Sassinak

"Sassinak" (1990, Baen Books, ISBN 0-671-69863-X), written by Anne McCaffrey and its co-author Elizabeth Moon, is the first volume of the Planet Pirates Series by Anne McCaffrey (Elizabeth Moon and Jody Lynn Nye would collaborate with McCaffery on the three books in the series). Sassinak is written in four parts. The book focuses on the personal battles that Sassinak must wage within herself and the determination she develops to rid the universe of the scurge of piracy. The four parts include her enslavement and schooling, her first assignment, her promotion and her first ship, and the discovery of the Dinosaur Planet and its survivors.

Plot summary

Part one

Sassinak and her family live on a newly colonized world and are celebrating the end of the production year when all the colonies goods will be exported to other worlds. But the carrier never comes and instead the planet and its people are soon under attack by pirates. The colonists put up a futile defense against the pirates superior fire power, numbers and skill at their task. Sassinak witnesses the death of both her parents and her two siblings before she is taken off planet to become a slave.

At the slave depot she is sold, but is counseled by another slave called Abe - who is ex-Fleet. He teaches her Discipline and imbeds a message in her mind that will only be remembered when she is confronted with a Fleet officer. She is sold once again when her skills have improved enough for her to work as a navigator on a ship. The ship that she is on is captured by Fleet and she is rescued, the imbedded message comes out and Fleet is able to attack the slave depot and free all the slaves.

Abe adopts Sassinak and she begins her quest to go to the Academy, where all Fleet officers receive their training. After prep-school she enters the Academy and excels but is always conscious that she wants to hunt pirates when she gets her stars and her own ship. On her graduation night Abe takes her out for dinner, but Abe is killed. Sassinak suspects it is an assassination. She goes on her first deployment without any family, adopted or no and is an orphan once more.

External links

* [http://www.infoshop.org/sf/index.php/List_of_Planets_in_Science_Fiction Planets in Science Fiction]