aristocratic background and was happiest in her father's shipyard. By the time she was in her twenties she was the designer of the most advanced space yacht in the galaxy, and was owner of the Rondymense shipyards.





It was on a test of her Mark 5 prototype that things went wrong. In an empty space field, suitable for test runs, she was suddenly confronted with the boiling white pout of a wormhole, was sucked in, only to be thrown out into an unknown dimension of space. She was not the first. As she explored this new, unfamiliar section of the universe she found traces of ships that had been marooned over many centuries.





Not knowing if she would ever return to the world she knew, Nimisha chose to land on 'Erewhon' - fascinating, terrifying, beautiful and frightening - and inhabited not only by three survivors of a previous Vegan ship but by something else...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Romance, Space

448 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 1998

About the author

Anne 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.

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun sci-fi book with really evocative world building. I found myself thinking sometimes that Nimisha, the protagonist, was a little too good at everything and there was a loss of dramatic tension, but at the same time she's so likable you don't really care.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found a second hand copy of a sun faded 80's'esque cover and expected old school sci fi with conceptual challenges to our understanding of science and our isolated existence.

Got a safe, but well written, adventure story where the main character has 6 children and everyone is fixated on 'cater' composited burgers.

Felt PG or 12a on the film scale. You knew everything was going to be just fine.

Barely a mention of a 'pewpew' and certainly went no deeper than surface level on some chances to go down into some dark themes of isolation, alien illness, subterfuge, class war and the expendability of navy personnel.

[Edward Laufer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost in Space due to being sucked into a wormhole? What do you do now? According to Ms. McCaffrey, you look for a semi-habitable planet, find some fellow derelicts (human or alien), and start a new colony. Of course, it helps if you have the best and brightest of colonists and top-shelf, state-of-the-art machinery to back you up.

Ms. McCaffrey is one of my favorite authors (of all genre), and is very adept at crafting an engaging and entertaining story, which leaves you satisfied with an ending; and yet, still wondering what might have happened next.

[Beth]

I'm 85% sure I've read this decades ago - but not sure if it's still in my collection or it was a library borrow. oO

[Luke Devenish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't want this one to end! What an old sook I am. I thoroughly enjoyed this little Planetary Romance. The biggest source of tension for me was not whether plucky Nimisha and the smelly castaways would ever get found on challenging Erehwon, but whether steadfast Caleb, taking four long years to find her, would only arrive to get his heart broken upon discovering she'd shacked up with a stud! (And become the mother of the nation, what's more. What astonishing fecundity.) Mercifully, testosterone and boredom took their course on the way there and some other little space tottie kept that spot warm. A tad convenient really. Rather like the bull dyke captain's itchy exit. Not that I'm splitting body heirs. This was very entertaining. A testament to the late Anne's excellent storytelling really, because this is a story without an antagonist. Her cosmetic surgery-addled half brother didn't count because we never actually met him. He was only ever referred to. Ditto Lady Whats-her-name, his bitch mother. I guess the pterodactyls behaved antagonistically, along with the giant slugs, but they weren't strictly characters, lets be honest. No, basically, this is book full of people - and Shim - acting well. Noble behaviour followed by yet more noble behaviour. And it works. I loved the Shim. Temporarily forgotten how to spell them but that hasn't reduced my affection any. Also loved Nimisha's glamorous mum. She deserves her own planetary romance, I say. More power to her.

[Louise Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Anne McCaffrey's 'Robinson Crusoe' stories, and much as I love the early books, I found this one dull because it recycled her favourite motifs: a place you get stuck in with a chap, lots of lovely stuff you can use on the planet and loot from the spaceships, people who become your pals, some horrid people who don't understand and some super aliens. (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with all this, you understand, it's just all there was.)

I did like the idea of the heroine's family tattoo around her neck. On the 14th birthday a real necklace is put on the neck in a debutante-type ceremony. No weddings in this world.

There is nothing wrong with the book, really - so if you like her later books, and don't want a plot, you'll like this one.

[Anatoly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very reminiscent of Robert Heinlein's young adult series of books/stories. But with the strong female lead and supporting characters. Unlike Heinlein's stories, however, no major character died.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly more space-opera than SF, but a fun read, especially if you want an Anne McCaffrey adventure with space travel, aliens and a touch of anthropology thrown in. Set in the same universe as The Coelura, it's a good adventure story.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up. It took me a little while to get into, but I enjoyed the aliens.

