By that time, the Rowan is twelve, and oddly enough, begins to converse with Purza, even though it's just a toy, and they make it into a sort of nanny cam to track her adjustment. It takes nine more years before they declare her adjusted enough to begin her training as a Prime. For her adjustment, she is given a pukha, a toy that responds to the emotions of its ward with sensory receptors in its fur, which she christens 'Purza'.

It is agreed she'll be raised on Altair, her home planet, and she is sent to live with a caretaker until she is 'settled'. Eventually they locate her, intending to send her to Earth to be raised, however, many high-level Talents (mainly Primes) experience severe distress at being sent away to other planets, and the Rowan refuses to be transported. The Rowan had telepathic Talent, and began broadcasting her distress to all who could receive it, distracting Primes (who transport many supplies between planets, via telekinesis) from their work. The Rowan is the main protagonist in this novel, a toddler made orphan by carelessness of the Rowan company, who were mining the planet and decided not to evacuate the camp after ten days of monsoon-like weather, resulting in a mudslide that killed everyone in the area, save the Rowan, who was saved by the ovoid hopper she was ensconced in. I haven't read as many as I like, but when I find them at yard sales and thrift shops, they're an auto-buy. In the end, the two wind up defending humanity against an even more dangerous alien enemy than the Hive faced by the Rowan.Ī review from Publishers Weekly praised the book, and considered the book to be 'engrossing', whereas a negative Kirkus review criticised its plot and stated that it was ' but weightless balderdash, not so much for the drippy romancing as the dismally cursory aliens'.This is by far my favorite Anne McCaffrey book I have had the pleasure of reading. Lyon later realizes that he has fallen in love with his young ward, which gives him rather conflicted feelings.

It then shows Lyon's view of the events of The Rowan, followed by his helping to raise Rowan and Jeff Raven's children, especially the precocious and powerful Damia.

It begins with his childhood on the strictly regimented colony planet orbiting Capella. Damia is a 1992 science fiction novel by American writer Anne McCaffrey it is the sequel to The Rowan, and the second book of the Tower and Hive series.ĭamia is told mainly from the point of view of Afra Lyon, the Rowan's assistant, a character first introduced in the previous book.

The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey