REVIEW: Generation Warriors by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon

Generation Warriors by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon

Publisher: Baen

Format: Tradepaper, Book Three of The Planet Pirates trilogy, 280 pages.
ISBN 10: 0671721879
ISBN 13: 9780671721879
Copy: Purchased on-line.
Reviewer: Victoria

On the back of the book. . .



The Planet Pirates traces the careers of two remarkable women.. Sassinak escaped from slavery to freedom, and then used that freedom to fight the evil that had wrecked her world, first as a cadet, later as a captain, and finally as an Admiral of the Fleet. Lunzie, one of the galaxy's greatest healers, is Sassinak's great grandmother - but in actual years she is her junior; Lunzie spent nearly a century in coldsleep waiting for rescue when her ship was destroyed. Imagine their mutual surprise when Sassinak rescued her. How together Sassinak and Lunzie save first a world, and then a confederation of worlds - and almost in passing establish amity between the genetically engineered Heavy Worlders and normal humanity - is the story of The Planet Pirates


Generation Warriors, despite the unfortunate name, started off fairly well.  One of the two main characters, Sassinak, continued to be the strong, self-assured military figure she was in the second book of the trilogy.  Her scenes continued to be fascinating, action-packed and full of adventure.  I really began to think that the trilogy was turning completely around. 

But then Lunzie started getting her own chapters.  While she in and of herself is an interesting character, especially since she's dealing with the psychological repercussions of having been in cold sleep for nearly a century (everyone she knew is dead, for instance, even though for her, it was only yesterday she was speaking with them.), since she's a doctor, not a fighter, she goes off on cultural escapades. These cultural insights are the things that really bother me about this trilogy.  Through her, we meet the sympathetic, but not so sympathetic, antagonists, the Heavy Worlders, who defy Galactic religion and eat meat, have mating rituals which border on rape, and of course, want to take over the galaxy so that they can have nice light weight planets too.  It feels very preachy, and at times, Lunzie can seem overly altruistic.

And then, when everything comes to a head and Sassinak is off on a very fun and interesting adventure to save the galaxy from not the Heavy Worlders, but some other alien race that seemingly appears out of nowhere, the deus ex machina comes out.  Literally.  The ending was such a cop-out that I nearly threw the book across the room in frustration.  And it really seemed like it was more of McCaffrey's doing than Moon's, just in the way it was written.  The transitions between the two authors' parts is not always as smooth as they'd like it to be.

The ending ruined the book.  There was a lot of fun things in this series, but the ending just took them and mangled them.  I honestly suggest to skip this trilogy and read some really fun space opera, like Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series.  Those have got it right.

Characterization:  8
Plot: 4
Style: 6

Overall Rating: 5.5

P.S.  I'd really like to give it a higher rating, because generally, this book was the best out of the three, but I could not let that ending slide.  It was dreadful.