Author:	Anne McCaffrey
Copyright:	1982
Date Reviewed:	6/1/92
Rating:	4.0

After 10 years studying music, Killashandra Ree learns that she has a voice flutter and can never be a soloist. distraught because she must be the best at whatever she chooses, Killashandra quits the school. At the space port, she meets Carrik, a Crystal Singer who is soon critically injured. She brings the comatose man to Ballybran, home of the Heptite Guide. With Carrik and on the journey to Ballybran, Killashandra becomes interested in the Heptite Guild and considers joining. There are only 2,500 members and with those odds, she figures she can reach the top soon.

Up until this point everyone she meets tries to talk her out of becoming a Crystal Singer and Killashandra eventually discovers why. Class 895 is put through the rigors of crystal training and told the negative side effects. There is an indigenous spore on Ballybran. Once infected, the host may loose some aspect but gains others like quick healing, long life and automatic weather prediction. Memory loss is the most serious common side effect.

Rather than becoming ill with the onset of the infection, Killashandra suffers no side effects, a sign that she has adapted better than most. She learns that she has a special talent for recognizing and singing black crystal, the most valuable of all. Black crystal is used for instantaneous communications. Now well ahead of her classmates, and suddenly resented by most of them, Killashandra goes into the ranges and finds a Black Crystal claim that another prospector, now dead, once worked. She returns with several crystals and is sent off planet before the sonic storms arrive. Her assignment is to install those crystals in a planetary system. Because of the orbital mechanics, she'll only have 6 minutes at each site. Of course she is successful.

Anne McCaffrey is known for pure fantasy novels. Though billed as a science fiction, there is a heavy fantasy slant here. This would not be a problem if the story held up. The fist quarter was very interesting as the reader learns and tries to guess the secrets of the crystal world. However, once those secrets are known, the story goes nowhere. Most of the remainder of the book deals with Killashandra learning to prospect crystal. But who cares? I didn't. It did seem odd that our hero would be so successful her first time out.

The off planet mission did not fit in with the rest of the story and I could not believe that any intelligent engineer would attempt to tune and turn up a communications system in 5 - 6 minute periods. The ending, where Killashandra prevents a revolution by turning the system on at the final moment was ludicrous.

There is also a great deal of repetitious which I found tedious. Most had to do with various aspects of cutting crystal. Worst of all aspects of the book, was the continuous praises of the merits and effects of Yarren beer. It must have been described at least 20 times where three would have been plenty. It is doubtful I will read another McCaffrey novel any time in the near future.