Starts with Nimisha as a little girl, but when she is testing her ship, it is eaten by a wormhole and comes out in uncharted space. In exploring the surrounding planet she discovers survivors of a ship that disappeared 16 years before hers and together they discover aliens.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a long term fan of McCaffrey's Pern novels, it's taken me a while to branch out into her back catalogue. And to start with I thought I'd found a book by her that I was really going to dislike. The first few chapters feel a bit clumsy - there's a lot of 'this happened', then 'this happened' and 'this happened', without any real depth. Understandable in a Prologue, or the first chapter, as the author has to set the world and the background of the story in short time, but here it went on almost long enough to turn me off reading the rest.

Luckily I didn't, because it did get better. I've read lots of other books by McCaffrey where she explores the colonisation of another world, whether on purpose or be accident (Dinosaur Planet, Catteni Sequence and the Pern books themselves), so there wasn't anything hugely new here. All I kept thinking about was how lucky everyone was with what they kept 'finding' and that their ship seemed to run on unlimited fuel, so they could get constant help from their AI's and have a tasty snack synthesized from the kitchen! I think Jon and the other's story might have been more interesting, where they had virtually nothing and managed to survive. Even the sad deaths of their crewmates would have at least added a bit of drama to the proceedings.

Because I think that was what was missing. Yes, Nimisha gets sucked into a wormhole and spat out in unknown space, but she then promptly goes to sleep for a bit, then heads to the nearest planet, uses her superior ship to fight off the local fauna and then rescues a previously stranded crew. Everything from then on just seems rather easy.

But McCaffrey does write well, the characters are well drawn and it's vaguely entertaining in a bland kind of way. Just needed a bit of tension and action for it to have higher stars.

[rivka · Rating 3 out of 5]

May or may not have read this originally, about when it first came out. Set in the same universe as novella The Coelura, but was apparently never followed up with a sequel.

I can see why -- while Nimisha is an interesting enough character, yet another exciting new colony world with critters that want to kill you and undaunted colonists who will survive anyway? McCaffrey did that before, and better.

[Amy Weiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not one of McCaffrey's better books, with a very slow start as characters were introduced but not in a way that made me care for them. The pace of the story picked up about half way through and was better at engaging my attention. There were a number of "mentions" that were a bit heavy-handed at providing jumping-off places for sequals or spin-offs. I don't think most of those added to the story.

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just love this book. Read it years ago (SO NOT something I would read at the time) just to make a friend happy... And I can't tell you how many times I've reread this one since. The only thing wrong with it, is that it is a stand alone...could def read a whole series or two on these guys.

+++ 1018 0819

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the sort of thing I would read and I probably wouldn't have gotten all the way through it. I ended up listening to it on Audio and the narrator was excellent. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

[Suzanne Brayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am re-acquainting myself with Anne McCaffrey's books. This one is not a Pern story. It is a stand alone novel. Set in the solar system of Vega, it follows a lady named Nimisha. Nimisha is of a "first-family", which seems to mean that her ancestors were founders of the world they live on named Acclarke. So being a first family makes them high society.

This book spent a lot of time establishing the whole society and where Nimisha's place is, in it. The society is clearly godless and based solely on the stratification of what class you were born into. McCaffrey's worlds do seem to be very class centered. Once you get past that part the story takes off and becomes more interesting.

I have always enjoyed McCaffrey's use of a wide vocabulary and always love a book where i can add a new word to mine. I was very pleased with myself to catch the author on page 35 in two grammatical errors in one paragraph!! She used the word "iniquity" to mean unequal, so I marked my copy by crossing it out and putting "inequity" above it. And only two sentences later she referred to a socially awkward situation as a "solecism", i looked it up to add to my new wore list, to find that it actually means a "grammatical error" according to Websters.

That was fun for me, as it is hard to catch out such a smart author, especially on the same page. I think i I'll reacquaint myself with the Pern novels, i remember them fondly.

[Bron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now why has it taken me so long to find this book? It has everything I enjoy, likeable main characters, sentient AI, space adventures, survival on a strange plant. In fact, it seems to hark back to the classic sci fi adventures, but definitely more up-to-date, especially regarding women's roles. I think the author gave us a clue by calling the heroine's home city Aaclarke. She also seems to have been borrowing from Star Trek - there's a federation, a prime directive, replicaters, warp drive, a delta quadrant. My inner ear hears the AI medical unit talking in Robert Picardo's voice. None of this is to the detriment of the story, and it certainly doesn't feel like plagiarism, it's more a case of updating a classic story to fit in with the expectations decades of Star Trek have engendered in us.

There are perils and dangers but nothing graphic and extreme. There's some romance, but it fits in with the story perfectly and it's all written with a light hearted, almost joyful tone. You want to live in that universe, even if life for an aristocratic heiress in Aaclarke can seem a bit stuffy, you feel it's pretty good for the general population. And I know Anne McCaffrey is American, but somehow this feels like British sci fi, something in the turn of phrase maybe, a space fleet modelled on the Royal Navy? First Families behaving like British aristocracy? But all a bit tongue-in-cheek and good fun. I loved it.

