NateT
1/16/2017
The four books don't stand alone, so I will review the series as a whole. I will say that each book ends at a logical break in the story and the next book picks up the story smoothly. I found this better than reading the whole story as a ~1300 page omnibus. All this is to be expected, after all, for Anne McCaffrey is an undisputed Grand Mistress Of Science Fiction.
The storyline is excellent space opera, with main characters that behave honorably, but not absurdly so - and end up saving humanity (and an alien race genetically compatible with humanity!). The worldbuilding progresses throughout the story - enemies become allies, new enemies are revealed, and the scope of the story expands from one planet to intergalactic.
While the scope expands, the complexity of the plot remains pretty constant. The Catteni Sequence is not intended to be anything more than a fun romp through a new world - and it is fun. The character development, the romance, the discovery of new technologies and the struggle for survival are all done well and paced to keep the reader constantly interested.
As I said: excellent space opera.The excellence is in the execution.