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science fantasy
Series · science fiction
The Brainship Series
The Brainship Series series by Anne McCaffrey has 7 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Ship Who Sang (1969).
- Books
- 7 books
- First published
- 1969
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: The Ship Who Sang (1969) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Ship Who Sang
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Ship Who Sang - Book 2:
PartnerShip
Alternative text for cover: Cover of PartnerShip - Book 3:
The Ship Who Searched
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Ship Who Searched - Book 4:
The City Who Fought
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The City Who Fought - Book 5:
The Ship Who Won
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Ship Who Won - Book 6:
The Ship Errant
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Ship Errant - Book 7:
The Ship Avenged
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Ship Avenged
About The Brainship Series
Anne McCaffrey's Brainship books begin with a striking premise: severely disabled infants who would otherwise not survive can instead be surgically integrated into starship or city hulls as their permanent "brain," becoming the sentient core of a vast mechanical "brawn" — freed of a failing body but never physically independent again. The Ship Who Sang (1969) introduces Helva, raised from birth as a shellperson and paired with a series of human "brawn" partners for missions across the galaxy, in a fix-up novel built from earlier linked short stories that remains McCaffrey's original entry in the series and one of her most acclaimed standalone works.
McCaffrey returned to the concept more than two decades later, opening the world to new shellperson protagonists and a rotating slate of co-authors: PartnerShip (with Margaret Ball), The Ship Who Searched (with Mercedes Lackey), The City Who Fought (with S.M. Stirling), and The Ship Who Won (with Jody Lynn Nye) each pair McCaffrey with a different collaborator and a different shellperson lead. The final two entries, The Ship Errant and The Ship Avenged, continue Jody Lynn Nye's and S.M. Stirling's characters without McCaffrey's direct involvement, closing out the series she originated.
How to read this series
Publication order is the standard path, though this is more a shared-universe anthology than one continuous plot. Start with The Ship Who Sang (1969) to meet Helva and the series' core premise. The four McCaffrey-co-written sequels (PartnerShip, The Ship Who Searched, The City Who Fought, The Ship Who Won) each introduce a new shellperson protagonist and can largely be read independently of one another. The Ship Errant is a direct sequel to The Ship Who Won (continuing Jody Lynn Nye's character Carialle), and The Ship Avenged directly continues The City Who Fought (S.M. Stirling's character Simeon), so those two pairs are best read together and in order.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Brainship series?
Seven novels: The Ship Who Sang (1969), PartnerShip (1992), The Ship Who Searched (1992), The City Who Fought (1993), The Ship Who Won (1994), The Ship Errant (1996), and The Ship Avenged (1997).
Did Anne McCaffrey write every Brainship book?
No. She wrote The Ship Who Sang alone and co-wrote the next four books with a different collaborator each time (Margaret Ball, Mercedes Lackey, S.M. Stirling, and Jody Lynn Nye respectively). The final two books, The Ship Errant and The Ship Avenged, were written solely by Jody Lynn Nye and S.M. Stirling without McCaffrey.
What order should I read the Brainship books in?
Publication order for the introduction to each new shellperson character, though each of the four McCaffrey co-written middle books can be read fairly independently. The Ship Errant should follow The Ship Who Won, and The Ship Avenged should follow The City Who Fought, since each solo sequel continues that earlier book's specific character.
Is The Ship Who Sang a standalone novel or part of a series?
It's both the standalone novel that introduced the concept in 1969 and, in retrospect, the first book of the wider Brainship series that McCaffrey and various co-authors expanded starting in 1992.
Is this the same collaboration as Mercedes Lackey's other work with Anne McCaffrey?
The Ship Who Searched (1992) is Mercedes Lackey's only Brainship contribution; McCaffrey and Lackey did not otherwise regularly collaborate outside this one novel.
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Reading order last verified .