In the far future of a version of our universe, the human race has successfully colonized several other worlds throughout our galaxy. Travel between these worlds is accomplished by people known as Talents, those with psychokinetic or telepathic powers. They are ranked from 12 to 1, and if you're powerful enough to rank as a 1, you're known as a Prime.
This is the universe Anne McCaffrey chose for her story of an orphan Prime. Born on Altair, at the tender age of three she was swept away by a freak mudslide . This trauma erases her memory, and she cannot even recall her own name, so she becomes known as The Rowan Child, named after the Rowan Mining colony that was obliterated by the mudslide. We get to see her grow up and learn to use her Talent, raised as a ward of the planet.
In many ways this is a coming-of-age story perfect for a young adult, but there are also lessons for us more grown folk, too. Though Rowan's every physical want and necessity is met, she is often lonely; her abilities and traumas set her apart from most her age. She has no friends, only people she shares time and space with.
In her adult years, she is moved to the tower on Jupiter's moon Callisto, and that is traumatizing in its own way. It isn't until The Rowan comes psychically into contact with a clan of "wild" Talents does her life change, finally, for the better.
This novel has almost no plot and reads much like a biography of the Rowan Child. It is a fun ride, if terribly dated. This isn't hard science fiction; it is a world of pure imagination, set in the same universe as McCaffrey's Pern books.
If you're not a McCaffrey reader now, maybe dip a toe in with The Rowan.
⭐⭐⭐⭐4/5
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