This is old news for some, I'm sure, but if you haven't read them and you're a
hard science fiction fan, get as many of C.J. Cherryh's novels as you can
find...
I'm just starting the fifth 'Chanur' book - brilliant aliens, great
story, and interesting tech. (In order: "The Pride of Chanur", "Chanur's
Venture", "The Kif Strike Back", "Chanur's Homecoming", "Chanur's Legacy". The
first three have been released together fairly recently as one big paperback
volume.)
My favourite part of the Chanur books is that the 'big enegmatic alien threat
from the dark beyond that threatens all the characters know and love'... is
humanity...
She's also one of the only authors I've read who has an idea how BIG space is,
and can communicate that in her writing. Really great spaceflight
descriptions - things like effect of FTL/time lag on comms & sensors,
near-FTL time dilation, etc.
As a bonus, Cherryh does some of the best alien societies I've read. Really
*alien*, and well presented.
Get down to your local library or bookstore and grab them.
ObGZG bit: There's a lot of inspiration for Stargrunt II or FMASk scenarios in
these books, actually. Firefights on space station docks and corridors,
mostly. FT stuff too, but you'd have to use houserules to really get the
flavour of Cherryh's books in FT.
Enjoy,
Hi all,
I think this got lost originally during that FT list server burp earlier last
week. Here goes again...
This is old news for some, I'm sure, but if you haven't read them and you're a
hard science fiction fan, get as many of C.J. Cherryh's novels as you can
find...
I'm just starting the fifth 'Chanur' book - brilliant aliens, great
story, and interesting tech. (In order: "The Pride of Chanur", "Chanur's
Venture", "The Kif Strike Back", "Chanur's Homecoming", "Chanur's Legacy". The
first three have been released together fairly recently as one big paperback
volume.)
My favourite part of the Chanur books is that the 'big enegmatic alien threat
from the dark beyond that threatens all the characters know and love'... is
humanity...
She's also one of the only authors I've read who has an idea how BIG space is,
and can communicate that in her writing. Really great spaceflight
descriptions - things like effect of FTL/time lag on comms & sensors,
near-FTL time dilation, etc.
As a bonus, Cherryh does some of the best alien societies I've read. Really
*alien*, and well presented.
Get down to your local library or bookstore and grab them.
ObGZG bit: There's a lot of inspiration for Stargrunt II or FMASk scenarios in
these books, actually. Firefights on space station docks and corridors,
mostly. FT stuff too, but you'd have to use houserules to really get the
flavour of Cherryh's books in FT.
Enjoy,
For an interesting historical/political
background for fleet actions, I'd recommend her
_Downbelow Station_ in which the terran navy has
essentially been reduced to independently operating as warlords, given their
lack of either support from or recall to home, yet still attempting to fulfill
their strategic mission. (Caveat: as such, the navy are *not* depicted in the
best light, but it's interesting all the same.)
<pre>
Hi all,
I think this got lost originally during that FT list server burp earlier last
week. Here goes again...
This is old news for some, I'm sure, but if you haven't read them and you're a
hard science fiction fan, get as many of C.J. Cherryh's novels as you can
find...
I'm just starting the fifth 'Chanur' book -
brilliant aliens, great story, and interesting tech. (In order: "The Pride of
Chanur", "Chanur's Venture", "The Kif Strike Back", "Chanur's Homecoming",
"Chanur's Legacy". The first three have been released together fairly recently
as one big paperback volume.)
My favourite part of the Chanur books is that the 'big enegmatic alien threat
from the dark beyond that threatens all the characters know and love'... is
humanity...
She's also one of the only authors I've read who has an idea how BIG space is,
and can communicate that in her writing. Really great spaceflight
descriptions - things like effect of FTL/time lag
on comms & sensors,
near-FTL time dilation, etc.
As a bonus, Cherryh does some of the best alien societies I've read. Really
*alien*, and well presented.
Get down to your local library or bookstore and grab them.
ObGZG bit: There's a lot of inspiration for Stargrunt II or FMASk scenarios in
these books, actually. Firefights on space station docks and corridors,
mostly. FT stuff too, but you'd have to use houserules to really get the
flavour of Cherryh's books in FT.
Enjoy,
> On 27-Jan-02 at 23:31, Brian Burger (yh728@victoria.tc.ca) wrote:
> --- Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net> wrote:
> As a counterpoint. I enjoyed the Chanur books but
Cherryh spends most of her time on characterization, political plots, and the
sociology of the societies she creates.
I find it a fascinating change of pace from my usual fare of David Drake and
S. M. Stirling.
> On Mon, 28 Jan 2002, John Atkinson wrote:
She also writes very *dense* books - I'm only about 150pgs or 1/3rd of
the way thru 'Downbelow Station' and already I feel more has happened than
most authors can fit into entire 400pg novels... It doesn't feel like slow
reading, but given that I can usually rip thru a regular SF novel in two
evenings, it actually is slow going.
Very well done, though. The best societies - human & especially alien -
that I think I've ever read.
She certainly doesn't try and write action-SF in the Drake/etc mold.
> --- Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net> wrote:
I am also a huge fan of Cherryh's work - it's refreshing in the way that
most of the techie bits and heavy SF stuff forms just an accepted part of her
characters' background and life, just as it should, rather than being thrust
at the reader with huge technobabble infodumps and spurious exposition (oooh,
lots of long words for so early in the morning....)
;-)
Good stuff. Highly recommended.
> St^3 Jon Wrote:
> I am also a huge fan of Cherryh's work - it's refreshing in the way
;-)
I refer to this as the "Gee Whiz" factor. Aasimov's work can fall into this
trap, especially his longer novels (His short stories seem a bit more focused
IMHO). It's one of the reasons I love Bradbury so (I know, old school, so much
new stuff out there, but I still rate him my favorite). He is first and
foremost a storyteller. In fact, many of my favorite stories he wrote are not
even set ina Science Fiction background. Sort of reminds me of Mexican Magic
Realism.
2B^2
Which is EXACTLY why GZG needs to start producing Space Cats!
:-)
Nicholas Caldwell clcaldwell@kreative.net
[quoted original message omitted]