Crystal Singer
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| Crystal Singer | |
| Author | Anne McCaffrey |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Crystal Singer series |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Ballantine |
| Publication date | 26 February 1982 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 304 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-345-32786-1 |
| Followed by | Killashandra |
Crystal Singer (1982) is the first novel in the Crystal Singer series by Anne McCaffrey. The author's notes from Crystal Singer explain the story is based on four stories that were originally published in Roger Elwood's Continuum series. The 1982 version is expanded from these stories. Crystal Singer is about the trials and tribulations of Killashandra Ree in becoming a crystal singer on the planet Ballybran.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Crystal Singer
Killashandra Ree has trained all her life to become a stellar class vocal soloist. But, in her final examinations she is told that there is a flaw in her voice that will make singing lead roles unattainable for her. Knowing that she cannot be the best in her career, she does not wish to continue a life in which she will be constrained to mediocre operatic roles. She meets a Crystal Singer, a kind of miner who uses the voice as part of an apparatus for mining crystals for uses in different technologies. Their acquaintance gives her a new insight into the advantages of life as a crystal singer — high pay, travel, prestige, and near-immortality. In a fit of pique, Killashandra travels to Ballybran to investigate her chances of joining the Heptite Guild becoming a Crystal Singer. She meets the main qualification, perfect pitch, and believes that if she cannot be first among operatic performers, perhaps she could become first among the select group of elite Ballybran crystal miners.
Becoming a singer is not easy and Ballybran is not a normal world. Habitation on the planet is restricted because of the planet’s dangers, primary of which is an alien symbiont that invades the human body. The symbiont provides the host many benefits, including rapid tissue regeneration and a vastly prolonged life expectancy. But the symbiont often alters the host in one or more strange ways, most of which have very unpleasant side-effects. The only persons allowed on planet are the crystal singers and the support staff for their facilities and only the singers are able to travel away from the planet, although there are physical dangers in traveling too far away for too long. Ballybran crystal has unique qualities that make it a luxury as well as a necessity for almost any machinery or communications equipment.
Killashandra eventually becomes a Crystal Singer of the top tier by locating and mining the rarest and most elusive form of Ballybran Crystal, Black Crystal, and is subsequently sent offworld on assignment to install the set of crystals she mined for their eventual buyers. She is required to "perform" in the role of a mysterious member of the highly respected and powerful Heptite Guild to win over an audience of mistrusting asteroid miners who have mortgaged their futures on the badly needed black crystals. Her success brings her full circle and she returns home to Ballybran to begin her new life of wealth and status.
[edit] Killashandra
In this second novel of the series, Killashandra is once again sent offworld, this time to the planet of Optheria. Her task is ostensibly to install new White Crystals into the manual of the planet's largest Optherian Organ, which was shattered under mysterious circumstances....
[edit] Crystal Line
In the final novel in the Crystal Singer series, Killashandra Ree and Lars Dahl are sent to investigate a strange mineral discovered in a newly explored star system. It is believed that the stuff may have properties similar to Ballybran Crystal...
[edit] Later stories
The story of Killashandra continued in later volumes Killashandra (1986) and Crystal Line (1992). The original Continuum stories ended with the death of Killashandra, however the novels do not follow this same path.
