The Survivors

Dinosaur Planet #2

by Anne McCaffrey

The stunning sequel to the classic DINOSAUR PLANET.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dinosaurs, Adventure, Space

281 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969). Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not the late Ms. McCaffrey's best. I'm glad this is the last of the series; now, I can move on to her later--and, hopefully, better--works.

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, the title says it all, doesn't it? What did you expect? Some kind of dramatic escape from a dinosaur world? Sorry to disappoint. There are virtually no dinos at all, and there is virtually no action in this book, either.

I made it halfway, then skimmed. The majority of the book is so BORING as to be depressing to crack open. Virtually nothing happens of any importance, and any drama that actually exists is either completely glossed over, or written so poorly that you get no satisfaction out of it whatsoever.

The author doesn't seem to know what is important in the story. She doesn't write what you want to read. She skips right over those important parts, such as Lunzie meeting Sassinak for the first time. Other parts, the mundane details of gathering food or the internal monologue wondering how this or that group is going to react for the dozenth time, she always includes. What is the deal here? The writing style is just not very high level or skilled. I don't get it. It's like she was just allowed to churn out whatever she wanted due to her name, and she just got too caught up in her own world and in her own creations.

It's pretty sad when you're trying to force yourself to trudge through a book simply so you can add it to your Goodreads list. I should probably have quit much earlier on. But everybody has a point they are comfortable with adding it as "read", and for me that is the halfway point, so about all I can say good about this book is that it adds another one to my yearly total.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

For our band of heroes, this book starts immediately after the end of the last, with them waking up in their Iretan cave, with a Thek asking them seemingly irrelevant questions. But for everyone else, 43 years have passed - the mutineers are nearly all dead and buried, their ancestors have taken over, and the mysteries of Ireta are suddenly dragged into the open as pirates, rescue and the Thek all arrive at once!

I kind of liked this - there seems to be a lot of milling about, enjoying the delights of the planet, while people more powerful bicker over the lawful state of the planet. The most exciting bit - Kai being attacked by a Fringe - happens off screen and we only get to see the aftermath, which then has him bumbling around for the rest of the book. I did like the neat explanation that tied it all up - why Dinosaurs? Why Thek old tech? Why mutiny? But it also felt a little too neat.

I also missed the Dinosaurs in the this one, although the Pterandon's were pretty cool. It makes you wonder what McCaffrey would have made of them if she'd continue to write books in this series.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 1 out of 5]

First half of book is a continuation of Dinosaur Planet, which had many unresolved story lines. In this sequel, the crew members awaken after 43 years, acclimate to their surroundings slowly over many days, encounter the giffs (later identified as pteranodons), and discover the mutineer colony. No action takes place - only descriptions of the planet flora and fauna. The meeting with the descendants of the mutineers takes only one short paragraph. The book takes a bizarre turn in the second half. Three rescue ships arrive; first one, then another, then another. There are tangents and story lines having nothing to do with the plot, and long passages where nothing happens, and a strange dinner party. There are many characters and concepts which come and go without any logic or purpose; in addition to the 19 original characters, I counted 25 new characters and 36 concepts or things, some of which are never defined or explained. I feel the author insults the readers with her writing style; sample "The Thek are a long-lived race who keep their own counsel, vouchsafing to us poor ephemerals only such information as they consider us worthy to receive." Any idea what she is talking about. ONE OF THE WORST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ.

[James Shrimpton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, not much story for the length. It's better than the first, but feels like both should have been combined into one tighter 200 page narrative. The story is basically over a hundred pages before the end...

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a par to the rest of the Anne maccaffrey's books. Dragons are better than dinosaurs

[Lee Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sequel considerably more than the first book. The first novel really was just a giant set-up for this story. I’m still sad that the conflict is not dinosaur based, but I found the road the narrative developed to be engaging and fun. Planet piracy is a fun idea!

