The Coelura

Lady Caissa, heir to the Ambassador of the Federated Sentient Planets to the world Demeathorn, has had duty and loyalty drilled into her since she was a young girl. Her father expects her to follow his dictates unquestioningly, even though Caissa has long since passed her childhood and is now ready for her first marriage contract. For the first time, Caissa rebels against her father's wishes and refuses to marry the boorish Gustin, heir to the Cavernus fortune and a good political ally for her father. Caissa's father doesn't understand why she cannot just endure the year-long contract marriage, beget a child and be done with it, but Caissa's heart rebels at such a cold-blooded contract. Upset and unsure of what she will do, Caissa decides to take her cruiser for a spin and hopefully hunt off some of her frustration.Before too long Caissa realizes that she foolishly forgot to check her cruiser's solar panels and that she will run out of power before she can return to the city. She intends to fly back as far as she can and then camp and wait for the sun's rise the next day when she picks up a weak distress signal coming from the forbidden zone. When she responds, she finds the most beautiful man she has ever seen. Murell doesn't trust her, but he is wounded and his antique flyer is beyond his repair skills. Despite some suspicion on both sides, they soon find that there is a strong, instantaneous attraction between them, but what kind of future can they have? Caissa dares to dream that somehow, someway they can be together for longer, but when Murell discovers who her father is, he leaves. For Murell knows that Caissa's father will do anything to capture one of the elusive, mythical coelura - the very creatures that he has sworn to protect...The Coelura is a wonderful little story by a talented author. It is only 150 pages and the type is quite large, but I felt that I knew the characters quite well and the plot was simple enough that there were no loose ends left at the ending. However, I did feel that the story could have been fleshed out into a full-size novel and felt cheated at the brevity of the tale because I did like the characters and would have enjoyed learning more about the planet and its customs. Still, McCaffrey is a skillful author that I always enjoy reading and the book has several wonderful black and white drawings to go along with the text, which I really enjoyed. This book would be a good science fiction novel to start off teen readers or for older readers who are just looking for a short, simple tale to pass the time.

I wish this book had been a full length novel -- with sequels!!! The book "Coelura" was so good,I couldn't put it down.I only wish that there had been more of it and that Anne McCaffrey had decided to make it into a series!

Written as a novella (a cross between a novel and a short-story) the biggest problem with this book is that it's too short. The Coelura is well written with a great plot, but I want to see more. Perhaps someday Anne will continue this story. Anne did eventually write more about this particular "universe" in "Nimisha's Ship", but set far into the future.

Excellent story and probably best as a seperate book as Nerika is of the Pern.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I just couldn't put it down. It has no dragons, yet it still captured my heart. I am a big fan of Anne McCaffery, and I loved reading this and all her books.