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Brainship #2
PartnerShip
She was born human... reborn as much, much more.
Her name was Nancia Perez y de Gras. Like the other five young people aboard, she was an aristocrat... a member of one of the illustrious High Families. And, like the others, she was a new graduate, just starting out on her own career.
But while the rest were bound for less-than-glamorous assignments—for reasons they preferred to conceal—on planets in a remote sector of the galaxy, Nancia was already on duty and proud of it: as a brain-ship for the Courier Service.
Her name was Nancia Perez y de Gras. Like the other five young people aboard, she was an aristocrat... a member of one of the illustrious High Families. And, like the others, she was a new graduate, just starting out on her own career.
But while the rest were bound for less-than-glamorous assignments—for reasons they preferred to conceal—on planets in a remote sector of the galaxy, Nancia was already on duty and proud of it: as a brain-ship for the Courier Service.
323 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
17 people are currently reading
1679 people want to read
About the author
Anne McCaffrey
463 books7,697 followersAnne 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
November 11, 2007
The entire Brainship series is a joy–it's interesting to see the world from a point of view both incredibly powerful and incredibly helpless.
February 4, 2011
Technically a reread since I own a paperback copy of this book. Found most of the characters so unlikeable it was actually difficult to finish the book.
July 9, 2016
Partnership is about Nancia. On her first trip, she transports several young people from high families. Unfortunately, they are all corrupt and she overhears their plans, but is persuaded that she shouldn't have, since she didn't identify herself as a brain ship. Her first brawn happens to be extremely stuck up regarding his morals, so it takes a while before the situation gets rectified...
I liked this book a little less. It was still entertaining, but I was annoyed by the moral brawn, and Nancia herself at first agrees with him. Fortunately she loosens up later on. The book followed the young criminals quite a lot, and this was ok, but I still would have preferred reading more about Nancia. I did like the descriptions of Singularities and particularly the Singularity incident that Nancia has to get out of later on in the book.
I liked this book a little less. It was still entertaining, but I was annoyed by the moral brawn, and Nancia herself at first agrees with him. Fortunately she loosens up later on. The book followed the young criminals quite a lot, and this was ok, but I still would have preferred reading more about Nancia. I did like the descriptions of Singularities and particularly the Singularity incident that Nancia has to get out of later on in the book.
March 20, 2021
I’m loving my reread of the Brainship books. Anne McCaffrey is my go to author when I need to escape into her sci-fi worlds.
July 23, 2015
Even though this was written in 1992, it has the feel of old school, classic Science Fiction. There's a hint of sexism, though not as bad as stuff from the 50's and 60's, and the science still has that "gee-whiz" feeling you get from early SF. It's a quick read, and an entertaining story - though I had things figured out quite early on, as far as what was going on with the bit of mystery and intrigue that drives the plot.
Brainships are intersellar craft that are really human cyborgs - a human being (born physically deformed) is hard-wired into the ship, and the ship's functions are controlled directly by the human "brain." The "brawn" is the able-bodied human partner who provides literal legs on the ground, so to speak. In all instances of the series so far, the brain is female and the brawn is male. I would love to see this change in later books in the series, but I don't know if it does. (This is part of the mild sexism.)
This book begins with a newly commissioned brainship - still without a brawn - assigned to ferry 5 young aristocrats to their first job postings. Nancia, the brain in the ship, is also from an aristocratic family, but she is immediately shocked by the rude behavior of her passengers, and does not reveal herself as a brainship; her passengers think they are on a simple droneship. As such, they do not censor their behavior, and Nancia overhears them all plotting to achieve riches through underhanded and illegal means. Being a new ship, she does not know what to do with this information, so she tells no one.
As the story progresses, Nancia is paired with a brawn and they run into some trouble, related to the 5 aristocratic plotters. Her brawn is injured, and she takes on a temporary brawn and gets pulled deeper into the intrigue surrounding the actions of these 5 people.
It has a fully satisfying ending, of course - the bad guys are caught out, Nancia mends fences with her family, and she finally gets a decent brawn. We are left with the prospect of the "partnership" becoming something of an investigative team and solving more crimes through their ingenuity.
