Deluge

Anne McCaffrey

Book 3 of The Twins of Petaybee

Language: English

Publisher: Del Rey

Published: Mar 11, 2008

Description:

When two award-winning science-fiction masters like Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough collaborate, the results are astonishing. Their master creation is Petaybee, a sentient planet able to guide its own evolution and, with some help from its loyal inhabitants, defend itself against predation by offworlders. Now, at last, McCaffrey and Scarborough return to Petaybee for the thrilling conclusion of the Twins of Petaybee trilogy, the sixth novel of the amazing self-aware world.

DELUGE

InterGal Corporation has long desired to exploit the resource-rich Petaybee. But the planet and its guardians, led by Yana Maddock and Sean Shongili, along with their twin children, Ronan and Murel, have successfully thwarted every attempt by the Corporation to impose its iron-fisted dominion.

Until now.

In a bold two-pronged assault, the predacious Corporation has arrested Petaybee’s leading off-world champion, Marmion de Revers Algemeine, on trumped-up charges, while InterGal’s military arm has dispatched an invading force to subdue the planet once and for all. Marmion has allies within the Corporation who can halt the invasion. but if they cannot be found quickly, it will be too late for Marmion . . . and Petaybee.

While their parents work to foil the invasion of their world, Ronan and Murel are captured and sent to a desolate prison world where an old enemy, Dr. Mabo, waits to continue her cruel experiments on the shape-changing siblings. The twins’ only hope of escape lies in the uncharted seas of the prison planet. But in the murky depths, something else is waiting. . . .

From Publishers Weekly

Precocious twin selkies Ronan and Muriel set out for their heroic third mission (after 2007's Maelstrom): rescuing an old friend who's been wrongfully imprisoned. Petaybee has been invaded by troops intending to arrest the twins' parents and others for aiding Marmion de Revers Algemeine's evacuation of the endangered inhabitants of Kanaka. Marmion herself is languishing in the Gwinnet Incarceration Colony. Ronan and Muriel dodge the soldiers and hitch a ride with space-faring deep-sea otters to reach Versailles Station, Marmion's home base, where they hope to beg influential Federation friends for help. Instead they wind up incarcerated with other youngsters at Gwinnet's Camp Neverland and cruelly tortured until their special skills and friends (including Zuzu, a telepathic cat) help them survive a tsunami and volcanic eruption and complete their mission. This concluding volume of the twins' trilogy will primarily appeal to young, animal-loving SF fans. (Mar.)
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Review

Praise for Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

“Excellent, fast-paced action [makes the] story hard to put down: fans of either McCaffrey, Scarborough or their previous books on the topic will all be enthusiastic readers.”
–The Bookwatch, on Maelstrom

“The story is exciting and generously laced with humor, but besides those qualities, the characters . . . and their interactions are so well realized as to utterly charm readers.”
–Booklist, on Changelings

“Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough collaborate seamlessly to tell a first-rate sf adventure with strong male and female protagonists and a life-affirming theme.”
–Library Journal, on Power Lines

“Well-handled far-future speculation on ecological engineering and planetary consciousness . . . [an] agreeably colorful, well-realized adventure.”
–Kirkus Reviews, on Powers That Be