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genarti and I succumbed to the lure of an incredibly cheap copy of Anne McCaffrey's first-ever novel, Restoree, which neither of us had read, because .... I don't know. I have no rational explanation. It's been fifteen years at least since I read a McCaffrey and it would have been so easy to keep the streak going, and yet.
Restoree involves plucky young New York City girl Sara getting abducted by aliens, undergoing terrifying surgery, and awakening in what seems to be a strange sort of asylum where she's tasked with caretaking an apparently catatonic patient.
On the downside, she has no idea what has happened to her, there's been a horrifying violation of her bodily autonomy, and she's surrounded by sinister doctors who have her in their complete power and don't seem to expect her or her patient to have any mind of their own.
On the upside: the aliens really fixed up her nose! she's always hated her nose but her parents would never let her do anything about it ['only Jewish girls get nose jobs' ... ah, 1967] and she is JUST thrilled about the new one :D
Sara quickly realizes that her patient is an important political figure on this planet of alien humans [?] who is being kept drugged so everyone will think he had a mental breakdown; she manages to sneakily stop him from receiving any more drugging and, once he's awake, immediately realizes he's hot. His name is Harlan, and there is no reason to assume this is a nod to Harlan Ellison, that would be a completely wild thing for Anne McCaffrey to do, and yet the thought keeps haunting me.
Anyway, Harlan hears Sara's story and immediately figures out that she was probably kidnapped by the Mil, evil people-napping skin-flaying aliens who've been coming to his planet and hunting his people Since Time Immemorial and now have apparently branched out to Earth. He also Sara that she must not tell ANYBODY about this, because trying to restore people who have been kidnapped and skin-flayed by the Mil is ILLEGAL and people will hate and fear and be grossed out by her and possibly try and put her to death.
Anyway. They break out! They make out! It turns out Sara can sail, which is crucial to both the breaking out and the making out -- Harlan loves that she can sail, he keeps telling everybody how lucky it is that he got him a girl who knows how to sail a boat, which honestly is perhaps the cutest thing in the book. He also explains that on this planet women are highly valued for their fertility and tells her that he's claimed her, which is much less cute but one hundred percent on brand for Anne McCaffrey. Anyway, Sara is unbothered by this.
She's also relatively unbothered when the next part of the adventure involves her sneaking into the palace and accidentally becoming the Teen Warlord's Fake Girlfriend because it's very important that everyone know that he's not Teen Impotent, as has been Rumored, Much To His Devastation. Honestly Sara thinks this is all kind of funny, which, you know what, fair. This is actually the second Teen Warlord because the first Teen Warlord has been being slowly poisoned and decides to abdicate for ill health and then spends the whole rest of the book sitting back eating popcorn like 'thank God I'm out of all that,' which, you know what, mood. He's my favorite character in the book.
We find out that the villains have been drugging and kidnapping just loads of people and sending them off to the asylum under the claim that there's a tragic mental health epidemic, which obviously is Bad but also frankly kind of fascinating as a plot point that everyone is just like "oh, yeah, checks out, our best and brightest ARE under a lot of strain, it makes perfect sense that they're all abruptly going catatonic with PTSD." We also learn that that there's a planet of gentle and pacifist aliens that Harlan found and colonized but, like, in a nice way, and then is appalled to learn that his political enemy betrayed them to the Mil in order to do a land grab and now they're all dead. Sara absolutely does immediately think about the colonization of North America and it is exactly as well-meaningly condescending as one might expect.
Throughout all of this Sara is constantly hungry and constantly demanding that we get to the next meal, which I was convinced was a sign of some kind of restoree monstrosity that would eventually be revealed to explain why we're so down on restorees, but apparently just seems to be a charming character quirk. It is really frankly never explained why we're so down on trying to restore people who have been tragically skinned by aliens except 'mostly doesn't work.'
There's politicking! The Mil invade! The Mil are defeated! The Teen Warlord claims his true love! Sara is honestly not deeply involved in any of it and also it's not that interesting! Around the edges of this there's an ongoing conversation about what to do about the sinister scientist who restored Sara and was involved in the drugging-Harlan coup, and the answer ends up being 'not much, it's fine, now that he achieved his scientific coup of successfully restoring Sara he probably won't drug any important political figures again.' So that's all good. As far as the restoree problem which has been looming all book goes Harlan is just like 'uhhhh Sara IS from an alien planet and WAS kidnapped by the Mil but fortunately escaped before anyone could skin her alive, this is absolutely the nose that she's always had, do Not worry' and everyone is cool with that and they live happily ever after.
Is it a good book? Not particularly. Is it the weirdest book Anne McCaffrey ever wrote? Absolutely not. Is it the worst book Anne McCaffrey ever wrote? Also absolutely not! She will reach much greater heights and depths over the course of her career, but my understanding is that she wrote this book in order to take a Strong Stand That Women Can Do Things In Science Fiction Novels and, you know what, fair play. Sara does do several things. She knows how to sail!
genarti and I succumbed to the lure of an incredibly cheap copy of Anne McCaffrey's first-ever novel, Restoree, which neither of us had read, because .... I don't know. I have no rational explanation. It's been fifteen years at least since I read a McCaffrey and it would have been so easy to keep the streak going, and yet. Restoree involves plucky young New York City girl Sara getting abducted by aliens, undergoing terrifying surgery, and awakening in what seems to be a strange sort of asylum where she's tasked with caretaking an apparently catatonic patient.
On the downside, she has no idea what has happened to her, there's been a horrifying violation of her bodily autonomy, and she's surrounded by sinister doctors who have her in their complete power and don't seem to expect her or her patient to have any mind of their own.
On the upside: the aliens really fixed up her nose! she's always hated her nose but her parents would never let her do anything about it ['only Jewish girls get nose jobs' ... ah, 1967] and she is JUST thrilled about the new one :D
Sara quickly realizes that her patient is an important political figure on this planet of alien humans [?] who is being kept drugged so everyone will think he had a mental breakdown; she manages to sneakily stop him from receiving any more drugging and, once he's awake, immediately realizes he's hot. His name is Harlan, and there is no reason to assume this is a nod to Harlan Ellison, that would be a completely wild thing for Anne McCaffrey to do, and yet the thought keeps haunting me.
Anyway, Harlan hears Sara's story and immediately figures out that she was probably kidnapped by the Mil, evil people-napping skin-flaying aliens who've been coming to his planet and hunting his people Since Time Immemorial and now have apparently branched out to Earth. He also Sara that she must not tell ANYBODY about this, because trying to restore people who have been kidnapped and skin-flayed by the Mil is ILLEGAL and people will hate and fear and be grossed out by her and possibly try and put her to death.
Anyway. They break out! They make out! It turns out Sara can sail, which is crucial to both the breaking out and the making out -- Harlan loves that she can sail, he keeps telling everybody how lucky it is that he got him a girl who knows how to sail a boat, which honestly is perhaps the cutest thing in the book. He also explains that on this planet women are highly valued for their fertility and tells her that he's claimed her, which is much less cute but one hundred percent on brand for Anne McCaffrey. Anyway, Sara is unbothered by this.
She's also relatively unbothered when the next part of the adventure involves her sneaking into the palace and accidentally becoming the Teen Warlord's Fake Girlfriend because it's very important that everyone know that he's not Teen Impotent, as has been Rumored, Much To His Devastation. Honestly Sara thinks this is all kind of funny, which, you know what, fair. This is actually the second Teen Warlord because the first Teen Warlord has been being slowly poisoned and decides to abdicate for ill health and then spends the whole rest of the book sitting back eating popcorn like 'thank God I'm out of all that,' which, you know what, mood. He's my favorite character in the book.
We find out that the villains have been drugging and kidnapping just loads of people and sending them off to the asylum under the claim that there's a tragic mental health epidemic, which obviously is Bad but also frankly kind of fascinating as a plot point that everyone is just like "oh, yeah, checks out, our best and brightest ARE under a lot of strain, it makes perfect sense that they're all abruptly going catatonic with PTSD." We also learn that that there's a planet of gentle and pacifist aliens that Harlan found and colonized but, like, in a nice way, and then is appalled to learn that his political enemy betrayed them to the Mil in order to do a land grab and now they're all dead. Sara absolutely does immediately think about the colonization of North America and it is exactly as well-meaningly condescending as one might expect.
Throughout all of this Sara is constantly hungry and constantly demanding that we get to the next meal, which I was convinced was a sign of some kind of restoree monstrosity that would eventually be revealed to explain why we're so down on restorees, but apparently just seems to be a charming character quirk. It is really frankly never explained why we're so down on trying to restore people who have been tragically skinned by aliens except 'mostly doesn't work.'
There's politicking! The Mil invade! The Mil are defeated! The Teen Warlord claims his true love! Sara is honestly not deeply involved in any of it and also it's not that interesting! Around the edges of this there's an ongoing conversation about what to do about the sinister scientist who restored Sara and was involved in the drugging-Harlan coup, and the answer ends up being 'not much, it's fine, now that he achieved his scientific coup of successfully restoring Sara he probably won't drug any important political figures again.' So that's all good. As far as the restoree problem which has been looming all book goes Harlan is just like 'uhhhh Sara IS from an alien planet and WAS kidnapped by the Mil but fortunately escaped before anyone could skin her alive, this is absolutely the nose that she's always had, do Not worry' and everyone is cool with that and they live happily ever after.
Is it a good book? Not particularly. Is it the weirdest book Anne McCaffrey ever wrote? Absolutely not. Is it the worst book Anne McCaffrey ever wrote? Also absolutely not! She will reach much greater heights and depths over the course of her career, but my understanding is that she wrote this book in order to take a Strong Stand That Women Can Do Things In Science Fiction Novels and, you know what, fair play. Sara does do several things. She knows how to sail!