Pegasus in Flight

The Talent #2

by Anne McCaffrey

As director of the Jerhattan Parapsychic Center, telepath Rhyssa Owen coordinated the job assignments for psychically gifted Talents. And though she had her hands full dealing with the unreasonable demand for kinetics to work on the space platform that would be humankind's stepping-stone to the stars, she was always ready to welcome new Talents to the Center.

Feisty and streetwise, twelve-year-old Tirla used her extraordinary knack for languages to eke out a living in the Linear developments, where the poor struggled to make ends meet and children were conscripted or sold into menial work programs. Young Peter, paralyzed in a freak accident, hoped someday to get into space where zero gravity would enable him to function more easily. Both desperately needed help only other Talents could provide.

With the appearance in her life of one extraordinary man with no measurable Talent at all, Rhyssa suddenly found herself questioning everything she thought she knew about her people. And when two Talented children were discovered to have some very unusual -- and unexpected -- abilities, she realized that she would have to reassess the potential of all Talentkind...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Paranormal, Ebooks, Space

290 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1990

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

[N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book when I was young and read it at least a dozen times. But when I picked it up this time (years after I last read it), I was unpleasantly jolted by the unexamined assumptions McCaffrey makes about poverty and non-Western cultures throughout the book: these show up in her minor characters, her major characters, and her own writing. I have the impression now that the book was written in a rush, and certainly not to its credit.

[Karen’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure how many times I've actually read this one, but it's still a favorite!!

[Sayra · Rating 1 out of 5]

With a plot all about young Talents stopping a child trafficking scheme, the book gets creepy when an older "good" man basically imprints on a 12yo. That he will wait for her to be older doesn't really change the fact that he's perving on a child. This is too disturbing to make this a good read, which is a shame since I ordinarily like McCaffrey's.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh boy. On the one hand, this is a really fun, exciting story that gives a lot of agency to its teen/preteen protagonists (a paraplegic boy named Peter who turns out to be telekinetic, and a pre-teen girl named Tirla who has carved out a niche for herself with her telepathic gift for translation despite her "illegal" status as an excess child born in violation of strict population control laws) and overall I think this is the book in the trilogy that I tend to come back to. On the other, the plot hangs on the concept that in some future time period when the earth will have to enact these strict population control laws, "ethnics" living in slums will then as a matter of course defy said laws by having as many children as possible and selling the children thus produced into slavery, mostly to become child prostitutes or unwilling organ donors, in order to feed and clothe yet more "illegal" children. The racism of this assumption is breathtaking. There's also the tiny detail that a grown man has a vision that 12-year-old Tirla is going to marry him, and everyone just goes, "oh, okay, you should probably wait until she's 16, she'll be ready by then" rather than, idk, showing concern about grooming children -- in a book where the central plot is about rescuing children from prostitution. I loved this book as a young teen (largely because of how much I loved Tirla as a protagonist), and I've read it many, many times, but I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone to read for the first time; I think nostalgia for that time period of scifi writing might be a necessary component.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this a couple of times as a teenager, and it was reliable enough for those times when I just needed a fun, easy book to get through that I still had a copy on my shelf. It's been a while, though, and reading it as an adult was a jarring experience.

Just to start with: the book expresses some truly nasty assumptions about people from south and west Asia -- "Neesters," in the slang of the book -- up to and including characters blessing a much older man essentially claiming a 12-year-old girl to be a future partner because "Neester girls ripen sooner."

Beyond that, I'm surprised by how casually authoritarian the Talent are in this book. It's hidden by setting them off against a world government with very Soviet coercive trappings, but it's stunning to see the disregard for human dignity and autonomy that I completely glossed over as a teenager reading this outsider-wish-fulfillment fantasy.

[Douglas Milewski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pegasus in Flight (1990) is the talents book that nobody asked for, one written to link up with her other psychic books set in the Nine Star League. Fluffy to a fault, the future depicted in this work is simultaneously utterly terrifying and authoritarian, and that's the good guys. The bad guys are worse.

