#freedoms landing

[litcityblues]

The Big Book of (Problematic?) Freedoms

Occasionally, I like to revisit old reads of my youth either because I just want a break from whatever I'm trying to get through at the time or because I have fits of nostalgia that make me wonder how certain books are doing and if they still hold up the same way I remember them.

Anne McCaffery is one of my go-to authors for comfort reading. I devoured pretty much everything of hers I could get my hands on (with the weird exception of the Killashandra/Crystal Singer books-- for some reason, I never touched those) and I've got plenty of her books on my shelves. (Most of the Talent series, the OG trilogy of the Dragonriders of Pern) but somehow between various moves and parental bookshelf downsizing,g I also ended up with her Freedom Series. (Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge, and the somewhat random and I don't know at all what to think about it Freedom's Ransom.)

I remember absolutely loving these books when they first came out. Having re-read them, I have to revise my opinion downward just a notch and say that I like these books.

The hook is great: we open by meeting our heroine, Kris Bjornsen who is living off the land of a tropical and pleasant planet known as Barevi. Earth has been conquered-- the Catteni (feline-like) invaders swooped down, depopulated fifty cities across the planet, and shipped the population out. Turns out that's their M.O. for colonization: they take a chunk of the population of a new world, ship them out to slavery and subjugation and the rest of the populace tends to get the message and falls in line. Not Earth though! Earth is proving to be a tough nut to crack and Kris is proof of that. She tired of life as a slave, stole the Commander's transport/shuttle, and hid out in the jungle. She's doing pretty well for herself until one day, she sees some Catteni trying to track down and kill somebody.

Kris, who the book establishes pretty quickly is tall, blonde, self-reliant and always roots for the 'little guy' doesn't want to intervene, but eventually decides to only to realize that the 'somebody' that the other Catteni are trying to kill is a Catteni himself! Zainal is his name and he informs her that he killed their patrol leader in a dispute and under the law that governs Catteni to keep them from killing each other off, such disputes only last for 24 hours. Kris, not wanting to be sexually assaulted by him (more on that in a second) dumps him back to town just in time to get gassed as authorities put down a riot.

Then, she learns the other method of Catteni colonization. They take troublesome pain-in-the-ass portions of subjugated populations they don't want to deal with and dump them on potential colony worlds and that's where she ends up on a shiny new world- and somehow, Zainal ends up with her and a lot of other new colonists. Kris manages to convince the others not to kill him (because her fellow Terrans aren't exactly fans of Catteni at the moment for reasons) and Zainal actually did see a brief report on the planet in question so knows enough to be useful.

He stays and the new colonists start figuring out this world they've been dropped on and start making a life for themselves. Very quickly, they realize all is not as it seems with their new planet and someone is farming it very, very efficiently and well using technology that is very advanced indeed. The first book ends with a homing capsule being sent off- presumably to the owners of the planet.

The second book we start to learn more about the real galactic situation. Turns out the Catteni have bosses of their own-- the Eosi overlords and Zainal as a high-ranking Emassi was scheduled to be one of their 'hosts' which is exactly what it sounds like. There is a very, very quiet group of Catteni dissidents that would like to overthrow the Eosi but they don't really have a good way to do that yet. The Colonists of the planet-- now named Botany want to preserve their independence and see about helping free Earth and other subjugated planets. Zainal has some ideas about how to do that and together the colonists start accruing resources- like spaceships and the people to fly them.

Zainal's brother is forced to take his place as Eosi host and the new Eosi develops an obsessive urge to find Zainal and, when the Farmers show up and extend a protective shield around the planet, find out who has better technology than they do.

Some more twists and turns later (and into the third book at this point) they stumble across a plant that proves to be very, very bad for Catteni and by extension, the Eosi and a plan is hatched. Zainal offers himself as bait and gets himself brought before the Eosi and starts spritzing them with this plant dust and taking them out one by one before he finally returns to Botany, because 'he dropped, he stay.'

Okay-- before we talk about Freedom's Ransom, can I just say that re-reading these books gives me all kinds of complicated feelings about Kris Bjornsen. Starts out as a great character, she's awesome, she's self-reliant, she takes care of herself, she carries her buddy (Patti Sue) to the caves in the first book, and is all about exploring and getting out there and getting after it. For the vast majority of the first three books, I'm totally fine with her as a protagonist. But...

There are some weird moments. In her first encounter with Zainal:

"One of his massive legs had caught on the chair as he fell. It looked uncomfortable that way, and the fabric of his pants were caught against his genitals, outlining the size of them in a way that made her acutely embarrassed for him. And affected her in the oddest way."

Ummmmmm, okay? We find out early on that the Catteni have developed a sexual appetite for Terran women and she conks him out cold because he seems to be ready to 'reward her' for rescuing him and (naturally) she doesn't want any part of that. You, a good person, rescue what turns out to be Large Alien Cat Man and he's ready to have his way with you so you knock him out and notice that he's packing? Ummmmmm... okay?

