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Restoree by Anne McCaffrey
Published by Del Rey Books
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Restoree is a space opera with a difference. Unlike many of the space operas of the 1940's and 50's, the beautiful young woman in this is no mere damsel in distress, to be rescued by the handsome and dashing space hero. Rather, Sara is an active participant in her own escape and struggle.
Sara started as a rather ordinary young woman working in New York City, until the day a flying saucer swooped down to snatch her into a maelstrom of horror. By the time she recovered the ability for coherent thought, she was on a strange world, impressed into service as caretaker for a mentally ill man, Harlan, who is apparently of some import here.
Chance comments led Sara to suspect that this man was not just the unfortunate victim of a mental breakdown, but of something far more sinister. At great risk to herself she seeks to liberate him from what appears to be a "chemical straitjacket" administered through his food. When he recovers his senses, he decides that there is no time to wait and they must escape immediately.
However, the world of Lothar is as dangerous outside the sinister medical compound as it is within, albeit in different ways. The Lotharians have long been the victims of a race of spacefaring monsters known as the Mil, who come to harvest them, apparently for eating.
When Harlan describes the Mil, Sara knows that these creatures must have been what siezed her from Central Park. However, this introduces a new wrinkle. The medical procedure by which her tortured body was rehabilitated has been proscribed by law -- and the penalty is death for both surgeon and patient.
Beset by perils on every side, Sara must find a safe passage through to save her adopted world from the scourge of the Mil and make a new life for herself with the man she has come to love.
Click here to buy Restoree in paperback.
Review posted July 20
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