The Ship Who Sang - Anne McCaffrey

This is another compilation of stories which centers around a main character. In this case, the main character is the brain portion of a ship. The main character is also human. When human children have physical deformities that may end their lives if left to their own devices, their parents have the choice of allowing them to become "shell people." They will, in essence, become a ship and are heavily conditioned to avoid curiousity, regret, and other conditions which could adversely affect their mental well being.

Some of these shell people are installed into ships. Others are installed into cities and act as administrators. This particular story focuses around one particular person named Helva. She is installed as a BB ship and is assigned to Medical at human age 16. The term BB stands for brain/brawn. The brain is installed in the ship and has a mobile human partner or "brawn." Helva is unique for she figured out how to manipulate her diaphragm and amplify the sounds into singing, thereby earning the nickname "The Ship Who Sings." The stories deal with her falling in love for the first time with her very first brawn, helping in the aftermath of a planetwide plague, helping to restore a population to another ravaged planet, finding a rogue BB ship, and various other adventures.

The original stories were written as shorts for Science Fiction Magazine and turned into this book. It sparked a series of other stories written about BB ships. These partnerships also show up in various other series that Anne McCaffrey has written. Love.Them.