Rating: Summary: Slightly better effort this time Review: The Rowan books are my absolute favorite McCaffrey books (with the Freedom Landing books a close second), but I've been really disappointed by the last three books in the series. The Rowan and Damia were incredibly good books, but to be honest, I wish they had left off all the beatle stuff with Damia and explored other plot lines. However, The Tower and the Hive was better than Damia's Children or Lyon's Pride. Laria is a very sympathetic character, although I found her romance to be completely unbelievable. I found myself skimming most of the "beatle parts" - again, I really wish McCaffrey would have found another plot line to explore. There are a ton of loose ends in this book (the biggest one that jumped out at me was the "romance" portion, although there were others). She also didn't really provide a credible way to resolve the FT&T problems.
Rating: Summary: Plot is not up to McCaffrey's normal standards Review: Though "The Tower & the Hive" has the same feel as her earlier novels, this book does not have the plot development of those books.I would not have bought this hardback.
Rating: Summary: Too much left hanging by a great book Review: I have enjoyed this great book immensely, I found it very hard to put down, but it left too many loose ends and did not close of the series in a way that is satisfying. It would have been good to see a new FT & T rise strong from its past, with a new charter that includes cooperation with the military, but that didn't happen. The Hiver problem also doesn't feel completely finished, what happens if a really smart queen figures out what is going on and manages to avoid 'the treatment'. I hope that McCaffrey will change her mind and write another novel, because I know that there is a lot of room for another one. This book is well worth the read, don't let comments like mine put you off, because it is a fast ride that will leave you gasping from Hiver stench, and crying in triumph as Laria and Rojer finally find their feet.
Rating: Summary: I love them all! Review: There are some books that you must read and The Rowan series is the one. They are must read books of romance, suspence, and everything you can think put in one book perfectly layed out. But if this is your first Anne McCaffrey book, I would sugest that you start at the beginning, other wise you would be lost. Once you start reading her novels you can't get enough of sciece fiction itself. I recommend all of Anne McCaffrey books. I may be really young but I know what I like and I've read almost all of her books. This is a book you can't miss.
Rating: Summary: Good--but could've been better Review: I was disappointed in this last book. Even as McCaffrey cleared up some issues (such as Laria's love life), she left so much else hanging. The resolution of finding peaceful hivers didn't really solve the issue, and she didn't finish several of the sub-plots she started. But aside from these clunky parts, I found the book facinating and in the grand tradition of her past work. Hopefully she'll change her mind and write another book to REALLY finish this series. This installment didn't quite work out.
Rating: Summary: Disapointing Finale Review: Like other peole, I was disapointed with this, the last of the FT&T books. While it did a fine job of character development with many of the people, it left too many loose ends for me. The main problem with the book, in fact, was that it was too much character development, and not enough action. What it needs is either another 100 or so pages to clean up loose ends, or perhaps another book to really finish the series.
Rating: Summary: Continuing character development Review: The focus is on continuing development of characters introduced in the previous books of this series. There is really only one new character. It won't make much sense if you have not read at least the previous two books and preferably all four. Some inconsistencies have crept in despite the stated efforts to keep them out. Don't look for much in the way of action or suspense; the heroes and heroines are just so powerful that it is sort of like reading a bible.
Rating: Summary: A lackluster finale to an excellent series Review: The fact that the synopsis lists Afra as Damia's brother should have tipped me off to the mediocrity of this last (hopefully not) book in the Talents series. I felt that more loose ends were left at the end of this book, then at the end of Lyon's Pride. At least 1/4 of the novel is poor rehashing of the previous novels, and is simply not necessary. Although some interesting plot twists develop, and some more character exploration is done, it seems like this was pushed to publish simply because of deadlines, and not because it was a complete novel. Speaking as a chemistry PhD student, the whole portable GC thing is not plausible, by any stretch of the imagination. All together, not a strong finish for my favorite Anne McCafferey series
Rating: Summary: Disappointed in final book Review: Unlike most Anne McCaffrey fans, I actually prefer this series to the Pern books. Including "To Ride Pegasus" and "Pegasus in Flight". This final book disappointed me. First, there was that horrible monologue at the beginning. This is a series and should be read that way. There is no reason to have one of the main characters rattle on about everything that's happened previously. And while I don't mind a book with a few loose ends, this one is supposed to be the last in the series. The entire ending was a loose end. There was no sense of fulfillment, no climax, to the book. The middle was the best part of the book.
Rating: Summary: Don't bother with it. Review: This book was clearly a rush job, and reads like a draft version instead of something complete. The characters are hollow, the plot thin. Filled with stupid little mistakes that should have been caught by the several "proofreaders" listed in the acknowledgements. E.g., on page 2 someone orders a ship to reverse course for home by performing a 360-degree turn. The worst I've seen from McCaffrey in decades.
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