Margaret Ball

Three miners rescue a space pod and discover it houses a tiny humanoid infant they dub Acorna. The rapidly maturing child leads them to many adventures, finally landing for a spell on Kezdet. But Kezdet's economy is based on child labor, a practice young Acorna finds abhorrent.
This is a feel good story that lays the groundwork for the rest of the series. The writing is good, although the story jumps around a bit to cover Acorna's formative years. A fun read that leaves me wanting to know what happens next.… (more)

Partnership is about Nancia. On her first trip, she transports several young people from high families. Unfortunately, they are all corrupt and she overhears their plans, but is persuaded that she shouldn't have, since she didn't identify herself as a brain ship. Her first brawn happens to be extremely stuck up regarding his morals, so it takes a while before the situation gets rectified...

I liked this book a little less. It was still entertaining, but I was annoyed by the moral brawn, and Nancia herself at first agrees with him. Fortunately she loosens up later on. The book followed the young criminals quite a lot, and this was ok, but I still would have preferred reading more about Nancia. I did like the descriptions of Singularities and particularly the Singularity incident that Nancia has to get out of later on in the book.… (more)