Author

Margaret Ball

Q: What should I read first by Margaret Ball?

Start with the The Brainship Series series, since it is the first on file, then read it in publication order.

Margaret Ball has 3 known credited books (3 published) across 2 series. Start with The Brainship Series. Margaret Ball continues Anne McCaffrey's The Brainship Series and Acorna series.

Margaret Ball is an American science-fiction and fantasy author who co-created the Acorna series with Anne McCaffrey, launching the 1997 debut novel that introduces a trio of asteroid miners who find an abandoned escape pod carrying an infant who is unmistakably, impossibly, part unicorn — a silver-maned, horned girl whose horn can purify poison and heal wounds, and who grows at an accelerated rate into a young woman determined to find out where her people came from and why they were destroyed. Ball co-wrote the earliest Acorna novels with McCaffrey before departing the series, which McCaffrey then continued for eight further books with a different co-author, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Ball's contribution helped establish the series' central premise and its blend of space-opera worldbuilding with a distinctly fairy-tale-inflected central character, a combination that gave Acorna its particular niche within McCaffrey's broader body of collaborative science fiction. Beyond her work on Acorna, Ball has published science fiction and fantasy under her own name across multiple decades, and holds a background in linguistics that has informed some of her worldbuilding and naming conventions in her genre fiction.

Series: 2
Credited books: 3
Published: 3
Latest published book: Acorna's Quest 1998
Active: 1992–present
Best known for: The Brainship Series

Key facts about Margaret Ball

Our list holds 3 books by Margaret Ball. Since all 3 are out now, every book here is ready to read. Their series sit on our science fiction and science fantasy shelves.

Margaret Ball has 2 series on file. The Brainship Series has 7 books, while Acorna has 10 books. In particular, Acorna is the longest series on file.

The Brainship Series began with Anne McCaffrey, while Margaret Ball has books in it too. The Brainship Series starts with The Ship Who Sang, while Acorna starts with Acorna: The Unicorn Girl.

Since The Brainship Series is the first series on file, it is the place to start. Their first published book on file came out in 1992. Meanwhile, Acorna's Quest is the latest published book, out in 1998.

Acorna's Quest came out in 1998 and runs to 410 pages. Acorna: The Unicorn Girl came out in 1997 and runs to 135 pages. PartnerShip came out in 1992 and runs to 323 pages.