Acorna, the Unicorn Girl (1997)

by Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Ball

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Acorna (01)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,991	18	8,867	(3.57)	20
"Something's Alive In There!" She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free. But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper" -- a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own. . .… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

blacktavish, helen.collins, Keab42, 800barco, ShaunaStallmann, OwlBooks1900, Mark.Keenan, ambrs57, c.a.mcgrath

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

00
The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper (infiniteletters)

▾Lists

Fantasy/Scifi Heroines Without Love Intrests (7)

Best reading order of Anne McCaffrey's non-Pern sci-fi (41)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 20 mentions

▾Member reviews

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)

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. (

)

elorin | Sep 19, 2024 |

A nice and uncomplicated SF novel. Typical Anne McCaffrey with a captivating story about the only unicorn girl among humans who helps fight child labor on the planet Kezdet. (

)

zjakkelien | Jan 2, 2024 |

"Something's Alive In There!"
She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free.

But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper" -- a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own. . . (

)

Gmomaj | Aug 19, 2020 |

Three miners find a pod carrying an alien baby and decide to raise her. The girl has a horn growing out of her forehead that has special abilities to heal and purify. As the girl grows at a rate much faster than human children, the miners realize that others would like to take the girl, who they named Acorna, off their hands and exploit her powers. The three miners do everything they can to protect Acorna and give her a meaningful life, but even they can't shield her from all the injustice in the galaxy. This was a fun book with some interesting and enjoyable characters. I liked reading it, but I suspect it will not be one that I remember later. (

)

Cora-R | Jun 19, 2019 |

this was much more YA than I remembered from when I read it in '97. (

)

BookstoogeLT | Dec 10, 2016 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
McCaffrey, Anne	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Ball, Margaret	—	main author	all editions	confirmed
Cremonini, Tiziano	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Ennis, John	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Gambino, Fred	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Hilling, Simone	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann	—	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Schmidt, Dieter	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Acorna (01)

Is contained in

Adventures of the Unicorn Girl: Acorna; Acorna's Quest; Acorna's World by Anne McCaffrey

▾Awards and Honors

Distinctions

New York Times bestseller (Fiction – 2001)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Acorna, the Unicorn Girl

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1997

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Prologue:

The space/time coordinate system they used has no relationship to Earth, our sun, the Milky Way, or any other point of reference we could use to find our way around, and in any coordinate system we use, they're so far off the edge of the chart that nobody has ever contemplated going there, even with the proton drive.

At first Gill assumed it was just another bit of spaced debris, winking as it turned around its own axis and sending bright flashes ofreflected light down where they were placing the cablearound AS-64-B1.3.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl

Anne McCaffrey bibliography

▾Book descriptions

"Something's Alive In There!" She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free. But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper" -- a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own. . .

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary