Ship Who Sang

The Ship Who Sang  - Anne McCaffrey Dedicated to her father and originally written in the 1960's this is a series of interlinked stories about a brainship. This later became a series with the help of some other writers but this is the original from which this all originates. It's an interesting concept. A question not often asked. What would happen to children who were born with congenital abnormalitites in the future. What if there was something that could be done? What if they could be the brain of a ship, or a city? As usual with Anne McCaffrey music plays a role, in this case Helva, our central character, learns how to sing and as her voice is created artificially, can sing in any octave she chooses. As it is a series of stories, rather than a single novel, sometimes it feels like a series of ideas explored rather than a single idea, but it's interesting, McCaffrey explores the relationship between the brawns (the human sidekick) and the brains, what happens when a brawn dies, the stresses on the couple when it doesn't work, how there can be issues when it does and one dies. Brainships can live for a very long time. How mental illness can affect the relationship and how love can make it hard to deal with one of the couple being unable to get physically involved. I liked this story the first time I read it as a teen, and now I'm older I can see some of the deeper issues she explored that I glossed over. While some of it is dated (some of our current tech is a little more advanced than what's used here) it did stand up well to re-reading.