Acorna's Search 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 fifth 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). Search was preceded by Acorna's World

Acorna's World

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

and followed by Acorna's Rebels

Acorna's Rebels

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

.

Plot summary

The homeworld Acorna has never known was horribly scarred in the brutal attack by the cold-blooded Khleevi, but the Linyaari-the unicorn girl's gentle, spiritual race-live on. Now is the time for healing and rebuilding, for restoring the natural beauty corrupted by the savage insectile oppressors. But Acorna's Linyaari friends and colleagues begin mysteriously disappearing soon after work gets under way, among them her beloved Aari. And her desperate search for answers will lead courageous Acorna to a shocking descovery beneath the surface of her people's world-and deep into the realms of limitless space, where the truth of the origin of everything awaits.