Customer Reviews

Dinosaur Planet

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book, and Dinosaur Planet Surviors are a MUST read before diving into the Planet Pirates series (Death of Sleep, Sassinak, Generation Warriors). Even though the time frame for this book is towards the end of Death of Sleep and of Sassinak, you must read these first to get the full impact of the whole set. She does such a good job of character development, that her works are never cookie-cutter. Each world is as real as the next.

I've read every one of McCaffery's books I can get my hands on, but I was disappointed with Dinosaur Planet. I couldn't connect with the characters, and couldn't force myself to read the entire book. Some of McCaffery's work is AWESOME, but this isn't one of them. I would recommend not buying this one (sorry, but it's true).

This book was enjoyable as a tale of humans (and humanoids) exploring a distant world. However, the title led me to believe that I would read a lot more about dinosaurs than I did. The romance at the center of the story is nice, though a little under-played. I would have liked more, more, more. A more intense dinosaur adventure can be found in Dinosaur Wars, by Hopp, where both the romance AND the big beasts are more well-portrayed. Still, Dinosaur Planet was worthwhile reading--just not my top preference of this sub-genre.

This book was not her best work! Like the second book in this series, it was a let down for me. I am a huge fan of her writing, but this is not what she normally writes like. I would recommend the Dragonriders of Pern or the Powers that Be series, which are much better than this one! The second book in this series is not any better than this one, so if you did not like this one, don't bother with the second. This is a good one to get from the library before buying. I guess every writer has to have a few bad books.

I bought this book thinking that since it was by Anne McCaffrey that it would be wonderful and I was right. As with the Pern series, she takes us to another world and makes it believable as only she can do. The book does leave off at what I felt was a critical point but McCaffrey did write a second book in the series that I hope will continue just like the Pern and Damia series have.

It has been about a decade since I read this book, so I do not remember the details all that well, but I do remember thinking it was the most poorly written SF book I had ever read. After 10 years, I still have not read worse. It is (thankfully) quite short, and perhaps if packaged with the sequal Dinosaur Planet Survivors might together make a single weak novel. As a stand alone book, you will be annoyed by the ending, which just leaves the entire plot hanging. I was too disgusted with the writing, however, to ever read the sequel. For a book to engender such negative emotions this long after I read it I think says a lot.

I have read all of Anne McCaffrey's books at least three times, but have yet to complete this book once. I keep coming back to it hoping it will become a better read. It's hard to follow, the characters seem shallow and it just doesn't have the flair I have come to expect from Anne McCaffrey

I've always loved the idea that somewhere else in the universe, maybe a parallel universe, the dinosaurs developed further instead of the mammals. I really loved the first book and liked the second and taken with the Planet Pirate series, the whole set is really interesting and much different than the Pern series, which I also love. My greatest like about McCaffrey is her ability to vary her ideas, much like Andre Norton, my absolute favorite author. Both had great abilities to see different scenarios that are not a reflection of her most well-known series, the Pern series. I had hoped she would be able to do more of the Planet Pirates, Ireta series and earlier works concerning Pern; however, it seems that she is retiring and letting her son do the so-called writing. He seems to have a one-track mind, only Pern and not very inventive. I am sorry to think that Anne McCaffrey is over and her not-so accomplished son is taking over her reign. All authors improve with practice, but she started out so much better than he did and he had her to help him. As with Dick Francis, I think the children, if they want to write, they don't follow in their parents' footsteps but try their own way; it certainly could not be worse than what Felix and Todd are doing to their parent's well-known expertise.

Anne McCaffrey was my favorite author through middle school and high school, and she still sticks in my top 10. She has the ability to create an entire environment with believable characters, especially strong female leads (which seem to be lacking in most novels in the genre). If you have read her other books, this one should be on your list somewhere.

Dinosaur Planet, and its sequel, though not as good as her Pern Series, are definitely still great sci-fi and worth a read. This is a really good choice for any 10-15 year old who is looking for some well-written, if older, sci-fi/fantasy novels or someone starting to branch out from the standard. It's a relatively short novel, and definitely well within the abilities of the average middle-schooler (and even some elementary school kids).

Co-leaders, Kai and Varian, have their orders to explore Ireta for ores and to study it's strangely diverse wildlife. Their crew is made up of ship-bred, planet-bred and quite a few heavy-worlders. Along with the disgusting smell of the planet, Kai also has to deal with the fact that they have been given three "youngsters" to train on this mission.

Everything appears to be going well, until Varian discovers a huge predator among the seemingly benign herbivores. The heavy-worlders, who are rumored to still eat meat, begin to act quite furtive and even on the brink of insubordinate.

Add to all this that EV has not been back to pick up their messages after dropping them off a few weeks ago. Are they stranded on this planet? How did all these different types of animals develop on this planet? Where are the heavy-worlders disappearing to overnight?