Where there is Smoke there is Fire

When two talented and dynamic individuals get together, they often produce offspring as talented as themselves. This is just the case in Damia, the second of Anne McCaffrey's Talent Series.

Damia, the child of Primes Jeff Raven and the Rowan inherits her parents' prodigious talent and becomes a top Prime in her own right. She presents challenges to her parents who want to love her as their daughter and still nurture her immense abilities. Jeff and Rowan are able to give this daughter and her siblings more of a normal childhood with the interaction of the Raven clan on Deneb. This is important to the Rowan who was orphaned at an early age.

Damia must still train in tower procedures and learn the many tasks and responsibilities of being a Prime. She learns to interact with a tower support staff and to move the massive transports across space with a "push" of her mind. Although not as difficult as her mother The Rowan, Damia still exerts her strong personality and challenges those who love her and work with her. Afra Lyon, the same "2 talent" who had such a calming influence on the young Rowan is assigned to Damia and she soon falls in love with this steady and stable man she has known her entire life.

Again in this novel, the galaxy is threatened by invading aliens who seem to have no concept of the life on the worlds they destroy with impunity. The primes unite again to repel these marauders and begin their quest to remove the threat all together.

Damia is an interesting follow up to The Rowan. It is certainly the next logical step in the story line. I'm not certain that this work could stand alone without the rest of the series. It's a good book, but I find it to be completely dependent on the previous work. That's okay with me, when I read these books, I read all four of them as if they were one long book. That's what I would recommend that anyone should do.