I disagreed with many of the reviews already on this site; first of all, it would be nice to see a review from someone who could spell the name of the book/the main character correctly. In this recent novel by Anne McCaffrey,the main character is a lady of high birth, Nimisha. She is different from her peers in that she loves mechanical things and spends more time working with her father on ship design than with her mother and fashion. Of course, this is not an unusual premise for McCaffrey, however in this story she creates a new twist. After Nimisha's noted father passes away, she inherits his company to the anger of his son, who thought that he should have gotten it. She continues in his tradition, testing and creating ships, and eventually conceives a daughter. Soon after this, she gets stranded alone after an experimental flight goes wrong, and she must survive and try to get back home. Being Nimisha, she can't help exploring the planets around her while waiting to be rescued, and what she finds is truly terrific. Meanwhile, while Nimisha battles hostile planetary creatures and makes friends with some aliens, attempts are being made on her daughter's life in order to regain the company.
This complicated story definitely makes for an enjoyable read. Nimisha is a very complex and endearing character, easy to relate to. I never found this book boring or devoid of action, and the characters were all extremely believable. I highly recommend it, however some of the more hard-core science fiction fans may not be as interested in it as I was.
