Subject: Planet Pirates #2: Death of Sleep

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: 22 Jun 90 06:32:59 GMT

McCaffrey's second "Planet Pirates" book is out, this one co-authored by
Jody Lynn Nye, who is clearly not as good as Moon.  It's not bad mind-candy,
but it's disappointing.  Sloppy.

Not negligent-sloppy, except for some minor slips such as referring to water
as hydrogen dioxide.  Not bad-science-sloppy, though I could wish for the book
to have started with a more probable cliche than having the spaceship hit a
meteor.  Lack-of-imagination sloppy:  The twenty-ninth century feels just like
the twentieth -- and has similar tastes, as well.  Then the protagonist spends
half a century in cryogenic sleep -- and all of a sudden massive cultural
changes seem to have taken place.

As with the previous book, Sassinak, the weakest part of this book was that
overlapping Dinosaur Planet -- this time told from a third perspective, that
of Lunzie.  The authors seem to be relying on the reader's familiarity with
the earlier books (which are not formally part of this series) and tell the
story in a choppy and unmotivated manner.  I'd be interested in knowing how
the last forty pages read to someone who hasn't read "Dinosaur Planet".

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked] 

   'T is with our judgements as our watches, none
   Go alike, yet each believes his own
		--Alexander Pope