#cherryh — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #cherryh, aggregated by home.social.
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I'm reading "Alliance Unbound", by CJ Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher -- the newest entry in the Alliance-Union universe. It somewhat rewrites what we know of previous history: the Merchanter's Alliance is introduced earlier than the events of Downbelow Station would suggest.
The book is an engaging political (and economic) thriller, and foreboding if you know what is to come.
But it's making me think about the implied (and not, as far as I can tell, explicit) context of the Company Wars: what is the Earth Company's grand strategy?
1. Build a massive fleet of FTL warships
2. Re-establish control over the EC's breakaway stations
3. ...... commit genocide on Cyteen and all its azi population?
We have a Sol that is scared shitless of Cyteen's cloning technologies and autonomy. We have an EC nursing grudges about centuries-old actions and dreaming of empire. But what would winning the war actually look like to the EC? Is there anything in their strategy other than outright slaughter? Where is the re-establishment of administration?
(It's not simple xenophobia -- the same Sol is portrayed as actively reaching out to the Compact in the Chanur books! It's their conflict with the Alliance and Union -- and local interests too -- that has the Compact shut the door on them.)
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I'm reading "Alliance Unbound", by CJ Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher -- the newest entry in the Alliance-Union universe. It somewhat rewrites what we know of previous history: the Merchanter's Alliance is introduced earlier than the events of Downbelow Station would suggest.
The book is an engaging political (and economic) thriller, and foreboding if you know what is to come.
But it's making me think about the implied (and not, as far as I can tell, explicit) context of the Company Wars: what is the Earth Company's grand strategy?
1. Build a massive fleet of FTL warships
2. Re-establish control over the EC's breakaway stations
3. ...... commit genocide on Cyteen and all its azi population?
We have a Sol that is scared shitless of Cyteen's cloning technologies and autonomy. We have an EC nursing grudges about centuries-old actions and dreaming of empire. But what would winning the war actually look like to the EC? Is there anything in their strategy other than outright slaughter? Where is the re-establishment of administration?
(It's not simple xenophobia -- the same Sol is portrayed as actively reaching out to the Compact in the Chanur books! It's their conflict with the Alliance and Union -- and local interests too -- that has the Compact shut the door on them.)
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#ReadingNow #CompanyWar by C. J. #Cherryh. #SF #SpaceOpera Each book a meticulous case of a different sociopsychological dynamics, with enough suspense and thrill to make it engaging.
That is what #SciFi is at its best. -
#ReadingNow #CompanyWar by C. J. #Cherryh. #SF #SpaceOpera Each book a meticulous case of a different sociopsychological dynamics, with enough suspense and thrill to make it engaging.
That is what #SciFi is at its best. -
#Cherryh’s work was darker when she was younger. She had stuff personally to work through. She writes amazing suspense though.
#DownbelowStation is ultimately a positive book, as is the longterm arc of pretty much all her #Scifi storylines.
Would say that its clear that she’s always working towards understanding differences and becomes more optimistic as she ages. Her most recent books are the most positive.
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What an introduction to #Cherryh!
I tend to see #Rimrunners as her darkest novel, focused as it is on a main character scarred by deep trauma but several in that era are quite grim.
She used to say that Fafrd & the Grey Mouser books were the best model for writing #suspense, and the influence shows.
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@golgaloth @bookstodon the depths of the #Cherryh well are a bit terrifying. I don’t know why I ignored her works for so long, but I almost didn’t want to find out she was so good, because now I’ll probably always be reading a few #CJCherryh books a year, given average human life expectancy and my backlog.
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@bookstodon I fully intended to wait and read something else before going on the next book, but the ending left me eager to see more of our whiny protagonist being made miserable by confused aliens, so I’ve already downloaded book 2! #CJCherryh #SciFi #ScienceFiction #FirstContact #books #bookstodon #Foreigner #Cherryh
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And after they had ridden a distance : "Vanye. Thee is a brave man. I owe it to thee to tell thee plainly: if thee uses Changeling, as I have told thee to do, thee will die."
The cold seeped inward, self-knowledge. "I am not a brave man, liyo."
"I think otherwise. Can thee hold the oath?"
He gathered the threads of his thoughts, scattered and snarled for a moment with the knowledge she had given him. He was strangely calm then, what he had known from the beginning settling into place as it ought to be.
"I will hold to it," he said.
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"What was this place?" he asked her.
"A farm," said Morgaine, "a fair and pleasant one." And then: "I spent the night here--hardly a month of my life ago. They were kindly folk who lived here."
He thought to himself that they must also have been fearless to have sheltered Morgaine after Irien; and he saw by leaning round in his saddle when they had passed to the far side of the house, that the back portion of the roof had fallen in.
Fire? he wondered. It was not a surprising vengeance taken on people that had sheltered the witch. Morgaine had an uncommon history of disasters where she passed, most often to the innocent.
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Upon the heights of Ivrel stands stones, carved with such Qujalish runes, that if a man but touches, they give forth such fires of witchcraft as to take both soul and body. To all these places of powers, great forces move, where Qujalish sorceries yet work. You may know Qujalish blood by this: if a child be born with gray eyes, of considerable stature, and if he flees good and seeks after such places; for they lack souls, and yet by sorceries live fair and young more years than men.
~Book of Embry, Hait-an-Koris
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After a break from #scifi novels I am using the Easter break to dive back into #cherryh's foreigner universe. Still enjoying the multi-faceted reflections on being foreign and on having to learn what the majority takes for granted. Highly recommended if you are into slowly paced world building scifi.
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From C.J. #Cherryh's 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳:
"... The conservative party, which made a career out of viewing-with-alarm and deprecating esoteric scientific advances as costing too much money--those whose whole political bent was to conserve what was or yearn for what they thought had been, feared progress toward any future that didn't fit their imaginary past."I don't know that I've ever seen it more succinctly phrased.
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From C.J. #Cherryh's 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳:
"... The conservative party, which made a career out of viewing-with-alarm and deprecating esoteric scientific advances as costing too much money--those whose whole political bent was to conserve what was or yearn for what they thought had been, feared progress toward any future that didn't fit their imaginary past."I don't know that I've ever seen it more succinctly phrased.