The Science Fiction Novel - C.J. Cherryh

Happy Valentines Day! Have a wonderful day. Nice and sunny here today, it almost feels springlike. The missus and I are planning to go out a bit later for lunch. Should be nice.

So without wasting any more time, let's get right to my look at the Science Fiction novel.

The Science Fiction Novel - Carolyn Janice Cherry

C.J. Cherryh

Carolyn Janice Cherry (C.J. Cherryh) was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1947 and is a writer of speculative fiction. I have seen her books in book stores for a long time but for some reason I wasn't tempted to try her books. But a couple of years back when I was doing a series of posts about Award Winning songs and books of various genres, her name cropped up and I decided to try one of her books.

Her novel, Downbelow Station was awarded the Hugo Award in 1981 and I decided to give that one a try first, if I could find a copy. She also won the Hugo Award for Cyteen (1988). Both novels were set in her Alliance-Union universe. An interesting factoid about Cherryh was why she changed her last name from Cherry. Her publisher thought it sounded too much like a romance writer. She also switched to using just her initials so that people might think she was a man, during a time when the majority of Sci-Fi authors were male. (Sad but true) She also had an asteroid named after her, 77185 Cherryh. The asteroid's discoverers wrote, "She has challenged us to be worthy of the stars by imagining how mankind might grow to live among them."

She has developed fictional universes and also contributed to several shared world anthologies, e.g. Thieves' World, Elf Quest, Witch World, etc. Her writing has followed a variety of Fantasy and Sci-Fi
sub-genres. Her career began in 1976 with the publication of her first books, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth and since then she has had published over 80 novels and short story compilations. Her novels are focused mainly on the Alliance-Union universe, the Chanur novels, the Foreigner universe and her fantasy novels. I have read one of her books so far which totally blew me away and have two more on my book shelf.

a. Downbelow Station (1981 / Company Wars #1). Hugo winner 1982.

"My first comment about Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh is Wow! I've never read anything by Cherryh before. I was aware of her books when I'd rooted through the Sci-Fi section of my book stores but I'd not tried anything. Recently, I was running through the years in my BLog and for each year listing various book award titles. Downbelow Station won the Hugo Award for best Sci-Fi novel in 1982. So I thought I should check it out... So with that preamble...

This is such a fantastic book! I readily admit that it took me a few chapters to start understanding the various people, worlds, etc but once I got into the flow, it just got better and better.

How to summarize? Over centuries Earth began to expand into the stars to keep Earth's economy moving. They set up stations floating around various worlds and from there continued their expansion outward to the Fringes. Downbelow Station circles the planet Pell and it is sort of the hub between Earth and the stars. On the planet are the Downers, beings sort of like Ewoks or Fuzzies (from H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy books). Earth men work the planet in concert with the Downers, passing supplies up to the station for the station's use and trade.

War is brewing between Earth's old fleet run by a hard leader, Mazian and the fringes, Union, and Pell finds itself caught in the middle, trying to be neutral but at great risk. Throw in the Merchanters, those ships that travel between the stars and you've got an interesting mix of great characters.

Pell is run by various families with the Konstantin's one of the main ones and they also provide the major characters. This family must tread carefully and try to keep Pell safe from all. Stations all around are being destroyed and refugees flocking to Pell and overloading the station. There are plots and sub-plots galore. I found myself being drawn into the characters and the excellent story. It starts a bit slowly but then moves along at breakneck speed until the excellent, satisfying ending. I truly loved this story and world that CJ Cherryh created. I can't recommend the story more. I'm looking forward to exploring her work more now. (5 stars)"

b. Rider at the Gate (Finisterre #1 / 1995).









"Stranded on a fertile, ore-rich planet, human colonists appear to be in paradise, but unseen horrors threaten their survival. All the native animals communicate by telepathy, projecting images which drive the humans mad. Only Nighthorses, who can form telepathic bonds with their human riders, stand between civilization and insanity."

c. Visitor (Foreigner Universe, Trilogy Arc 6 / 2016).










"The human and atevi inhabitants of Alpha Station, orbiting the world of the atevi, have picked up a signal from an alien kyo ship telling them that the ship is inbound toward Alpha. Five thousand of the inhabitants of Alpha are human refugees from the now derelict Reunion Station. They have seen this scenario before, when a single kyo ship swooped into the Reunion system and, without a word, melted a major section of Reunion Station with a single pass. These refugees, who were rescued through the combined efforts of an allied group of humans and atevi and brought to safety at Alpha, are now desperate with fear.
 

Bren Cameron brilliant human emissary of Tabini-aiji, the powerful atevi political leader on the mainland below, and also the appointee of the human president of the island nation of Mospheira is the obvious choice of representative to be sent up to deal with both the panicked refugees and the incoming alien ship. 

As a member of the spacefaring delegation who rescued the refugees, Bren has talked to kyo before and even won their trust by saving one of their kind from a Reunioner prison. Because of his remarkable diplomatic and linguistic abilities, Bren managed to communicate with that grateful kyo individual on a limited basis, and he has evidence that that same kyo is on the ship heading to defenseless Alpha Station.

But no one can predict what an alien race might do, or what their motivations could be.

 

And Bren Cameron, the only human ever to be accepted into atevi society, is now the one individual with a hope of successfully interacting with the crew of the incoming ship. But Bren knows it will take putting himself in the hands of the kyo.

 

Can Bren count on the gratitude of one individual alien to save his life and the lives of thousands on Alpha Station?"

Enjoy your weekend.