Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books are comfort reading, pure and simple. And this hits that spot majorly – who doesn’t love dolphins anyway, and here they talk and have personalities and are just so damn cute that I slightly wonder if I hadn’t been ill if the sugar overdose would have made me sick!

Nah, not really – it’s just… heartwarmingly lovely.

That said, this isn’t one to read without the rest of the series behind you – there are a lot of references and cross overs. Also, there are a few well-worn plot devices creeping up again. Ah, but I forgive it anything for the cute little ‘squeee’-ing :)