Dinosaur Planet

This book was completely unnecessary. The events were already covered, I suspect sometimes word for word, in the Planet Pirates series. There was almost no action in this book, no trajectory, no spice or flavor, no character growth whatsoever. It takes a special case to mess up literal dinosaurs in space. Boring, flat, clinical, disappointing.

I wanted to do some good, old-school science fiction, and one can hardly do better than some Anne McCaffrey. Of course everyone knows about her world of Pern, but have you been to Ireta?

A scientific team of explorers go to a new planet to explore and look for ore deposits that make life for this future race of beings possible. They explore planets all over the galaxy looking for metals that these people use to survive. Only this planet, at first, doesn’t seem to have anything they are looking for. A biologist on the team, Varian, is in awe of the many varied species of life being discovered on this stinky planet (they had to use fancy nose plugs to block the stench for quite some time), but the most intelligent life on the planet she show more had discovered was were golden furred flying creatures she labeled “giffs”.

All is going well for the diverse crew on Ireta, or so it seems. In this universe, there are beings classified as ship-bred, light worlders, or heavy worlders. The build of each is unique. The gifts of each are unique. But, the heavy worlders are by far the most removed group of the three. Kai, the leader of the expedition, and Varian notice the heavy worlders are starting to act strangly. Is it due to the effects of some rather new “distilled beverages” or could it just be their innate differences?

Things start to disappear and native wildlife is being killed or maimed. What is truely going on? What secrets is this planet hiding? Nothing seems to add up and things are becoming deadlier by the day. When the ships scientist reveals a truly remarkable and disturbing discovery about the wildlife on Ireta, the leaders will have to do some quick thinking.

As always with Anne McCaffrey’s work, the writing is superb. There are a multitude of characters in this cast and it can become confusing at times if you aren’t paying attention. Some of the minor characters are quite forgettable, and I’m sure I have forgotten who they are even as I write this, but even the main characters still hold a bit of mystery for me. Usually, by the time I finish a McCaffrey book, I have my favorites and characters I despise. This isn’t quite the case in this book. We haven’t learned as much about these characters as we usually do; you can tel this book was never made to be just a stand alone novel. There are too many things left unanswered about our protagonists as well as our antagonists.

The plot took some time to build, and didn’t really get going until the end. The way it does end did leave me reaching for the sequel, it was quite the cliff hanger, and I’m not one to abandon a story by such a phenomenal storyteller just when things are getting good. I know she has something astonishing waiting for me in Dinosaur Planet Survivors!! show less

I read this when it first came out and I really enjoyed it. At the time it was 'something different' from McCaffrey. Simple, straightforward science fiction with interesting characters. Pretty typical for the late 70's, this would be considered simple by today's standards. Still a good read.

A team of scientists are dropped on a strange new planet called Ireta to explore and look for ore deposits. The story took quite a while to get going and was a little slow at times. Varian and Kai, the team leaders, discover they aren't the first to visit the planet and their heavyworlder (human-like but bigger and much stronger) team members plan to mutiny. I really enjoyed the story once the mutiny got going and their was actually some action happening but that didn't start until about the last third of the book. In the end, the team is stranded on Ireta hiding from the mutineers and go into cold sleep hoping to be rescued. In order to find out what happens you have to read Dinosaur Planet Survivors which takes place 43 years later.

A new planet with giant dinosaurs presents great challenges to the humans and their alien friends who want to colonize it. Not quite as compelling as McCaffrey's Pern series but pretty good.

In the context of space exploration and travel, this book is well conceived and well written. The characters and adventures are spot on. One of my favorites by McCaffrey.

Haven't read this one in years- Was really good the first few times I had read it but upon reflection is a bit stilted. A good story, but I think it ought never to have been split into 2 books- and it gets better as it goes along.