The book itself follows three main plot lines: Tirla, Retinger, and the forced labor building of a space station. You read that right, forced labor. People are scared of talents because they're different, which is weird because the population should be scared of talents for their mind control which is systematically used to keep the population docile. (This is not an exaggeration. This is literally one of their jobs.) Working conditions are horrible, yet nobody goes on strike. In fact, on the space station, working conditions are murderous, yet even that can't get the building supervisor removed.

Properly, this tale should be a short story, or a novella at best. There's just not enough going on to sustain an entire novel. Anne frequently presents the same information multiple times, or wanders down a dull and easily cut siding.

As usual, McCaffrey's villains are not only pedestrian and dull, they're so stupid that they kidnap psychic kids. (If you want to destroy your own secret human trafficking ring from the inside, kidnap a psychic kid. They really were stupid.) The other villain is just a stupid and demanding manager who should be assailable just because she's so incompetent, criminally mismanaging the construction of a space station.

If this book isn't sounding very fun, it isn't, which is exactly my point. Nothing about the book is fun. Nothing. It's good for a skim and that's about it.

You'll notice that I have nothing to say about the characters. That's because there is nothing to say about most of the characters. Not one of them shone for me. One's a street smart scamp and the other is a future super-psychic, and together, they fight crime. That's not a joke, either.

This book goes onto my "cannot recommend for any reason" list.

[keikii Eats Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read more reviews in this series and others, check out my blog keikii eats books!

82 points, 4 ¼ stars!

Quote:

“How can there be that many illegal children in the Residentials?” Jerhattan City Manager Teresa Aiello demanded of Medical Chief Harv Dunster. “Your people are supposed to tie off after a second pregnancy.”

Review:
Well, Pegasus in Flight was definitely less troublesome than To Ride Pegasus was. I mean, I still have some major "what the fuck" issues. Yet those issues aren't anywhere near as many or as glaring as I had with the first book. It helps that this book was written nearly twenty years after the first was. The world had changed a lot in those twenty years, and the book reflected that change. Thank god.

Pegasus in Flight is about two generations after the events of the first book. The Talents world has moved on from learning psychics exist. They have adapted to having psychics around. And boy have they adapted. Their entire way of life is structured around the fact that they exist. The entire world seems structured in such a way that the Talents live and work for the good of all. I genuinely love this adaptation. I love the worldbuilding that it entails.

In this book there are two different plotlines, which take place in two different worlds, all on Earth, with two very different people. Yet in the end, it is all the same.

The first plotline is what I have dubbed the "Good" plotline, because it has genuinely good people in it. It follows two threads. The first is that there is a quadriplegic teenager who has been trapped in a hospital bed, yet is reaching out with his psychic powers for help. Peter ends up being the strongest telekinetic in the world, as is able to use his Talent to propel his body. Wrapped up in this plotline is that Earth is building a Space Station, for the good of mankind. Earth is overpopulated, and they're trying to do something about it. And they're leaning on telekinetics in any way that they can.

The second plotline is the "Bad" plotline, because the people in it are horrific. These horrifying people are wrapped up in the worldbuilding. In this book you see the near utopia of the previous plotline contrasted dystopian nightmare hellscape of this one. It is a hell of a trip.

This second plotline is located in what is essentially the slums. People are only allowed to have two children, since Earth is overpopulated, and they have to curb growth somehow. And once they have two children, they are forcibly altered so they can have no further children. So in the slums, they decide this is (in my opinion, somewhat rightfully,) an infringement on their rights, and so they have illegal children. Only, they end up selling those children when they get old enough for money to people who prostitute their children out. Charming.

Overall, I found Pegasus in Flight to be an interesting social commentary. Until the end. When a guy in his mid to late twenties falls in love with a 12 year old. Seriously. And they decide to wait for each other, because the guy had a premonition that she'd be ready for him. In four years. When she is sixteen.

Sigh.

This was mostly free of the glaring ethical issues that plagued the first book, just a whole lot of societal issues. Yet I chalk the societal issues up to worldbuilding, because that whole sterilization thing was horrid, but it made some sense. This... "relationship" was just unnecessary with a whole helping of what the fuck.

I genuinely love reading about this world, though. I loved the main characters. I just sometimes wish this was written today, instead of nearly 30 years ago. I wish it was written by a different author. But this is the story I got, and I'm sticking to liking it.

[Lizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A recent sci-fi book put me on a nostalgia kick for all the sci-fi loves of my childhood. This one could not endure the scrutiny. All of McCaffrey's books suffer from her lionization of beautiful, talented people with special destinies who are permitted to save (and sneer at) the common folk. The dragonrider books had this problem. I guess I never noticed, growing up, since I loved her marginal characters- Menoly and Nerilka, Tirla and Peter. However, these characters are socialized by adults who reflect McCaffrey's unpleasant and jarring assumptions about people of color, poor people, and those artificially left without the magical talents she invented and depicted.

What I loved about this book as a child was the depiction of a grim life in the urban projects known as the "Linears" where twelve year old Tirla survived on her wits without adult supervision by working as a freelance lookout, translator, and con man. I remember being disappointed she (and her foretold romance with the much older Sasha) barely featured in the next book. Now I'm mostly squicked out by Sasha and others' observations that her people "grow up quick" and she'll be ready for marriage at 16. The tiered system for reproductive rights ('illegals' are forcibly sterilized and conscripted, regular folks get one a piece, and the special Talents presumably have however many they want) was also unquestioned and unchallenged. It's not that McCaffrey portrayed these attitudes. It's that she validated them and built characterizations off the ugly assumptions underneath.

[Yune · Rating 2 out of 5]

Early McCaffrey counts as comfort reading. This one's amusing, but sadly losing the spark it held for me in my childhood. In too many ways she only scratches the surface: of the underlying social issues, of the characters' pysches, and even of one of the major romances.

[Markos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light read, more enjoyable than the first in the series, I guess because it was written as a whole, rather than a collection of short stories. Still quite dated in gender views and technology, but overall good fun.

[Evelyn L]

Did not finish. Read about 60 pages and nothing grabbed me about this. I didn't realize it was the second of the series though. I will have to try another Anne McCaffery book as my first. Trying to get into the women of classic scifi.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Pegasus in Flight' is the second in the "Talent" series. This book takes place about sixty years after 'To Ride Pegasus.' Rhyssa Owens is now the director is the Eastern Parapsychic Center. This story is more about two children that come under Rhyssa's tutelage: Tirla and Peter.

Tirla lives in the dens and warrens of the Linears, large 'projects' the blanket the metro center now called Jerhattan (New Jersey and Manhattan have combined to form one massive city.) She makes a living through her unique ability to speak any language. Peter is a quadriplegic. He was injured in an accident. He lives in the hospital as they attempt to rehabilitate him. He often 'dreams' of green spaces, never realizing that he is making use of telepathic and telekinetic skills. These two children come to the notice of the Talents at the Center. They become wards of the Center and help to spoil the child organ farms and labor camps of some pretty nefarious characters.

I liked this story more that its predecessor, 'To Ride Pegasus.' This is one complete story, rather than a series of connected short stories. The protagonist characters are more developed and I was much more able to connect to them. The development of Peter's Talent was written more artistically. I particularly like the relationship between Rhyssa and a completely non-psychic marketing strategist. I thought the relationship that develops between Peter and Rhyssa was also touching.

The only things that sort of disturbed me was the relationship that sort of develops between Tirla and Sascha Roznine, the flatness of the antagonists and the 'perfection' of the Talented world. Tirla is only twelve years old when she comes to the Center, while Sascha is a confirmed adult (I read him as early 30s). McCaffrey has them getting married when Tirla turns sixteen. There are NO scenes in the book about any sort of physical relationship. Are there are only mentions of the feelings that develop between the two. Despite this, the vast age difference is a bit uncomfortable for me, as a reader. I will admit that this difference is more important because Tirla is so young. If she was even twenty years only and Sascha was nearing forty if wouldn't be so weird, but she's a young teenager. The 'bad guys' in this novel are suitably slimey and worthy of hate, but they are very one dimensional. This spills over into the next novel also. The final thing that I didn't like was that every Talent is so god-awfully 'good.' No Talent takes advantage or even jay-walks. They all walk on the right side of the law, both civil and moral. Really? I think not.

