The first book of the Talent series, and the best. Henry Darrow can see the future. He knows that talents will need protection as they become more visible to society. So, a rich man makes a deal with him, he'll leave his fortune to Darrow if he dies at the exact time Darrow predicts. Awesome book! ( )

From the publisher:

'They were four extroardinary women who read minds, healed bodies, diverted disasters, foretold the future--and became pariahs in their own land. A talented, elite cadre, they stepped out of the everyday human race...to enter their own!'

One has to wonder at the publisher, who fails to mention the men who also play a large part in these stories. The book focuses more on Henry Darrow and Daffyd op Owen more than it does on any of the women. Darrow is the founder of the group of Talents told about in the book, while op Owen is his heir to the leadership. The focus of the book, in my mind, isn’t on the women at all: it’s on the whole race, and the efforts the Talented must make in order to be accepted as a part of normal human society.

I first became acquainted with these stories in McCaffrey’s short story anthologies. To be honest, while I like the collection of stories in this book, they still feel much more like short stories than like a cohesive whole. They are even separated out into individual stories. I do enjoy them, some more than others, but I like them as stories and not as a novel. They all revolve around a central theme, but they lack a cohesiveness that is present in McCaffrey’s other novels.

The character development in the book is good, in the fashion of McCaffrey’s shorts. With the exception of op Owen and a couple of other supporting characters, there is little development from one story to the next. The internal-story development is good, however, and the plot threads do have a thematic link even though the individual story arcs are resolved within each short. The plot link between the stories, though, isn’t as solid as I like in a novel. It works well if you look at the book as a collection of shorts.

I do recommend this book to McCaffrey’s fans, or to sci-fi readers, but go into it knowing what to expect. It is the first in a Talent trilogy, and a set up for the following books about Talents, starting with The Rowan, however, it has a different feel than the Rowan books. ( )

To Ride Pegasu is really a group of short stories that tell as a group how parapsychic powers were first documented and used in McCaffrey's near future universe (where the northeast US has turned into this massive city she calls "Jerhatten"). The people who are going to be most interested in this book are people who enjoyed either or the FT&T universe books that begin with The Rowna. I am not sure that it really stands that well on its own, being really one of those books that reads better if you have some kind of vested interest in it. However, sci-fi fans that particularly like to read short stories might enjoy it anyway.

Beginning of Talent. Like the backstory and the origins. ( )

When an old man is in a serious road accident, a young nurse with an innate talent for healing accidentally discovers a means to test scientifically for telepathy, telekinesis, and other special ‘talents’. This accidental discovery leads to the formation of a centre for psychically gifted and talented people. Daffyd op Owen is chosen by the dying founder to run the centre after he is gone, but op Owen soon realises that he will make many enemies along the way, both talented and normal.

I was recommended this book by a friend, and while it was interesting to read, it did not grip me and leave me wanting more (despite the fact this is the first book in a trilogy). The writing in some places could have been better I felt, and I felt little empathy towards the characters. The idea was interesting, but the plot was cumbersome and didn’t really flow. I would not personally recommend this book, but that is just my opinion, and others have enjoyed this book far more than I did. ( )