I've realized that Ms McCaffrey's books offend me in exactly the same way the Sex and the City movies offend me: that the main characters and their dysfunctional relationships are supposed to be somehow sympathetic, if not outright aspirational. In this book, Robinton himself is less obnoxious than her usual main character (even if I thought the one scene where he compared holding his mom to holding his wife really Freudian and gross,) but Merelan is excessively odious: trying to hide his talents from his horrible father (and there's another terrible relationship the author champions) but getting upset with said father when he doesn't realize the boy's potential. The worst bit was when, offended that Petiron couldn't remember their son's age, she took the kid and ran off to another hold for months. Screw being an adult and actually talking about your problems with your mate. Run away, and all your problems will be solved.

Oh, and don't get me started on the treatment of Hallana. My views on spanking aside, the fact that her father, who'd spoiled her her entire life, decides that he's finally going to raise his hand to her when she's an adolescent, and then have this treatment be effective, beggars belief.

I am so glad I am through with McCaffrey after this book. She's an awful, misogynistic writer whose books are formulaic and, at least in my opinion, dull.