The Catteni Sequence by Anne McCaffrey
Genre: sci-fi
Books in the series: Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge, Freedom's Ransom
Synopsis: When the Catteni ships descended on earth, it was one of the most terrifying experiences humankind had ever known. Kris Bjornsen, along with thousands of others, found herself herded by forcewhips into the hold of giant spaceships to be transported to the slave compounds of an alien planet. And even then it wasn't over. For, after a partially successful escape attempt, Kris was once more shipped across space - to an apparently empty and untamed planet. The Catteni just dumped an assorted load of humans and aliens on the strange world and left them to see what would happen.
Audiobooks: Apparenty available.
Review:
This is one of my favourite McCaffrey series. It combines my love of science fiction with my love of survival stories (having to forage for food, find shelter, build a life - and civilisation - from nothing, etc). It's not completely from nothing, though, because as the characters find out, another species ("the Farmers") have been using the planet to grow food, and the colonists appeal to them for help. As the series continues, the enforced colony - named Botany after Australia's Botany Bay - starts to fight back against the Catteni, and their overlords the Eosi.
Kris is a strong female lead character, skilled and strong-willed. Perhaps the other two most key characters are Chuck Mitford, an ex-Sergeant Major who is put in charge of the enforced colony, and Zainal, an elite Catteni who was dropped on the planet in revenge for killing another Catteni, and who formes a gradual friendship and later romance with Kris.
The first three books feel almost like a complete trilogy; I have to wonder if McCaffrey had originally intended to just write the three, then later added on another book. That isn't to say that book 4 isn't good, because it is; it's just set after the biggest plot threads are tied up.
There are a couple of minor points to criticise. The moment when the colonists decide to have children to increase their population feels a little uncomfortable to me: there's never actually any rape so don't worry about that, but it feels a little too much like having kids is considered to be a requirement rather than just encouraged. Thankfully that doesn't continue for long. There's also the fact that the colonists dropped seem to be exactly the people needed (military, engineers, botanists, potters, chefs, doctors, people with survival training, etc) although at least there is an attempt at an explanation since it's mainly the people actively resisting the Catteni who are deported.
On the whole though, it's an excellent series, and in my personal opinion one of McCaffrey's best.
Books in the series: Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge, Freedom's Ransom
Synopsis: When the Catteni ships descended on earth, it was one of the most terrifying experiences humankind had ever known. Kris Bjornsen, along with thousands of others, found herself herded by forcewhips into the hold of giant spaceships to be transported to the slave compounds of an alien planet. And even then it wasn't over. For, after a partially successful escape attempt, Kris was once more shipped across space - to an apparently empty and untamed planet. The Catteni just dumped an assorted load of humans and aliens on the strange world and left them to see what would happen.
Audiobooks: Apparenty available.
Review:
This is one of my favourite McCaffrey series. It combines my love of science fiction with my love of survival stories (having to forage for food, find shelter, build a life - and civilisation - from nothing, etc). It's not completely from nothing, though, because as the characters find out, another species ("the Farmers") have been using the planet to grow food, and the colonists appeal to them for help. As the series continues, the enforced colony - named Botany after Australia's Botany Bay - starts to fight back against the Catteni, and their overlords the Eosi.
Kris is a strong female lead character, skilled and strong-willed. Perhaps the other two most key characters are Chuck Mitford, an ex-Sergeant Major who is put in charge of the enforced colony, and Zainal, an elite Catteni who was dropped on the planet in revenge for killing another Catteni, and who formes a gradual friendship and later romance with Kris.
The first three books feel almost like a complete trilogy; I have to wonder if McCaffrey had originally intended to just write the three, then later added on another book. That isn't to say that book 4 isn't good, because it is; it's just set after the biggest plot threads are tied up.
There are a couple of minor points to criticise. The moment when the colonists decide to have children to increase their population feels a little uncomfortable to me: there's never actually any rape so don't worry about that, but it feels a little too much like having kids is considered to be a requirement rather than just encouraged. Thankfully that doesn't continue for long. There's also the fact that the colonists dropped seem to be exactly the people needed (military, engineers, botanists, potters, chefs, doctors, people with survival training, etc) although at least there is an attempt at an explanation since it's mainly the people actively resisting the Catteni who are deported.
On the whole though, it's an excellent series, and in my personal opinion one of McCaffrey's best.