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Freedom's Choice
by Anne McCaffrey
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Putnam Adult (1997-06-02)
ISBN: 0399142703
EAN: 9780399142703
Dewey Decimal #: 813.54
Hardcover: 293 pages
Edition: first
SKU: 20113
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Hardback. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. Slight wear to dust jacket. Book pages clean and crisp with no markings.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A group of slaves, brought to an uninhabited planet by their Catenni masters, who have taken over Earth, must learn to survive in their new surroundings, but some struggle with calling their new planet home and consider a rebellion in order to return to their true home."
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Customer Reviews
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As good a series as the dragon rider series
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-09-07
If you are familiar with the Dragon Rider series, then you will probably like this series too. This book is more in line with the stories written with Mercedies Lackey (Planet Pirates) and takes a look at an assortment of aliens and humans who are captured, dumped on a planet, and how they survive in a hostile universe. There is the underlying thread that no matter what happens, we will always survive which makes the series a riveting read, how do they get out of this next scrape.
What made this series compelling for me was that the Catteni are also slaves as much as anyone else is in the series. What do you do when your bad guys are a sympathetic group of folks. There is also the idea of change, that if you get thrown into change, over time you learn to cope with the situation and eventually learn to adapt to what is happening around you. The strong hero heroine team in the book, with Worry and others made this a very fun read.
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No "mid-trilogy" fumbling here!
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-07-22
The middle volume of a trilogy often has problems. This one does not. That's high praise, indeed, for Anne McCaffrey's writing skill. (Yes, I know there's a fourth "Freedom" novel. But I'm told it's a sequel to the trilogy, not part of a four-book series as I first assumed, by other reviewers who ought to know.)
What are the problems of a trilogy, usually? Pacing can be a big one. None of that here; this story has its own beginning, middle, and ending, and it moves along at good clip even when it's not in the midst of an action sequence. Character develpment can lag, but there's none of that here,either. We learn a lot more about the Catteni "dropee" Zainal, including exactly why he actively embraces being dropped on Botany along with a load of slaves. It's not just for love of human Kris Bjornsen, although that relationship matures and deepens. Zainal has an excellent reason for his emphatic, "I dropped, I stay!" attitude, and it's a fascinating one. By the book's end, we know a great deal more about the mysterious "Farmers" who have tended this planet for centuries (unknown to the Catteni, who dropped their slaves there to test its suitability for colonization). We also know a great deal more about the Catteni, who are finding the native species of their latest conquered world - Terrans - a disruptive influence on their entire empire.
All in all, "Freedom's Choice" is another old-fashioned space adventure with McCaffrey's trademark brand of romance supplying integral plot elements. I was alarmed, though (as has all too often been the case for me in reading McCaffrey!), by the author's absolute inability to grasp what constitutes rape. I'm old enough myself to remember when women were expected to hold the views her characters do on that subject ("It was really my own fault," "He did it because loving me made him crazy," etc.), so I can accept that I'm reading an author who simply hasn't caught up with the times on this subject; but I do hope no other woman or girl comes away from this book with a lingering belief in those dangerous old stereotypes subtly reinforced.
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Be prepared to read the book before and the book after...
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-06-01
It's not that Freedom's Choice is a "bad book"... it's just that, for this book to make sense, you really have to have read the prior book (Freedom's Landing), and, since the story continues, the book after.
I like stand-alone books. Freedom's Choice is not one.
In Freedom's Choice, the survivors/colonists dumped on the planet Botany by the Catteni work at developing a structured society, fight back against the Catteni (and their overlords, the Eosi), and try to uncover the identity of the "Farmers," who have "colonized" the planet with machines for harvesting grains and meats (it is a bad thing to be captured during these meat-hunting expeditions... you get turned into sausage).
Stll, Anne McCaffrey treats the reader to interesting social and personal dynamics. People are such entertaining creatures!
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Punish yourself, read this book!
Rating  (1)
Date: 2005-10-21
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
After reading the first book of this series, I don't know why I felt inclined to read the second. Probably because I liked the story line, even though it was horribly executed. Whatever pathetic reason I had for reading this, take my advice and avoid at all costs. Reread one of her excellent Pern books.
To summarize: the colonists overcome all challenges with minimal effort, no setbacks, all the while managing to joke around with each other the entire time. However, most of the book is simply spent reading about one boring meeting after another. Which makes sense of course; if you were ripped from your home planet, family, and friends, watched your species get slaughtered and turned into slaves, then get dumped on an empty planet, that's what you would do, right, have a meeting? I hate meetings I have to attend, reading about other people in meetings is simply tedious, especially when the dialog is as banal as it is in this book.
It is obvious that Anne was trying to liven up the book with humor. She can not write humor. The characters are always laughing or grinning or winking or elbow nudging each other to let the reader know that Anne was trying to write a joke. It is basically a book with a laugh track. All the characters are CONSTANTLY winking at each other while making jokes. Anne, if you need to tell the writer you have written a joke, then it was not very funny.
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a goofy read for children
Rating  (2)
Date: 2005-04-13
2 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a story written so far out in left field that it is kind of entertaining. It is a space romance that is as hard hitting as a soap bubble.
What made the first book in this series so interesting is pretty much lacking here. By this I am talking about the surreal dream like quality that pulled out unusual though inspiring visions to dawdle over. Instead we are presented with a story that follows the most predictable 'read it before' plot lines that seem to float by without struggle.
This might be a good series to read with your kids, but you can find better books in that regards as well (Pullman, Harry Potter, Narnia, and Watership Down).
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