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Title | First Warning
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Author | Anne McCaffrey and
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
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Cover Art | Chris McGrath
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Publisher | HarperCollins - 2005
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First Printing | HarperCollins - 2005
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Title | Second Wave
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Author | Anne McCaffrey and
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
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Cover Art | Chris McGrath
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Publisher | HarperCollins - 2006
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First Printing | HarperCollins - 2006
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Title | Third Watch
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Author | Anne McCaffrey and
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
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Cover Art | Chris McGrath
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Publisher | HarperCollins - 2007
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First Printing | HarperCollins - 2007
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Category | Science Fiction / Fantasy
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Khorii, Khiindi, Elviiz
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Main Elements | Aliens, unicorns
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Website | The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey
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 First Warning
Khorii, daughter of near-mythic Acorna and her lifemate, Aari, must contend with an overwhelming legacy to forge a path of her own through a universe filled with new adversaries and adventures.
A simple journey home to visit her parents turns into a race against time when Khorii happens upon a derelict spacecraft drifting in space, its crew dead in their seats. But this gruesome discovery is only the dread harbinger - a deadly plague is spreading across the universe and not even the healing powers of the Linyaari can slow it's horrific advance. Khorii, one of the few unaffected by the outbreak, must find the nefarious perpetrators and a cure before the disease consumes all in its path - including her beloved parents.
Second Wave
It is difficult growing up in the shadow of heroes revered throughout the galaxy. But that is the lot of young Khorii—daughter of the legendary Acorna and her lifemate, Aari—who must now follow her own destiny through a fantastic universe of wonders and perils.
Khorii became a hero in her own right as she fought to save the universe from a mysterious, deadly plague that not even the healing powers of the Linyaari could stop.
Now, confined with the rest of the survivors on Paloduro, the home planet of the disease, it seems as if the danger may be fading, and Khorii and her friends may be able to stem the tide of death and disease . . . until ominous signs indicate that the perpetrators are near and that the epidemic is only beginning. As old enemies reemerge and a shocking family secret is revealed, Khorii must unlock the malevolent mysteries of the deadly pestilence with the aid of her android "brother" before their unknown foes complete their covert mission to cripple the entire star system.
Third Watch
Khorii, he rebellious daugher of the near-mythic Acorna and her lifemate, Aari, has followed in Acorna's footsteps leading their people from danger, but the pressure to succeed and fulfill a legacy is tremendous.
For the deadly foe that has ravaged the known worlds and weakened even her famous parents has launched its final assault, and only Khorii and her newly discovered sister, Ariin, are able to stop the brutal attack. But success is elusive, and fragile, and even time itself may not be enough to help their desperate quest to save their family...much less the universe.
So as a rule, I'm not a big fan of plague stories, even when the main characters are unicorns and thus perfectly designed to heal the sick (and thus makes for a kind of obvious choice of plotline). Now, while I felt the Pern series had a fair amount of handwaving in the SF aspects, this one required some handwaving and suspension of disbelief of another kind. I mean, let's take the premise that unicorns actually existed and an advanced alien race genetically manipulated them to be kind of humanoid. Fair enough. Let's say there's even something about then that would allow them to heal (McCaffrey doesn't even attempt something scientific here to be fair), and now send two individuals of this race to a planet that has been devastated by a plague...and somehow expect them to neutralize the plague...ON THE ENTIRE PLANET BY THEMSELVES! I mean we're talking about them walking into every room of every house, clearing the sewers, healing all the plants and animals, purifying all the waterways...you get the idea, the concept isn't even remotely feasible.
Ignoring that, well, it's a light read, the characters endearing, and given the pacifist nature of their species, the series tends towards an optimistic view of the world. Though to be completely frank, the main reason I'm reading this spinoff trilogy from the original Acorna series is twofold - there were a couple unresolved loose ends in the first series to be wrapped up here, and I'm a completionist, I just feel the urge to finish series I started.
So that must make the series sound really bad, but truth if it is was actually bad I wouldn't read it, it is just unremarkable though a valiant attempt at making unicorns an SF construct rather than a fantasy one and I give her cudos for trying to do that. It turns out Acorna isn't the only unicorn to show up in an SF series, I found at least another two (both of which, like in Acorna, have "Guardians" that rescue unicorns from old Earth to preserve them)
Now this trilogy focuses not on Acorna but on her daughter Khorii. This was great for me because I had taken so long to read the Acorna series I couldn't remember what was going on and was all confused. But this is s clean slate more or less, so I didn't have to spend my time figuring out who everyone was and what was going on. Khorii, her android companion Elviiz (yes...) and her cat Khiindi (took a while to realize that was Kitty) and going on their first offworld adventure. Of course things take a turn for the worst when the plague breaks out at exactly the same time. The first book is about them getting the plague under control.
The second book, well when I read the first little bit I thought, ok now we have a zombie apocalypse, only the didn't really turn out to be zombies, they were more like ghosts, only they weren't that either. So that kept the interest as we tried to figure out what exactly was going on.
And the third book? It frankly got absurd, a really weird solution to the plague and overall wrap up to the series. Ah well, maybe that was to be expected from a series that clearly didn't intend to take itself too seriously, perhaps directed more towards young adult readers and thus was more about exciting adventures than really making much sense. In the end, I think out of all the Acorna books I only really liked the first one. Thanks goodness for libraries!
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