The Ireta Set

Dinosaur Planet #1-2

by Anne McCaffrey, Darrell K. Sweet (Illustrator)

The Ireta Set Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Dinosaurs, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Adult

Paperback

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

[Nicole Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I discovered an Anne McCaffrey book that I had not previously known about, I was elated. I immediately began reading this book, longing for a gripping tale similar to those in the Rowan, Damia, Freedom's Landing, Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and all of the Dragonriders books.

I was disappointed.

I love Anne McCaffrey, and easily laud her as my favorite author. I will continue to do so but will only recommend these book to friends truly invested in science fiction, with less care for character development.

The books are set millions of years in the future, and like all Anne McCaffrey books, the reader is immediately thrust into a world without much explanation. (This style works for me, though I understand it does not appeal to the masses.) I found myself immersed in the different cultures between ship-bred and planet-bred crew, heavy-worlders and lightweights, all the while wondering about these mysterious creatures that kept appearing.

While the plot is driven by the mysterious creatures found on Ireta and their unlikely similarities to creatures of Old Terra, the characters are not as interesting or as deeply explored as I would have liked. Some of the culture of the characters, (such as their abhorrence of killing to eat meat) is clearly remnant of McCaffrey's desire to portray futuristic societies as more cautious about unnecessarily killing animals, perhaps in an attempt to teach her own generation the value of all life.

This did not resonate with me in the slightest -- perhaps because I eat meat (though not in excess) -- so a lot of the dichotomy between the heavyworlders and the light-weights did not particularly hit home. (I was, however, fascinated by the differences between planet-bred and ship-bred crewmembers, and wish that this had been explored more as it was only lightly touched on in the first book, and hardly at all in the second).

This was merely a small blight on the humid, bright, odd tapestry that McCaffrey created in these two books. The two main characters, Kai and Varian, immediately attracted me and interested me. They are fiercely different, but naturally cohesive as a unit of leaders; Varian is the more dominant, exploratory female who yearns to build a friendship between herself the golden fliers she discovers on Ireta. McCaffrey excelled at writing strong female characters (before it was cool to write women this way, might I add), and Varian is no exception.

Kai, the more scientific and cautious male leader, is focused on insuring that his team receives the bonuses they are do for making crucial geological discoveries, and is a perfect foil for Varian.

So when the second book concluded, and nothing had been resolved with Kai or Varian, (or even the oddly fascinating Aygar), I was INCREDIBLY disappointed. The only plot that had been resolved was the main one, and I had to check three times to make sure another book was not hiding somewhere. Nothing felt remotely concluded and I am left very dissatisfied, which is my biggest complaint of these books, and the main reason that I am only giving them 2 stars.

[Mika Maca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the first part of the series, I wish it had been longer and perhaps expanded on in details. The second half.... is Ok. There are parts that are great and then there are areas of the story that I feel like were forgotten or ignored to focus on other things and the end was definitely rushed. I hated that they even bothered to mention that Kai and Varian had any sort of a romance because they focus on it a little and then leave it hanging after Kai is injured and almost just act like it never happened. Lunzie is portrayed much bitchier here than she is in The Death if Sleep. I didn't think she deserved the character change. The children are pretty much cast aside as characters... I could go on. End result is I would rank the first half much higher than the second and it really only got a 4 for nastalgia.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly interesting story set on a planet that has dinosaurs. Much less dinosaur than I would have liked, and much more about space colonization laws than I would have preferred. Also, preaching about vegetarianism was somewhat a surprise. Not sure where that came from.

The story wrapped up way too conveniently that just left me rather dissatisfied.

[Vikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a 2.5 stars. This was not at all what I was expecting and for being called dinosaur planet and being set on a dinosaur inhabited planet there really weren't many dinosaur encounters...
Also wtf was with that ending?!

[Valerie]

Dust cover somewhat tattered, but that's what it's for, and the book itself is fine.

Comprises Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors

In all these stories where the characters become separated from their parent societies, I always want to see more of the main society. I'd like to see a story set in a Thek academy, for example. I should point out that I find the abbreviations irritating. The term 'EV' is used throughout, and should be elucidated at least once every 25 pages or so. I don't remember what it stands for, and don't even remember where to look to find out.

