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Freedom's Choice
Freedom's Choice
Jan 17, 2026 5:19 PM

Author:Anne McCaffrey

Freedom's Choice

Let Anne McCaffrey, storyteller extraordinare and New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author, open your mind to new worlds and new concepts. Worlds where humans are the slaves of aliens and love can flourish in the most unlikely of places... Perfect for fans of David Eddings, Brandon Sanderson and Douglas Adams.

'Anne McCaffrey, one of the queens of science fiction, knows exactly how to give her public what it wants' - THE TIMES

'I was totally gripped' -- ***** Reader review

'Impossible to put down' -- ***** Reader review

'Joy...just pure, sci-fi joy!!' -- ***** Reader review

'Absorbing' -- ***** Reader review

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They called the planet Botany, after the old penal colony on Earth. For that is what they were - prisoners and dissidents from other worlds whom the hated Catteni had banished to an empty planet - or what they thought was an empty planet.

Kris Bjornsen and her fellow slaves had survived very well - thanks to Zainal, a high ranking Catteni also trapped on Botany. Zainal knew the Catteni ways and the Catteni technology, and he had plans for fighting back. For, as he explained, the Catteni too were victims - subject to the mighty and terrifying Eosi race who used the Catteni as a galactic police force - and also used them in more grisly and horrifying ways.

But the question remained - to whom did Botany really belong? Who had created the giant grain sheds and the mammoth machinery that tilled the great fields? The new inhabitants of Botany called them the 'Farmers' - and waited for the day they would come to harvest their crops.

And when that happened, the refugees were awed into silence - for the Farmers were greater than anything the universe had ever seen.

Reviews

Fantastic. Somewhere between Dickens, Sherlock Holmes and Rider Haggard. I was in seventh heaven

—— Kate Mosse author of Labyrinth

A page-turner, a rollicking ride . . . stupendous

—— Giles Foden , Guardian

A novel of desire, sensation and desperate jeopardy . . . genuinely exciting and intriguing

—— Time Out

An erotically charged, rip-roaring adventure for adults with scarcely a dull moment to be had . . . keep[s] the reader on the edge of his seat

—— Daily Mail

An epic tale of love and war, full of colour.

—— Choice, July 2012

Peter Stenson has done the near impossible in delivering a savage fire-storm of a page-turner while also enabling a hard and earnest look at addiction and love. I tore through Fiend with the crazed fervor of an addict, but like all great stories these characters lingered in my thoughts long after I turned the last beautiful and brutal page.

—— Alan Heathcock, author of Volt

With a pared down snappy writing style, Fiend opens an exciting new chapter for modern horror.

—— Big Issue in the North

There is something witty or striking on almost every page

—— Mail on Sunday

Martin Amis's new novel shows a regathering of his artistic energies

—— Guardian

The buzzing sense of fresh, limitless erotic licence is captured brilliantly...he is beginning to write with Old Master assurance on the important subjects... If Amis keeps writing like this about death, he can still prove everyone wrong

—— The Times

The recent death of Iain Banks left a gaping hole in contemporary literature, but nowhere was the loss felt more than in his native Scotland. Banks took ordinary situations and rendered them extraordinary; a talent that fellow Scot Sue Peebles, whose first novel won both the Scottish and Saltire book awards, shares in spades… The "sacred geometry" of ageing and the timeless measuring out of love are what sustain this subtle, beautiful book.

—— Catherine Taylor , Guardian

Deeply humane tale of memory, loss and the struggle to understand a family’s past… It’s a novel of generous warmth

—— Ben Felsenburg , Metro Herald

A beautiful, brilliant novel destined to cement Sue's place as one of the leading lights of the Scottish literary scene

—— Waterstones

Peebles' keen eye for social observation adds a comic touch to the narrative, expertly showing how black humour is used in bleak times.

—— Rowena McIntosh , The Skinny

Peebles writes poetic prose, capturing Aggie's imaginative character and her need to find meaning in the puzzle of circumstances she finds herself in. The insight into dementia and its impact upon a family is poignant, with Aggie desperate to recapture the history of a beloved Gran who is disappearing in front of her eyes. The novel strongly evokes the Scottish countryside, its link to the past and the secrets it keeps. The story may be a slow burner, but keep going because its gentle pace builds up to a satisfying conclusion

—— Penny Batchelor , We Love This Book
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