Customer Reviews

Lyon's Pride (Rowan , Bk. 4)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lyon's Pride was a Pyrrhic Victory: it didn't lack the flair and prestige of Anne McCaffrey that made the Rowan Series famous, but the storyline made too little of a progress with this book.

The previous book in the series, Damia's Children, was a shining star in all of McCaffrey's books, but it lacked one thing: a good ending. Upon the last word of the last page several tales drop away, leaving the reader on multiple cliffhangers and wondering what happens next. Lyon's Pride sews all of those cliffhangers together seamlessly, so perfectly that the two were probably written as one. Lyon's Pride is filled with the realism and unique storyline of the Rowan Series. Its protagonists meet tragedy, danger, exhilaration and even romance head-on, making the book hard to put down.

No book is without its share of flaws, and Lyon's Pride unfortunately has two big ones. The first is that the storyline has made very little progress. Holes in the patchwork before were sewed up here, and even questions all the way from the first book in the series are answered, like just what happened to the baby Cera Gwyn-Raven after her life and mentality were laid on the line. But in sewing up the holes to some of the previous problems Anne also ended some of the stories. Readers expecting the captured queen Hiver to do something in this book will be disappointed, especially since that was one of the tallest pinnacles of the previous book.

And the last flaw? The book ends with another not-so-good ending, making a sequel necessary. The longest running plot here, the dilemna of coping with an alien species bent on purging the galaxy of all life forms, is unfinished in Lyon's Pride. You'll want to read this book to have your questions about Damia's Children answered, but not too much happens here.

Lyon's Pride is great, I've read P.E.R.N. and Acorna, but my favorite of McCaffrey's seris' is the Rowan seris. It is interesting to see a family, born from a orphan, grow to be the largest influence around. THe children face hardships that can occur, and they deal with them. It's a realistic book/seris other than the telempathic-kenetic abilities. I loved Rowan and I have enjoyed the seris through Lyon's Pride. Its is wonderful. I suject anyone read it.

I listened to the audio version of Lyon's Pride, and enjoyed it, with a few caveats. One: there was a distinct lack of plot, and two: very little actually happened. Sure, we got a peek into the perfect world of Damia and her Children, but the plot seemed to meander...And the hive 'menace' was not really much of a menace at all.

Pet peeves: Personally, I found the parents (and grandparents) meddling and matchmaking to be annoying. I also thought the gifts of the t-1's and how they manipulated the emotions of the lesser talented to be manipulative, and downright scary. Who says the t-1's have a right to mess with people's emotions? It was quite intrusive of Zara, to mess with the mind of Kincaid while he was sleeping, even if her intentions were good. Such powers can quickly become abusive and Damia's children seem to have no boundaries, despite their motivations.

Also, I liked the character of Kincaid, but nothing was really resolved with him. We never really found out the details about what happened to him on the deep space mission, and the character seems to be dropped halfway through the book. Other romances seemed flat to me. Roger's romance with his cousin Asia was tepid. Asia was just too timid, and Roger too self confidant. Plus there was the cousin thing...Errr, sorry, Anne, that didn't work for me.

Overall, despite these peeves, I liked Lyon's pride. It just didn't go anywhere; and the assumptions and liberties the 'talented' made towards those with lesser gifts were supercilious and grating.

"The formidable Lyon's Pride," as a character in the next (and final) book of the Talent series calls them, are the children of T-1 Damia Gwynn-Raven and T-2 Afra Lyon; and that "T" rating is a measure of the Talented one's power. Telepathy and telekinesis keep Human and Mrdini commerce operating by moving travelers and cargoes instantaneously across vast reaches of space. Those same Talents enable the two allied species to battle successfully against a third: the implacable Hivers, who covet the same kind of real estate as do Humans and Mrdini.

All eight of Damia and Afra's children have Talent ratings of T-1. All are destined, as adults, to be known as Primes. Some, like eldest daughter Laria, will operate commercial transfer towers - a prestigious and powerful position, but one that can take a young Prime far away from home. Some, like sons Thian and Rojer, will carve out new roles for Talents in service aboard naval vessels. Second daughter Zara's strongly empathic Talent fits her for the career of healer - after it enables her to do what no one else can manage, by communicating (on however rudimentary a level) with a captured Hiver queen. The Lyon's Pride is, indeed, formidable. Its four eldest are reaching adulthood just in time to play key roles, as the Human-Mrdini alliance begins to solve the Hiver threat that first loomed when their grandparents were young.

An exciting, character-driven tale, which only occasionally bogs itself down with shipboard protocols and politics. If you can get past those pacing problems, you'll be glad you did; because "The Tower and the Hive," the next volume in the Talent series, provides a worthy conclusion to the long-running Gwynn-Raven saga.

