Anne McCaffrey is one of my all time favorite authors and was one of the first fantasy authors I ever read. Her books can come across as a bit dated now but on the whole I quite enjoy them. Her world building is wonderful and I always find her characters engaging. The Catteni series is one of my favorites by her. ( )

Abducted by the alien Catteni, Kristin Bjornsen was one of many humans brought to the planet Botany as part of an experiment to see if it could support life. Enslaved and forced to colonize a world not their own, the settlers have accepted Botany as their home—a home worth fighting for…

Kristin’s people have learned that the aliens responsible for their imprisonment are merely mercenaries, subjugated by the parasitic Eosi Race, and that Botany is being farmed remotely by some unknown species—a species that may be sympathetic to the colonists’ struggle for freedom.

The “Farmers” refuse to join the humans in their rebellion against the Catteni, but they agree to use their technological skills to shield Botany and hide it from its enemies—buying Kristin and the settlers time to build up their forces and liberate their world… ( )

Okay, now I am cheering for Botany. Thousands of people from different worlds are removed by the Eosi (Catteni) to control the planets, they are dropped by the shipful on planets that the Eosi/Catteni want to colonize. The first problem, the planet they are dropped on is already farmed by a higher race that humans and Catteni alike have never encountered. One Catteni is dropped with a load of other slaves rounded up on Braveri on the colonizing planet. As the story progresses the humans start working toward 1: getting off the planet or 2: freeing themselves from Eosi dominance and/or 3: working with the race that was there first to remove Eosi dominance. What I like about the author is that she, unlike most other Science Fiction authors, has female leading characters, and they usually are not damsels in distress that need rescuing, although that is frequently part of the plot. As you can probably tell, I'm heading over to Amazon to download the next installment. ( )

http://allbookedup-elena.blogspot.ca/2014/09/freedoms-choice-anne-mccaffrey.html ( )

4.5

*Book source ~ My home library.

In Freedom’s Landing after Kris Bjornson, Zainal, Chuck Mitford and hundreds of others had been dropped on a distant planet to colonize it for the Catteni they discovered it was inhabited by automated machines farming the land. Taking apart the machines to create usable items for themselves they’ve made a pretty good life for themselves.

However, they want more and need to get out from under the Catteni’s thumb. With Zainal’s help they intend to strike back at the Catteni and in doing so strike at the Eosi who have controlled the Catteni for two thousand years. With some strategic planning and a lot of luck they intend to free the Catteni and Earth from Eosi domination.

This story picks up where Freedom’s Landing left off. A probe has been sent to the whoever farms Botany and Zainal has made it plain to the Emassi who came to retrieve him that he was dropped and he will stay. Since he has refused to return and face his duty, his brother must take his place and be subsumed by an Eosi Mentat. The towering hatred Lenvec feels for Zainal intrigues the Eosi named Ix and soon Ix is consumed with the curiosity about the planet Botany and finding Zainal. Since it is quite unusual for an Eosi Mentat to become obsessed this behave starts to draw the attention of other Eosi.

In the meantime, the Botanists are setting up a three stage plan to free themselves from the Eosi and the Farmers of the planet help protect them from attack by encasing the planet in a protective bubble after they have acquired a scout ship and a cargo ship. The Botantists are allowed to go in and out of the bubble, but nothing else is allowed in. Since the Farmers live according to the ‘Do no harm.’ rule, the bubble is the extent of their help.

There is so much going on in this book that it’s hard to know where to start. Zainal’s refusal to leave, Lenvec’s subsumption by Ix, exploring Botany, a visit by the Farmers, several more slave drops on Botany by the Catteni increasing their population by thousands, a raid on Barevi, building homes, having children, adding one more ship to the fleet and planning how to stop the Eosi make for a jam-packed book. Even with everything going on the story flows along smoothly and at a good clip. I love watching it all come together and look forward to the next book to see how it’s all going to play out. ( )