From Publishers Weekly
Homecoming for Acorna of the Linyaari turns out to be not only bittersweet (because of the damage sustained to the planet during its occupation by the Khleevi) but treacherous in this fanciful continuation of the Adventures of the Unicorn Girl (Acorna; Acorna's Quest; etc.) from fantasy titans McCaffrey (The Dragonriders of Pern) and Scarborough (The Healer's War). Acorna finds out that there's much more to her world than she or anyone else had imagined. It all starts when the teams who are helping to survey the planet for terraforming start to disappear, one by one. At first, Acorna is only a little worried about the disappearances of her friends and co-workers, but when her life-mate Aari goes missing, Acorna will move heaven and earth to bring him back. Mac (an android who wishes he were a Linyaari, even to the point of fashioning himself a horn), a cat named Roadkill and a youngish Linyaari named Thariinye all help Acorna in her search. Acorna and her hastily gathered team race against time (literally) and space to find their missing crewmates, pitting their wits against a world that has been decimated by warfare and a lack of information of any kind and transformed by technology that's more advanced than any they have seen before. As a book in a continuing series, this title will be better understood by those who've read the previous five volumes. There's enough story line to keep readers going, however, even when they encounter unfamiliar plot points from previous novels. This is a light, fluffy, fun read, perfectly complemented by the jacket art showing a beautiful blonde with a little horn stuck on her forehead. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
After the departure of the hostile Khleevi from the Linyaari home-world, Acorna and her psychically gifted, unicorn-horned people attempt to salvage their devastated planet. A series of mysterious disappearances propels Acorna and her companions on a desperate search that leads to the discovery of a secret at the heart of their world. The latest installment in the Acorna series delves into the ancient past of the Linyaari, opening new avenues for further novels. Coauthors McCaffrey and Scarborough exercise their storytelling skills to create an engaging tale that belongs in libraries where the series is popular. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In her latest adventure, Acorna helps her people, the Linyaari, try to restore their beloved home world, which was literally laid waste by the vicious Khleevi (see Acorna's World, 2000). Aari, the young man so brutally tortured by the Khleevi, is now Acorna's life mate and at work on a survey team trying to locate mountains and rivers in all the rubble. Team members start disappearing without a trace, Aari among them. Frantically searching for him, Acorna discovers deep within the planet the remains of a lavish world that belonged to the Ancestral Friends of the Linyaari. She also learns a great deal about the history of her people. Although the Acorna series lacks the graceful writing for which McCaffrey on her own is known (the prose of this collaboration is a bit too expository), its heroine's devotees will welcome the heroic unicorn girl back and gladly expect yet another episode, for at the end of this one, Aari is still missing. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description

The homeworld Acorna has never known was horribly scarred in the brutal attack by the cold-blooded Khleevi, but the Linyaari -- the unicorn girl's gentle, spiritual race -- live on. Now is the time for healing and rebuilding, for restoring the natural beauty corrupted by the savage insectile oppressors. But Acorna's Linyaari friends and colleagues begin mysteriously disappearing soon after work gets under way, among them her beloved Aari. And her desperate search for answers will lead courageous Acorna to a shocking discovery beneath the surface of her people's world -- and deep into the realms of limitless space, where the truth of the origin of everything awaits.


About the Author
Anne McCaffrey is considered one of the world's leading science-fiction writers. She has won the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as six Science Fiction Book Club awards for her novels. Brought up in the United States, she is now living in Ireland with her Maine coon cats, her piebald mare, and a silver weimaraner and declines to travel anymore. She is best known for her unique Dragonriders of Pern series.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Acorna's Search, the fifth book in Anne McCaffrey's Acorna series, takes the saga of the beloved unicorn girl to an all-time high -- or low, depending on how you look at it. As Acorna and her Linyaari people begin to rebuild their home planet (which was practically destroyed by the evil insectoid Khleevi in Acorna's World), members of Linyaarian research parties begin to disappear one by one. Soon whole shuttles are just vanishing into thin air. Among the missing is Acorna's life mate, Aari. After consulting with the Ancestors, Acorna concludes that she must go deep underneath the planet's surface to solve the potentially horrific mystery.

The once cool, idyllic world of Vhiliinyar is now like something out of a nightmare. "The whole planet was, for the most part, stifling, with much of its protective ozone layer punctured by volcanic explosions and toxic chemical reactions from its unstable land masses and destroyed seas." Instead of green meadows filled with beautiful flora and fauna, there are now carnivorous plants, poisonous geysers, bogs and apelike monsters. While trying to escape these hairy, spear-toting beasts, Acorna is forced deep into a cave and stumbles across the opening into an ancient subterranean city.

The mysterious history of the uni-horned Linyaari people is steeped in fable, and when Acorna discovers the mythical city of Kubiilikaan, the legendary home of the Hosts, much of what she thought was historically true becomes suspect. As Acorna unravels the mystery with the help of the royal temple cat Roadkill and Mac the android, she finds out Aari isn't lost in space, but in time.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the series, here's a quick overview. In the first book in the series, Acorna, we're introduced to the lovable orphan after her family's spaceship is mysteriously destroyed. She escapes in a space pod and is found by a salvage ship crewed by three humans. The men had never seen anything quite like Acorna before. The Linyaari were a race of humanoids with unicorn characteristics -- a flowing, curling mane and feathery hair from ankle to knee, hooves, three fingers and, of course, a horn protruding from their foreheads.

