Last weekend I picked up several books at a used book store, one by the late Anne McCafferey titled Acorna The Unicorn Girl.  This is a wonderful read full of greed, mystery, good vs. evil, deception, and a cold blooded villain named, The Piper.

Three space miners rescue a space pod  with a child of unknown origin asleep in it. They play nursemaid to the youngling until they can get back to civilization. At that time all sorts of people want to keep the child, none of them with good intentions. The three miners, bent on saving their ward, must think fast and guess who to trust for help.

On a planet called Kezdet secret child labor are used in mines and factories. They are brutally beaten and starved while the elite of the planet ignore the conditions of the abused children, the source of their wealth. Acorna and others mount an attack on the status quo, but a mysterious someone called,  The Piper, is blocking all their efforts to rescue the children.

As usual, Anne McCafferey gives the reader a thrilling tale full of conflict and mind stimulating adventure. I can recommend this novel to anyone interested in science fiction and those readers willing to entertain visions of a possible life in space.