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Petaybee
The Petaybee series by Anne McCaffrey has 6 known books (6 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Powers That Be (1993).
- Books
- 6 known books (6 novels)
- Published
- 6
- First published
- 1993
- Status
- completed
- Shelved under
- Science Fiction
- Last checked
Start here: Powers That Be (1993) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Powers That Be
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough opened Petaybee with Powers That Be in 1993: career military officer Yanaba Maddock is sent to the colony world to retire quietly, only to find herself defending a planet that seems to be alive, intelligent, and reshaping its own geography to protect the people it has decided are its own. It runs 351 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Powers That Be - Book 2:
Power Lines
Power Lines followed in 1994 at 380 pages, widening the fight against the mining conglomerate and a hostile off-world government determined to exploit or destroy the sentient planet Petaybee.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Power Lines - Book 3:
Power Play
Power Play, the third entry at 331 pages, closes out the original Powers trilogy in 1995, resolving the fight to protect Petaybee's sentience from corporate exploitation before the series jumps a decade ahead.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Power Play - Book 4:
Changelings
Changelings didn't arrive until 2005 — a decade after Power Play — and, per the authors' own note, opens the Twins of Petaybee spin-off trilogy following the next generation on the same planet; it runs 320 pages as the series' fourth book.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Changelings - Book 5:
Maelstrom
Maelstrom, published in 2006, is the shortest book in Petaybee at 256 pages, continuing the Twins of Petaybee trilogy's focus on the next generation of the planet's human-animal shapeshifting descendants.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Maelstrom - Book 6:
Deluge
Deluge closed out the completed Petaybee series in 2008 at 384 pages, its longest and final installment, bringing the Twins of Petaybee trilogy -- and the planet's own agency as a character -- to a close.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Deluge
About the Petaybee series
Petaybee is an out-of-the-way colony world that a mining conglomerate wants to strip for resources, dismissing local reports that the planet itself is somehow sentient and actively protecting its human and animal inhabitants as colonist superstition. Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's Powers That Be (1993) opens the trilogy through Yanaba Maddock, a career military officer sent to Petaybee to retire quietly who instead finds herself defending a planet that seems to be alive, intelligent, and capable of reshaping its own geography to protect the people it has decided are its own. Power Lines and Power Play widen the conflict into a fight to keep the corporation and a hostile off-world government from exploiting or destroying what Petaybee actually is.
A decade later, McCaffrey and Scarborough returned to the planet with the Twins of Petaybee trilogy — Changelings (2005), Maelstrom (2006), Deluge (2008) — following the next generation of Petaybee's human-animal shapeshifting descendants as the planet's sentience and its people's changing abilities become central to the story rather than a mystery to be solved. Across all six books, the series treats an entire planet as a character with its own agency, a recurring McCaffrey interest also visible in Pern's living, telepathic dragons.
Frequently asked questions
What order should I read the Petaybee books in?
Start with the Powers trilogy in publication order — Powers That Be (1993), Power Lines (1994), Power Play (1995) — then continue with the Twins of Petaybee trilogy: Changelings (2005), Maelstrom (2006), Deluge (2008).
Who wrote the Petaybee series?
All six books are co-written by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.
Is Twins of Petaybee a sequel series or a separate story?
It's a direct continuation, set a generation after the original Powers trilogy and following the descendants of that trilogy's characters on the same sentient planet.
How many Petaybee books are there in total?
Six: the three-book Powers trilogy (1993-1995) and the three-book Twins of Petaybee trilogy (2005-2008).
Is the Petaybee series connected to Anne McCaffrey's other series?
No, it's a self-contained universe unrelated to Pern, the Talents Universe, Acorna or her other series.
If you like the Petaybee series
Reading order last verified .