[Tristen Kozinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nimisha's Ship is a solid science-fiction adventure: solid prose, plotting, characters, and world building.
The initial fifth-ish of the book is fairly set up and exposition heavy, introducing the readers to the society, how it operates and, most importantly, who Nimisha is. Many readers will probably find it too slow, and much of the narrative meat it concerns itself with is how Nimisha is a lady of extremely high society (and social obligations/expectations) while she herself is vastly more interested in the more masculine pursuit of engineering. Social settings and conflicts tend to be narratives I enjoy so this slow starts didn't bother me. After that set up though, we enter the core of the narrative which is about surviving on a hostile planet far from rescue and the various adventures/challenges Nimisha overcomes thereupon.
While solid, all the various elements of Nimisha's ship "standardized" (though that is a severly incorrect word.) What I mean to say is that this is not a gritty survival story, or an action-heavy narrative, or a romance centric plot, or an aggressively technical narrative concerning the design of spaceships. The characters, while solid and likable, are absent of striking personality notes or decisions. The various conflicts, while interesting, are resolved rather straightforwardly. It is a 'clean' book if that makes sense, full of neat squares and boxes and bows: entertaining, but perhaps lacking the 'teeth' to really satisfy some readers.

[Charles Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well written, fair pace and utterly dull. I mean it really shows what an experienced character can do with minimal plot and two dimensional characters. Everyone is a bit too perfect, good at everything. This means every obstacle is overcome without really breaking a sweat, I mean even the assassination attempts sub plot what boring! The only character with any flaws is introduced most of the way through and is dealt with within a chapter or two (having not really done anything wrong except be irritating).
I have gone for the hallowed 1 star however for one reason. The alien encounters. The main one is true to form dull, the slightest hint of challenge is promptly dealt with without any loss or growth shortly before stumbling across literately everything they need to build a harmonious civilization. But that whilst time wasting was not what I have a problem with. My issue is the tantalizing hints of higher intelligence within the Avian attackers (who would have been more scary if they didn't have a heavily armed ship). The protagonists even briefly ponder that they appear to have been smart enough to call for reinforcements from another continent (before returning to blowing them up).
This book wastes your time and then throws away the only interesting concept. Avoid.

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the same world as the short story 'The Coelura'.

Get stranded on planet after going through worm hole. Some other people and little aliens also there.

As with 'Decision at Doona', arguments about if it is o.k. to co-habit with an alien species and debate about if birds on the planet should also be considered sentient. It's not o.k. to give more advanced technology to aliens if they are deemed to be less evolved than humans, but it is o.k. to try and wipe out native carnivorous bird population? These settlers always want more space and nature and don't want to make the same mistakes as humans in the past with regards to the natural way of things, yet also see fit to cull what seems to be the apex predator of the 'new' planet, without like studying it's role in the ecosystem.

Very convenient for Nimisha that the little aliens like caring for babies so she can have a set of twins and then triplets and they basically play no part in the story because the little furry guys are always looking after them. If the ship did not provide nutrients, I'm sure the aliens would have breast fed the babies too!

[Sara G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn't exactly groundbreaking and I wouldn't consider it to be one of Anne McCaffrey's best, but it was just so pleasant to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In a near-future world, humans have colonized a sector of space and the descendants of those first settlers are a new aristocracy. Nimisha, the daughter of a very fancy financier woman and a spaceship builder, is kind of the best at everything. She's kind, smart, and apparently an incredible spaceship designer. When she's testing a new ship and gets sucked into a wormhole, she discovers a whole new sector of space and its inhabitants. Like most of McCaffrey's books, gender roles are explored and flipped on their heads. I enjoyed the world-building and although there's a little too much time spent on who is sleeping with whom and not nearly enough plot, it was a fun read.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nimisha's Ship by Anne McCaffrey is a space adventure set in a far-distant future. It drew me in with interesting world-building, great writing, and characterization.
Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense is a strong female protagonist growing up in a gentrified society. She uses her intelligence and family connections to establish herself as a respected spaceship designer. While test-flying her latest model spaceship she is sucked into a wormhole and lost in the far reaches of space. She leaves behind a minor daughter who must deal with some very unscrupulous relatives who would like to steal Nimisha's commercial empire. Meanwhile, Nimisha must try to survive in uncharted space and find a way to return to her daughter and family.
This book has several plot twists that I didn't see coming and is a great read. I have read a great many Anne McCaffery books and have never been disappointed yet!

