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A review by absentminded_reader
The Death of Sleep by Anne McCaffrey
2.0
It was an interesting book, with some fascinating premises about space travel and it's impact on family and relationships, but I never liked the main character, Lunzie. The first half of the book was spent searching for family which she ended up despising, then the second half of the book was about mutiny and space pirates where she went back into cold sleep again as a solution. Throwing Lunzie into situations that could only be escaped by sleeping made for a rather dull adventure. In the end, nothing was truly resolved.
One could argue that this was a middle book intended to be resolved in another book, but that doesn't make for a satisfying read.
I was also troubled by the mixed message on racism and prejudice. Lunzie hated heavyworlders, which earned her more than a few lectures, yet heavyworlders were the constant bad guys. They were often portrayed by the authors as ignorant, burly, excessively violent savages, so the reader was led to dislike them. Then the reader was chastised constantly for judging the heavyworlders everytime Lunzie was chastised. In fact, we were told to not be prejudiced against all the humanoids, and even intelligent triangles. However, it was perfectly fine to detest conservatives—Lunzie's "shallow", capitalistic descendants. That message was pounded in several times. It's also OK to despise scrawny, infirm people because they are secretly pirates.
Is prejudice wrong or not? Why lecture the reader about the issue if you fall back on the traditional method of describing bad guys as physically deformed and grotesque? Is the message: "Being prejudiced against people who are different from you is wrong, unless they are greedy, disgusting conservatives. Ptui! Ptui!" I remain baffled.
One could argue that this was a middle book intended to be resolved in another book, but that doesn't make for a satisfying read.
I was also troubled by the mixed message on racism and prejudice. Lunzie hated heavyworlders, which earned her more than a few lectures, yet heavyworlders were the constant bad guys. They were often portrayed by the authors as ignorant, burly, excessively violent savages, so the reader was led to dislike them. Then the reader was chastised constantly for judging the heavyworlders everytime Lunzie was chastised. In fact, we were told to not be prejudiced against all the humanoids, and even intelligent triangles. However, it was perfectly fine to detest conservatives—Lunzie's "shallow", capitalistic descendants. That message was pounded in several times. It's also OK to despise scrawny, infirm people because they are secretly pirates.
Is prejudice wrong or not? Why lecture the reader about the issue if you fall back on the traditional method of describing bad guys as physically deformed and grotesque? Is the message: "Being prejudiced against people who are different from you is wrong, unless they are greedy, disgusting conservatives. Ptui! Ptui!" I remain baffled.