Book 5: Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey

I have to admit the main reason I picked up this book is because you really can't see this  cover in a used bookstore and just leave it behind:

I have read a bit of Anne McCaffrey before, and old-school sci-fi is always fun to read, living in the future as we do (food synthesizers and analog tapes!) The book took a while to pick up steam, but I did enjoy the discussions of alien life, especially from Varian's excursions with the children. On the  negative side, it seems like all of the really interesting questions go unanswered! Was the crew planted, Why were they on a previously explored world with no information, and why were the dinosaurs on an alien planet???