There is nothing really deep in this novel. And certainly, by today's standards, nothing really groundbreaking with respect to the ideas. Nevertheless, it is a fun, light read, especially if you like classic SF.
Brainships are intersellar craft that are really human cyborgs - a human being (born physically deformed) is hard-wired into the ship, and the ship's functions are controlled directly by the human "brain." The "brawn" is the able-bodied human partner who provides literal legs on the ground, so to speak. In all instances of the series so far, the brain is female and the brawn is male. I would love to see this change in later books in the series, but I don't know if it does. (This is part of the mild sexism.)
This book begins with a newly commissioned brainship - still without a brawn - assigned to ferry 5 young aristocrats to their first job postings. Nancia, the brain in the ship, is also from an aristocratic family, but she is immediately shocked by the rude behavior of her passengers, and does not reveal herself as a brainship; her passengers think they are on a simple droneship. As such, they do not censor their behavior, and Nancia overhears them all plotting to achieve riches through underhanded and illegal means. Being a new ship, she does not know what to do with this information, so she tells no one.
As the story progresses, Nancia is paired with a brawn and they run into some trouble, related to the 5 aristocratic plotters. Her brawn is injured, and she takes on a temporary brawn and gets pulled deeper into the intrigue surrounding the actions of these 5 people.
It has a fully satisfying ending, of course - the bad guys are caught out, Nancia mends fences with her family, and she finally gets a decent brawn. We are left with the prospect of the "partnership" becoming something of an investigative team and solving more crimes through their ingenuity.
There is nothing really deep in this novel. And certainly, by today's standards, nothing really groundbreaking with respect to the ideas. Nevertheless, it is a fun, light read, especially if you like classic SF.
April 6, 2022
Has not aged well. In part it’s heterosexual in a ‘no other shades of sexuality exist’ way, plus a sexy woman character sleeps her way up. It’s also just dull. Plot points are too well telegraphed. Good vs evil characters break down in a mostly binary fashion (the grey character is evil but caused by bad childhood.) Some of the technology wasn’t well thought through. And some of the underlying societal ideas were disturbing - a white man brings civilization to a planet’s natives who could not save themselves; the economic relies on microchips which can only be produced by causing ecological devastation and human suffering …and no one minds until it’s ratcheted up a bit too much by an over-eager manager.
May 14, 2023
Not as entertaining as The Ship Who Sang. Nancia & her brawn aren't particularly likeable nor interesting, the only really likable character is supporting actor, Micaya Questar-Benn, & maybe Blaize - I would have liked more about him & the Loosies. I do enjoy the whole brain/brawn concept, though.
October 10, 2023
Least favourite brainship book so far. 2 stars might be a little rough. But I stopped halfway to read another book, and the contrast was stark. I don't like any of the characters in this book. Not even the brainship or brawn. I'm not saying all the characters should be sympathetic, but they were all so difficult to engage with and the book just seemed too cynical. So I haven't finished it, but I still might. It's still on the bedside table.
December 1, 2014
I'd really give this a 2.5. This is NOT as good as the other books in the series. As others have pointed out, the characters are completely unlike able, even the main character. The brain is young and annoying. The brawn has a stick up his butt. It was all I could do to keep reading. About three quarters of the way through, things finally started to get interesting. Not on my re-read list.
October 26, 2023
I’ve been a fan of Anne McCaffrey’s “The Ship Who Sang” for many years, although I can’t recall how the book ever came to be in my possession. I had also happened across the remainder of the books in the Brainship series, but the friend I had borrowed them from has since passed away, so I was unable to read them again and they’re quite difficult to find for a decent price online. By chance, however, I was to find another friend who had copies of the other four novels that McCaffrey had co-authored to give them another read.
The first of those is “PartnerShip”, set in the same universe several years after the original novel. The main character here is Nancia Perez y de Gras, one of the so-called High Families. Whilst her body is only suitable to be contained within a Brainship, her father expects nothing left of her mental abilities and whilst he may be a distant father on an emotional level, he has the authority to pull strings and get Nancia some of the easiest jobs around.
