As it nears the end of the twentieth century, our culture current is exploring questions of discrimination, difference, equality, and tolerance. These issues also engross the attention of contemporary science fiction readers, who often confront through literature similar ethical dilemmas: the problems of the human with superior capacities being considered alien, being feared, hated and persecuted by others; the relationships, positive and negative, with these aliens. Developing positive relationships with the Other involves more than just understanding or mere tolerance. In The Rowan, McCaffrey creates a woman who has superior psychic talents, so superior she is rated at the highest levels and referred to as Prime; she has the power to transport huge ships, material, and messages across vast reaches of space while seated in her control tower. A woman with such power is an alien in her own world: Not only is she separated from...