There are quite a few annoying 'universal' assumptions in this book. Some are widespread. Why WOULD the expedition personnel universally prefer sunshine to rain? Or 'temperate' to 'tropical' environments?.
Also, there's a tendency to describe 'life' as if only animals were alive (this is common in British stories for some reason, and leads to such absurdities as people complaining of difficulty finding 'life' while flying over a forest canopy). This last raises an interesting question: why, if the planners included a xenoveterinary at the last minute, did they not think to include a xenobotanist? This might have made it easier to figure out why the introduced animals were supplied with alien plants as a nutritional supplement.

There's too much of a progressivist bias in these books. There's no reason to believe in a bias toward progress in evolution. Darwin struggled with this, because he recognized that natural selection in itself would not inherently trend toward progress, but he believed in progress himself. He added fudge factors as a 'correction'. The main problem was that there was no evidence for such fudge factors in the fossil record. Darwin escaped this by arguing that the fossil record was imperfect. Which it is, but the problem is you can use the gaps for a sort of circular game, in which you can add whatever you think you need to make your theory work, and nobody can disprove it. It's all a matter of what large axe you need to grind.

In the same light, the use of the word 'primitive' is a dead giveaway. Biologists in training are taught to avoid this word, with its historical connotations that 'first-come' and 'inferior' are coeval.

It seems to be a personal bias of the author to attribute malice to predators. There's no reason to believe that predators bear any animus toward their prey. If they assess new creatures for their potential food value, that's only survival. The notion that they take any pleasure in inflicting suffering is a form of anthropomorphism.

Also, among humanoid peoples, I found the bigotry against the 'heavy-worlders' disgusting. This is the author's own interpolation. There is no reason whatever to argue that heavy musculature leads inherently to insensitivity and sadism. For contrast, I might suggest James White's Hudlars, who are so sensitive that they can'd cope emotionally with the necessity of beating a Protector of The Unborn to stimulate its metabolism, and have to resort to listening to raucous music to muster up the will. As White often pointed out, physical pachydermy need not have any relationship to being emotionally thickskinned. The 'heavy-worlders' in this book are treated as if they had no personal variation at all, but are all degraded products of a destructive environment.

I find the hairy dinosaurs fairly implausible. Current research would suggest that feathers would be more likely. Of course, there are hairlike feathers, so it's possible... The mammalian characters, however, are significantly less likely. Some birds (the closest surviving relatives to dinosaurs) do feed their young with a milky substance: but it comes from the crop, and there are no mammary glands. And no birds, as far as I know, are viviparous. Ichthyosaurs were viviparous, so it's possible that some dinosaurs were, as well. But if mammalian traits were developed, it's not necessarily true that they would be placental. Monotreme types (which lay eggs, but suckle their young) would be more likely. As would marsupials. Carrying immature young in pouches has distinct advantages. Placental mammals require elaborate protections for the unborn against things like the mother's immune system.

The lack of ambush predators is also surprising. Coursing predators are actually quite rare, and mostly found in megafauna. Ambush is a less expensive technique, and much commoner, especially in solitary animals. But it could be that they're there, and just not detectable by the overfliers.

Talking of expense, it's a little surprising that homeothermy would be retained on a very warm world. The maintenance of an internal furnace comes at a very high cost. One indication of the cost is the small ratio of predators/prey. In poikilotherms, the number of predators is about equal to the number of herbivores, because they don't have to stoke the internal furnace all the time, and thus can eat a lot less.

It's not clear why the parent society (societies? There's some indication of metabolic assortment) is so energy hungry. The Theks use some form of less-destructive (and less expensive) energy source than nuclear. It's not clear what it is, but why wouldn't it be more widespread? A technology that can maintain devices for more than a million years seems worth cultivating, even if it's not suited to
high-energy rapid activities. And on-planet, there should be quite a lot of potential for geothermal energy. There's no mention of hot springs (so far), but they're likely to exist, particularly on a seismically active planet.