[Mýk Podgor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good but has fewer dinosaurs than the first. Also, it suffers the same flaws as the first with most of the book's major plotlines being introduced and resolved in the final quarter of the book, or so it seemed. It's a good read despite this.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1985 grade B-
2018 grade B+

Series book DP2

The second book in this series of two, it is actually better than the first book. The first half(+) of the book is the best as it picks up right were the last one ended (sort of). It tapers off in the later portions and picks up again at the very end. The conclusion is very good, does tie up all the loose ends, but is kind of abrupt and anticlimactic. A very good read.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, I was actually enjoying it there for a while and then we got to the climax which was what I had figured out half way through the first book. That's sad. I guess she was still learning to write then. On the other hand, you've got to give her credit for developing some interesting non humanoid intelligent species.

[Sam (Hissing Potatoes) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is mostly the same as for the first book since the same issues apply.

This book was completely unnecessary. The events were already covered, I suspect sometimes word for word, in the Planet Pirates series. There was almost no action in this book, no trajectory, no spice or flavor, no character growth whatsoever. Boring, flat, clinical, disappointing.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne McCaffrey is one of my all time favorite authors. I have yet to read anything she has written that I have not liked. Her series on the Dragons of Pern are historic, and time lasting. This book follows in kind. Excellent book. Highly recommended to all.

[Truitti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this about 20 years ago and reread it in May 2012. One of my favorite authors. Read it a second time in a collection called The Mystery of Ireta. It amazes me how Anne was able to come up with so many worlds and so many different cultures and plots.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinosaur Planet Survivors (Dinosaur Planet, #2)
McCaffrey, Anne
They have slept through a millinia of time, to awaken to a new society to a new world that has changed dramatically from the world they left. How can they find their place after all the time that has passed.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite hard to read at times, but I enjoyed the previous book, so stuck it out. Like the storyline, would be great to see what happens next to all the characters too.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was a surprise find for me. The more I read them, the more I appreciate McCaffrey's colonization novels. Some of the characters in this book also appear in the Planet Pirates.

[Soho_Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a patient man, which is difficult when I become involved in a particular novel series, as most novelists will only release one book a year, meaning that I often have to wait that long for my next reading fix. Having reached the end of Anne McCaffrey’s “Dinosaur Planet” with an obvious continuation to come, I would have been pulling my hair out if I had known that the wait for the next part of the story would be 6 years away.

When it eventually came, “Dinosaur Planet II: Survivors” picked up exactly where you would expect from the pausing of the original novel. With the remaining crew having sent a distress signal and put themselves into artificial sleep following the mutiny of the rest of their crew, this novel opens with the response to that signal being received. However, it soon transpires that the responding Thek have their own proprieties and after coming out of sleep after 43 years, the crew find that no rescue is forthcoming.

Much has changed on the planet of Ireta in those years, with the mutineers having produced offspring and learned a lot about the animals and flora that call Ireta home and how they could use it all to survive. Without access to the technology they had before, they have adapted and found ways to survive on the harsh environment. When the crew happen across the descendants of the mutineers, they are greeted with hostility, as the stories of how the mutiny came about isn’t the same from both sides.

However, the crew discover to their surprised that the golden fliers they had found before going into suspended animation have become quite protective of them, possibly due to their shuttle resembling an egg. This even extends to them attacking the people who do eventually come to the crew’s rescue, resulting in several competing claims for ownership of the planet and the valuable minerals it contains and the eventual unravelling of mysteries discovered some 43 years earlier.

Compared to the original novel, this second one seemed awfully busy, as whereas there was only a single party which split in two, there were eventually five distinct groups here, not counting the planet and its natural inhabitants. This not only meant that the book felt awfully crowded with people and it became a humanoid novel, with nearly all the dinosaurs apart from the golden fliers put firmly into the background and even the planet stopped being an active character until very close to the end.

As with the first novel, many of the characters were drawn only in the broadest of brush strokes and some from the main crew hardly merited a mention even after they were awakened. Several groups of characters were essentially represented throughout by a single person, such that when a second or third was mentioned, it was tough to know which group they belonged to and the supposed rescue ship seemed to have huge numbers of crew and equipment to spare, many of which appeared for a single chapter and were never heard from again.

