Book Review: The Death of Sleep - Anne McCaffrey

The Death of Sleep was written by Anne McCaffrey and Co-Authored with Jody Lynn Nye. It’s the second in the Planet Pirates Trilogy, the sequel – of sorts – to Sassinak, which McCaffrey wrote with Elizabeth Moon.

I loved every minute of Sassinak when I read it. I’d ever read, and the fact that it was the first in a trilogy made it even better. I was initially very optimistic about going back to the Planet Pirates trilogy. When I started reading, however, I wasn’t so sure, as The Death of Sleep doesn’t even mention the events or characters from Sassinak.

So, was it worth reading? Would I recommend it? How does it tie in with its predecessor?

Let’s find out.

SPOILERS WARNING: I’m going to go into some plot details!

The Plot

The Death of Sleep follows Dr Lunzie Mespil, a ship’s medic assigned to work at a mining platform who is forced to go into cryogenic sleep due to an accident en-route. She wakes up to find that 62 years have gone by and that her daughter – whom she’d left as a teenager – was now older than she was and potentially lost in a pirate raid on a new colony.

She adapts – although not without difficulty – to the new world and goes for new medical training. All the while, Lunzie is searching for her missing daughter; eventually finding her only to meet with an accident on her way to the reunion and end up back in cold sleep.

Waking up ten years later, Mespil once again has to adapt and deal with the way things have changed in the time that she’s been out.

Initial Thoughts: Not a Sequel?

My initial optimism for a sequel quickly turned to confusion as The Death of Sleep started an entirely different story instead of building on the one laid out by its predecessor.

Thankfully, I decided to stick with it and actually read it all the way through over the course of a few days. It’s not quite a sequel, in fact, I’d say it was more of a prequel if I had to guess.

In terms of why this was done: my guess would be that this was done to set up the third book in the trilogy – Generation Warriors.

What Did I Like? The Sassinak Connection

I liked the characters overall, they were all more or less unique, and they were all likable. The world-building is spectacular as always, and McCaffrey and Nye’s writing styles work very well together.

I also liked how this book connected to its predecessor. In Sassinak, there was a brief section towards the end where they landed on Ireta and met with Sassinak’s grandmother (Lunzie). It’s mentioned a few times that there was a mutiny of sorts, which caused all kinds of trouble. I’m not sure if it’s the same one, but we actually get to see that mutiny occur – metaphorically speaking – and it’s fantastic!

The book is part of a series, like its predecessor, and it stands on its own as a good standalone novel.

What Didn't I Like?

Overall, the pacing is okay although the time skips are a bit irritating. There was also not a lot of detail given on the sponsors regarding the pirates or anything related to the pirates really.

I also can’t say I liked how fast characters were introduced. You meet about a dozen characters in the first few pages alone so it gets a bit overwhelming at times. In terms of the technology, I could have used a bit more details here and there but that’s just me.

The ending felt a bit more forced than I would’ve liked but to be fair it worked out very well in the context of the story.

Final Thoughts

The Death of Sleep is well-worth a read and I would certainly recommend it to people as a time-killer.