There's mention on several occasions of a creature (on another planet) which I find literally incredible. On Earth, blood feeders tend to be quite small and nonaggressive. This is because blood is not particularly nourishing, and is so watery that blood-feeders often have to excrete water even while actively feeding. Haemophages which hurt their hosts and/or cause the hosts to struggle, or inflict permanent harm, would be unable to thrive.

I wish there was more detail about the lives of the shipborn. There are no scenes set aboard ship (so far), and while it's clear the experience of growing up aboard ship has physical and psychological consequences, there's little anecdotal evidence as to how. Several times in the story there are convivial gatherings, but though there would be storytelling at such gatherings, the stories are not repeated in the text, mostly.


The second volume is really only what amounts to the second volume. The first volume leaves matters completely unresolved. But the same could be said of the second volume. There are so many loose ends that I have to suspect that there was an intention to extend it to a trilogy. But if so, I don't know what the third volume would be called, and it's not bound with the first two in this edition.

The solution to problems in the Federation in the story tends to be more legalistic than violent. The Federation is fairly stable, apparently, and the starships are self-sufficient and practically indestrucable. The temporal problems are caused by people tending to go into cold sleep for decades to avoid dangers.

Which brings me to a point about McCaffery's work that I've begun to recognize. She's not particularly concerned with technical matters. The technologies aren't very well realized, and you have to just take her word for it what their strengths and weaknesses are. She just assumes faster-than-light drives, and doesn't worry about temporal anamolies. Indeed, she might as well just describe it as magic. Who asks for wiring diagrams of magic spells?

In this duology there are many questions raised about the nature of dinosaurs. But it seems as if only two or three genera were imported to Ireta anyway. The picture on the dust cover shows a few dinosaurs, but they appear to be diplodocus, which make no appearance in the text.

One thing that struck me was that the characters argue that there's no excuse for mutiny (there doesn't seem to be much attempt to divine the motives of the mutineers, truth be known). But the incredible violence in the mutiny is really not discussed. I don't mean against humans. There's some violence against humans, and more planned that doesn't come off. But the plan to kill the humans involves mass slaughter of hadrosaurs, and this is not an accidental, but an intended consequence. Responses to this violence are oddly muted for a society that seems to have taken up vegetarianism/artificial foods at least partly for ethical reasons. Why is attempting to murder sentients by means of the mass slaughter of animals not taken more seriously?

The hyracotherium, by the way, is most emphatically NOT a dinosaur. It is an early placental mammal, from millions of years after the demise of dinosaurs on Earth. It's one of a wide variety of early perissodactyls with few descendants (including, in this case, modern horses), from a time before artiodactyls (like deer) began to predominate; it must have been collected millions of years after the other terrestrial fauna.

So what should be in the third volume? One would like to learn the dialects of the 'giffs', and have some sort of conversation with them. Furthermore, there must be more than one colony of them, surely? And there should be some discussion of the Theks from an insider. As it is, they function as what amounts to dei ex machina, quite literally descending from the heavens in space ships/suits, and resolving matters more or less casually as a side issue while working out their own concerns. So what ARE those concerns? I have some doubts about the efficacy of a memory transfer through the gestation process, despite the Theks' own insistence that it's inerrant. And what about the question of the intelligence of the 'fringes'? They certainly can learn from experience, but that's not much of a measure of intelligence: most creatures can. And how did they become blood-feeders? There don't seem to have been many creatures with blood on Ireta before the dinosaurs were imported. What did they eat before?

I should say that the argument that the 'heavy-worlders' are not (much) subject to the dangers of inbreeding is not convincing. The reasons given are just not sufficient. It's not just the phenotypic emergence of 'recessives' that's the danger of loss of genetic variation. That's a factor, but also there's the loss of genetic variation IN ITSELF. And the previous (unexplained) elimination of 'harmful recessives' can't mend that. I doubt the health and (supposed) attractiveness of the descendants of the mutineers. But we're not given much opportunity of examining it. We get to know exactly two of them, and not very well at that. And I personally find the one first contacted repellent: arrogant and shifty at once. I don't blame him for the misbehavior of his ancestors, or for his ambitions based on lies his elders told him. But that doesn't mean I have to like him, even so.