Also with the first novel, the pacing was incredibly uneven, with events moving slowly to start with, then accelerating throughout and rushing headlong towards the end of the novel. As with the first, it didn’t seem to end, but pause and discovering that there isn’t another novel in the series to fill in some of the hanging plot points creates a huge mental confusion between not feeling that the series is over, but knowing there isn’t any more of it.

With both the books in this series, I have enjoyed what is there, but I have reached the end more concerned with what isn’t. There is a decent story here, but it’s not been well drawn, with poor characters and a lack of time to express and explore all the ideas and politics going on, not to go back over the history that clearly exists before the start of the first book and the events that must come at the end of this one and this feels like the most unfinished book I have ever read.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second, and last, book of the Dinosaur Planet books, was so much better than the first - as much as I enjoyed that. After fourty-three years of deep sleep, the mutiny survivors are woken up, not knowing how long they had slept, by Tor, the Thek friend of Kai and his family.

The survivors realise that Tor only wanted some details from Kai, before disappearing again, so they set out to get back all the details of Ireta that they had found previous to the heavy-worlder's mutiny, so that, when the EV Arch-10 does come back for them, then they'll have something to show for it.

Varian comes across the grandson of some of the heavy-worlders, Aygar who, although not ad big as the original mutineers, had much of their arrogance, and who tries to insist that Ireta belongs to his people - though Varian discovers that none of Aygar's generation have been told about her people, so she quickly pretends to be from a rescue mission, so that they can stay safe.

While all this is happening, there is a sudden influx of Thek - more of them than anyone had ever seen together at one time - and then, more quickly than they could imagine, they have both a transporter, and a fleet ship chasing it, landing in their laps!

How the Thek, and the Fleet, and the dinosaur planet survivors, sort it all out, is a great ending to this book!

So now I'm going on to the Planet Pirate series, with 'Sassinak' being the first of the books.

I'm not sure whether I should have read this series first, or not, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it as much as the Dinosaur books!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty uneventful considering it took me over a month to get through it. That's not to say it was bad at all, but it barely had any conflict to it. The 40 year time gap between this and the first book almost made it feel like most of the events from then were forgotten, and the stakes were pretty high at the end of the last book. The mutineers who took over are all dead or decrepit and only one of their descendants is competent or important to the story.
So we kind of forget about the conflict, but the mystery of the last book is expanded. Through a lot of people talking about it. Over and over. I liked the dialogue, it was written well, but it wasn't particularly interesting. I liked that a lot of the people were obsessed with Old Terran dinosaurs being alive on this random planet, and I also really like the reveal at the end from the Thecks, it just never really picks up steam to get there.
The best part of this book, and it's not gone into nearly enough, is Lunzie and her great-great-great-great granddaughter, Commander Sassinak, interacting as equals due to more cryosleep timey wimey nonsense. This was pretty fun but I can for surely tell its not Mrs. McCaffreys "A" material.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing sequel. While there was a lot of promise and potential for more adventure with the descendants of the mutineers, this was sadly not developed to any extent. Instead the author went for more interaction with the flying pteranodons that did not go anywhere, and the arrival of a federation ship that took control over everything and everyone. The mystery of the history of a planet stocked with Earth's dinosaurs was finally resolved in the last couple of chapters, though by the time I got there I just couldn't wait to finish the book! In short, the plot was weak, and it lacked the novelty and excitement of exploration of the first book.

Stories like these probably would work a lot better as a comic or graphic novel, as the techno-jargon gets a bit too much and cause the reader's attention to drift.

[Scot Eaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not great, but it is so much better than the 1st novel. My theory is that the Dinosaur Planet books were meant to be a trilogy, of three 200-page books. After the disappointing response to the first novel, the 2nd and 3rd books were compressed into a single 300-page novel. That's why the plot takes an abrupt change almost exactly halfway through the book. As a cliffhanger between a 2nd and 3rd novel, it would have been perfect. As the middle of the 2nd and final novel, it feels strange.