The first of these is to transport 5 passengers, also members of various High Families, towards their first postings. However, it quickly transpires that all of them are being shipped away from Central under some kind of a cloud and they are interested only in serving themselves, by any means necessary. Whilst Nancia is able to overhear their nefarious plans, her human partner feels this was obtained improperly due to her not announcing herself as a brainship and refuses to use the information, meaning it takes longer for them to be brought to justice.
Most of the fun of the original novel was that the ship, Helva, took great joy in growing into her role and going across the universe on all kinds of adventures, learning about her partners and herself as she went. There was none of that here, as the stories of Nancia were limited except in her dealings in bringing down the original batch of passengers. This limits the scope of the novel, both in plotting and in the areas covered and makes it far less interesting.
The other great thing about the original book is that Helva has such a sunny disposition and couldn’t wait to learn. Nancia acts like she knows everything from the start and both her passengers and her early brawn partners are the same and it takes a long time into the novel before you happen across an even vaguely likable character and even then, they don’t stay around for all that long.
To be fair, the novel does improve later on and the ending isn’t too bad at all, when things become a little more varied and interesting and some of the characters thaw out a little and become a little more human rather than just high Families. But by this point, I was just glad for the novel to be over and whilst I was glad that the last quarter of the novel was a quicker read, I had long since stopped caring about the plot of the characters and was keen to get it finished and leave them all behind.
The first of those is “PartnerShip”, set in the same universe several years after the original novel. The main character here is Nancia Perez y de Gras, one of the so-called High Families. Whilst her body is only suitable to be contained within a Brainship, her father expects nothing left of her mental abilities and whilst he may be a distant father on an emotional level, he has the authority to pull strings and get Nancia some of the easiest jobs around.
The first of these is to transport 5 passengers, also members of various High Families, towards their first postings. However, it quickly transpires that all of them are being shipped away from Central under some kind of a cloud and they are interested only in serving themselves, by any means necessary. Whilst Nancia is able to overhear their nefarious plans, her human partner feels this was obtained improperly due to her not announcing herself as a brainship and refuses to use the information, meaning it takes longer for them to be brought to justice.
Most of the fun of the original novel was that the ship, Helva, took great joy in growing into her role and going across the universe on all kinds of adventures, learning about her partners and herself as she went. There was none of that here, as the stories of Nancia were limited except in her dealings in bringing down the original batch of passengers. This limits the scope of the novel, both in plotting and in the areas covered and makes it far less interesting.
The other great thing about the original book is that Helva has such a sunny disposition and couldn’t wait to learn. Nancia acts like she knows everything from the start and both her passengers and her early brawn partners are the same and it takes a long time into the novel before you happen across an even vaguely likable character and even then, they don’t stay around for all that long.
To be fair, the novel does improve later on and the ending isn’t too bad at all, when things become a little more varied and interesting and some of the characters thaw out a little and become a little more human rather than just high Families. But by this point, I was just glad for the novel to be over and whilst I was glad that the last quarter of the novel was a quicker read, I had long since stopped caring about the plot of the characters and was keen to get it finished and leave them all behind.
April 17, 2024
I've read many of the other reviews. To a certain extent, I agree with many of them. The characters aren't as developed as in Helva. It took me half the book before I got interested in it.
This was an interesting read. I don't remember reading this before. I had read the Ship who sang and most of the others. Brainship is premised that those who are born with physical deformities are than further changed to be a shell. Most of them are ships. They are able to use the senses of the ships and it's power to do more than soft-shells can. They will partner with 'brawn's.
Caleb, Nancia's first brawn, is an idiot. Nancia is young and idealistic. Her family is noted for honesty. The villains who get a fair amount of space go from hapless though redeemed to ingenious and ruthless. I thought that General Micaya is perhaps one of the better characters. I do like the surprise of Blaise, and what he does.
I'd read it again just because of what it shows about the gentry of those worlds.
This was an interesting read. I don't remember reading this before. I had read the Ship who sang and most of the others. Brainship is premised that those who are born with physical deformities are than further changed to be a shell. Most of them are ships. They are able to use the senses of the ships and it's power to do more than soft-shells can. They will partner with 'brawn's.