This gets even weirder when she and Zainal wind up having a romantic relationship and falling for one another. And that gets even weirder when it's revealed that they were sort of flung together and sent out on scouting missions to keep Zainal from catching trouble at the camp and gradually, because of their close proximity, the inevitable happened.

Hhhhhwhat? So, they were kind of match-made? What? But would-be sexual assault aside, the slow build of this relationship worked quite well for me. Weirdness of their first meeting aside-- and I don't want to judge, but if a Large Alien Cat Man made like he was gonna have his way with me, I don't know... perhaps not? Even if he is a pretty good and decent Large Alien Cat Man?

Then, we get the motherhood angle. From a big-picture point of view, it makes sense: they want to stay independent, they have no idea if they can go back to Earth and that means they need a growing and healthy gene pool so that means women of child-bearing age gotta have at least one kid. Very much in keeping with her character: Kris hates the idea. She's not at all maternal. she doesn't want to have kids and it's very much a, 'oh god oh god, noooooooooo' type of a moment for her. The Colonists have anticipated that and set up a creche system, so mothers can be as involved or not involved as they want to be with their kids. (Which from a colonial point of view, makes a certain amount of sense.)

But then we get to the majorly problematic moment of these books: Kris breaks her arm and with Zainal out on a mission and no painkillers, a handsome fella/fellow colonist named Peter Easley-- whom she has noticed is very attractive and apart from this highly problematic moment is actually an okay character, gives her a generous amount of the colony's homemade painkiller: Hooch and when she's in rough shape, takes her home. And one thing leads to another and they have sex.

They try and retcon the highly problematic moment by having him be like, 'Hey, I don't remember much about what happened that day either, I was drinking too' as if a. that makes it okay and b. that was actually true- because not only is there nothing in the text indicating he's drinking, but he drives her home.

This encounter gets Kris off the hook: she gets pregnant and to her credit, she loves her kid. I'm not wild about the 'oh god oh god oh nononononono' initial reaction turning into, 'I'm fine with being a Mom now' so quickly, but I suppose it's possible? Confronting motherhood or parenthood in general could lead to a variety of reactions and people could accept it more easily after a shall we say adverse initial reaction.

But then, here's the crazy thing: she gets drunk (this time on Catten with its heavy gravity) and does it again. With a different dude. This time it's not nearly as problematic because they are both very drunk, whereas the first time feels well, rapey? But still... there's like a cascade of weird decisions for this character that I have no idea how to feel about and almost borders on 'men writing women' type of writing. It's not quite, 'her breasts breasted boobily' bad, but yikes.

Then we get to Volume Four, Freedom's Ransom:

I have no idea what to think about this book. It feels... weird. The POV doesn't seem to be that consistent and shifts around a lot. (The first three books were very Kris-centered, save for the portions where Zainal goes to confront the Eosi) and I don't know how to feel about it. Zainal as the primary POV is... interesting. The POV feels funky in this one and I don't know why.

On the other hand, I love the Aftermath. That scratches a major itch for me on all fronts-- what's it like now that the Eosi are gone and everyone is free? How's Earth doing? I love all of that--- but I have to ask: was this meant to start another trilogy? There are references in the opening part of the book to Zainal still wanting to find the Farmer Homeworld, which... okay, cool, but then it's never really mentioned again.

Freedom's Ransom does close some plot holes from the first trilogy and if it's meant to be a coda like The Tower and The Hive is for that series, I could buy that-- except, it opens up new plotlines that strongly seem to indicate another book or two is possible! What happens to all the Eosi treasure? Do they kept humans on slave planets freed? What about the other alien worlds, how are they doing? Can they get a galactic economy of some kind going to the mutual benefit of all involved? (That last question is essentially what Freedom's Ransom is about-- Barevi merchants have all the technical parts Earth need, but they've got to find something to trade with. Turns out the Catteni have never experienced dentistry, so they get a little dentistry going and they love coffee.)

It seems a very mundane thing to center a book around, but that's pretty much it. They figure out that the Catteni need dental work and love coffee and start to get some of Earth's loot back.

