The ship who searched is about the brain ship Hypatia, or Tia. She is an exceptional brain ship, because she was quite old when she became a shell person: 7. She is interested in archeology and finds a brawn who is interested in the same. Together they get into a few scrapes...

The book was written in typical McCaffrey style, not over-emotional, but compelling nonetheless. I love this world with people who become ships and I like seeing how they interact with the world. The story itself is not overly brilliant, it is more a collection of adventures that show off the world, much like the first book. Only in this book, the adventures are more connected. I thought the ending was a bit too happy, but other than that, this was a very nice book. ( )

I hadn't read the Brainship books in years so I decided it was time for a re-read and I happy to report that they stood up to the test of time. I really enjoyed the story and found myself very interested in the characters in these books. I am super glad I read them again. ( )

In McCaffrey's Brainships universe, children who are born with an immobilizing or other severe disability are raised and educated to be the 'brains' that steer Starships. They are also assigned a "Brawn" to be their companion and assist with activities that can only be done by a person with a functional body.
Our protagonist, Hypatia, is older than most children assigned to this program when a virus causes her to become immobile (not a spoiler, per se, as it happens in the first couple chapters and if you've read any previous book in the series, you could tell this was going to happen). She and her caregivers have to fight to get her in the program, but she takes to it like a natural. Having actually had a functional body for the first few years of her life, she has a different experience than her other fellow Brainships, which makes it difficult to match her with a Brawn.
Hypatia ("Tia") is a great character, and it's fascinating to follow her as she adjusts to her new world and attempts to carry on her parents' archaeological work in discovering other alien species. This is probably my favorite in the Brainships series and Mercedes Lackey does a great job of building on McCaffrey's world.

I first discovered McCaffrey by reading The Ship who Sang and this book which is sort of a sequel was pretty decent but did not resonate as much as the original. (I heard McCaffrey read from The Ship who Sang when she came to the Winnipeg SF Convention years ago and I still remember how she choked up as did a lot of us audience members.) ( )

This was a lot of fun to reread. Like all of Ms McCaffrey's books it was well worth reading more than one time. I am working my way through this series again and remembering why I adore her BB books. ( )