Freedom's Challenge: (The Catteni sequence: 3): sensational storytelling and worldbuilding from one of the most influential SFF writers of all time…

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The inhabitants of Botany - a mixture of humans and extra-terrestrials - had managed to build a thriving and productive world out of what had originally been intended as a slave planet. And now they had plans to try and overthrow the terrible Eosi, who for centuries had existed by subsuming members of the Catteni race, living in their bodies and ruling space through them. Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, BA, MA PhD (Harvard), Colonel USA Army (retired), and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey, estate agent. She had two brothers: Hugh McCaffrey (deceased 1988), Major US Army, and Kevin Richard McCaffrey, still living.

Let Anne McCaffrey, storyteller extraordinare and New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author, open your mind to new worlds and new concepts. Worlds where humans are the slaves of aliens and love can flourish in the most unlikely of places... Perfect for fans of David Eddings, Brandon Sanderson and Douglas Adams.

Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives. The Catteni Series (also called the Freedom Series) is a tetralogy of science fiction novels by American writer Anne McCaffrey. In this universe, humans are slaves of aliens, the humanoid Catteni. Woven through all four of the books are details of the relationship between Kristin Bjornsen, a former slave, and Zainal, a renegade Catteni. And one last moan - the whole sex thing is just done really clumsily. And I don't just mean between Kris and Zainal (and that's cringy enough!). The constant reprimands of some of the men for harassing the women stretched my patience to almost breaking point - it just seemed a needless plot device and didn't ring true half the time. You'd honestly think that a group of abandoned refugees on a strange planet would have too much to think about!

I can't say that this one grabbed my attention as much as the first ever Dragon book. Don't get me wrong - I liked it and enjoyed reading it, but somehow the story just never seemed to get going. Oh, Botany has it's dangers and its mysteries, but everything just seems a tad too easy. I'm sure if an actual group of humans and aliens were dropped onto another planet, it would take a bit longer to get everything sorted. How handy is it to find everything they need - from clay to be made into pots by their handy potter, to scrunchy plants that can be sued from towels to bandages to bedding! And how come it's only the Deski who suffer from nutritional difficulties? I think everyone else would have taken longer to adapt to the new microbes too. It's one thing I find frustrating about McCaffrey's books is that the heroes' plans generally work perfectly without a hitch. If the plan is shared with the reader, then the book loses it's excitement as you read through the plan being perfectly executed. It dives right in when Kris an escaped human slave on a strange planet, encounters Zainal, a Catteni (the aliens who invaded Earth and took a bunch of humans off-planet as slaves), who is on the run himself. Figuring that a common enemy makes them some sort of allies, she saves his hide, which gets her captured again and dropped on Botany, a planet version of penitary colony. Thus commences a tale of settling a new planet, organizing the humans and various kinds of other aliens, and figuring out who the original owners of the planet were. Those stranded on the planet easily set up a community and improve their situation drastically in a short time. They handle the situations with ease and aren't terribly challenged. You can argue that the world was set up to produce food and would be easy to survive on, based on how it was engineered. Yet, even the personal relationships aren't terribly challenging. There are creepy dudes and another band of aggressive people, there are people who - understandably - don't like the non-humans, but none of these challenges really threatens in this first book. I have not read the following ones. Just wished for more conflict and hardship.In Freedom's Landing, the Catteni routinely round up human troublemakers and drop them on empty planets – if they survive, the world is suitable for their own people. Kristin is included in such a group, which is dropped on a world they name Botany (after the Australian destination for transportees, Botany Bay). Surprisingly, a Catteni noble, Zainal, is among their group - the same one Kristin helped earlier. While trying to cope with their new situation, they discover the existence of another alien race that is using the planet as a gigantic farm. Kristin is at first the only one to vouch for Zainal but he soon proves his usefulness to the rest of the improvised colony. They steal technology from the mechanisms that are used to farm the planet Botany. She and Zainal fall in love. [2] I thought this was a good, easy to read, science fiction story. The story doesn't challenge with ideas or emotions, just an amusing tale. I read it on a plane from coast to coast and didn't get bored with it or put it down. I'm interested enough that I may read more in the series - I'd like to find out more about whoever created the machines. The protagonist, Kris, is incredibly likable and capable. She has strength, a sharp wit, an unironic and unannoying optimism, and a practicality that makes her incredibly enjoyable to read. McCaffrey has done a fantastic job writing a relatable and capable character, treating her with the respect I have for my strong female friends. So often authors write strong women to be bitter or hostile- or worse, write female protagonists who constantly run to their better and more developed male counterparts. But Kris is neither and I appreciate that.