Born Angharad Gwyn, The Rowan was the only survivor of a horrendous mud slide that destroyed the Rowan Mining Camp on Altair. She had been in a hopper and the mudslide buried her for days. Even as a young toddler, The Rowan was a powerful telepath and her cries for help could be heard by every sensitive on the planet. It took days for them to find her and once they did, she was in training to become a T1 Prime, one of the most powerful psionics in the universe.
Her childhood as an orphan is a lonely one. She is thrust into the care of Sligen, the current Prime on Altair, who doesn't have a motherly bone in her body. Sligen is agoraphobic and pushes that onto all she trains. Even after she is befriended by a psychiatrist and her family Rowan still feels alone.
It's not until she's an adult, running her own station that Rowan finally meets someone who will break her out of her shell and make her feel again.
The Rowan is a 3 dimensional character that I fell in love with the first time I met her. Even emotionally damaged as she is, she comes across as someone who wants to love and be loved, but doesn't know what to trust. As I read about her growing up amongst the personalities and tragedies she had to face, I felt for her, I wanted to be her friend and let her know that everything happens for a reason. I was able to get a sense of the strong woman she would grow into.
One she meets Jeff Raven, I was able to tell that finally she met the man who would make her whole and love. With Jeff she has a family and builds a life around them and the company they all work for. They repel alien invaders (through several books actually) and set the foundations of the family Rowan had stolen from her at such a young age.
I love strong female characters, and The Rowan definitely fits that mold. She grows and matures throughout the book and the series but she never really loses that vulnerability that she had as a child. Part of her is always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she is strong enough to not let that stop her. If I ever had a daughter, telepathic or not, I would want her to have the strength that The Rowan shows throughout her life.
3 comments:
the Rowan sounds like a character I would love.
I saw the cover of this one, and I was rather dubious...but then I read your review and realized that I've actually read this book! Just didn't know it because of the cover art. Funny how that works, right? I loved Rowan, too.
I read one of the Pern books when I was in high school and it just didn't appeal to me and since then I have never tried another book by McCaffrey. Though lately I've read a couple reviews of some of her other books that sound really interesting and now I think I really need to give her another try. This book sounds like a really good one.
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