Despite the books being pretty badly-written, I am glad I read this series. There are a lot of interesting ideas in the books. I don't know that I'd recommend these to anyone, but my time on Ireta wasn't wasted.

[Lara Dickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but it’s of an age and as a consequence is quite dry. Lots of characters introduced that I couldn’t remember later their back story. But all the questions were answered. 43 years in, most of the mutineers were dead but had achieved so much. The Thek had been before and planted the dinosaurs from earth there with a zookeeper but he’d been hurt. They’d forgotten he and the cores were there ⁉️ the new generations of mutineers were ok. The golden flyers continued to be awesome. And helpful. Oh and the EV ship had got so badly damaged and had to go to be repaired and that had taken the 43 years too so everyone was ok and they could go back to research. Her books definitely got better

[Catherine Braiding · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less of the racial bullshit of the first book, but it’s still there. Our heroine has a massive hardon for the ‘fine specimen of a man’ that is the teenage grandson of one of the mutineers, for he is tall and muscly and great with a spear. I’m pretty sure she used all the stereotypical descriptors for a ‘noble savage’ by the end of the book.

As for the dinosaurs... well, the pteranodons get a bit more screen time in this book, but that’s about it. Many of the humans are thrilled to be on the same world as such beasties, but we get absolutely none of their experiences described, on screen or off. What a tragic waste of an interesting setting.

[Kate Millin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kai, one of the leaders of the exploration group on Ireta, is woken from cryogenic sleep by the Thek Tor who is responding to the distress beacon the group had set up before sleeping. He wakes his coleader Varian and they try to work out how long they have been sleeping, while gradually waking up other members of the group. They make contact with the descendants of the heavy world mutineers that the rest of the exploration group were hiding from. Things then begin to get very complicated.
An interesting read, especially about the intersection between various characters - as usual with Anne McCaffrey.

[Al "Tank" · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story opened up with a Thek waking up one of the survivors. After a few adventures, it started plodding. Then it picked up near the end. I can't be specific 'cause it would spoil the plot if you want to read it.

It's hard to find a "bad" McCaffrey book and this IS NOT one of them.

One of the things that turned me off of this series is the push for vegetarianism by the characters (probably something McCaffrey was going through herself).

And yes, the origin of the dinosaurs is explained in the end.

[Randall Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with most that was definitely not one Miss McCaffrey’s best works. I enjoyed the read for the most part but there definitely parts towards the middle of the book that I, just can’t remember what happened, cause it just became to dull. It seemed to grab my attention more later on but it then ended too abruptly. Just needed a little more development, seems a little rushed. Doesn’t turn me off from reading more of her books though. The Pern series will always be one of my all time favorites.

[john · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers looking for fighting, killing, action, war, murder, etc. need not look at this book. It's about imagination, aliens, space, new planets, discovery, etc. It's about half way in between hard science and fantasy. It rambles and is longer than it should be. Overall not boring and will hold your attention. Not escape literature though.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second half of the series beginning with Dinosaur Planet. Really should be packaged as one book. This one picks up literally where the first one leaves off. All the untidy threads are nicely wrapped up. These two fit in the Generation Warrior series, but serve beautifully as stand alones, as they are from a different frame of reference.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do not try to read this first. It is the second part of a two part story. Read “Dinosaur Planet” first.

This was a fun one. Good pacing and a fine ending. As you might imagine since it is the second part, the action picks up as most of the primary characters were introduced in the first book. Plot lines are tied up and mysteries explained. Good stuff.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book fills in a bunch of annoying gaps I was missing in the Sassinak series. As a result, I didn't enjoy that second Lunzie book much. This book, however, is heavily repetitive of the Lunzie book.

I think Dinosaur Planets and Sassinak series would be better off redone together in a more cohesive manner. They're not terribly good separate, but they're too repetitive together.