Overall, I would recommend this book to both Young Adults and Adults. It might particularly interest those who already enjoy science fiction. It might even appeal to those who enjoy the current crop of 'dystopian' novels, even though it is quite sunny overall.

[Nightwitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because this was a favorite of my adolescence, but I have to say re-reading it reminded me of an argument I got into with a middle-aged man, back in my misspent youth. He was proclaiming the virtues of a certain Golden Age science fiction writer (I won't say which) and how this man wrote great books for young girls who liked science fiction, to which I responded, in essence, "Maybe back in the day that was true, but in this age of Anne McCaffrey and Robin McKinley, no." Young me had better things to read, with heroines less trapped in hidebound gender roles and women of all ages doing interesting things - not just spunky preadolescent heroines who were inevitably going to age into simpering wives. Pegasus in Flight reminded me of that because, alas, I am kind of that old dude: the preadolescent girls of today shouldn't bother with it, not in this age of Katniss Everdeen and Hermione Granger. There are just too many false notes - the depictions of many of the colorful characters of Linear G are kind of racist to the modern eye; at one point the main characters state happily that a young woman of color can get married at sixteen because "they mature faster than we do" - and the villains are too cardboard-evil. That said, I loved it as a kid and it is not dreadful; it's not the kind of book that you have to hide at the back of your shelf because it's too racist or sexist or just plain horrible to admit you ever enjoyed. It's just that there's probably better out there for the modern kid. So, like I said, four stars, because happy childhood memories.

[Hope Ranker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this as a kid in the nineties, and I remember really liking it. Going back and rereading it as an adult, it didn't hold up very well. To my eyes today this early McCaffrey world smacked of mild sexism, moderate racism, and a whollop of uncomfortable biological essentialism. Class struggles were OK in the end so long as you could escape them by having the upper class take you under their wing and lift you into their world. The thing that brought this up to a 3 for me instead of a 2 is twofold: First, it played positively on my personal nostalgia for my first read twenty-plus years ago, and second I did find the story compelling and exciting despite the significant problems in the framing.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Highly disappointing effort from a usually good writer. Who cares about these chracters? I sure didn't. I made the mistake of reading this book without reading the first, but I am not interested enough in these mutant characters and their ugly world to read any more of the series.

The only good bit of writing was when one girl ate a fresh green pepper. If not for that passage, this book would get zero stars.

[Jennine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whoooooooo, does this one not hold up well. Antiquated ideas about gender, sex and sexuality, and race are a persistent problem in McCaffrey's back catalog, but if I've read one of her books that's worse on those fronts, I've blocked it out. I instantly loved Tirla, and following her story kept me reading through repeated wincing, but she's not enough to redeem the book.

[George Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

Just finished reading the second in the talent series for the second time and still could not stop reading . Anne McCaffrey is one of my favorite authors her books have always kept me entertained.

[Erin Casteel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am I “outgrowing” McCaffrey? I’ve loved her books for so long, and yet this reading fell kind of flat to me. I still do like her worldbuilding and plotting...maybe just looking for more finesse with language? Ah well. I’ll still re-read her books.

[Chinook · Rating 4 out of 5]

March 2020 - Well, yikes. I still enjoy the characters of Peter and Tirla, but the older man, young teen thing is even more glaring than usual and I don’t even know where to start with the racism.

[Brian Gaston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book but the characters in the Pern series work better for me.

[Ann]

"[Near Eastern] girls ripen faster than us Northern or Occidental types" and therefore the adult man (whose age is never stated, but his twin brother is the Police Commissioner, so I'd say 30 AT LEAST) should wait "four years" before making a move on the now 12 year old, future 16 year old.