[Soho_Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never been a huge fan of fantasy novels, but I found a great love for Anne McCaffrey’s “Brainship” series, although I could never get into her dragon-based novels. Upon borrowing some of the former from a friend, they threw in a copy of the Dinosaur Planet” novels, which I had never heard of, but having had a love of dinosaurs which goes back around four decades, I didn’t object in the slightest.

There were two books in the series and I was glad that what I had borrowed was an omnibus edition, as I’m not a patient man and there had been 6 years between the two books when they were originally published. Given that the first book ended in such a way that it was clear there was more to come, having to wait that long for the next chapter would have had me pulling my hair out if I had any.

The story of the two books was interesting, with the first following the team from an exploratory ship which has been landed on the planet of Ireta, in a new system being explored by the Federation of Sentient planets. Their aim is to map out the planet for useful minerals and metals which might make it worth mining, but they find evidence that suggests the planet had been mapped before and the wildlife contains two distinctly different types that haven’t been found together on the same planet.

The first book ends with growing discontent and a mutiny, after which the team send a distress beacon and enter artificial sleep, which lasts for 43 years between the two books. The second novel opens with the response to that signal being received. However, it soon transpires that the responding Thek have their own priorities and that no rescue is forthcoming for them, but the mutineers have arranged for someone to assist their claims to the planet’s riches.

Although the series is titled “Dinosaur Planet”, both the dinosaurs and the planet are largely incidental. The first novel is more about the developing relationships between the crew than it is about what they have found on the planet and whilst there were some early moments where the dinosaurs they encounter are described in depth, later parts reduce the dinosaurs to little more than background characters as the humanoid stories take over.

This remains in the second novel, where the cast of characters increased, as compared to the original where 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 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 the end.

To be fair, however, the dinosaurs weren’t the only ones who melted into the background, as this also happened to a lot of the minor characters, who were drawn only in the broadest of brush strokes. Many of them barely merited a mention in the first novel and were pushed even further into the background when more characters appeared in the second, but to fit all the new people in, 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.

There were huge parts of the plot that also seemed to have been written out, as the early relationships between the team and the species who have been sent to explore other planets in the system suggest a lot of world-building has happened in the background, but little of it gets to the page, leaving a lot of questions. When more groups appear in the second novel, particularly towards the end, this world-building becomes more important to the plot, but is never explored to the point at which it becomes understandable.

Indeed, ultimately both novels together feel like an episode in a longer series, as it feels that you’ve joined it part way through and you’ve missed all the answers to much earlier questions. Then, when you reach the end of the pages, it is immediately obvious that there has to be another book, as the plot doesn’t so much end as pause. Whilst this feeling is resolved after the first novel, you still get that feeling after the second, which is uncomfortable as you know there is no more to come.

McCaffrey has to be a decent writer to have achieved all she has, but with the “Dinosaur Planet Omnibus”, I can’t think of a book I’ve ever read that felt more unfinished. I enjoyed what was here, but I reached the end more concerned with what isn’t, as there is a decent story here, but it’s not been fully fleshed out, with insufficient time to explore all the ideas and politics and the history that clearly exists before the start of the novels and the events that must come after the end. Whilst I enjoyed the pacing and some of the revelations in the plot, especially the ones relating to the dinosaurs, I was less keen on the questions about the worlds it left me with.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. Technically, THEY were ok, as it is an omnibus of two sequential novels though there is neither plot ending nor story arc conclusion at the end of the first one and it is all one continuous story.

When Anne McCaffrey writes well, she writes spectacularly well, but these books are not that. While the idea behind it - geology and xenobiology teams exploring a new planet find it is full of Earth type Mesozoic dinosaurs and other inconsistencies - is a GREAT notion, it is not well played. The real failings with the story encapsulated in these, rather long, 470 pages involve characters. Again, when this author does good characters, she does them very well but the characters in these two novels are not well done, nor distinct nor relatable. This makes it even longer to read than it otherwise would be because it is largely impossible to care about Kai or Varian, none of the others were distinguishable except the three kids (one boy, two interchangeable girls) until about 200 pages in.