Caleb, Nancia's first brawn, is an idiot. Nancia is young and idealistic. Her family is noted for honesty. The villains who get a fair amount of space go from hapless though redeemed to ingenious and ruthless. I thought that General Micaya is perhaps one of the better characters. I do like the surprise of Blaise, and what he does.
I'd read it again just because of what it shows about the gentry of those worlds.
July 11, 2021
This was a great partnership between Anne, and Margaret Ball - excuse the pun! Lol
But, seriously, this story had everything that I have learned to love, with all of Anne's lone works but, this time, with her co-writer making a wonderful job in her writing too.
Quite often, I've found that works with other writers didn't have that same depth of plot, character, or the emotional maturity, that Anne always gives when writing on her own, but Margaret seems to have that same wonderful gift of creating such warming, totally human, characters, and supporting them in stories that show both the good, and the bad, in people everywhere.
I thoroughly enjoyed Nancia's story, and look forward to reading the next book in the Brainship series: The Ship Who Searched, to see what will happen next!
But, seriously, this story had everything that I have learned to love, with all of Anne's lone works but, this time, with her co-writer making a wonderful job in her writing too.
Quite often, I've found that works with other writers didn't have that same depth of plot, character, or the emotional maturity, that Anne always gives when writing on her own, but Margaret seems to have that same wonderful gift of creating such warming, totally human, characters, and supporting them in stories that show both the good, and the bad, in people everywhere.
I thoroughly enjoyed Nancia's story, and look forward to reading the next book in the Brainship series: The Ship Who Searched, to see what will happen next!
April 18, 2018
This is the second book I've read in the 'ship' series. The tale is unconventional becaise from the other one I thought these were mainly romances. Although romantic elements still predominate, in this itnis the villians who take centerstage. Of fourse these are flaws but on the whole the book held attention and had quite a lot of surprises. Nancia mainly carried the book on her shoulders. I think the part with her father was changed from the one intended so it had a rushed feeling. But it is also about Nancia's growing up, so it came out all right. An enjoyable sci fi read with all the gadgets and the space up heavals you could wish for.
June 17, 2020
Numéro 2 de la série des partenaires
Née difforme, Nancia a été adaptée pour devenir le cerveau d'un vaisseau spatial, accompagnée d'un partenaire humain.
Son premier voyage la met en contact avec 5 moutons noirs de grandes et puissantes familles, qui rejoignent leur planète d'affectation. Elle ne se doutait pas que sa destinée l'amènerait à les rencontrer à nouveau au cours de ses pérégrinations.
Un roman qui mélange une intrigue policière à des thèmes de science fiction.
Même si l'histoire est assez simple, le talent de conteuse d'Anne McCaffrey nous emporte.
J'ai beaucoup aimé.
Née difforme, Nancia a été adaptée pour devenir le cerveau d'un vaisseau spatial, accompagnée d'un partenaire humain.
Son premier voyage la met en contact avec 5 moutons noirs de grandes et puissantes familles, qui rejoignent leur planète d'affectation. Elle ne se doutait pas que sa destinée l'amènerait à les rencontrer à nouveau au cours de ses pérégrinations.
Un roman qui mélange une intrigue policière à des thèmes de science fiction.
Même si l'histoire est assez simple, le talent de conteuse d'Anne McCaffrey nous emporte.
J'ai beaucoup aimé.
March 13, 2024
I agree with the rest of the reviewers. Reading about a bunch of entitled, spoiled, rich, corrupt (above the law and human decency) brats is not my favorite topic. However, I did persevere, and it got better towards the end. I did, however, see the twist coming at 42%. Agreed, not as good as the original series.
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On second thought, isn't the whole idea is that we should hate the villains? I mean, most people want to see the bad guys get punished. How are you going to get satisfaction out of their punishment if you don't know how bad they really are?
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On second thought, isn't the whole idea is that we should hate the villains? I mean, most people want to see the bad guys get punished. How are you going to get satisfaction out of their punishment if you don't know how bad they really are?
