View source for Restoree

{{Short description|1967 science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name         = Restoree 
| image        = Restoree.jpg
| caption      = First edition
| author       = [[Anne McCaffrey]]
| cover_artist = [[Brothers Hildebrandt]]<ref>{{ISFDB title |16480}}</ref>
| country      = United States
| language     = English language
| genre        = [[Science fiction]] 
| publisher    = [[Ballantine Books]] 
| pub_date     = September 1967 
| media_type   = Print ([[Paperback#Paperback originals|paperback original]]; [[hardcover]] UK) 
| pages        = 252 (first)
| isbn         = 0-345-25744-8
| isbn_note    = (March 1977) <!-- ISFDB lists no ISBN for early editions US ppb; UK hc, ppb --> 
| oclc         = 11204693 <!-- first -->
| dewey        =
| congress     = <!-- Not in Harvard U online catalog; Minuteman library network is not helpful.  https://id.loc.gov/resources/works/3198138.html, but the copy is British, and the LCCN is not included. -->
}}

'''''Restoree''''' (1967) is a [[science fiction]] novel by American-Irish writer [[Anne McCaffrey]], her first book published.<ref>[[Todd McCaffrey]] (1999). ''Dragonholder: The Life and Dreams (So Far) of Anne McCaffrey by Her Son''. New York: Ballantine. {{ISBN|0-345-42217-1}}.{{page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref> It is the story of a young woman who survives being abducted by aliens and finds a new life on another planet.

[[Betty Ballantine]] edited ''Restoree'' which initiated a long relationship between McCaffrey and [[Ballantine Books]], and later its science fiction [[imprint (trade name)|imprint]] [[Del Rey Books|Del Rey]].<ref>''Dragonholder'', p. {{page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{ISFDB name|1400|name=Anne McCaffrey}} (ISFDB). Retrieved 2011-11-03.</ref>

==Origin==
''Restoree'' features "an intelligent, survivor-type woman" as a "once-off jab at the way women were portrayed in science-fiction".<ref>[http://pernhome.com/aim/?page_id=40 Frequently Asked Questions] (2007). The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey. Pernhome.com (c) 2010 Todd McCaffrey. Question 21. Retrieved 2011-10-27.</ref> While always reading about women cowering in a corner, awaiting rescue by the hero, McCaffrey objected that she would have been in the fighting herself.<ref>''Dragonholder'', p.{{page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref>

==Plot summary==
<!-- This does not follow the plot of the book which begins as summarized in the second paragraph. -->

''Restoree'' is the story of Sara, an introverted, beak-nosed, 24-year-old virginal librarian originally from near [[Seaford, Delaware]], who is abducted from [[New York City]] by the Mil, amorphous alien creatures that eat human flesh.  She is kept alive, with her skin removed and in a [[catatonic]] state from the physical and mental shock, on a meat hook as a Mil meal until the alien ship she is on is captured by human inhabitants of the planet Lothar.  Without her skin, some Lotharians mistake her for one of their own and perform controversial "restoration" procedures on her, including a nose job.

Sara comes to her senses in a mental institution on Lothar with no memory of what happened, little knowledge of the local language, and a beautiful, golden-skinned body.  At the institution, she is treated as if she were [[Intellectual disability|retarded]] and given menial tasks to do, as are other "restorees" who have been clandestinely salvaged from Mil ships; it is apparently some factor of Sara's [[Earth|Terran]] origins that allows her to fully recover from the shock of the Mil ordeal, while Lotharian restorees are of limited intellect at best. One of her jobs is to care for Harlan, the deposed planetary [[regent]], who is being drugged into a moronic state.  Recognizing what is being done, Sara helps Harlan to regain his senses and escape the mental institution.  Sara and Harlan then gain the advantage over Harlan's political enemies, defeat the Mil, solve some of Lothar's emerging domestic problems and, of course, fall in love.

==Reception==
[[Mary T. Brizzi]] calls it "unique among science fiction novels", with "shallow histrionics of characterization", "[[Harlequin Romance]] stereotypes", "improbable reactions of heroes and villains alike", "inconsistencies of plot", and a "saccharine" and "melodramatic" heroine — but emphasizes that, when "read as parody", it is funny.<ref name=Brizzi>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3PmpkWlEQQQC&dq=restoree+mccaffrey+review&pg=PA46 Narcissism and Romance in McCaffrey's ''Restoree''], by [[Mary T. Brizzi]], in ''Patterns of the Fantastic: Academic Programming at [[40th World Science Fiction Convention|Chicon IV]]'', edited by Donald M. Hassler; published 1983 by Wildside Press</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{ISFDB title|16480|Restoree}}

{{Anne McCaffrey}}

[[Category:1967 American novels]]
[[Category:1967 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Novels about alien abduction]]
[[Category:American science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Ballantine Books books]]
[[Category:Novels by Anne McCaffrey]]
[[Category:Novels set in Delaware]]
[[Category:Novels set in psychiatric hospitals]]
[[Category:Novels set in New York City]]
[[Category:Novels set on fictional planets]]
[[Category:1967 debut novels]]