If, like myself, you are really interested in the ecology, botany and zoology then you can still find a lot to enjoy. It feels like that might have been the authors favourite bit also. The more 'exciting' part of the novel, the mutiny, the planet stealing, illegal colonisation ect.... In the first book it feels forced, unlikely and unnecessary. In the second book it is central to the plot, and toward the end the narrative does become pretty interesting, but it takes a lot of work to get there.

I do believe I read the first one Dinosaur Planet back in the 80's and was not incredibly impressed though I don't remember it especially well. I would have been very VERY unimpressed with the ending, which is no ending at all. The survivors of a mutiny go into deep sleep to wait to be rescued. That is the kind of ending I LOATH, a blatant self-advertisement to buy the next book.

There were also a lot of places that felt like the author had to put in silly events and unlikely coincidences in order to make the plot move faster than geological time, which was it's normal pace. Thus, on any number of occassions I found myself rolling my eyes and putting it down because I needed a break. At the best from this author I CANNOT put her books down, with this one I often did, with relief.

So, great concept, shame about the execution. I feel like it could all have fit in one book with more time to devote to dinosaurs and similar, if it was better organised.

[Janell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anne McCaffrey is one of my all-time favorite authors. This feels like an early effort, before she'd figured out where her strengths lay, and it required a surprising amount of effort to finish. The first book in the pair that comprise The Mystery of Ireta is Dinosaur Planet. The technical explanatory verbiage is oftentimes excruciating... and really, not a lot happens. When things start to get interesting, it ends abruptly enough that I actually went ahead and read the second book, Dinosaur Planet Survivors, immediately. Overall, it's an improvement on the first, although so many implausible things happen simultaneously that it's a little hard to fathom. Some characters in the book are interesting, and things do get tied up reasonably neatly at the end, I guess, but that's about the best you can say for the book.

[Gary Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent start, and a brilliant mystery as well

McCaffrey is well known as an excellent writer, thanks to her superb Pern series. Having read all of those books, I decided to branch out and read (in published order) the rest of her work, and this was next on that list.

The book starts just before touchdown on a new planet. She spends a few chapters exploring both the planet and the crew's interactions with each other before the first bombshell (figuratively) drops. Then, she spends the rest of the novel exploring the ramifications of that twist, and the inherent mystery behind... Dinosaur Planet!

[George Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another title that has been on my shelf since the 80's - Science Fiction Book Club edition.
Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors is the base for the whole Planet Pirates series. Oddly, in the the Planet Pirate series, these stories fall in the middle to end of the timeline of the adventures of Lunzie & Sassinak. While the storyline is captured in the Planet Pirate series, these titles provide a detailed experience of a team of explorers discovering a planet of animals very similar to Earth's dinosaurs.

[Andrea HumbirdStout · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinosaur Planet and Survivors

Okay, I'm not sure how I missed these. I've read Anne McCaffrey since I was a teenager and, trust me, that's been a long time ago. She has always built wonderful worlds filled with interesting people and some amazing animals and great stories, of course. This series is no exception.

[Michelle Swanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

very glad this was two books in one as the first part leaves off in a cliff hanger of sorts.
Although some of the puzzles / mysteries of Ireta were easy to figure out a few surprises were left at the end.
A few other minor details were never answered, but all and all a good read, that kept me interested with little story lag.

[Melodee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of Ireta: Dino Planet & sequel Dino Planet Survivors

Very good book, start to lovely finish. Same as ALL of Anne McCaffrey's, excellent characters Wonderful depiction of scenery, animals, people's reasoning. Would recommend it to everyone who loves fantasy, sci fi, and good stories!

[LoisBow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!

I thought I had read ALL of Anne's books, but I must have forgotten about this one. Anne's books have been my favorite since I read the first Perm book! This book takes a very different direction but it is a very good story.

[Jim Mazzocco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mystery

I have read many of this writer's books. I realize this is a beginning of the story and am interested in reading the next one in the series. The main characters are there. What's next?

[Maritza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

I love it!! Wish there was more about the griffs and Thek, too much on their mental fears, some parts were really slow. Also it would have been nice to get more insight on Aygar.

[Lisa Bussom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Anne McCaffrey's books over the years. Somehow I missed these and just read them. Unfortunately, they did not stand well against the test of time. As science fiction, they seem out of date.