I remembered being a little weirded out by the age thing when I read this years ago (at around 12 myself), but at the time I glossed right over the casual racism of the statement. And the casual racism of pretty much the entirety of the book. I hadn't picked this book up in over twenty years, so when I wanted a fun breezy re-read I was not prepared for cringing through huge swaths of the book. From disparaging comments about "the ethnics" to the casual way that even the "good" characters who are shocked (shocked I tell you!) that Tirla would be surprised at the idea that illegal children have some rights later go on to clarify that the reason the city commisioner is upset that a group of kids have been kidnapped is that some of the kids were legal. Because obviously when it was just a bunch of illegal "subbies" people thought it was a problem, but it wasn't A PROBLEM until legal kids were involved. There were offhand remarks about how all of the "ethnic" kids will, given even half a chance "tart it up just like their mothers", or that every single woman with illegal kids was having them with the full intention of selling the children (there is not mention of even one mother who just....wanted lots of kids. During the scene were the illegal children were being forcibly removed to live in an orphanage, it was made very clear that exactly zero of the women were upset because they were losing THEIR CHILDREN, but rather because they were missing out on an opportunity to make a profit.)

Really, there were so many times I was catapulted out of the story by the casual racism on display. It was clearly not intentional, a way of building out a complex character or making a subtle point about "the good guys" being imperfect themselves - the author clearly intended the audience to be nodding their heads along in agreement.

When I was a young teenager I loved this book (largely because I loved Tirla) and the way that it exalted the Special Outsiders who were misunderstood and mistreated by the clearly inferior majority, but I'm no longer in middle school. I will not be re-reading this again.

[Kessily Lewel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book in the Saga of the Talent series hands down. It's the first book that was planned as a book. The previous one was a collection of short stories in this universe so it didn't have the same cohesive feel as this one does. This book is about two talented children with very different powers from extremely different backgrounds.


First we meet Tirla, a young lady who doesn't even realize she's Talented and thinks it's perfectly natural to be able to understand and speak every language she hears instantly. She's a clever little waif who is technically 'illegal' since only her mother's first two kids were allowed thanks to a population limit. Like most illegal children she has to be constantly on her toes to avoid the police.


Next we meet Peter Reidinger and if that name sounds familiar you've probably read the Tower and the Hive series where there is a Peter Reidinger in charge of the FT&T as Earth Prime. It's not a coincidence since major talents tend to breed true and we are meeting that Peter's grandfather! But Peter has had a tragic accident and his entire body is paralyzed. His only escape from the hospital bed he's trapped in is to leave his body telepathically which is how he comes to the attention of the current Director of the Jerhatten Paraphysic Center, Rhysa Owen. Her last name should be familiar as she's the daughter of Daffyd Op Owen who was the director of the center in the first book.

This is a lot of world building here as we see new and exciting talents being discovered while mankind is trying desperately to leave the overcrowded planet. If you've read the later books you will especially enjoy seeing that progression here. I loved both of the children in this but I've always had a special love for Tirla. She's just so sassy!

But I do need to give a TW for child abuse both physical and sexual. There is a lot of discussion about evil men who buy young children to sexually abuse them. Illegal children, sadly are their main target and the mothers seem to sell their extra kids without concern for their fate. Tirla, while not abused in that way herself does help a large group of children escape and is beaten as a result.

[Erin Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know, I am not sure I have ever read this book. It came out after I became an adult, had a good job, and could easily buy whatever I wanted, so it's been on my shelf forever - traveling across the country over 2,000 miles in various moves but I think I read it for the first time yesterday. Problem with the good job and adulthood is finding time to read. Lack of good job does have some pluses.

I've been reading so much new stuff from urban fantasy, romance, self-published, and new writers, I had forgotten how layered Ms. McCaffrey would write her soft sci-fi books. Three separate main story-lines, two romances, three or four character growth lines, etc. So dense and marvelous in her Talent Universe, this 1990 addition updates and expands the Talent Universe short stories which she had started writing in the '50s with a full novel.

But the book is showing its age in its racial and gender attitudes. Yes, Ms. McCaffrey was exceptional for her time at having lead females and people of color in her books, but at the same time because she pushed the envelope out, the edge of what is acceptable has moved far beyond this book. Older people will enjoy reading it, especially those who picked up every book this woman wrote, but the new generation ... it is no longer relevant.

I'm giving it five stars because the Talent Universe was absolutely amazing while I was growing up - and this addition expands on that worldbuilding with new characters and ways the world worked appropriate for 90's soft science fiction. Pegasus in Flight isn't so long in tooth it isn't readable, but soon, so sadly soon, it will be.

