Rating: 
Summary: Not one of McCaffrey's best...
Review: 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
Rating: 
Summary: Is a simple story so bad?
Review: I have been reading some of the reviews for Anne McCaffrey's book Freedom's Choice. The major complaint seems to center on the book's too simplistic and even banal tale telling. So please tell me just what is so bad about that? Saying a simple story is not worth reading is like characterizing comic books as being the preffered reading choice of the illeterate. You see the disintions just does not fit. I found both Freedom's Landing and Freedom's choice very good because they had a great but simple story with good characters. Something else I have noticed in the trend of the reviews of the books is the lacking of traumatic problems with the colonists and everyone fitting into their place and how all the aliens are excepted. I wonder if these people actually read the books, because they failed to notice that not much attention is given to the rest of the colony but focuses mostly on the main characters so personal traumas and weeping dont get that much observation, and not everyone likes the aliens I am remembering one instance of a Ruggarian being beaten. Also there is dissention among some of the people not totally agreeing with that Sgt(Sorry forgot his name). Now just how did the others miss those details?¿ So it is a simple tale does that mean it is a bad book? I dont think so I thought it was fantastic if you want to enjoy a good tale and be entertained then read this book. If you would rather nit pick and point out the cliche nuances of the story then maybe you should move on to something else. -Grendel
Rating:
Summary: imaginative, looking forward to its sequel
Review: I loved freedom's choice and anxiously awaiting the next book in this series. read it all in one day. that says something about it. not just for the young as i'm 61 and still haven't lost my imagination anymore than the author. a book for all ages. can see where people when they think they have no hope and have lost everything and must start again, especially when that is the only choice and you look to help everyone else survive. that is what makes humans survivors. that is what made the prisoners in concentration camps survive. thanks anne for a delightful afternoon. hope to read the next one soon.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, but read all 3 books one right after the other.
Review: I was hooked immediately when I bought the audio version of Freedom's Landing, the first in the series. But you should read all three books one right after the other so the story flows better. (I hate it when a book ends suddenly and leaves you hanging until the next publication is available). This next book in the series picks up right where Freedom's Landing left off. Freedom's Choice has the same action as the first book. You find yourself reading in anticipation the more the "dropped" discover about the original owners of Botany. Looking forward to listening to the third installation of the Freedom's Series (Freedom's Challenge) because, though I choose to read Freedom's Choice in the written form, I think the audio version helps creates a more interesting vision.
Rating:
Summary: Good job!
Review: I've been reading the other reviews, particulary the ones against this book, and it seems a few people haven't gotten it. What is so wrong about people who know that they have a job to do, and do it? Plus the remarks about there not being enough breast beating over there lost loved ones is a crock! These people by and large have already spent time on another world, Barevi, and are most likely over the first rush of grief. As for the single women being asked to bear kids for the colony Ms. Mccaffrey put forth the idea that the women didn't have to keep it after it was born, so the femminists can calm down. Sorry if I am offending anyone, but when you have a relativly small gene pool you do your best to expand it. Ms. Mccaffrey did a wonderful job of portraying humans rising above the petty predujices that so many of us seem to hug tight to our chests. I can't wait to see what she does with the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Anne McCaffrey has done it again!
Review: If you haven't read Freedom's Landing, you can still get into this thrilling novel of forced colonization. Kris Bjornsen and Emassi Zainal battle through tough Catteni, their romance and the procreation of a child. <P> At the end of the book you are left with many unanswered questions and anxious to see what happens. I hope that EVERYONE gets a chance to read this series. I have a feeling that it will live on just like the Dragonriders of Pern
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book for a budding science fiction fan
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Science fiction that could happen today.
Review: In the Freedom series, McCaffery transports the reader from modern America to a whole new world. This book will entertain the average reader, as well as the strict science fiction buffs.
Rating: 
Summary: An analytical annoyance allowing avid abounds
Review: Let me present you with a picture. You are blindfolded and given an object. You feel it, sometimes rough, sometimes smooth and soft. It changes shape in your hands and coats them with something like wet clay. You smell it, and are surprised by the sweet-sourness. As your fingers examine each inch of it, you are amazed by the form but disappointed by it's details.
That's what reading this book is like.
I can see you are sceptical. Even a bit annoyed. What on earth does this picture have to do with this book, which, at the moment, you are considering to buy and sink your teeth into. Let me explain. This book is like examining an object with a blindfold; you don't know what happen's next. At some places the words seem to caress you like touches, and is smooth and soft. In others you find it hard to continue, and the object is rough
Every time you turn a new facet meets you, and it changes in you hands. You find that some of your mind is always left in the book; some comes off in your hands. It has an aura of sweet romance, and the sour taste of persecution. It is fine in form , structure and ideas, but the infinite little details and descriptions let you down. It is a maze of contradictions. It is something you want to read at the same time as wishing you had not.
It is a book that I loved for these very features, and I'm sure you will too! :-)
Rating:
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