My Grade: First Three, I would say *** out of ****, but you could also talk me into a ** out of **** given how problematic some of it is. Freedom's Ransom is a weird, intriguing little coda to it all, and I would say that more solidly *** out ****

[xia0ming56]

Fellas is it gay to tenderly hold another mans hands in yours

[n0ahsferatu]

ℑ 𝔪𝔢𝔱 𝔞 𝔩𝔞𝔡𝔶 𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔪𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔰,

𝔉𝔲𝔩𝔩 𝔟𝔢𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔦𝔣𝔲𝔩—𝔞 𝔣𝔞𝔢𝔯𝔶’𝔰 𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔡,

ℌ𝔢𝔯 𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔯 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔩𝔬𝔫𝔤, 𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔣𝔬𝔬𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱,

𝔄𝔫𝔡 𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔢𝔶𝔢𝔰 𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔡

- John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819)

(based on the eponymous painting by Frank Dicksee (1901))

(prints available on my inprnt ! :))

[joyishome]

Israel is Intentionally targeting press in Gaza beacuse they know they are committing mass war crimes and genocide and doesn't want the world to see it. But they take to twitter to provide fake evidence against Palestine, which has been proved as fake hundreds of times. The villainization of the Palestinian people is outrageous. The audacity is un real.

[kropotkindersurprise]

February 18 - Today, we remember Dedan Kimathi, the Kenyan freedom fighter and leader of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau), who was hanged by the British colonial government on February 18, 1957. His body was buried in an unmarked grave whose location has never been publicly disclosed. Despite international appeal, the British government refuses to declassify information about his death.

Kimathi led the armed resistance against colonial rule, fighting for land, justice, and self-determination together with the oppressed—peasants, workers, the landless, squatters, and the urban poor against British Colonialism. [link]

[salt-n-salt]

just remembered i have free will and can actually draw the same exact profile of smoking security guard Shane 3x and post it. BYE BYE ART BLOCK

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[asherenjoysbeingtransparent]

Aechmea, Cairngorm

[nitronine]

My pettiest fandom thing is I CANT STAND people calling Sisko space Jesus cause if you took one second to think about it he’s actually space Moses

[gospocki]

•Is there a dream bigger than going back home?

/ 🇵🇸🫀\

[coyoxxtl]

how Ratonhnhaké:ton’s noble but futile struggle with trying to make the US a truly free nation parallels his futile struggle of trying to convince his father to not be a racist colonialist scumbag

[francy-sketches]

I love when asoiaf fans realize how shitty arranged marriages are but only for the male characters. Like a man could do the vilest shit to his wife and they’ll be like ‘aw poor baby he was in a loveless marriage :(‘ but god forbid a woman is mean to her husband lol

[new-american-revolution]

The Trump administration has declared war—on immigrants, on the LGBTQIA+ community, on women, on people of color, on the very Native Americans whose land we stand upon. He has insulted and provoked nations across the world, shown utter disdain for diplomacy, and made clear his intent to gut Alaska’s natural resources for profit. He promised to “make America great again,” but instead, he has spread terror among its people, turned us into the pariah of the world, and fashioned himself into a near-religious idol.

He has ignored cries for mercy. He has targeted the vulnerable, the innocent, and the marginalized. He has sown hatred, pitted neighbor against neighbor, and shifted blame onto those he deems lesser. Sound familiar?

Tyranny thrives on silence. It feeds on the fear of those who know injustice is happening but do nothing. I, for one, refuse to cower. I refuse to surrender my voice, my rights, or my country to the grip of authoritarian rule. I will stand with my siblings—of every gender, every race, every creed—who call this nation home. We will not be bullied into submission. We will not stand by as history repeats itself.

The average age of an empire is 250 years. America was founded in 1776, and the cracks are showing. The men who once fought to break free from tyranny left us with a declaration—a reminder, a warning, and a promise:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness… That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

These words were not meant to be relics of the past. They were meant to be a blueprint for action. The world has grown. Humanity has changed. Our understandings of what it means to be free has broadened.

We are not the first generation to witness the rise of oppression, but we have the power to be the generation that stops it. The time for complacency is over. The time for excuses is done. The time for a new Declaration of Independence—from fear, from corruption, from tyranny—is now. If America was ever truly the land of the free and the home of the brave, then let us prove it—not with empty words or blind patriotism, but with action, with defiance, with an unrelenting demand for justice. Stand with me. Stand with those who have been silenced, trampled, and cast aside. Stand against the forces that would see us divided, afraid, and obedient. The foundation of this country was laid by those who dared to believe in freedom—real freedom. I believe in freedom for all. That promise has been broken time and again, but we do not have to accept its ruin. We can fight for it. We must fight for it. And we will.

This is our rallying cry.

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

so embarrassing how many self proclaimed leftists/communists/anarchists are prioritising individual feelings and identity over structural class analysis based on material reality and dont realise that is in fact liberal ideology lmao

[thepersonalwords]

People would rather be equal thank free.

Ljupka Cvetanova, The New Land

[thefirsthogokage]

You can't believe in Land Back and think that Israel has the right to shove Palestinians into a concentration camp on their own land.

It is against our religion as Jews to do that. Full stop.

It is against our religion to have a nation state.

It is against our religion to murder.

It is against our religion to steal.

What isn't against our religion? Standing up for the oppressed, which Palestinians are.

Edit: for more about Land Banco, please find NDNCollective.