Freedom's Ransom is the fourth novel in Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series, also known as the Catteni Sequence. The sequel to Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, and Freedom's Challenge, Freedom's Ransom will please some fans of this star-spanning science fiction series, but others will find the book slow-paced, talky, and lacking in action. Freedom's Ransom ends conclusively, with no major unresolved plot lines, yet leaves space for at least one sequel.

The planet Botany was settled by a mixed group of humans and aliens, slaves of the alien Catteni and their alien masters, the Eosi. But one Catteni was dropped on Botany with the slaves: Zainal, who helped them win their independence. Now Botany must establish trade with other planets in order to survive. But the other worlds have been ravaged by the Catteni, and once-proud Earth has been reduced to primitive poverty, its technology stolen by corrupt Barevi merchants. To save Botany, Zainal and Kris Bjornsen, his human lover, must find a way to help all the worlds.

While the preface of Freedom's Ransom crisply summarizes the preceding books, this series has so many characters, races, and planets that newcomers should start with the first book, Freedom's Landing. Sophisticated SF readers aren't likely to enjoy the series, but it should hook young adults; if you're looking to broaden a child's reading beyond Harry Potter, try Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series and Dragonriders of Pern series. --Cynthia Ward


From Publishers Weekly
Coffee, not oil, becomes black gold in this eagerly awaited fourth volume in McCaffrey's intriguing Catteni/Freedom series (Freedom's Landing, etc.), which focuses on the business side of revolution. On Earth and the planets Barevi and Botany in the not-so-distant future, the traditional gold standard has fallen and coffee, fresh bread and meat become more valuable than diamonds when trading for the technological parts stolen by greedy Catteni mercenaries for the evil Eosi. These vital aerospace supplies will aid Terrans and Botany colonists seeking independence from the Eosi, whose barbaric routine of loot, pillage and destroy includes removing entire urban populations and selling them to other Catteni worlds as slaves. "I dropped. I stay," is the rallying cry of Zainal, a rebel Catteni who's taken from a prison on Barevi, a trading center for the Catteni Empire, and "dropped" with other slaves of assorted species on Botany, owned by the mysterious Farmers. Zainal becomes a reluctant leader of the other slaves and becomes mate to Terran Kris Bjornsen. Zainal and his team ultimately undertake two missions one to Earth, to acquire coffee beans and dental equipment for Dr. Eric Sachs, Botany colonist and former Manhattanite, and one to Barevi, to barter the beans and dentistry, turning this installment into an entertaining lesson on supply and demand. The visit to a bleak Manhattan after the Eosian looting is as disturbing, touching and humorous as the trading in the Barevian market. awards, McCaffrey was the recipient of the American Library Association's 1999 Margaret A. Edwards Life Achievement Award.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Newly liberated from their Catteni masters, the residents of the planet Botany now struggle to make their former prison a thriving home and to establish trade and contact with other planets holding survivors of the Catteni conquest. When the planet Barevi, a Catteni stronghold, refuses to release supplies looted from Earth, Kris Bjornsen and her Catteni lover, the rebel Zainal, make plans to travel to Barevi to "ransom" their rightful property. McCaffrey's latest entry in her "Freedom" series (Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge) relates the struggle to deal with the aftermath of war and the maintenance of peace. The author's ability to tell a rousing, good story remains undiminished. Expect a demand from series and McCaffrey fans.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
McCaffrey is masterly at creating universes and characters somemorable that readers can slip comfortably back into a world theyhaven't visited in four years and greet the inhabitants like oldfriends. In Freedom's Challenge (1998), the colonists on theplanet Botany, who were initially dropped there as slaves, freedthemselves from the Eosi-dominated Cattani overlords. Now it is timeto reestablish contact with Earth and "ransom" Earth's stolentechnological materials, which are in warehouses on the Cattani planetBarevi. Zainal and Kris head an expedition to a decimated anddevastated but slowly recovering Earth to trade for items to use inbartering with shifty Barevi merchants. Those items saliently includeroasted coffee beans and dentistry equipment, for the Cattanis havedeveloped a passion for the tasty bean-brew and for replacing lostteeth with gold ones. Zainal, a renegade Cattani, is determined to notonly equip Botany with technology but also help restore Earth, inhopes of eventually making humans and Cattanis allies rather thanfoes. Full of humorous events as well as excitement, the fourth entryin McCaffrey's Freedom series will be relished by fans, who will alsobe pleased to note that the series remains open to anotherinstallment. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
The surviving colonists of the planet Botany have conquered the alien invaders who enslaved them. But their ravaged world needs technology. Planet Earth needs food. And now the survivors need to decide what kind of world they will become.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Finally, Botany is free. The colonists of Freedom's Landing, who were dropped on this world as terrified slaves of the alien Catteni, have become an independent people. They raise their own food, make their own clothes, dispense justice when necessary, and care for an ever-increasing number of children. They've even found themselves in a position to help the survivors of Earth and Barevi, worlds battered by Catteni raids until natural resources are in desperately short supply. To a hungry man on Earth, a roasted Botany "rock-squat" makes a fine meal, no matter how funny-looking he might once have found that little bird." "But Botany can't provide everything. Solar cells, communications equipment, spare tires, even the simplest battery - all of this technology is required if this is to become a fully functioning world, and none of it is easy to make. Kris Bjornson and her beloved Zainal know that the warehouses of Barevi are full of the things they need, all looted from Earth during the war. But the Barevi merchants won't just give it back; some kind of interstellar trade must be developed." The oddest commodities turn out to be the ones that work. For some reason the fierce Catteni become easily addicted to a good cup of coffee, and are prepared to do a great deal to get it. And, the colonists discover, the Catteni have their own kinds of vanity - which like all vanities can be catered to at a high price. Quick thinking and the willingness to do whatever it takes are the colonists' tactics, as they work to position their little world as an equal partner among the interstellar powers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Coffee, not oil, becomes black gold in this eagerly awaited fourth volume in McCaffrey's intriguing Catteni/Freedom series (Freedom's Landing, etc.), which focuses on the business side of revolution. On Earth and the planets Barevi and Botany in the not-so-distant future, the traditional gold standard has fallen and coffee, fresh bread and meat become more valuable than diamonds when trading for the technological parts stolen by greedy Catteni mercenaries for the evil Eosi. These vital aerospace supplies will aid Terrans and Botany colonists seeking independence from the Eosi, whose barbaric routine of loot, pillage and destroy includes removing entire urban populations and selling them to other Catteni worlds as slaves. "I dropped. I stay," is the rallying cry of Zainal, a rebel Catteni who's taken from a prison on Barevi, a trading center for the Catteni Empire, and "dropped" with other slaves of assorted species on Botany, owned by the mysterious Farmers. Zainal becomes a reluctant leader of the other slaves and becomes mate to Terran Kris Bjornsen. Zainal and his team ultimately undertake two missions one to Earth, to acquire coffee beans and dental equipment for Dr. Eric Sachs, Botany colonist and former Manhattanite, and one to Barevi, to barter the beans and dentistry, turning this installment into an entertaining lesson on supply and demand. The visit to a bleak Manhattan after the Eosian looting is as disturbing, touching and humorous as the trading in the Barevian market. (June 10) FYI: The first woman ever to win both the Hugo and the Nebula awards, McCaffrey was the recipient of the American Library Association's 1999 Margaret A. Edwards Life Achievement Award. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