[Bettyann Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely wonderful.

This is part of my favorite sci-fi series of all time. This is my third time reading these two stories. I hope everyone else enjoys and McCaffrey as much as I do I’m sorry she’s no longer with us.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This set is a very good follow up for the Death of Sleep. Can't wait to read the last book.

[Kaylee Dolat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Anne McCaffrey blends science fiction with prehistoric history in this novel.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great escapist fare.

[gloria marquardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Space. Mutiny. Dinosaurs. What's not to like

Only Anne M. Could blend all of this in one story and still not get boring. A thumbs up and 5 stars just to top it all off.

[Gail Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

McCaffrey is a winner as always

I reread this series again. I was first introduced to it many years ago. I enjoyed it very much the second (or is it third?) time around.

[Beth Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Story

I wish it would continue on as I got very fond of the characters. Perhaps you would like to continue it?

[Vulpesvulpes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow, repetitive, terrible biology and geology.

[Beth Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything written by the late Anne McCaffrey is wonderful. She made worlds come alive, in the Pern series, the Crystalsingers series, and her other works.

[Lorraine Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great to read Anne McCaffery. What a great twist at the end.

[Nicole]

DNF

[Elaine Maul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this ages ago for my husband and thought I'd read it.
It's a two books in one novel. Currently (25/10/2022), half way through the second one. I will keep going to the end but not the best science fiction novel(s) I've ever read.
Managed to get to the end but can't say I enjoyed it. A bit boring if I'm honest!

[Andy Wixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, here's a book which had me at the word 'Dinosaur'. Or possibly the word 'Planet'. Definitely one of those rather than 'The' or 'Omnibus'. Having said that, I'm not sure that it isn't 'Omnibus' which is isn't the most significant element of the title.
Anyway, Anne McCaffrey's offering is proper, freewheeling SF, vaguely similar in tone to Star Trek, concerning an exploratory mission deposited on a savage jungle planet inhabited by savage semi-reptilian life-forms (this barely qualifies as a spoiler given the title of the book). The planet is rich in both precious minerals and biological specimens.
I'm actually very pleased I happened upon the omnibus edition of these two books, as I suspect reading either of them individually would be a somewhat frustrating affair. For the majority of the first book, there isn't very much in the way of plot, with the narrative instead focussing on a lot of exploring and the various mysteries this brings to light - how did Terran dinosaurs end up on a remote alien world? Why is one element of the team acting strangely? Why isn't the team's base ship responding to their messages? Despite all this it is not, if I'm honest, notably gripping stuff.
It's only 160 pages into what was originally an 190-page novel that the plot finally feels like it gets underway, and the staging of it makes it feel odd - central to the narrative is the revelation that some of the team have actually started eating meat!!! Unless you come from a society which is almost exclusively vegetarian in culture (which the protagonists do) you're probably not going to feel the sense of shock which the characters do, which is unfortunately distancing.
Anyway, Dinosaur Planet II at least has more action and incident in it, but due to a few slightly peculiar narrative choices - primarily, the decision to put the protagonists into cryo for a lengthy period between volumes - it's a plot derived from that of the first book, rather than a continuation of it. And one gets no sense of an overarcing narrative structure, the story meanders along, occasionally addressing one plot thread in particular, until everything concludes in a fairly abrupt fashion.
This was the first full-length Anne McCaffrey book I'd read and while I can admire her prose style and her philosophy, and the fictional universe of this book has some appealing elements, the story itself feels lumpy and ill-disciplined with all the good bits crammed together down one end. A little research has revealed that even this omnibus isn't a completely standalone volume, as characters and plotlines make their debut and are concluded in another trilogy called Planet Pirates.
I don't think I'll be tracking those books down, though. Dinosaur Planet and its sequel are just a bit too unexceptional and unstructured for that - and the general tone of it all is very beige and unruffled. Well-organised multi-world future societies where everyone's got all their issues resolved may be fun to imagine and work out the details of, but they don't always produce characters who it's necessarily interesting to read about. This isn't quite as tedious as the movie Planet of Dinosaurs, which came out at about the same time, and it's a lot more intelligent and engaging - but it's never much more exciting, either.