The Rowan - Anne McCaffrey

It's time for my Anne McCaffrey book of the month which I participate in through Anne McCaffrey and All Her Worlds on Shelfari. I actually finished the book over a week ago, but I was feeling pretty uninspired to write a review at the moment, so I thought I'd let the book digest a little before I wrote a blog post about it.

The Rowan is a story about a young woman named Rowan who is born with psionic talents. As a toddler her village is destroyed and her family killed by a mudslide. She is found after her cries of distress disturb the other talents. Because her cries were so loud, the talents knew she was profoundly gifted and she was placed with a Prime Talent to help her hone her skills of telepathy and telekinesis. Over time, her skills allow her to be placed as a Prime Talent on another planet and she receives a distant call for help from a man named Jeff Raven, whose planet is being attacked by aliens. His calls for aid begin a relationship between the two of them that only two psionic talents could have.

After reading the book, I was a little disappointed at how disjointed it felt at some points. However, the thread for the book on the Anne McCaffrey and All Her Worlds group helped me gain a little more understanding as to why I felt this way. The book was originally a short story that Anne McCaffrey decided to expand on. The book was compelling, and I will read the second book of the series, but I was just left wanting for a little more detail. Rowan and Jeff's relationship was very sudden and intense which boring people like me don't quite understand. Someone in the group pointed out that the circumstances in which they fall in love was partially because Jeff accepted Rowan for who she was and wasn't intimidated by her powerful gift. After seeing that, I liked the book more. I will give the series one more try before I am likely to give up on it. Everyone in the group says that Damia is written much better and is a much more fulfilling story so I am excited about reading it. I did enjoy certain aspects of the book (using gifted people to be stevedores was a great concept I think) and I did like the characters in the book. I am looking forward to better plot development in the next book in the series.

I do really enjoy participating in Book of the Month groups because people's insights oftentimes help me pick up on things I've missed or hadn't thought about in the book. Do any of you participate in book clubs or book of the month groups? Let me know what you think of them and why you have or haven't joined one!