Product Description

This is a collection of three novels about the brave and tragic people of Ballybran, the "crystal singers". This volume includes "The Crystal Singer", "Killashandra", and "Crystal Line".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14661 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1078 pages

From the Publisher
A collection of three novels about the brave and tragic people of Ballybran, the 'crystal singers'. This volume includes Crystal Singer, Killashandra, and Crystal Line.

From the Back Cover
From world bestselling author, Anne McCaffrey, creator of the Dragons of Pern, comes the brilliant saga of the brave, beautiful, tragic people who are the Crystal Singers of Ballybran.

Killashandra thought her world had ended when she was told she would never become a concert singer. And then she met the stranger from off-world.

He said he was a Crystal Singer - one of the unique ones of the Galaxy - and when Killashandra tried to find out what a Crystal Singer was the answers were vague, obtuse. All she could discover was that they were special people, shrouded in mystery, and danger, and beauty and something altogether incomprehensible.

It was then that she decided she too must try and become a Crystal Singer - with all the dangers and gruelling demands made of the elite and glittering ones of Ballybran.

This is the story, of Killashandra and the mysterious exploits of the Singers.

About the Author
Anne McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures. A prolific bestselling author, she is best known for her handling of broad themes and the worlds of her imagination, particularly in her tales of the Talents and the novels about the Dragonriders of Pern. Anne McCaffrey lives in a house of her own design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland.

Customer Reviews

A must read for people interested in music and intrigue.
The Crystal Singer Omnibus, a fab read, of a world ruled by musical voices for a profession. The fear of others of the Crystal Singers as its said that they live forever, and have crystal in their blood.

In the first book, Killashandra, a disheartened young woman who doesn't make the spotlight she wanted... to be a solo singer, was rated for group choral work only. She takes flight, fall in love with a Crystal singer, who dies a retched death. She mourns for him and takes him back to Ballybran, his registered world of habitation. The wonders of unlimited credit her lover had, and the yearning in his voice about this profession 'Crystal Singing', lure her to apply for a position. The selection process for the job is rigorous and she is accepted. So continues a vast a varied life ahead of her, a lowly student singer stepping into a world of uncertainty and rewards.

In the second book, Killashandra is swept off from Ballybran and is sent to Optheria, a world renown for its Organ music. A travesty has occurred on Optheria, a man died while smashing this world's main organ, it main source of revenue in the Tourist industry, which consequently is its only source of income. Killashandra's assignment is to replace the Crystal keys of this organ and do some research into why tourists arrive on this planet but don't always leave. The intrigue into the mystery of this world and its rigid government give a plot that is as unexpected as its outcome.

For the third book, Killashandra has fallen in love with a man called Lars; they've been partners for a long time and are considered the best of the Crystal Singers. They've been sent on a mission to a planet that has a substance that might be as profitable as the Crystal they've cut from the ravines on Ballybran. An exploration of a life time of love, mystery and down right adventure.

Overall it's an omnibus not to miss, I've read the books numerous times and I still get wrapped up in the story even though I know the outcome.

A big thumbs up. :)

A thilogy that gets better and better every next page
Once you start it you cannot stop it. I found myself staying awake a whole night just cause I couldn't stop it. The 1st book is an entrance to a new world. The second is a psychograph included in an adventure. The third one is an apocalypse. Ms McCaffrey created an extraordinary world.