[Karen Dransfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

(2022)It's weird how you think you have read everything by an author and then find something you missed. As a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey I thought I had read this, but I don't actually remember this story at all. A find in a book fair "fill a bag" deal I got this with some other AM books for a friend. And thought I would reread before passing it on... but I definitely haven't read this and I will be holding onto this for my collection. And on here I find it's been labelled as part of the Crystal Singer universe which is even better. I love how there are small links between some of AM's unique series.
Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense is such a central strong female character associated with AM's stories. I loved this story. No spoilers here, go read the story for yourself :)

[Garry Whitmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

From experience many years ago with the author's other works, I wasn't a great fan, but this one came up in Amazon's suggested reading and the summary did intrigue me so as the price was quite reasonable I took a chance and gave it a go.

What I found was a nice little sci-fi tale of relationships, exploration, and first contact. The only negative I had was the fact I'm not a fan of future societies that are both feudal and hierarchical in nature. To me, lords and ladies and aristocrats and advanced technology just don't seem to match, but that is a very personal feeling and should not detract from what is a good tale.

Although there is a suggestion this is part of a larger series, it works as a standalone story although it is left a little open-ended with some plot threads left unanswered.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another re-read. A favorite standalone McCaffrey story focused on the life of Nimisha, body-heir of one of the first families of Vega 3. She takes after her father and becomes a ship designer and during the shakedown cruise for her latest spaceship, she has something unexpected happen that strands her light years from home. I enjoy her story of exploration and learning to survive with what she finds where she finds herself. The storyline concerning her "rescue" is a bit less interesting but more brief as the focus is on Nimisha.

There is a throw away connection to McCaffrey's novella The Coelura though if you're not familiar with that you won't notice. And according to Goodreads The Coelura is part of the Crystal Singer series?? I would've never guessed.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read her "Dragonriders of Pern" series years ago, I decided to see what else Anne McCaffrey has written and found this wonderful story about a strong, creative, and intelligent woman who designs and builds her own spaceship, but then gets caught in a wormhole on her maiden voyage. This story gives a look at a future that may or may not be realistic -- giving the human aspects of living in a universe that has space travel and has developed some interesting and different social structures. The structures provide some of the tension and conflict in the story and the discovery of alien beings who have intelligence gives yet another twist to the plot. Highly recommended.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense is a brilliant spaceship designer. However, that is not a "normal" occupation for a member of Vega's aristocratic First Families. But she does it anyway. On a shakedown cruise of The Fiver, she gets pulled into a wormhole and winds up four years away. She discovers the survivors of the Poolbeg, victims of the same wormhole, and the Sh'im, an alien race. They establish civilization on "Erehwon" and wait to be rescued. Their rescue is spearheaded by Cuiva, Nimisha's daughter, but they are not found until several years later. Nimisha bonds with Jon Svangel, the captain of the Poolbeg, and they all ally with the Sh'im.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nimisha is the daughter of a powerful family. When her father is killed in a shipyard accident Nimisha becomes the head of the shipyard where is always improving and recreating the ships that are needed to move about the universe.

On an experimental ship Nimisha and her crew are lost so her daughter Cuiva becomes head of the shipyard and sets out to find her mother. Meanwhile Cuiva's life is in danger because another strong family wants to take over the shipyard and anything else they can get. Cuiva sets out to find her mother and to save her own life though she does not know she is doing the latter.

A good story, somewhat slow though. I truly like the Pern Series the best.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another excellent fantasy by Anne McCaffery. Lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense, body heir of her mother's family, the Boyntons, is found by her father to be the only one of his children to have the talent and intellegence to inheirit his space-ship design firm. Upon his unexpected death it is found that he has left the firm to Nimisha, his body heir and the son's mother conspire to regain the shipyard. This leads to many adventures for Lady Nimisha, including true love and the discovery of sapient aliens.

[Jon Stonecash · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a nice travelogue, masquerading as a science fiction novel. The characters were nice but not remarkable. The plot was nice but not riveting. The world building was barely noticeable. Yes, it had space ships, wormholes, and aliens but not in sufficient detail to make the novel memorable.

I finished three other books while plowing through this one. Chalk that up to my unwillingness to bail on a book once I have started it.

I have read other novels by McCaffrey and enjoyed them much more than I enjoyed this one.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book. It certainly is not one of McCaffrey’s best, but it’s far from her worst either. Nimisha is an attractive character and her daughter has possibility, even if not all that developed. McCaffrey is just rotten at doing kids: they sound much like adults. It is a nice book that feels unfinished in some ways. The baddies are left without poetic justice. But otherwise the book rather ends ok in many ways. I kept on reading to find out what would happen. No spoilers, read it if you enjoy McCaffrey!