The men, obviously with nowhere to take the orphan, are forced to raise the strange girl themselves. During their months aboard ship, they bond with the lovable kid and she slowly learns their language and culture. But with none of her kind around, and no way to know if any even still exist, Acorna struggles to find her own identity. When the salvage ship finally returns to Federation space, Acorna becomes the center of attention. Rumors spread like wildfire about a unicorn girl with magical powers.

Over the course of the next two novels (Acorna's Quest and Acorna's People), Acorna finds the Linyaari homeworld and becomes reunited with her people. She learns about her race's history and culture and also about its enemies, the Khleevi. I have to tell you, the Khleevi are right up there on my Top Ten list of most despicable aliens. They're basically oversized cockroaches that travel the galaxy looking for worlds to plunder and life forms to torture.

In Acorna's World, the fourth installment, Acorna and her people come face-to-face with the Khleevi, except this time they have the Federation's help.

I recommend this series to fantasy lovers of all ages. McCaffrey and Scarborough (who coauthored the last three books in the series) create an interesting, realistic world without exploitative sex or violence. And, because the main character is a young, strong, good-hearted female, this series would be particularly perfect for young girls interested in fantasy. (Paul Goat Allen)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this new tale, Acorna's people, the Linyaari, have survived an attack from a mortal enemy, but their planet, naarhi-Vhiliinyar, and their original homeworld, Vhiliinyar, have been ravaged. Now, they are determined to restore both.

But as their work begins, Linyaari begin disappearing, including Acorna's lifemate, Aari. Searching for him, Acorna discovers the remains of a subterranean world that belonged to the Friends, an advanced society that populated Vhiliinyar long ago. What happened to the Friends? Acorna knows that to save Aari, she must find the answers—a quest that will take her back into deep space to uncover the origins of her people.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Homecoming for Acorna of the Linyaari turns out to be not only bittersweet (because of the damage sustained to the planet during its occupation by the Khleevi) but treacherous in this fanciful continuation of the Adventures of the Unicorn Girl (Acorna; Acorna's Quest; etc.) from fantasy titans McCaffrey (The Dragonriders of Pern) and Scarborough (The Healer's War). Acorna finds out that there's much more to her world than she or anyone else had imagined. It all starts when the teams who are helping to survey the planet for terraforming start to disappear, one by one. At first, Acorna is only a little worried about the disappearances of her friends and co-workers, but when her life-mate Aari goes missing, Acorna will move heaven and earth to bring him back. Mac (an android who wishes he were a Linyaari, even to the point of fashioning himself a horn), a cat named Roadkill and a youngish Linyaari named Thariinye all help Acorna in her search. Acorna and her hastily gathered team race against time (literally) and space to find their missing crewmates, pitting their wits against a world that has been decimated by warfare and a lack of information of any kind and transformed by technology that's more advanced than any they have seen before. As a book in a continuing series, this title will be better understood by those who've read the previous five volumes. There's enough story line to keep readers going, however, even when they encounter unfamiliar plot points from previous novels. This is a light, fluffy, fun read, perfectly complemented by the jacket art showing a beautiful blonde with a little horn stuck on her forehead. (Jan. 15) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

VOYA - Cynthia Grady

In this latest novel about Acorna, the unicorn girl, she and her fellow Linyaari people begin to salvage and restore their home planet, which was destroyed by the vicious Khleevi in the previous book, Acorna's World (HarperCollins, 2000). Members of the surveying teams, who are working to locate the major mountains and streams underneath all the rubble, one-by-one start disappearing without a trace. When Aari, Acorna's life-mate, disappears, she frantically begins a search for him. The search spans the rest of the novel. She takes with her Roadkill, the cat; Mac, the android; and young Thariinye. Along the way, they discover their ancestors and the Linyaari people's history and folklore. They also discover that deep within their planet, a lavish world still exists. By novel's end all lost members have been found, except Aari, although he has been sighted, leaving the door open for the next book in the series. The Linyaari people have the ability to communicate telepathically, which is compelling for the most part, and Acorna's search for her people takes her through several adventures. Nevertheless neither Acorna's story nor the writers' language contains the richness that one usually encounters when reading McCaffrey. Still, fans of the series will enjoy the suspense that this continuation of the Unicorn Girl series offers them. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M J (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2001, EOS/HarperCollins, 292p,

Library Journal

After the departure of the hostile Khleevi from the Linyaari home-world, Acorna and her psychically gifted, unicorn-horned people attempt to salvage their devastated planet. A series of mysterious disappearances propels Acorna and her companions on a desperate search that leads to the discovery of a secret at the heart of their world. The latest installment in the Acorna series delves into the ancient past of the Linyaari, opening new avenues for further novels. Coauthors McCaffrey and Scarborough exercise their storytelling skills to create an engaging tale that belongs in libraries where the series is popular. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews