I originally picked up Sassinak when it was first published. At the time I had no idea who Elizabeth Moon or Anne McCaffrey were, but hey there's a woman in power armour on the cover and it talks abut pirates and space ships and stuff on the back cover. What could go wrong? Nothing. I thought it was brilliant. Brilliant enough that I grabbed The Death of Sleep and devoured it. I started reading the Paksenarrion books... well you get the idea. I loved it.A couple of days ago, I finished another book and Sassinak was still there on the shelf. I had such fond memories of it, I thought I'd pick it up again. This was, as they say, one of the classic blunders, akin to starting a land war in Asia.In my memory, Sassinak was Honor Harrington meets Ripley, with a dash of Sarah Connor. In this re-read, Sassinak and all her fellow characters were soggy cardboard. In my memory, the story was all tense ship combat, cold strategic thinking and exciting moments of discovery. In this re-read, the ship combat was nearly nonexistent (and what was there was boring), the strategic thinking was more in the realm of incredible stupidity (to be fair, in between reads, I spent a lot of time doing military communications; the situation as described would have been easily teased out with the information provided, to say the least) and the moments of discovery were all from a late-act character who seemed to have been written into the story just to provide it.Should I mention the conspiracy theorist nature of the antagonist? Every ship in the entire fleet is compromised. There's always a conveniently placed saboteur on hand to make sure things go wrong. Why, the enemy must have an entire shadow Fleet ready to slip warm bodies into the proper Fleet. Oh wait, of course we do: our late-act exposition character provides an explanation. I wish she could provide an explanation for some of the other failings of this story.Oh, and it was over practically before it began. Maybe I'm spoiled by the likes of Jordan or Martin or Weber or Rowling: I expect meat when I bite into a book, and this one didn't have any. There's an entire career between Sassinak-on-the-escape-pod and Sassinak-in-command. Where is that life? What about the other characters? I'm going to summon up the Weber comparison again: he would have cut the camera away from Sassinak for a bit, to let us watch her Exec's mission against the pirates. By letting important action take place off screen, we're robbed of so much of the LIFE of the story!All in all, at 16 years of age, this was a five star book. Twenty-two years later, it reads as pretty bad fan-fiction. I'm tempted to blame McCaffrey: no matter how hard I try to like them, her books always rub me the wrong way. On the other hand, Elizabeth Moon is the exact opposite, I've reread several of her books and come away liking them better on a re-read than I did the first time (Paksennarrion et al). Whomever is to blame, I cannot recommend this book to anyone except perhaps the die-hard McCafferey/Moon fan.
I wanted to rate this higher than I did... Sassinak starts out well, with a clear writing style, a strong story, and a sympathetic and capable heroine. She is competent, smart, and fair. I like that she befriends people that others have a prejudice against. I also like that she is relatively relaxed in her relationships. They start, and they end, and no fuss is needed on that account. The reason I'm not rating this higher, is that I started missing more and more about the story, until I really couldn't quite follow in the last part of the book. Perhaps I was not reading carefully enough. On the other hand, I read this the same I read everything else. If I was less attentive at certain parts, it was because they were not interesting enough. In any case, I went back to certain parts when I got lost, and I still couldn't quite make heads or tails of it. What I did get is that the way the traitor on board was finally found came pretty much falling out of the sky. So I'd rate this 3.5 because of its good parts, but I'm rounding it off downwards.
What do You think about Sassinak (1990)?
Like all of McCaffrey's books, this one held my interest. I sat down and read the whole thing without stopping, a testament to the vivid characters and fast-paced plot. Haunted by the memory of her planet's massacre and her own time as a slave, Sassinak joins the Fleet, excels at it, and becomes a commander who has only one goal - to stop planet pirates. However, the book follows the adventures of Sassinak from the time she was twelve to her mid forties, and at times it feels disjointed. Too much is left out. For example, at one point the book just skips fro her being in her late teens or twenties to her being in her mid forties. Also, there are many references that are never really explained. I know that Sassinak got a "five year implant" in her arm, but the book never really tells you what it does. Also, the whole ending of the book seems to depend on an alien species called Thek, but very little detail is actually given about them.
—Caroline Weigle
Much like "The Death of Sleep", this book has a very interesting premise that is absolutely terrible in its execution. I chalk this up to two things. First is the writing style, which is just not good. Secondly, I think McCaffrey and Moon are science fiction fans, not scientists. This is space opera, not hard SF. Not, about the writing style: There is scant detail given about what is going on, virtually no internal character thoughts or development, and really almost no narrative. The story reads like a series of news reports with most of the emotion and details left out. The narrator only made things worse, with little emotion and no real voices for the characters. Ultimately a disappointment, written by two science fictions fans who are also very liberal women pushing a totally unrealistic view of the future. In the 21st century, we look back at such ideas and we snicker at how childish it seems now.
—Josh
I love "comfort books," and that is what this book is for me. I originally read this series almost 20 years ago, and reading it again brings back that time in my memory. So to me these books aren't just about the story that they tell, but they are also as much about what they remind me of from my life as a younger man. I freely admit that this has some bearing on my rating of the book.I won't go into the story itself as that is more than adequately covered in the book description on Goodreads, and if you want to read the story synopsis you can easily read it there. Now as to the book itself, it is a quintessential example of military space opera from the late 80's and early 90's. The story is more about characters, the growth that they undergo, and the trials and tribulations that they endure than they are about the military aspects of the story. This was just before military sci-fi took a turn and became military fiction with a sci-fi veneer, so we don't have the detailed battle movements, the elaborate ship maneuvering, or any of the other trappings you might expect from a military book.The story is really quite well written, and I personally cannot tell what author wrote what part of the book. To me the writing style in the book speaks more of Elizabeth Moon than it does of Anne McCaffrey, though frankly, both are beloved authors of mine. The character development and progression is deftly handled through the three distinct phases of the primary character's life. There is a nice balance between the different elements in the story, and I really can't complain about the writing style. Sure, it isn't Hugo material, but it is a solid, easy to read story with just enough complexity to make it interesting.If you are looking for a good "comfort book," or just a nice trilogy to read you can't go wrong by trying this one out.
—Jeffrey
