Review: Dinosaur Planet & Planet Pirates series

 

Aliens and dinosaurs, what's not to love?  

I found the first two books in this series shortly after the second one was published in 1984. Anne McCaffrey the legendary creator of the world of Pern is one of my favorite authors, and these books are awesome.  Her specialty is creating unique worlds populated with relatable characters.  The books are very character driven leavened with wonder at the world and humor.  

These are two related series. The first series frequently called Dinosaur Planet is a pair: Dinosaur Planet (1978), and Dinosaur Planet Survivors (1984).   This series begins on a spaceship then quickly moves planet side after an away party of people are assigned to investigate a planet.  

Turns out that aliens moved dinosaurs from earth to this planet.  Discord in the party having little to do with the dinosaurs brings real tension to the books.  This showcases Anne's magnificent talent at writing character centric books.  The action and tension are confined to a small group of people in the first book and a slightly larger group in the second.  

The second series frequently called Planet Pirates focuses on two of the minor characters from the first series. It consists of three books: The Death of Sleep (1990) with Jody Lynn Nye, Sassinak (1990) with Elizabeth Moon, and Generation Warriors (1991) with Elizabeth Moon.  

The first book Death of Sleep follows the life of Dr. Lunzie Mespil a minor character in the away party of the Dinosaur Planet books.  It is biography, adventure story, and travelogue all in one. The focus of this book is clearly centered on her and how she deals with many surprises/obstacles in her life. The timeline in this book ends at the same place as the first book Dinosaur Planet

The second book Sassinak follows the life and times of Sassinak the commander of a ship.  Her life is also full of difficulties.  She shows up only at the end of the Dinosaur Planet Survivors book.  This book picks up her story when she's a young teen and brings her forward in the timeline to the end of Dinosaur Planet Survivors.   

Because these two books (Death of Sleep & Sassinak) were written after the first two I recommend reading them in the order of publication.  These two characters are slightly different in the Dinosaur Planet books.

The final book in the series sets both Lunzie and Sassinak with the task of finding evidence to convict planet pirates.  Now the storyline breaks into pieces telling separate stories of our two heroines and a couple of subplots for other characters to try to find the evidence.  They intertwine and come back together for the conclusion. 

McCaffrey's cowriting books with talented authors starts at this point in time.  I find that the addition of these co-authors is a positive thing. It constrains her tendency to go off on new storyline tangents as new and interesting characters show up. The last few of her Pern books are full of this problem.  Instead of a consistent story from a few points of view we get yanked around to every interesting character that crosses paths with any other interesting character.    

In the Dinosaur & Planet Pirates series she sticks to the main stories, side stories contribute and are interwoven in interesting ways. Side stories show up frequently in the last book Generation Warriors.  However these are necessary diversions in order to create the climax/end of the book.

Unfortunately most of this set of books is unavailable on Audible.  

Happy reading - Jenny

Chicken Ravioli/Tortellini Soup

 

I have always made a lot of soup.  I grew up believing that you needed to use/eat and extend the foods that you have.  I would roast a chicken then if I wasn't going to make soup the next day I would stash the leftover carcass in the freezer.  Either way I could simmer it for several hours to create chicken stock.  Eventually I started freezing the chicken stock into ice cubes to use in my cooking.   I cook more chicken breasts than whole chickens now which means that I rarely have enough leftovers to make stock.  This change in my cooking has forced me to use boxed chicken broth and/or bouillon.  I always look for cartons that are low in sodium with no sugar added. If I have to choose I'd rather have no sugar.  

The problem I have with store bought stock is that it frequently lacks the true depth of flavor of my homemade stock.  To overcome this I add granulated onion and other herbs (or sauté ingredients in onion & herbs) depending on what flavor profile I'm aiming for.

You will need to determine your own proportions.  This is what I do:

• 2 boxes of chicken broth 
• 4 cups water and 4 tablespoons bouillon
• 1/2 cup granulated onion
• 2-3 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 refrigerated container of ravioli or tortellini (usually cheese filled)
• 1 small head of cabbage chopped
• Additional canned or frozen veggies such as peas & carrots
• Leftover chicken roughly chopped

Bring broth, water, bouillon and seasoning to a boil.  Add pasta and chopped cabbage.  Bring back to a boil and then simmer for the amount of time suggested on the package of pasta.  Two minutes before it is done add any other canned veggies (or microwaved frozen) along with the chopped chicken.   This makes a LOT of soup.  You could cut it in half if you can find a smaller container of pasta.  I have made a smaller batch using 2 cups of the dried ravioli (1 cup dried to 1 box broth).   From start to finish this usually takes about 20 minutes.