The Rowan

The captivating first novel in the classic science fiction series The Tower and the Hive.

An extraordinary woman with unparalleled telepathic abilities is destined to face a lonely life of servitude—until she receives a telepathic plea from across the stars.

As a young girl, The Rowan is discovered because her incredible gift: telepathic abilities that are more powerful than anyone has ever seen. As she grows older, she uses her talents to benefit society as a Prime, responsible for communicating and moving ships through space. But a life as a Prime is a lonely one, leaving her longing to find personal connection and meaning.

When a distress call from a distant planet reaches her, The Rowan is drawn into a rescue mission that will put her powers to the test—and everything changes when she meets Jeff Raven, another telepath who just might have that crucial spark of connection she’s been searching for.

Anne McCaffrey was one of the world’s leading science fiction writers, and the first female science fiction writer to achieve New York Times bestseller status. She won both the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as the Margaret A. Edwards’ Lifetime Literary Achievement Award. She was deeply honoured to have been made a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 2005, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006. Born and raised in the US and of Irish extraction, she moved to Ireland in 1970 where she lived in the ‘Garden of Ireland’, County Wicklow, until her death in 2011 at the age of eighty-five. She is the creator of the Dragonriders of Pern® series.