Freedom's Choice [Unabridged] [Hardcover]

Anne McCaffrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1997

A group of slaves, brought to an uninhabited planet by their Catenni masters, who have taken over Earth, must learn to survive in their new surroundings, but some struggle with calling their new planet home and consider a rebellion in order to return to their true home."

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA?In what may be her best series since the early "Pern" novels, McCaffrey has created yet another winner. While conquering and colonizing the universe, the alien Catteni take the misfits and troublemakers they encounter and dump them on empty planets. If they survive, then the Catteni move in. Freedom's Landing (Putnam, 1995) introduced a human/alien group struggling just to stay alive. In this second book, these Botany Bay-like survivors have overcome hardships to establish a society of sorts. Zainal, a renegade Catteni, and his fellow dumpees have begun to strike back at their oppressors. They are also trying to uncover the identity of the original residents of the planet and enlist their support. McCaffrey has developed another exotic world peopled with interesting, well-developed characters. This book stands alone but works better with the first novel.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Continuing the storyline from Freedom's Landing (LJ 4/15/95), this second book in the series finds the human and aliens on the penal planet Botany planning a rebellion against their slavemasters. After the Catteni subdue and transport to penal colony planets people from Earth and other civilizations for their Eosi masters, one Catteni, Zainal, chooses to remain on Botany. His plan? To join his fellow slaves in convincing the absentee owners of the planet to turn against the Eosi and free the colonists. McCaffrey is at her best with interspecies interactions and uniting for a goal against a common enemy. Highly recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 293 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; first edition (June 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399142703
• ISBN-13: 978-0399142703
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,149,311 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

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing with a lack of depth, June 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Freedom's Choice (Bookcassette(r) Edition) (Audio Cassette)

I found the characterization weak with little link to real people and the obstacles were overcome with barely a ripple, what conflict there was was dealt with too easily. The whole book left me feeling "so what". No conflict, many issues with no resolution (mixed race, forced breeding, alien captors, leadership battles etc), no drama. This was a real dissapointment as I am a fan of McCaffreys and was looking forward to a new title.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This is a good book for a budding science fiction fan, August 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Freedom's Choice (Bookcassette(r) Edition) (Audio Cassette)

If you read Ann McCaffrey for her high level of character development, dialogue and plotting, you will be disappointed with this one. This is a story that seems to have been written for a younger audience, an audience that has not been exposed to the cliche's of the genre. Take for instance, the capture of the ships. One ship was believable, two, barely, but not three. Add on the successful trip to the other planet, and now you have something you might see on tv. The characterization is extremely sketchy, so sketchy in fact, that the reader is left wondering why Kris is in love with Zainal, the dumped Catteni. Another point is the way everybody fits in with the program. There is no angry feminist furiously protesting her new role in society; that is; as being an empty womb needing filling. There are no slightly psychotic women clutching a pillow, weeping for a lost baby on another world. And there are no men wishing for a lost wife or loved children. These people were ripped from their homes and no one weeps? And who are these aliens that were dumped with them? How do they fit in with the humans so easily? What about cultural differences? Oh, the Turs are so anti-social that they are immediatly ex-communicated. The "why" is never discussed. I laughed out loud when the Farmers showed up. Their physical appearance was steriotypically godlike alien. And the Mentats seem more spoiled brats than actual threats. This is definatly not one of McCaffrey's best works. I wonder how it passed by her editors in its present form. Bypass this one, unless you are looking for something light and somewhat brainless.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not one of McCaffrey's best..., June 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Freedom's Choice (Hardcover)

I have been one of those who mourned Anne McCaffeys' decison to MERGE with other writers....supplying the plot while others tell the tale. This book, with her name alone on the spine, should be the real thing, I thought!...on the a par with the best of the Dragonriders ansd Crystal-Singers! WRONG! This novel does have a story underneath all, possibly even a story worthy of McCaffrey, but it loses itself in the banality of the taletelling!

The novel, the second part of a series, is set on a planet to which recaltricants are sent by a superior race who have conquered and colonized Earth, along with many other planets. They have a surefire way of working out which planets are suitable for further development....dump the troublemakers on it, with minumum survival-supplies. If there are lots of survivors at check-time, send more `colonists' and put in an overlord; if there are few or no survivors, write off that planet!
McCaffrey has obviously read Australian history....the planet is named Botany, a main settlement is Sydney, and the colonists use crossbows...and boomerangs!! The basic construct of the novel is actually worthy of better than the `Boys Own 'treatment it gets. I mean, these are thinking, breathing, argumentative Earth people,transported , unconscious and against their will, to other planets where they will be slaves, or fodder, or worse...torn from careers, family, friends, heritage.... yet we are expected to believe that they settle into a mixed-race-planet with no backward glances, no arguments, no established governments, no TRAUMAS! And how INVENTIVE they are, and how uncomplicated their lives as the sandwiches keep coming form the kitchen even as they face interstellar hazards quite unthought of...SORRY, it's all a bit BANAL for this reviewer, who is mourning the loss of confidence in an author previously held in high esteem! This isn't the last volume in the series, of course. It is left quite up in the air, waiting for at least volume 3....but I wouldn't bother, honestly, unless you haven't anything better to do!
Anne McCaffrey, you have just left an ardent admirer sadly disillusioned!

Robin Knight