This time around I am returning to a series by one of my favorite authors with the book Pegasus In Flight, the second book in The Talents Series by Anne McCaffrey. The first book covered the first two generations of people who started and expanded the institute for people with parapsychic abilities. This book covers events about two generations after that and focuses primarily on the discovery and training of two extraordinarily talented kids. Peter is a young paraplegic who has unintentionally found a way to exhibit out of body abilities by drawing power from local electrical systems such as those found in his hospital ward. However, Peter is unaware of what he is doing at first and draws the attention of high ranking members of the institute who become fascinated with his ability to create a gestalt with the power system. At the same Tirla is a young girl who is considered to have been illegally born in one of the local communities and does her best to make a living as a translator and fence while dodging all manner of government interactions. Due to a rather bizarre serious of circumstances she also ends up drawing attention from the local institute and helping out with a series of unusual investigations in the process.
I really liked this book and I felt like it was a little better than the first book, To Ride Pegasus. However, the main reason I say this is that the first book was a series of loosely connected short stories whereas this book is an actual book and is all one story. There is no disjunction between the different sections like there was previously. I like the added cohesiveness that is present because of this but that may just be because I like for things to be connected. Another thing that is more present because of this is the added depth we get to the characters, especially the two main characters of Peter and Tirla. We get to see a lot more facets to these characters and how they adapt to the idea of being talented. Peter takes to it like a fish to water but Tirla is the exact opposite and is continually doubting that she has any abilities so it makes for an interesting comparison between the two. On top of this added depth to the characters we see added depth to the plot as well. With the extra length of the full book there is more room to develop the various elements of the plot. There are a lot of different aspects of the overall plot present in this book. A main one is how the talents are to be utilized in terms of a workforce. This is a big one because the person in charge of building the space station is trying to force them to have the same work schedule and working conditions as everyone else but due to their using their talents to work they are unable to do so. In all honesty, this is probably one of the biggest conflicts in the book as they want to help but have to do so in way that is healthy for them. However, this is also one of several different plot throughout the book and not all of them are connected, at least at first glance anyway. The intricacy of how it all ends up coming together is absolutely fascinating. I greatly enjoyed the depth that was present in many of the disparate elements of the book. It fully deserves a full five stars.
This is one of those books that is weird to categorize. It is technically science-fiction and rightly so but the inclusion of characters with telekinesis or telepathy adds an element often present more in fantasy so it feels like a mix of the two genres. In my opinion, it would probably appeal to readers who are fans of either of these two genres, though more so fans of science-fiction. As for age range, the book is primarily aimed at adults which is fine but two of the main characters are teenagers so it would also hold considerable appeal for younger readers as well. While there are a few topics that might be considered difficult I don’t think there is any content that is overt or graphic enough to make it completely unsuitable for teenagers. I don’t think it should be read by anybody younger than that though. Overall, it was a good book and I hope you consider reading it.