content: I have read- and loved- several Anne McCaffrey books, but this was not one of them. I was repulsed when I came to the part where Mrs. McCaffrey attempts to set up a mystery-Talent who has a secret enmity for the aliens aboard. However, she repeatedly gave away who it was- from the looks on the character's face, to a near-outright confession. These seemed to me to be an insult to the reader's intelligence and made this book one of a very few books which I was too disgusted to finish. Still, part of my disappointment stems from the knowledge that she can write much better than this, and has.