Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Woman’s Liberation | 2001 | Jody Lynn Nye | N/A |
| 2 | The Ship Who Sang | 1969 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 3 | Honeymoon | 2015 | Jody Lynn Nye | N/A |
| 4 | The Ship That Returned | 1999 | Jody Lynn Nye | N/A |
| 5 | The Ship Who Searched | 1992 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 6 | Brain Ships | 2003 | Jody Lynn Nye | N/A |
| 7 | PartnerShip | 1992 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 8 | The City Who Fought | 1993 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 9 | The Ship Who Won | 1993 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 10 | The Ship Errant | 1996 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
| 11 | The Ship Avenged | 1997 | Jody Lynn Nye | Buy |
The Brainship series, also called the Brain & Brawn Ship series, began with Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang in 1969. The core concept is straightforward: in the far future, severely disabled infants are given the option to be enclosed in titanium life-support shells and connected to spaceships or space stations. These “shellpeople” become the ship’s brain, while a mobile human partner known as a “brawn” handles everything that requires hands and feet. Each book explores the bond between a brain and brawn pair as they take on missions together.
McCaffrey wrote the original novel and then invited other authors to expand the universe. Several collaborators contributed books in the 1990s, including Mercedes Lackey (The Ship Who Searched), S.M. Stirling (The City Who Fought), and Jody Lynn Nye (The Ship Who Won, co-written with McCaffrey, and The Ship Errant as a solo follow-up). The list also includes shorter works and omnibus editions like Brain Ships.
Each novel features a different shellperson and brawn, so the books can mostly be read independently. That said, starting with The Ship Who Sang gives the best introduction to the world and the emotional weight behind the brain-brawn partnership. Later entries build on the same setting but tell their own self-contained stories.