Freedom's Challenge by Anne McCaffrey

The alien Catteni invaded Earth and enslaved thousands of humans on the planet Botany, where they struggle to survive while colonizing the world for their overseers. Now that they've proved Botany is capable of sustaining life, Kris Bjornsen and her fellow settlers have no intention of surrendering the home they've created for themselves... Armed with the knowledge that the true enemy behind the Catteni is the Eosi race, Kris has begun a campaign to free Botany's settlers by raising a rebellion among her people against their parasitic oppressors. Aided by her Catteni lover, Zainal, Kris and the colonists manage to steal warships-and discover dissidents on other Eosi-controlled worlds. If all of the subjugated races join forces, they will have an army large enough to win their freedom and their worlds. The war of liberation has begun. Editorial Reviews A good read, full of interesting characters and space-opera action.-Locus Another rousing episode...McCaffrey continues to amaze.-Booklist A saga of desperate courage and the desire for freedom.-Library Journal - From the Publisher In Freedom's Landing (1995), a group of plucky slaves, both human and alien, were abandoned by their Catteni masters on the planet Botany. With the help of the Catteni rebel Zainal, the colonists survived their early days, and now they're making plans to get even with the Catteni as well as to learn the truth about the mysterious Farmers, or Mech Makers, who seem to be cultivating Botany by means of robots. Told mostly from the point of view of Zainal's human lover, Kris Bjornsen, the plot focuses on the colonists' struggle to survive independent of their Catteni overlords. Though a few settlers want to return to Earth to fight the Catteni, most of the women seem bent on having children and making a real go of the colony. While this wholesale enthusiasm to procreate stretches credulity, McCaffrey's characters are otherwise her usual well-tempered mix of heroes, rogues and out-and-out villains. The setting is crisp and expertly detailed and the plot spins out smoothly, with more than enough hints of future developments to keep readers eager for the next installment in the series. (June) - Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly 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. - Library Journal YA-McCaffrey begins a new chronicle of human resilience and survival. Earth has been invaded by the Catteni, a race of soldiers who have come to quell opposition and to relocate troublesome cases (both human and alien) to inhospitable worlds. Kristen Bjornsen, a human, and a ragtag group must learn to communicate and begin to build a new life. Further, they must discover what is behind a completely different civilization that is using their planet (nicknamed Botany) as a farm for animal and vegetable produce. Underlying this cooperation is the resentment that some of the colonists feel for Zanial, a member of the race of slavers, and the romantic feelings that Zanial and Kristen begin to feel for one another. With two possible antagonistic alien cultures and their own internal problems, there can only be more interesting scenarios for the settlers of Botany. The characters are especially well developed: teens will be able to identify with their spirit, creativeness, and tenacity to survive despite all odds. A delightful novel for more than just McCaffrey's ``old'' fans.-Brian Martin, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA - School Library Journal With this book, McCaffrey opens an exciting and totally convincing new universe far removed from the worlds of the dragonriders, the Rowan, the crystal singer, and the ship-brawn partnerships with which her readers are happily familiar. The Catteni, an alien race of slavers, are settling a habitable but dangerous planet with recalcitrant slaves from a variety of races, including the human; all must learn to cooperate with one another to survive. Among the conscripted colonists is an exiled Catteni noble, Zainal, who is resented by some other colonists because he is a member of the overlord race, and Kristin Bjornsen, a spirited young human who finds herself not only working closely with Zainal but drawn to him romantically. What with the mechos that already farm the planet's land, the advanced society that must have created them, the Catteni themselves, and the formidable race that apparently controls the Catteni as just some of the challenges facing the colonists, there can only be more action in the sequels McCaffrey presumably plans. - Sally Estes Sequel to Freedom's Landing (1995), chunk two of McCaffrey's latest interstellar saga. Following the invasion of Earth by humanoid alien Catteni, a group of human survivors and rebels-including Earth girl Kris Bjornsen and her aristocratic, renegade Catteni lover, Zainal-has been dumped on planet Botany, a farm world run by machines. The parasitic Eosi rule the Catteni as overlords by commandeering suitable Catteni bodies, though so far Zainal has avoided his own nemesis, the Ix Mentat. Kris, Zainal, and the colony's military bigwigs capture several Catteni spacecraft before Botany's absentee landlords, the Farmers, show up. Highly advanced, telepathic shapeshifters, the Farmers deplore interspecies conflict but decline to intervene; they do, however, screen Botany from Catteni spacecraft. Zainal leads a raid on planet Barevi to pick up goods looted from Earth, and learns that the Ix Mentat, infuriated by the Farmers' effortless superiority in denying the Catteni access to Botany, has used brain-burning mind probes on captured humans in the vain hope of discovering useful new technologies. McCaffrey helpfully recaps the previous book's events; overall, series fans will be delighted, although they'll know how this one ends: It doesn't. - Kirkus Reviews