[Shirley Durr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second book is a novel that combines the stories of two exceptional and unique Talented children. Picking up several years after Book #1, it deals with political manipulations and attempts by corrupt and greedy individuals to exploit Talent for personal gain. Sound familiar?

The setting is an Earth bursting with overpopulation and wide gaps between the haves and the have nots. But there are plans to build a platform for moving some of the human race into space. The Talent are to play a part in building that platform but the woman in charge fails to understand how her methods and her personality are harmful to Talent. This sets up part of the struggles Talent face throughout this book.

I like how the stories of Peter and Tirla start separately, intertwine, and merge with each other the story of the development of space travel. The adults who guide their training are also interesting and have their own stories as well. Some of the names will sound familiar from The Talent #1, sort of "the next generation."

You will see some these names return in subsequent books about The Talent as they move beyond Earth.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! I didn't know it was part of a series, so I'm going to read the others in the trilogy. It's also caused a burgeoning hunger for more sci-fi like it - almost all of my books are fantasy, but I have a few of Anne McCaffrey's other books in the genre. When I was doing something else, I often found myself drifting into thinking about the book.
I picked it from my unread books ($5 a bag book sales are AMAZING) for a read-a-thon, and I'm so glad I did - but I'm also oddly frustrated with myself that I've owned this gem for years and never touched it until now.
The characters were superb, the imagery fantastic, and the plots and subplots were extremely well woven into each other.
I think part of what made me devour this novel was that it focused on people called Talents - those who had telepathy, telekinesis, etc (and used them in ways I've never read before) so it was kind of like they had magic. The other part was the fact that that lady can WRITE.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to the genre of sci-fi,I still have so many books to read, and this novel proves that. Not only is this the first sci-fi novel I've read in a while,but it's also the first Anne McCafferty novel I've come across. In it,Girls is a gifted child who has a gift for learning languages quickly and Peter is a child who is dealing with accepting recovering from an accident that paralyzed him,and both of them are trying to make a living in a society that doesn't accept them. Furthermore, they're both at the same center for gifted kids and getting neglected. I liked the idea of a center for gifted kids,as well as their unique talents. An action packed,at times hilarious and heartfelt novel,and I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second in the talent series, this book covers the finding of Tirla and Peter Reidinger. I'm enamored by the very unique magic powers they both have — Tirla's ability to speak any language through a unique form of telepathy and Peter's telekinesis which he uses to move his paralyzed body with his mind. In a somewhat convoluted plot, the kids end up being kidnapped by a human trafficking ring, but are able to be saved through the use of their powers and their connection to others like Rhyssa Owen, who is both powerful politically as well as telepathically.

[Annabele · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Time and Every Time, I Love This Book.

Reading this the first time so many years ago I fell in love with this series. Reading them again and I still do, especially when reading the antics of my favorite characters. I own just about every book Anne McCaffrey has written (with the exception of books she "co-wrote" with her children. Don't get me wrong they are great authors tag themselves, just not as great as their mother. 😉

I own this series in Hardcopy, Ebook, and Audible (with luck they'll finally make a video version too (after all, they finally did it with Terry Brooks and his Shanara books). *crosses fingers*

[Leah Joob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anne McCaffrey's sci fi world building blows me away every time. The world is filled with wonderfully complex characters. Every character has depth, motivation, and feels grounded.

Unfortunately, she frequently decides to make one of those characters an older man counting the days until his teenage girl crush is old enough to get down with.

From this book, "With the slender little body curled trustfully in his lap, Sascha permitted himself just a few minutes to caress her hair and savor the feel of her in his arms.... With a final little hug, he put her from him as gently as he could. One day, eight or nine years into the future..." (shes 12 btw) 🤨

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing my re-read of the series. This book takes up with the granddaughter of the previous book's Director now leading the Parapsychic Center during a time where overcrowding on Earth has become a major issue and the plan to colonize other planets to relieve that pressure is causing pressure to the Talents. Unlike the first book, this one follows the same characters throughout, focusing on Rhyssa, the Director, and a young boy called Peter who, due to a horrible accident, discovers a very important talent of his own.