This follows Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, and Freedom's Challenge, in which humans are taken as slaves to an uninhabited planet they call Botany. They survive and with the help of a similarly stranded alien, they overthrow their overlords. Now they face the challenge of ransoming captured Earth technology from alien looters so they may begin to rebuild as well as help those left on Earth. They scheme to trade gold dental crowns and coffee (wouldn't you know the aliens like to punch out each others' teeth and are easily addicted to caffeine!) in exchange for tires, batteries, and satellite parts. They are not only successful in their trading but also learn the location of the planets where other humans were dumped and stumble across some of the overlords' hidden treasure in a space junk pile, to boot. When the characters talk of Hewlett Packard computer printers and are looking for a crewmember who can "develop film," it's rather surprising. Were they taken into slavery before the digital age? This is a slow starter if you have not read the other episodes, but it will be popular with series fans. KLIATT Codes: JSA￯﾿ﾽRecommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Berkley, Ace, 287p., Hoy

Library Journal

This agonizingly slow story continues the series that began with Freedom's Landing, then on to Freedom's Choice and Freedom's Challenge. The humans and other species who live on the planet Botany are all former slaves of the Catteni, a race that controlled many worlds, including the now-ravaged Earth. Here the Botanists seek to kick-start their economy by ransoming back materials looted by the Catteni. The tale lifelessly chronicles how heroine Kris Bjornsen, the renegade Catteni Zainal, and a plethora of lesser characters plan and execute the trading mission while exploiting the Catteni's taste for coffee and cosmetic gold tooth caps (this last involves a deadly dull dentistry subplot). Dick Hill's consistent voice characterizations cannot overcome the weak plot and complete lack of action. Independent of the series, Ransom is too weak to stand alone; even if the prior tapes did well at your library, consider carefully. For fans only.-Douglas C. Lord, formerly with Connecticut State Lib., Hartford Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews