{{short description|1990 science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon}} {{More citations needed|date=January 2008}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book | name = Sassinak | image = Sassinak book cover.jpg | caption = First edition | author = Anne McCaffrey and <br>Elizabeth Moon | illustrator = | cover_artist = Stephen Hickman | country = United States | language = | series = ''Ireta''<ref name=ireta/> | genre = Science fiction | publisher = Baen Books | pub_date = March 1990 | media_type = Print (paperback original) | pages = 333 (first edition)<ref name=ireta/> | isbn = 0-671-69863-X | oclc = 23666386 <!--first edition record--> | dewey = | congress = <!-- not in LC Online Catalog --> | preceded_by = Dinosaur Planet Survivors | followed_by = The Death of Sleep }}
'''''Sassinak''''' is a science fiction novel by American writers Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon, published by Baen Books in 1990.<ref name=ireta/> It is the first book in the ''Planet Pirates'' trilogy and continues the ''Ireta'' series that McCaffrey initiated with ''Dinosaur Planet'' in 1978.<ref name=ireta/> McCaffrey wrote the second ''Planet Pirates'' book with Jody Lynn Nye, the third with Moon.<ref name=ireta/>
The novel features the personal battles that Sassinak must wage within herself and the determination she develops to rid the universe of the scourge 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===<!--much too long if merely part one of four --> Sassinak and her family live on a newly colonized world (called Myriad) 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 firepower, 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 embeds 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 embedded 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. <!-- ==See also== --> {{portal|Speculative fiction|Novels}}
==References== {{reflist <!-- |25em not enough refs yet --> |refs= <ref name=ireta> {{isfdb series|3075|Ireta}}.</ref> }}
== External links == * {{isfdb series|3075|Ireta}}
{{Anne McCaffrey}}
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Category:1990 American novels Category:1990 English-language novels Category:1990 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Novels by Anne McCaffrey Category:Novels by Elizabeth Moon Category:Novels set on fictional planets