The Ship Who Searched

By: Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Constance Towers

Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

While on an archaeological dig, 7-year-old Tia falls mysteriously ill. Her sickness may have been caused by the EsKays, a race whose artifacts are scattered throughout the galaxy. The young shellperson goes in search of the EsKays, whose fate remains an enigma, to try to find answers. This heartwarming tale is narrated by television and stage actress Constance Towers.

©1992 by Bill Fawcett and Associates, Abridgment Approved by the Authors (P)1994 by Dove Audio, Inc.

It's a great idea...

But this abridgement is poorly done. Large sections of the story are omitted. Dove audio is not my favorite vendor. They take a slash and burn approach to editing.

But I still love these very predictable stories from Anne McCaffrey. Find the books and read them as a guilty pleasure. But avoid these recordings. Or at least wait until somebody does an unabridged version.

The story is still enjoyable

However, as others have commented, the abridgement is very poorly done, with characters making reference to comments made earlier in the story that were cut, and, in one case, a character "replies" to a question that was not asked.

As this is a story I know very well (I have lost count of the number of times I've reread it), I'm frustrated by the editing. While some of the edits don't noticeably interrupt the flow of the tale, others are so glaringly obvious, I find myself pausing the book for a period of time.

Unabridged Version

This is my favorite of Anne MacCaffrey's Ships series - however, the abridgement detracts from the story. I would love to hear this as an unabridged version.

Won't buy abridged book ever again

I really enjoyed this story and Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors. This abridgement, however, was horribly done. Some parts of the story made no sense because pertinent information was taken out earlier in the story. OR, frustratingly, a plot point is begun, but never brought to fruition. I have since purchased the book, read it, and loved it. If this was a performance of the full, unabridged book, I would easily rate it 5/5.

Ruined in the abridging

This book was butchered when they cut it down. Lost a lot of plot and character development. Also the plot takes a few confusing jumps as a result.

don' t bother if you know this story already

Would you try another book from Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey and/or Constance Towers?

Not if it is another abridged version

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Ship Who Searched?

Sadly most of those moments were so horribly hacked apart in the abridging that I cannot really say for this title.

Which character – as performed by Constance Towers – was your favorite?

Hypatia

Do you think The Ship Who Searched needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not if it is as poorly abridged as this one was

Any additional comments?

Please for the love of all that matters stop selling poorly abridged books like this. Please have someone listen to the book who knows the story or at least follows along in an actual written copy. This book was so horribly abridged that entire, VERY important parts were ripped out but not later references to those part making for a very jarring and unenjoyable experience. Fans of the series should not bother with this title or any other in the series due to this fact.

A favorite story,needlessly abridged

For many years, The Ship Who Searched has been a favorite story of mine which I have revisited many times. As I am now losing my sight, I am becoming forced to rely on audio books rather than print or ebooks. As a result, I purchased this favorite via Audible. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that the book was heavily abridged, to the point where nearly a third of the book, including numerous incidents, background information for many characters, and even three minor but important supporting background characters were totally omitted. The loss of such things as Tia's other Brawn candidates, The relationship between Dr. Kenny and Dr. Anna and further details of Tia's investments effectively strip much of the soul out of the story. Listening to this abridged audio book felt like trying to listen to a Cliffs notes version of the story,and made me feel like I had wasted a credit purchasing it. As someone who routinely devours the works of Stephen King, rereads Frank Herbert's Dune series, and is an avid follower of the works of David Weber (All authors who are noted for having written particularly long works,) there is no reason whatsoever to butcher a three hundred twelve page book, other than laziness on the part of the production staff, and a cash grab by the production company. To McCaffrey fans, this audio book is tantamount to a Pern Novel totally omitting Master Harper Robinton, or Crystal Singer entirely skipping past Killashandra's candidacy on Ballybran. Do not waste Audible credits or money purchasing this audio book until it is available unabridged.

Poorly Abridged Adaptation

If I could I would return this book. Granted I didn't do my due diligence when purchasing it and didn't see that it was abridged. It's so poorly done as many previous reviews point out.

Prefer unabridged but not too bad

The abridged version leaves out much of the soul searching and parentheses that Ms Lackey indulges in, which is good. But this version, as other readers have said, goes a little - just a little - too far. The scene where Hypatia chooses a 'brawn' is cut drastically and looses it's coherance. The bits with the bear are cut too much. Lars is cut too much. Etc. The book is cut to a little more that two hours. A three hour version would be much better.

I dislike abridged books

I despise poorly abridged books. I spotted it first when none of her time in the shell program was there.

Weirdly Abridged

The abridgement sucks, it's missing a lot of... Character, a lot of the flavour that the full paper version has.

Chapter breaks are very abrupt, almost cut off.

Wish it had

I love the book but miss the extra stuff in the book that was missing.

Abridging terrible...!!!

The abridging meant she didn't have to search very far....!!! Really disjointed.... Disapointing. Its a shame they didn't feel the need to give a full copy of the book - was looking forward to listening, real shame.

Such a sad way to treat a good story!

I love this tale but it is so sad to listen to this very badly done shortening of the story. If I had not read the original earlier I doubt I would had been able to understand it. Indeed a very bad job done!

great book

I love the ship books Ann McCarthy is one of my favourite author I read them all time