November 27, 2018
I have forgotten what it's like to have a short little book that is fun. Having read so much King, I think I have been stuck in the 500+ pages zone for too long. There is a middle ground, and this coming of age story fits it well. There is nothing too heavy to think about. This book would probably would be classified as YA if released today. Luckily, I am "young" enough to enjoy it, yet old enough to not get all angsty about what is 'wrong' with the storyline.
March 20, 2020
An entertaining read. It’s a bit too pat in plot line; several threads were blatantly obvious.
A member of the High Families has become a Brainship. She is pretty naive. Her father selects what sounds like an easy first run with young folks of the upper class to go collect a stranded Brawn. However, the group she is transporting, without a Brawn, has several rather severe psychological issues.
A member of the High Families has become a Brainship. She is pretty naive. Her father selects what sounds like an easy first run with young folks of the upper class to go collect a stranded Brawn. However, the group she is transporting, without a Brawn, has several rather severe psychological issues.
December 26, 2021
Nancia has just graduated from the school that trains brainships. She is assigned to take five young people of the High Families to their first assignments on leaving school. However, none of these young people are heading to the kind of jobs their background would suggest they're expected to take up. Nancia is left knowing their secrets during the journey and no guidance on what she should do with this information.
June 4, 2025
I'm colored by nostalgia for the Ship Who Sang. This was a trudge overall, too much time with unpleasant supporting characters. Some vintage sci-fi- specific sexism and more detailed time with some child sex abuse than I prefer. Nancia came into her own as a brainship nicely, hence the 3 stars and not 2 I was leaning towards, but it was a rough journey. I was most interested in the terraforming efforts that were mentioned briefly and not again.
March 17, 2018
I wanted to give this story 3-1/2 stars, but I had to settle for 4 because it's not just a 3-star book.
I'm a rabid McCaffrey fan, but this one isn't up to her normal 5-star standards. Still a good yarn with a kick-ass climax. Unlike most shell-ship stories, it's basically one long plot instead of several shorter plots. It's worth reading and I'll probably read it again down the road.
I'm a rabid McCaffrey fan, but this one isn't up to her normal 5-star standards. Still a good yarn with a kick-ass climax. Unlike most shell-ship stories, it's basically one long plot instead of several shorter plots. It's worth reading and I'll probably read it again down the road.
September 4, 2020
McCaffrey was writing YA before it was all the rage, which means I actually got to discover it while I was still the target audience. :-) this series revolves around the idea that if someone would be born with birth defects too severe to allow them to live, they could be placed in a protective shell, and then they could use their mind to power a spaceship.
January 28, 2021
Anne McCaffrey can always spin a wonderful tale. Love how she uses her imagination so those so handicapped in life can live and journey and have adventures far beyond a normal human. Strapping on a spaceship is so much more rewarding when you can not only grow mentally but learn not everything told to you is the absolute truth.
February 14, 2021
I liked this one even more than the first book. It expands greatly the universe created in The Ship Who Sang and I even found the story more fascinating. Like everyone else I missed Helva and personally I didn't see why she couldn't have been the main star in this story but the new characters including Nancia were all great too.
July 9, 2018
I hadn't read the Brainship books in years so I decided it was time for a re-read and I happy to report that they stood up to the test of time. I really enjoyed the story and found myself very interested in the characters in these books. I am super glad I read them again.
May 4, 2019
I'm pretty sure I read this years ago when it was first published, but that was a really long time. I enjoyed the audio version. I'm not sure I followed all the switch-outs of Nancia's brawn, but it was a good story about rich kids gone bad. I liked it.
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October 25, 2019The was part of my copy of The Ship Who Searched. I really liked the The Ship Who Searched. Partnership has much more of a technical feel about it with descriptions mathematical calculations etc. but it was a decent book.
August 2, 2020
I didn’t know I was listening to the abridged version, so I think that’s on me. It was a 3 hour audiobook, though, so I should have realized. I liked it but I was incredibly confused after the first 2 hours. Now I know why. Will probably go back and read this for real eventually.
August 22, 2017
Couldn't put it down!
June 23, 2018
Not as good as the first one - characters felt flat.
October 5, 2018
A marginal story with two dimensional, unlikable characters. Avoid.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews