Freedom's Challenge [Hardcover]

Anne McCaffrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1998

Deportees from many worlds, the colonists of Freedom's Landing have made a new home for themselves on the planet where they were abandoned. Now they have the technology they need to go back to war with the deadly Eosi--with a surprise strike at enslaved planet Earth itself! Kris Bjornson has come a long way since the day alien slave ships scooped her up in Denver with thousands of others. Dropped on an apparently uninhabited world with the rest, she has fallen in love with Zainal, a renegade Cattani, and has worked for years to make this fertile planet, Botany, into a home. Now she has a house of sorts, a child she adores, and a respected place in the community. But she still feels a soldier's duty to escape and rejoin the struggle. The Eosi overlords have tight control of many worlds; as they continue to drop their captives on Botany, however, the original colonists learn that there are freedom fighters on every captured world. There are rebels even among the warlike Cattani, and Earth is full of pockets of resistance. Now that the settlers on Botany are well-fed, and have technology stolen from visiting Cattani warships, they might be able to help. The trip to Earth will be heartbreaking, they realize. All of Earth's major cities are in ruins. Humans with technical ability have been enslaved, or mind-wiped. Crops and animals have been herded into spaceships for the use of alien overlords, while Earth's people starve. But the colonists of Botany can load their stolen ship with grain and supplies to help the resistance fighters. Most important, they can bring hope: it is possible to fight back against the Eosi and their Cattani enforcers. Earth can again be free!

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Abandoned on the planet Botany by their Catteni masters, a group of humans and other enslaved races now seeks to reclaim their worlds for themselves. This third installment of a series that includes Freedom's Landing (LJ 4/15/95) and Freedom's Choice (LJ 5/15/97) chronicles the stages of the war for liberation, from the theft of Catteni ships to the liberation of cargoes of slave laborers to a bold strike at the heart of the oppressor. McCaffrey excels as a storyteller and as a creator of worlds. Despite an occasional lapse in suspense, her latest novel provides a satisfying culmination to a saga of desperate courage and the desire for freedom. Most libraries should add this to their sf collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Another rousing episode, perhaps the last, in McCaffrey's saga, begun in Freedom's Landing (1995) and continued in Freedom's Choice , about the colonists on the planet Botany. Botany is now under attack by the Eosi, who are unable to penetrate the planet-surrounding Bubble constructed by the advanced race that had given permission for the colony to remain on the planet. Kris Bjornson, who was with the first group dumped on the planet by the Eosi-dominated Cattani forces, is one of the settlement's leaders, as is her lover, the insurgent Cattani, Zainal. Having built a new home for themselves, the settlers decide it is time to contact dissidents on the various Eosi-controlled worlds and wage a war of liberation. Since the Botany settlers possess stolen technology, including Cattani warships, they are able to rescue other victims of the Eosi and bring them to Botany. Kris and Zainal lead a small band, all disguised as Cattani, to the Cattani home world on the first sortie to enlist Cattani rebels in the battle. The action is fast paced and riveting, and the characters, human and of other species, are well limned and exhibit great individuality. McCaffrey continues to amaze with her ability to create disparate, well-realized worlds and to portray believable humans, convincing aliens of varied sorts, and credible interactions between them all. A very satisfying tale. Sally Estes

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (May 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399143971
• ISBN-13: 978-0399143977
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #861,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne McCaffrey, the Hugo Award-winning author of the bestselling Dragonriders of Pern® novels, is one of science fiction's most popular authors. With Elizabeth Ann Scarborough she co-authored Changelings and Maelstrom, Books One and Two of The Twins of Petaybee. McCaffrey lives in a house of her own design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you enjoyed the first two, you should read this one., August 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Spokane, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom's Challenge (Paperback)

Of the three books in this series, this was undoubtably the worst. I greatly enjoyed the first two, and certainly do not think that my reading of the third book was a waste of time . . . but I think perhaps Ms. McCaffrey was a bit hasty in ending this storyline. She didn't have her usual depth in resolving the plots. The characters were also not as fully developed as I've come to expect from this marvelous author.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Series of Successes, December 23, 2000

By 

Christopher Dudley (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freedom's Challenge (Paperback)

In this third volume of the Freedom trilogy, Anne McCaffrey closes all the loose ends she'd left open in the previous two volumes, effectively ending the series. As a whole, the series was interesting, and throughout the three books, I felt for the characters, and wanted to know what they'd do next. It was a step-by-step detailed description of how a small group of exiles built a home on a planet that was initially hostile to them. In the context of being a series ending, the book is satisfying. The colonists finally realize success after so long and hard an endeavor. But when viewed by itself, this book contained only the successes, and none of the real hardships.

The entire book passes by with very little challenge to the colonists of Botany. It was an interesting logistical inventory for setting up a successful colony, but there's no real conflict. Just about everything they attempt works out, often better than they'd expected. About halfway through the book, I was sure something would finally go wrong, but it never did. Some of the successes were ridiculously easy. Some were at the very least, improbable. The humans on Botany were able to disguise themselves as Catteni with a little makeup and prosthetic cheekbones. This disguise was somehow able to fool real Catteni even after prolonged interaction. I found this a little bit unlikely.

As an ending to the series, it was adequate. But to make it a good installment in a trilogy, the author really should have included more conflict and story. The last book could have ended "And they lived happily ever after" and no real plot points would have been lost. Still, the writing style is enjoyable, and I already liked the characters enough to see what happened next. The same favorites are back in this book, and the story such as it is moves along with good pacing. On that merit alone, the book earns three stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Even More Random Than Earlier Books, May 24, 2011

By 

Judah (Terre Haute In USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom's Challenge (Paperback)

It's science fiction with completely wrong science! It's slice of life without any character development! It's a cookie-cutter plot formula done badly! It's book three of a series, but introduces tons of new characters with no reader attachment. I fell asleep reading it.

To be a good story, the novel needed to be combined with book two and actually edited. What happens with the Farmers is exceptionally idiotic. A ghost writer likely had major input in this book, as opposed to an editor. If you've read other McCaffery, it's like someone hollowed out the work, took all the emotional and interesting parts out, and published this pile of excess words, consisting of small talk and meetings.

Do yourself a favor and avoid Freedom's Ransom. Book four is even worse because even the pretense of using actual science is gone.