Dinosaur Planet

Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey

Del-Ray 1978

(ISBN13: 9780345319951)

Available in mass paperback, omnibus edition, and for the Kindle

I wanted to do some good, old-school science fiction, and one can hardly do better than some Anne McCaffrey.  Of course everyone knows about her world of Pern, but have you been to Ireta?

A scientific team of explorers go to a new planet to explore and look for ore deposits that make life for this future race of beings possible.  They explore planets all over the galaxy looking for metals that these people use to survive.  Only this planet, at first, doesn't seem to have anything they are looking for.  A biologist on the team, Varian, is in awe of the many varied species of life being discovered on this stinky planet (they had to use fancy nose plugs to block the stench for quite some time), but the most intelligent life on the planet she had discovered was were golden furred flying creatures she labeled "giffs".

All is going well for the diverse crew on Ireta, or so it seems.  In this universe, there are beings classified as ship-bred, light worlders, or heavy worlders.  The build of each is unique.  The gifts of each are unique.  But, the heavy worlders are by far the most removed group of the three.  Kai, the leader of the expedition, and Varian notice the heavy worlders are starting to act strangly.  Is it due to the effects of some rather new "distilled beverages" or could it just be their innate differences?

Things start to disappear and native wildlife is being killed or maimed.  What is truely going on?  What secrets is this planet hiding?  Nothing seems to add up and things are becoming deadlier by the day.  When the ships scientist reveals a truly remarkable and disturbing discovery about the wildlife on Ireta, the leaders will have to do some quick thinking.

As always with Anne McCaffrey's work, the writing is superb. There are a multitude of characters in this cast and it can become confusing at times if you aren't paying attention.  Some of the minor characters are quite forgettable, and I'm sure I have forgotten who they are even as I write this, but even the main characters still hold a bit of mystery for me.  Usually, by the time I finish a McCaffrey book, I have my favorites and characters I despise.  This isn't quite the case in this book.  We haven't learned as much about these characters as we usually do; you can tel this book was never made to be just a stand alone novel.  There are too many things left unanswered about our protagonists as well as our antagonists.

The plot took some time to build, and didn't really get going until the end.  The way it does end did leave me reaching for the sequel, it was quite the cliff hanger, and I'm not one to abandon a story by such a phenomenal storyteller just when things are getting good.  I know she has something astonishing waiting for me in Dinosaur Planet Survivors!!