| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: High Violence level: Low Back Cover: “It was a world of ice and snow - a planet that just supported life and that had been terraformed from frozen uninhabitable rock. The people of Petaybee were hardy, self-reliant, friendly - and also very secretive. Major Yana Maddock, medically discharged from the service, was shipped to Petaybee in the hope that her burnt-out lungs might just recover in the icy air. And at the last moment, she was given a special commission. Unauthorized life-forms had been seen on the planet and, more seriously, geologic survey teams had vanished into nowhere, the odd survivor being discovered abandoned and insane. It was Yana's task to infiltrate Petaybee society and find out who - or what - was causing the eerie events on the planet. She discovered a primitive ice-bound community of extraordinary people - people who possessed some mysterious quality of surviving - and people who Yana discovered she both liked and revered as she found herself becoming one of them.” |
I suspect the answer is in the attitude of the Petaybeans. They've got a very Alaskan thing going with their make-do, can-do, get on with it approach to life. Their recent ancestors were forcibly relocated to this planet because they were inconvenient on Earth, and came from similarly chilly climates (in this case Alaska and Ireland), and they're aware that no one in the higher levels of government really cares much about them, but they're mostly pretty cheerful about it all. They don't get bitter; they just get to it and live their lives, and only wish the people who put them there would leave them alone to do so. Also, when I got to the part where someone tells Yana that if she walks a bit duckfooted, she's less likely to slip on the ice, I realized that I actually do that.
So, aside from my feelings of homesickness, which most of you might not get, I'd say the story is driven by the mystery of Petaybee, which leads to Yana's assignment. The company knows there are deposits of useful minerals on the planet, but they can't find them, and the teams they send out keep having problems, or disappearing. And there are reports of animals that shouldn't be there, such as unicorns and fresh-water seals. The whole thing has one simple explanation (well, maybe two explanations), which I of course am not going to give you here, because that would spoil it. But it's a pretty darn cool explanation, let me tell you. Of course, it can't all be mystery, so the story also spends a good bit of time with Yana just learning how to live in a much less technological society than she has been used to. And when the mystery is finally solved, and Yana has to decide where to put her loyalties, things get pretty exciting all around. Not violent, as such; just exciting
Anne McCaffrey once again shows that she's attracted to tall, dark, and handsome, charismatic men. You normally find at least one of them in each of her novels, and in this case things get rather steamy. You may want to use your fast forward button once or twice (otherwise known as skipping a few paragraphs or pages). If it weren't for that, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. As it is, I'd say that if you're going to read it, enjoy it with some caution.