After reading DAMIA'S CHILDREN I ran around looking for the next book in the series, desperate to find out how the plot would follow on. I wasn't entirely disappointed, but then again I wasn't exactly riveted by the story at the beginning. As in the other three books in the TALENTS series (THE ROWAN, DAMIA, DAMIA'S CHILDREN) some scenes which could have been really descriptive and enthralling were scrimped on. The last battle between the Talents and the Hivers was very disappointing. There was little sense of achievement, of a legend being made. But if you're not one for descriptive writing, and prefer a fastpaced, intricate plot, you'll enjoy LYON'S PRIDE. Just make sure you've read the other TALENT books first, or you'll really miss out.

This book was the latest in the talent series, the first set the stage for talented people to be recognized for the services they could perform. The following books built on families with talents and how they were attracted to each other and produced increasingly talented off spring and became a controlling factor through out space. Very stimulating.

Characters unresolved - plot threads hanging and 'talents' who behave like undisciplined children. Sorry to all those rave star reviews, but this book was virtually of no interest. If I wasn't an Anne McCaffrey fan, I would not have finished it, but silly me, I kept expecting something to resolve or evolve or....

This is a direct sequel to Damia's Children (Rowan), beginning about two years later. The Raven-Lyon family is becoming ever more involved in the campaign to contain, communicate with, or, if necessary, destroy the insectoid Hivers: oldest daughter Laria is now Prime at the Tower on Clarf, homeworld of humanity's allies the Mrdini; oldest son Thian and his Mrdini pair are aboard the Mrdini ship KLTL, which is backtrailing a derelict Hiver sphere in an effort to learn whether the Hiver homeworld was destroyed by a nova; and second son Rojer has been assigned to the Naval craft Genesee, now watching a Hiver ship as it approaches a possible landing point, to expedite messages and cargo between her and the other elements of her group. When KLTL's captain suddenly becomes deranged, attacks Thian and kills his pair, the shock nearly destroys the young human, though the Mrdini themselves are quick to retaliate against the offender. After an interval of recovery and mourning at home on Iota Auriage, Thian is reassigned, with his younger brother Rojer, to the scientific task force studying the salvaged Hiver wreck, and the two of them, with the connivance of several Naval talents, originate a means of using the captive Hiver queen to learn more about how the ship's systems are supposed to work. Big sister Laria, meanwhile, is having the difficulties typical of Primes in finding people she can work with--until she's assigned Kincaid Dano, who's just off a long and emotionally exhausting Naval assignment with his 'Dini pair. His squadron has discovered three failed Hiver colonies, which causes the human/'Dini alliance much interest: *why* did they fail? Eventually Thian and Rojer are reassigned yet again, to a Hiver colony system in which another huge ship is under construction. And ultimately Thian, with his grief healed in a most unexpected way, also finds his "mind-mate," Naval officer Alison Anne Greevy.

In this volume of the series we begin to learn more about the Hivers--the specialization of their various types (one Naval officer describes theirs as "a stagnant culture determined to replicate itself ad infinitum"), their requirements with regard to colony worlds. In a long mental conversation between Laria and her father we see reflected the moral/ethical dilemmas faced by humanity with regard to the Hivers: having "grown beyond" war, many humans think it should never be resorted to again, even when the opposition totally ignores them and so can't be negotiated with. We learn that the construction of new and larger Navy ships, required by the push to learn enough about the Hivers to protect Earth and its colonies, has stirred up a dissident movement that has even attempted to resort to terroristic acts. We're given more details about Mrdini culture and biology. And we can see true progress being made in the campaign against the Hivers, even if humanity--and Mrdinihood--is to some extent divided over the best way to deal with them.

Though not as fast-moving as many sf novels, this is still a good solid story with plenty of intriguing throwaway about the possibilities inherent in the development of psychic power. And it leaves you, as a series book should, wanting to read the next volume and find out what will befall the characters in the months and years to come.

This books along with the latter talent books are so unrealistic as to be boring. The first talent books, Pegasus in Flight and Pegasus in Space were interesting and fun because we were reading about real characters.They had Talent, but they were still real people.The characters in the latter talent books are nothing less than gods, with an almost all-powerful Talent, and seemingly little or no personal problems or limitations (which makes th books dull). Also, what the books really portray, without actually saying it is basically a Talent autocracy. Non talented are inferior and unimportant, and the talented rule over everyone else with their powers. This reminds me of Star Trek, where everyone is law abiding, and the authority of the Federation is unquestioned.So what happens to those who question the authority of the Federation? They are automatically outlaws. Its really quite totalitarian.
Anyway, this book is boring and not worth the money.

What makes this book worth reading is the that we are able to follow the lives of Damia's children as well as the rest of the extended family. For me that is always what made this series worth reading was the family's dedication to each other in-spite of their egos and talents. This 4th book in a series of 5 Lyon's Pride by Anne McCaffrey is set in the universe we have come to expect of her Talents series. The story continues on with Humanity and it's Allies continued fight against the hivers. There are several subplots that are set up or carried along for conclusion in the 5th book. But it is worth the read if you like this series, and McCaffrey in general.