Acorna's Rebels is a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 or science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...

 and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough was born March 23, 1947 and lives in Port Townsend, Washington. Scarborough won a Nebula Award in 1989 for her novel The Healer's War, and has written more than a dozen other novels...

. It was the sixth in the Acorna Universe

Acorna

Acorna is a "Unicorn Girl", a fantasy fiction character created by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball in their novel Acorna: The Unicorn Girl ....

 series initiated by McCaffrey and Margaret Ball

Margaret Ball (writer)

Margaret Ball is a science fiction and fantasy author who lives in Austin, Texas. Married and with two kids, she spends time writing, making quilts, embeadery, and taking care of kids at her home. She has a B.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas...

 in Acorna: The Unicorn Girl (1997). Rebels was preceded by Acorna's Search

Acorna's Search

Acorna's Search is a fantasy or science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. It was the fifth in the Acorna Universe series initiated by McCaffrey and Margaret Ball in Acorna: The Unicorn Girl...

and followed by Acorna's Triumph

Acorna's Triumph

Acorna's Triumph is a fantasy or science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. It was the seventh book in the Acorna Universe series, which McCaffrey and Margaret Ball initiated in Acorna: The Unicorn Girl . Triumph completed Acorna's biography, which is sometimes called...

, the seventh and last in Acorna's biography.

Acorna, a member of the unicorn-like Linyaari race, has finally found her people. Once conquered, their world scoured flat, they are now using a combination of holographics and time travel to recreate the great civilization they once had. In one of these time traveling trips, her life-mate, Aari, has been lost.

Acorna and her friends crash their spaceship on the prohibited planet of Makahomia. Acorna's space-faring companion, Roadkill (RK), is actually one of the mysterious Makahomian Temple Cats.

Discovering that the cats are dying of a disease, Acorna rushes to save them and foil the plot of their enemies. She also unearths clues that may help her locate Aari.