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Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Anne McCaffrey has become quite a good writer. If you look at the awkward writing in one of her early books, like "Dragonflight," and compare it with the superior writing in, say, "All the Weyrs," you can see the development. Ms. McCaffrey has always brought new ideas to her readers. But much of the pleasure for old fans has been seeing the level of writing improve.Until now. The "Freedom" series has been interesting, but the ideas in it were not particularly new. It's plowed ground. Even the late L. Ron Hubbard has written a "defeat the evil alien invaders" book, although he didn't have the heroine sleeping with the enemy. Ms. McCaffrey brought her own style to the first three books, with some new twists and a sparer, more polished style than we had seen in earlier books. But in "Freedom's Ransom," the fourth book in the series, she seems to have run out of steam and skipped one or two rewrites. Not the least of her problems is that the series really concluded emotionally in the third book; this novel feels like an afterthought... As other reviewers have noted, there is some sloppy research, and as an economics lesson, it's not going to cause Alan Greenspan any sleepless nights. And speaking of sleepless nights, there might be a few too many references to coffee in the course of the book. Rumor has it her next book returns us to Pern. I'll look forward to it, and count this as an aberration.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read the first three books in the Freedom series and while they weren't on par with the Pern or Ship series, they were solid enough to keep me moving on to the next book...up until I came to Freedom's Ransom. It was dragging along so slow that I decided to check here and see whether it picked towards the end. Unfortunately, it appears most of the reviewers agree with me -- this is not a very good book. I've been reading all of Anne McCafferey's books for a good 15 years now, and I suppose that everyone has to eventually produce a dud. If I were to sum up the plot of the book after 204 of 287 pages, I would only need 2 words: Coffee and teeth. That's it. After everything that's happened so far in this series, that's an awful long plunge back into reality. Sure, there's going to be rebuilding, but this doesn't offer anything in the way of intrigue, excitement, interesting characters...nuthin. Thankfully I got this series at the library instead of spending money on it, but if there is a 5th book in the series I may be hard pressed to check that one out unless I hear glowing reviews first based on number four falling flat.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I'm only half-way through this book, and I'm only continuing because I hate to quit a book once I've started it. I would never have thought I would write a luke-warm review for an Anne McCaffrey book; she's my favorite fantasy author. But this book is so mediocore. I was really happy to see her continue this series, as I enjoyed the original three books. But what happened? I agree with one reviewer that it doesn't even seem like McCaffrey's writing. Since I haven't reached the end of the book, I don't know how it ends. But I hope it ENDS. I don't want to finish this and be left holding on for more.
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