Acorna: The Unicorn Girl - "Something's Alive In There!"
She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free.
But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper" -- a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own.
Acorna's Quest - This follow-up to Anne McCaffrey's bestselling Acorna trails the unicorn girl across the galaxy as she searches for her mysterious home and lost people.
Filled with adventure and wonder, Acorna's Peoplecontinues the enthralling saga of Acorna, the beautiful, brave, and kindhearted creature known as the Unicorn Girl.
Acorna's People - "Welcome Home, Linyaari Child!"With the help of her "uncles" and the thousands of humans who love and admire her, Acorna has found her true people, the peaceful, telepathic Linyaari. But Acorna still has much to do before she can enjoy her new home. The legendary resting place of the lost Linyaari ancestors has yet to be found. And with the help of a rogue spacetrader and his feline sidekick, Acorna must strive to right an unspeakable wrong and defeat an enemy even crueler than the Khleevi. Along the way, she will at last uncover the Universe's most carefully guarded secret--the true nature of the ancient link between the Linyaari and the space-faring humans she has also come to think of as her "people."
Acorna's World - Acorna the "unicorn girl" found as a baby years ago, abandoned and floating alone in an escape pod at the far end of the galaxy has made peace with her past, her Linyaari heritage, and with the powerful "differences" that set her apart from the loving humans who raised her. But only in the deep reaches of limitless space can she truly feel at home.
Now, aboard the interplanetary salvage vessel Condor, Acorna is free once more, traveling through space in the company of her good friend, ship's commander Captain Jonas Becker, his gargantuan feline "first mate" Roadkill, and Aari, a proud Linyaari survivor of torture at the hands of the savage, bug-like Khleevi.
But the journey is interrupted when a transmitted distress call faint but undeniable draws Acorna and her companions down to the surface of a nearby planet.
What awaits them is a world of wonders, shrouded in an atmosphere of strange, intoxicating perfumes. Intelligent, sentiment plants help guide Acorna, Becker, Aari, and RK to the source of the SOS. But a broken, burned out alien ship is all they find, the pitiful remnants of a relentlessly brutal yet carefully coordinated assault. To Acorna, the signs are unmistakable.
This is the grim handiwork of the cold-blooded species that seeks the complete eradication of all human and Linyaari life from the galaxy... the Khleevi!
And suddenly all that Acrona holds dear is in grave peril. Because the devastation that was wrought here was no isolated occurence, but the opening move in a planned onslaught that will decimate the two races to whom Acorna is culturally, emotionally, and geneticallytied. A worlds-shattering catastrophe is in the making unless one courageous and beautiful young woman with remarkable healing powers and her small, motley group of friends can go the unthinkable: discover the fearsome insectile enemy's greatest weakness... and strike first.
The Barnes & Noble Review
Acorna's Search, the fifth book in Anne McCaffrey's Acorna series, takes the saga of the beloved unicorn girl to an all-time high -- or low, depending on how you look at it. As Acorna and her Linyaari people begin to rebuild their home planet (which was practically destroyed by the evil insectoid Khleevi in Acorna's World), members of Linyaarian research parties begin to disappear one by one. Soon whole shuttles are just vanishing into thin air. Among the missing is Acorna's life mate, Aari. After consulting with the Ancestors, Acorna concludes that she must go deep underneath the planet's surface to solve the potentially horrific mystery.
The once cool, idyllic world of Vhiliinyar is now like something out of a nightmare. "The whole planet was, for the most part, stifling, with much of its protective ozone layer punctured by volcanic explosions and toxic chemical reactions from its unstable land masses and destroyed seas." Instead of green meadows filled with beautiful flora and fauna, there are now carnivorous plants, poisonous geysers, bogs and apelike monsters. While trying to escape these hairy, spear-toting beasts, Acorna is forced deep into a cave and stumbles across the opening into an ancient subterranean city.
The mysterious history of the uni-horned Linyaari people is steeped in fable, and when Acorna discovers the mythical city of Kubiilikaan, the legendary home of the Hosts, much of what she thought was historically true becomes suspect. As Acorna unravels the mystery with the help of the royal temple cat Roadkill and Mac the android, she finds out Aari isn't lost in space, but in time.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the series, here's a quick overview. In the first book in the series, Acorna, we're introduced to the lovable orphan after her family's spaceship is mysteriously destroyed. She escapes in a space pod and is found by a salvage ship crewed by three humans. The men had never seen anything quite like Acorna before. The Linyaari were a race of humanoids with unicorn characteristics -- a flowing, curling mane and feathery hair from ankle to knee, hooves, three fingers and, of course, a horn protruding from their foreheads.
The men, obviously with nowhere to take the orphan, are forced to raise the strange girl themselves. During their months aboard ship, they bond with the lovable kid and she slowly learns their language and culture. But with none of her kind around, and no way to know if any even still exist, Acorna struggles to find her own identity. When the salvage ship finally returns to Federation space, Acorna becomes the center of attention. Rumors spread like wildfire about a unicorn girl with magical powers.
Acorna's Search - Over the course of the next two novels (Acorna's Quest and Acorna's People), Acorna finds the Linyaari homeworld and becomes reunited with her people. She learns about her race's history and culture and also about its enemies, the Khleevi. I have to tell you, the Khleevi are right up there on my Top Ten list of most despicable aliens. They're basically oversized cockroaches that travel the galaxy looking for worlds to plunder and life forms to torture. In Acorna's World, the fourth installment, Acorna and her people come face-to-face with the Khleevi, except this time they have the Federation's help. I recommend this series to fantasy lovers of all ages. McCaffrey and Scarborough (who coauthored the last three books in the series) create an interesting, realistic world without exploitative sex or violence. And, because the main character is a young, strong, good-hearted female, this series would be particularly perfect for young girls interested in fantasy.