Book Review #4

[callistahogan]

Title: Death of Sleep, Anne McCaffrey.
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 302 pp.
Rating: B+

Summary: YA-- Like Dan Davis in Heinlein's Door into Summer (Ballantine, 1986), Lunzie Mespil is a victim of cryogenic sleep and future shock. On three separate occasions following a deep-space disaster, she is placed in suspended animation totaling almost 90 years while awaiting rescue. Like Ripley in the film Aliens , she has lost not just her friends and loved ones, but everything familiar to her. Her story is a study of struggle against adversity as she tries to put her life back together. Because her medical knowledge is obsolete, Lunzie returns to school and becomes the medical officer on an exploratory vessel for the Federation of Sentient Planets. While routinely surveying the prehistoric life of the planet Ireta, she is caught in the middle of a violent racial mutiny. While not as strong a book as The Ship Who Sang (Ballantine, 1976) or most of the "Pern'' novels, McCaffrey has created a feisty, likable character in Lunzie Mespil. -- Barnes and Noble

My Thoughts: This is the first book in the Planet Pirates trilogy and, so far, it looks to be fairly promising. Since I probably won't read the Pern series, since mercuryblue144 pointed out that it entails something that I don't agree with, I wanted to read something by Anne McCaffrey, and this caught my eye--probably because we're studying planets and such in my Science class.

This was fairly well-written, and I liked the character of Lunzie Mespil a lot. McCaffrey really made me feel for the character--I can't even imagine what it would be like if I was in her place. I certainly wouldn't be as strong as she was. She seemed like a real character despite her strongness, and she seems to have a presence in the book unlike any other character I've read, really. That's probably because it doesn't fall into the typical "you end up with the first person you're attracted to and grow dependent on them" nor does it have the stereotypical family-support system. She's essentially on her own, although she meets a lot of life forms on her journey (I can't say people, because most of them aren't human... at least in the traditional sense) and forms friendships with them.

The only flaw in this book is that it seemed to get into all the different technology that is around in the 2800s too much, but that's necessary or else we won't get the story. I'm reading this trilogy in one long three-in-one book, so I'll probably have another book review tomorrow (or even today). Like I said, this series looks promising, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

So, off to read Sassinak...

Comments

[reixedyri.livejournal.com]

I can't stand Pern either. My parents love it, but I just find it so... urghhhh...

Glad you liked this one, though. :)

[greatalexanders.livejournal.com]

"Since I probably won't read the Pern series, since [info]mercuryblue144 pointed out that it entails something that I don't agree with"

"If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error." - John Stuart Mill, in his essay entitled "On Liberty"


Maybe it's not clear what I'm saying. Basically, it's that you shouldn't not read books just because they contain or include things you disagree with; were you to root out your bookshelves on that basis, I suspect you'd lose a lot of excellent reading material, quite probably including some of your favourite works. The fact is, in the end, just because you read something with which you disagree or containing ideas you disagree with, doesn't mean you endorse it or agree with it, nor does it imply that; it means you accept conversation of it, thus prodiving the chance for either loss of error or "clearer perception and livelier impression of truth".

What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say read the Pern books - or if not them, some other series that is recommended to you, regardless of how deeply you disagree with some of the ideas explored therein. In the end, it's more rewarding than just reading that with which you agree, I find.

[callistahogan.livejournal.com]

Okay, good point. I suppose there are some times when I refuse to read a book just because I don't agree with the basic principles (for example, my friend is reading Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and I've been refusing to read it because it seems to paint Christianity in a bad light), but then again, I've read The Time Traveler's Wife and that book didn't really portray Christianity in the exact way I'd like it too. And I've enjoyed those books...

So, maybe, I will read the Pern books. If it's too much a part of the series, I'll drop them, but... it can't possibly hurt to read them. There are some books I refuse to read--His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman is the first trilogy that comes to mind, just because it seems to be incredibly anti-Christian (from what I read, they ended up killing God in the end) and it's probably easier for my sanity if I just stay far away from that series.

I can definitely, definitely see your point, though.

[greatalexanders.livejournal.com]

Even then, I do recommend you read those series. On two bases; one, is know your enemy. If you don't know what they think, you can't assess what they're saying, and know why they're wrong or synthesise their accurate ideas into what you believe. The second is that it might be well written, and interesting; that you disagree with something doesn't mean you won't enjoy reading it and, if you don't, you can put it down. Simple as that.

but I'm glad I've - by open debate ;) - made you think again

[callistahogan.livejournal.com]

Wow. Again, good point. Now you've got me wanting to attempt to read that series now. :P

Of course, my Books to Read list is about fifty books long...