The Death of Sleep

Lunzie Mespil leaves her 14-year-old daughter, Fiona, with friends on the colony planet where she planned to settle before the authorities there eliminated the job for which she had just relocated. Single mother Lunzie's skills as a physician specializing in space-caused mental traumas are very much needed on a distant mining platform. Once she's earned a decent nest egg (or maybe more) there, she will return to the child she's never left before. A couple of years, Lunzie believes. But space has other ideas, and Lunzie winds up taking refuge in cold sleep after the ship in which she's traveling is destroyed. She wakes more than 60 years later. Where is Fiona? And what's more important, how is Fiona? What kind of life has she had, without her mother to guide her through adolescence into womanhood? In this first book of McCaffrey's "Planet Pirates" series, written as a prequel to the others, the authors speculate about the impact on human lives of being interrupted by the familiar SF device of cold sleep. What will it be like, to wake in a universe that's gone on without you for years - decades - maybe even centuries? To find that your loved ones have moved on through their lives, your profession has changed so much that you have to relearn it (or choose to master a different one instead), and that even holding a conversation with people who've been awake all along can be problematic? The book's episodic plot works fine, and the lead-in to DINOSAUR PLANET (next in the series) is handled smoothly. But it's the questions Lunzie has to answer that fascinated this reader, who otherwise might not have found Lunzie herself all that interesting a character

enjoyed the fill-in of the story of Lunzie. I had read The stories of her great-great-great granddaughter before reading this story.

Poor Lunzie, nothing every goes right for her. The concept of stasis and passage of time is a conflict that many story lines have examined. I do like the problems that she faces, but I wish she would concentrate more on picking oup the pieces. I don't know about you, but most people would never leave a planet again. This is a light read and is enjoyable if you have read the other stories including the Sassinak series and dinosaur planet. Some of the necessary character development is missing in this book and relies on the other books.

Other reviewers may not have liked this book, but Mom & I both enjoyed it. Great concept, and it leaves things open for GENERATION WARRIORS to continue the story. Lunzie's frustration over being in cold sleep so often adds to the story tension, leading the reader to wonder not only if she will succeed or fail in what she does, but if she'll find herself in cold sleep again, and have to re-certify herself as a doctor -- again. Deals with issues that most authors may have forgotten about, such as having to get updated in technological and medical advances that occurred while she was asleep, and the whole issue of back pay.