Customer Reviews

The Planet Pirates

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Death of Sleep and Sassinak are two of my favorite books. Sassinak and Lunzie are such great heroines. They join forces to destroy a conspiracy in Generation Warriors which is not as good as the other two books. For more about Sassinak and Lunzie and their adventures on the Planet Ireta, read Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors.

This series is so great that I was able to read it all in 3 days! I have re-read it so many times I could almost tell you the plot by heart. I highly recommend this book to everyone who likes sci-fi and adventure.

I have read Anne McCaffery's books for years now and this one was one of her greats. Granted there are no dragons as her books usually have but don't let that stop you. One of the best books by her that I have ever read and I have many of hers from the Dragon Riders to Acorna and out of all those books, these three are the best read of all hers. I can't say enough how much I enjoyed reading this book. I believe that I've read it about 4 or 5 times now and it still can't put it down when I start it again. A dangerous book to be sure. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed reading this book. In fact, I've read it several times, but I wanted to warn people that it is actually a reprint of 3 separate books: The Death of Sleep, Sassinak, and Generation Warriors. That being said, I was glad I stumbled on this version first, because it meant I didn't have to run out to the store each time I finished one of the novels.

I especially liked Lunzie's storyline. She is cryogenically frozen and has to cope with re-learning how to exist in society. Consider the learning curve someone from the 1950's would have if they woke today. And that is only a 50 year jump. She was out for almost 100!

The plot in this and Dinosaur Planet overlap, but I had some trouble with the continuity between the two. I liked this version better. (Probably because I read it first.)

I recommend this to fans of Elizabeth Moon, David Weber and Lois McMaster Bujold. The science fiction enhances the story, rather than replacing it. Jody Lynn Nye can be a little too fantasy oriented in her science fiction (I'm thinking flying talking frogs(?) from one of the Ship Who Sang books), but she is much more serious and does a very good job on this one.

Anyone besides me notice the similarities between "Sassinak" and "Citizen of the Galaxy" by Robert Heinlein? Thorby and Sassinak both become orphaned slaves at a young age, both are befriended by former members of the space navy, both are programmed with information to be disseminated only to certain designated individuals, under very defined conditions. I love McCaffrey's books, have for years, just wondering if I'm imagining things with this one...

I found this book worth reading, especially since I earlier read "The death of sleep", which I found out ended abruptly then. This book has fulfilled the story. If you haven't read this book yet, do it, I was very satisfied with it. It isn't a full five-star book, but good enough to be read and enjoyed.

The science fiction trilogy is a classic and venerable form, one that has given us everything from the original Foundation books to Star Wars. But the three books collected into "The Planet Pirates" don't deserve to be entered on the list of those classic trilogies. In fact, the lack of a coherent plot, compelling conflict, or any interesting prose makes the very existence of this re-issued volume perplexing.

One of the problems is no doubt that one of the books was written by a different team than the other two, which makes it easy to introduce inconsistency. It undoubtedly also didn't help that they were written in a topsy turvy chronological order, with the middle book published first, the first book published second, and the third book published last. But whatever the logistical issues, the result is boring to the point of tears.

Read in order, the book introduces us first to Lunzie, a medic who is marooned in space and forced into hibernation for so long that her only daughter is grown when she awakes. She spends the first half of the book getting re-certified as a doctor while awaiting word of her offspring. It is here that there is also an awkwardly introduced and logically inconsistent fear of "heavworlders", humans genetically modified to live on high-g planets. (One annoying detail among many is that these humans are portrayed as huge, when they would logically be much smaller than normal.) When Lunzie locates her daughter she ventures into space again, and is once again marooned in "cold sleep", and when she awakes her daughter has moved to a different planet. Instead of chasing her down Lunzie visits her descendants, joins the military, goes on a scouting mission to a new world and is stranded in cold sleep by heavyworlders conspiring to break a vegetarian taboo. If that last bit sounds random and unmotivated, I assure you that reading the book will not make it less so.

The second book is the closest to being acceptable among the three, and tells the story of Sassinak, a great-great granddaughter of Lunzie. Her family is killed and she is sold into slavery by "planet pirates". Her escape and growth into the captain of a warship dedicated to stopping the trade did generate some interest, but not enough to overcome...

The third book, wherein Lunzie and Sass are united and form a complex plan to defeat planet piracy that involves sending a security officer on a fleet ship that just happens to have conspirators aboard, letting Sass's second in command visit his distant aunt who for some reason has vital information, and having Lunzie go to a high-g world to have sexually fraught interactions with people she is constantly afraid are going to rape her. Sass, obviously, travels to the home world of the Federation and is involved in a bar fight and a resistance movement featuring both sewers AND students. This last book is so incomprehensible, so disconnected from everything that came before, that you almost wonder if you missed something in the previous two. Why are we suddenly in the head of Ford, Sass's first officer? And Dupaynil, the intelligence agent? And who are these aliens who apparently have figured vitally into the whole picture? For all that the three books total nearly a thousand pages, the resolution is hurried and the logic so shaky as to invite disbelief.

McCaffrey gives us believable characters that you can really care about. The plot takes you on an adventure across time and the galaxy.

These stories with intertwined characters in the same universe are exceptionally well done. Pathos, fierce joy, vengeance, suspense, conspiracy; you name it; it's here! Wonderful job! Sassinak reminds me of a female navy pilot I met a few years ago in (of all places) Thule, Greenland. Smart, aggressive and competent- we hated each other for the first week.

I love this book and was looking all over for it. The condition of the book is great and the service was great.