April 2019 READER Pick Sassinak by McCaffrey

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The April 2019 READER Pick is Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
OLD ENOUGH TO BE USED, YOUNG ENOUGH TO BE BROKEN

Sassinak was twelve when the raiders came. That made her just the right age: old enough to be used, young enough to be broken. Or so the slavers thought. But Sassy turned out to be a little different from your typical slave girl. Maybe it was her unusual physical strength. Maybe it was her friendship with the captured Fleet crewman. Maybe it was her spirit. Whatever it was, it wouldn't let her resign herself to the life of a slave. She bided her time, watched for her moment. Finally it came, and she escaped.

But that was only the beginning for Sassinak. Now she's a Fleet Captain with a pirate-chasing ship of her own, and only one regret in her life: not enough pirates.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’ve read this book many times and still find it enjoyable. I look forward to rereading it next month.

[Leonie]

Me too!

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Warning to those who have PTSD triggers: you may want to skip the first part of the book, where the pirates attack the planet, enslave or kill just about everyone, and then train the slaves into obedience. I’ll post a more detailed bookmark to jump to after I reread the book.

[Jemima]

I've ordered a secondhand copy from Amazon, so should be able to read it in the month, for a change!

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’ve started my reread of Sassinak. The relationship with Abe and the special skills he teaches her remind me of Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein. Not in the sense that plot points were stolen but just that there are strong similarities.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

For anyone who hates YA or needs trigger warnings, “Book One Chapter 4” is her graduation from the academy. And chapter 5 is Ensign Sassinak reporting for duty.

This info provided for those who want to skip the parts where she is a slave or in the academy. The story does make sense if you just skip the first three or four chapters, or even skip to chapter 8.

[Debrac2014]

I enjoyed the first half of Sassinak and her relationship with Abe! But later on, when Sass was reminiscing, I felt like I missed something important! Over all, good story!

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’d forgotten how intertwined the chronology is between the three books labeled Planet Pirates and the two Dinosaur Planet books. I haven’t reached the part of Sassinak where there’s overlap with Dinosaur Planet Survivors, but there’s a foreshadowing moment that triggered my memory.

At about 40% (was that chapter 8?) Sassinak is the commander of a cruiser out hunting pirates. I’m about halfway through now.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The moral and ethical issues make for an interesting bit of tension. Is it better for a cruiser that spots a pirate ship attacking a colony to defend that colony, or to stealthily follow the pirate ship back to their base in order to have a better chance at stopping the whole organization or at least a larger part of it?

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

And finished. Quite satisfying, and worth rereading although likely best with several years between so that I will have forgotten some of the plot points.

Completists will likely want to read Dinosaur Planet, Dinosaur Planet Survivors, Death of Sleep, and Generation Warriors. My vague memories of those stories are that they are worth reading once but not worth rereading unless I’m in a strange mood.

[Leonie]

Am about to begin my re-read of Sassinak. I have read the others too. I think I read them after Sassinak, years ago, and I remember thinking the end of Generation Warriors was a bit odd. Maybe I'll re-read them too.

[Jemima]

I started reading Sassinak yesterday so I'm not that far in, but hope to finish it by the weekend. So far, so good!

[Emma]

I just got my copy from the library! I'm a bit behind, but I hope to finish this in the month of April! Wish me luck...

[Jemima]

Finished Sassinak on Friday. Enjoyed it, but felt I'd grown out of it... or maybe it's just my mood at present. Despite Sass growing up and becoming a 40-odd year old Captain/Commander, she still felt like a teen most of the times.
A good lightweight scifi for someone in their teens or twenties, maybe :)

And like many of AMC's books, it just ends, without there really being a climax. Maybe I'm looking for too much! I can't see me rushing for any of the later ones in the series... although I'd like to reread the Petaybee series some time :)

[Emma]

I feel like McCaffrey's storytelling is rushed, and I might be mis-remembering but I believe I had this same issue with the Pern books. Even though the beginning of the book covers about twenty years, I felt like nothing had happened. I'm just now feeling like I don't want to put the book down (and I'm over halfway through), because while events in Sass' life were mentioned I feel like they were mostly glossed over, even (view spoiler)[her time as a slave (hide spoiler)] So even though a lot actually happened, I feel like nothing really happened. (view spoiler)[Her time on her first cruiser was better, when I felt like there was an actual storyline that was followed, but it was still such a short-lived storyline with such an (in my opinion) anticlimactic resolution, so much so that it almost felt like a deus ex machina. (hide spoiler)] Besides that I have enjoyed the book thus far; a story about an emotionally- and mentally-strong girl (almost unrealistically strong?) making her way in a hostile environment is like catnip to me! I have not finished yet, and perhaps I will change my mind about some things once I have more facts.