The Brainship series is set in a far future, when mankind has long out grown Earth and the immediate vicinity and spread to the stars. The bureaucracy of this vast empire known as Central Worlds is run by a few powerful families who have raised nepotism to an art form. Despite the great techological advances Central Worlds enjoys they are still plagued with the age old human problems of greed, corruption, incompetence and graft. They have also not yet managed to prevent or cure all forms of birth defects or injuries either although they have come up with a unique way of helping at least some of the victims. Infants who have catrostrophic birth defects but normal brain function are placed in shells which take over all the functions that their bodies are incapable of. Upon adulthood these shellpersons have a choice of careers available, piloting brainships, running cities, planets or, like Simeon of this story, a space station.
As the story opens Simeon has been running a remote space station servicing various mining colonies located at the fringes of Central Worlds. Simeon is upset because his long time 'brawn', the able bodied partner that each shell person relies on handle those tasks they cannot has finally retired, much to Simeon's displeasure. Central Worlds has managed to find a candidate that meets Simeon's rather extensive list of requirements much to the displeasure of both Simeon and Channa, the brawn in question. The one thing the pair could agree on is that while they were stuck with one another for the short term, they definitely needed the term to be as short as possible. Unknown to them however, events were conspiring to keep them together.
In an even more remote area vicious raiders had laid waste to a long forgotten colony of religious zealots. The original colonists had fled Central Worlds' decadent society with it's many races, machines and other abominations to follow their own beliefs. A small group of colonists has managed to escape from their ravaged world, heading for Central Worlds' protection, unfortunately with the raiders in close pursuit. When they arrive at the nearest outpost, Simeon's unarmed station, it takes the combined forces of Simeon, Channa and an orphaned child to defend the station and it's inhabitants.
Some of the entries in this series are young adult fare and the plot outline of this one could suggest that this one would be as well, however it most definitely is not. There are many scenes and plot themes here that are of an adult nature, including incest, rape, graphic violence and child abuse.
It is a well written, interesting story in this long running series, one that introduces characters that will return in later volumes as well as referring to characters introduced earlier. It would not be absolutely necessary to have read any earlier volumes in this series to enjoy this one. After reading this one most readers will probably be looking for more stories from this series.
