Told in the timeless style of Anne McCaffrey, The Rowan is the first installment in a wonderful trilogy. This is sci-fi at its best: a contemporary love story as well as an engrossing view of our world in the future. The kinetically gifted, trained in mind/machine gestalt, are the most valued citizens of the Nine Star League. Using mental powers alone, these few Prime Talents transport ships, cargo and people between Earth's Moon, Mars' Demos and Jupiter's Callisto. An orphaned young girl, simply called The Rowan, is discovered to have superior telepathic potential and is trained to become Prime Talent on Callisto. After years of self-sacrificing dedication to her position, The Rowan intercepts an urgent mental call from Jeff Raven, a young Prime Talent on distant Deneb. She convinces the other Primes to merge their powers with hers to help fight off an attack by invading aliens. Her growing relationship with Jeff gives her the courage to break her status-imposed isolation, and choose the more rewarding world of love and family.

Of all the Rowan's children, Damia was the most brilliant and the one who inherited the Talent. It was obvious that she would be a Prime. As Damia grew up, her Talent became almost too strong to control, and the only solution was to send her to the planet of Deneb, to her strange grandmother.

Damia and Afra-Raven-Lyon had reared their children in a brilliant and unorthodox way. All their young had been 'paired' when six months old with the furry, one-eyed Mrdinis, the only other sentient beings in the Alliance, who could communicate with humans by their 'dream messages'. Together, Man and Mrdini worked to create prosperous worlds and guard against the terrible threat of the annihilating Hivers. And now, in the deeps of Space, Mrdini scouts had crossed the path of three Hive ships—ships that were giant hulks of cell units, bearing the queens and workers out into space, to breed and multiply and destroy wherever they found a viable planet. It was the four elder children of Damia—Laria, Thian, Rojer and Zara—all uniquely talented in their various ways, who were to play their part, helped by their life-long Dini friends, in the conquering and investigation of the Alien threat of the Hivers.

A continuation of the saga begun in "The Rowan", "Damia" and "Damia's Children". The four children were Primes among the Talents, and all their skills were desperately needed, for the Hivers' terrible Sphere ships were still thrusting through space, carrying death in their labyrinthine depths.

Much had been done to limit and destroy the powers of the terrible Hivers, who had torn through space, annihilating every living thing that stood in their way. But still the Alliance had to discover the whereabouts of every last Hiver world and stop the Queens from further colonization.

Open these pages and discover 14 remarkable stories of fantasy by a grand master of the genre. A wonderful writer, as well as successful and beloved by fans across the world, Anne McCaffrey has created an exciting collection of telepaths, secret gifts, dangerous missions, dragonriders, and more. Contents: Lady in the Tower.—A Meeting of Minds.—Daughter.—Dull Drums.—Changeling.—Weather on Welladay.—The Thorns of Barevi.—Horse From a Different Sea.—Great Canine Chorus.—Finder's Keeper.—A Proper Santa Claus.—The Smallest Dragonboy.—Apple.—Honeymoon.