Crystal Singer Trilogy Books In Order

Publication Order of Crystal Singer Trilogy Books

The Crystal Singer series is a well known book series of fantasy, young adult, and science fiction genres. It is comprised of a total of 3 books, which were released between the years 1982 and 1992. This series was written by a highly renowned American writer named Anne McCaffrey. Severn House was the first one to publish the series starting from 1982. Later on, other publishing houses re-released the books in different formats. The series’ plots revolve around the life of a young woman named Kilashandra Ree and describes the transitions of her life. She fails in the profession of operatic soloism and then goes on to occupy the ‘crystal singer’ on a fictional planet named Ballybran.

Anne McCaffrey developed the first book from several short stories that were written in the 1970s. In the series, author McCaffrey has described the fictional Crystal Universe. Immediately after the first edition was published in 1982, Del Rey publication and Doubleday publication released the paperback and US book club editions of the first novel respectively. The participating libraries of WorldCat have reported that they hold the initial novel’s editions in Polish, Hebrew, and French languages that were released during the 1990s.

Anne McCaffrey was a reputed novelist from the United States, who was famous for writing science fiction, young adult, fantasy, and romance books. She was born as Anne Inez McCaffrey on April 01, 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and died on November 21, 2011 in County Wicklow, Ireland. Anne had migrated to Ireland in 1970 and used to live there until her death. She was particularly famous for her science fiction novel series, Dragonriders of Pern. Anne had a 46-year long writing career and was the first lady writer to win the prestigious Hugo Award, and was also the first one to receive the Nebula Award. Anne’s 1978 book, The White Dragon, was among the first ones in the science fiction category to feature on the bestseller list of the NY Times. Author Anne McCaffrey was named as the 22nd Grandmaster by the SFFWA, which is an award given annually by the association. Anne was included in the Hall of Fame of Science Fiction in 2006 and had won the Robert Heinlein Award in 2007 for her contribution to literature.

Anne McCaffrey’s mother was Irish, while her father belonged to English and Irish ancestry. She had completed her schooling from the Montclair High School and then graduated from the Radcliffe College cum laude. Anne had a degree in Literature and Slavonic languages. In 1950, Anne McCaffrey had gotten married to Horace W. Johnson. The two had common interests in opera, ballet, and music. The couple had 3 children named Alec Anthony, Georgeanne, and Todd. Anne used to live in Wilmington, Delaware along with her family and had shifted to Long Island after 10 years into her marriage. At this time, she had turned herself into a full time writer. After getting a divorce from her husband, Anne had moved permanently to Ireland. Between 1968 and 1970, she had served as a secretary-treasurer for the SFWA. Throughout her writing career, author McCaffrey was known to experiment a lot. She is credited to have contributed a number of bestselling science fiction book series. In addition to her full length novels, she had also written short story collections, young adult fantasies, romance, and some nonfiction works. McCaffrey used to collaborate very often with musicians Mike Freeman and Tania Opland.

The debut book of the Crystal Singer series written by author Anne McCaffrey is entitled ‘Crystal Singer’. It was released by the Del Rey Books in the year 1985, after its first publication in 1982. The book features the chief character in the form of Killashandra Ree. At the start of the book’s story, it is shown that Killashandra spends 10 years in getting musical training, but cannot find any prospects. Then, she comes to know about Heptite Guild, which is believed to provide security, wealth, and careers beyond imagination. Killashandra meets an old man at a spaceport, who seems to make use of perfect pitch and ‘crystal singer’ in identifying a space shuttle coming towards earth. The man treats Killashandra in a romantic manner. He tells her that she will get all that she desperately wants in life on Ballybran, but also warns her against higher income and high status. Later, an occupational hazard leaves the man in coma. Killashandra shows the determination of accompanying the man’s return to his home by carrying him on life support. She also intends to investigate Heptite Guild membership of crystal singers and find out if it is beneficial to her.

Killashandra learns that she has the ability of singing in perfect pitch. As the singers of the Guild are able to mine the Ballybran crystalline rock by locating it and cutting it with a machine controlled by voice, Killashandra Ree becomes eligible to be a Guild as her voice seems perfect for using in the machine for the cutting work. Only if the crystal rock is cut skillfully, it can be used for communication and power systems at the center of the interstellar civilizations. When Killashandra makes it possible with her voice, she shows continued success and rapid adaptation. But then, it isolates her from other newcomers as they become jealous of her success. Even her close friends and former classmates shows signs of jealousy whenever she is around. However, Killashandra doesn’t get affected by any of these and moves ahead to take up numerous other assignments of installing crystal sets in different planetary systems for improving the standards of advanced communication.

The next exciting volume of the series is called ‘Killashandra’. It was also published in 1985 by Del Rey publishing company. At the beginning of the story of the book, it is depicted that the ambitions of Killashandra Ree of becoming one of the Crystal Singers, forgetting her past, and getting rich, were initially taking place just as she had expected. But, after becoming a wealthy person, Killashandra experiences a devastating storm leaves her with nothing. Killashandra becomes broke and catches crystal sickness. Her sickness becomes so bad that she thinks she is going to die. Just then Killashandra learns that the only way of ending her miserable state and remaining true to the love of her life is leaving the man. This book was equally appreciated as the previous volume and was well appreciated for its characters, contents, and settings.