Nimisha's Ship (1998)

Easy enjoyable light reading. Interesting storyline with strong female lead. ( )

Set in the future when space travel is commonplace, Nimisha's Ship is a light and enjoyable scifi book.

Nimisha is the Body Heir of a powerful woman who has the courage and ability to separate herself from what is expected of one of her class and birth.

She shows talent for designing space ships and is able to have the life she wishes, doing so.

On a trial run shakedown cruise of her latest design, she is lost in space. The book deals with how she copes with her new, alternate lifestyle.

This book is pleasant, nonviolent, very very minimal sexual references that are necessary for plot development (definitely low PG) that would offend only the very strictest Evangelical families. It is a good portrayal of a strong self sufficient but not obnoxious woman.

I recommend it highly for ya's over 10-12 depending upon maturity and also for adults who like a good, fast moving, light read.

Nimisha doesn't follow the social expectations for young women of her elevated social status. She's interested in engineering and good at it, developing a faster space ship. While on a test run she is sucked in by a wormhole and spat out in an unknown sector of the universe.
McCaffrey speeds thru the first 30 years of Nimisha's life, then double times us thru the adventure. I can't figure out why I remembered her as a great author--have I matured that much, or has her writing become more rote? Maybe teens would enjoy this, but I wouldn't recommend it to any I know because of the old-fashioned roles women have. Yes, they might be engineers and astrophysicists, but their interactions with men show nothing has changed. ( )

A guilty pleasure that I have finally got to the stage where I can avoid spending money on them, at least - this one's from the library. Candy-easy read with the usual McCaffrey tropes - talented, determined, strong, and beautiful woman becomes colonist in somewhat Swiss Family Robinson style, with added sex and lots of kids.

That might be a spoiler in that it's not on the back of the book, but it's so similar to the [b:Freedom's Landing|61928|Freedom's Landing (Catteni Vol. 1)|Anne McCaffrey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170597935s/61928.jpg|678069] series (though with less guerilla warfare) that it more comes under the heading of predictability.

Was also amused that the titular Nimisha is the embodiment of what would be thought of as a kind of feminism - strong etc as I say above - but nevertheless the society that she is in is very clearly sexist. A future society needn't be a paragon at all, of course, but it seems a slightly odd way to go about being feminist (if that's what McCaffrey would specifically class herself). The society could be generally much more radical in its overall gender roles and Nimisha could still be made into a standout extraordinary character. ( )

NIL