I have loved Cherryh's Alliance-Union novels, with "Downbelow Station" and "Finity's End" standing among my favorite SF novels. This one does not.

While I'm pleased to return to this imagined world and there is a good story with viable main characters here, the book is unevenly - even poorly - written. Internal monologues can be fine and potent, but "Alliance Rising" is replete with repetitive ruminations chewing the same cud over and over. That's not tension-building or adding backstory, it's lazy writing and onerous for the reader. Also, it seems as if this book saw little editing/proofing, since there are continuity flaws and textual errors (such as "won't" in place of an obvious "would") that increase towards the conclusion. Why are so many readers content to settle for these mediocrities?

I love political intrigues, economic tensions, and dialogue. Arkady Martine's phenomenal novel "A Memory Called Empire" plays those for keeps. By comparison, this is bathwater. ( )

oboy a return to the already huge Alliance-Union Universe, in a new-series collab by Cherryh with Jane Fancher. 4 spaces. lots of exposition, but there's still great characters, and that breathless barreling-forward so typical of Cherryh. i'm all for it. go team! ( )

Cherryh has done it again. In Alliance Rising she has given us a deep, interesting, and satisfying prequel to her Hugo award winning Alliance universe books, full of three-dimensional characters and the usual political intrigue. I'll be anxiously awaiting the next book in this new series. ( )

So good to get back into the Alliance-Union universe. With this one we go back before the Company Wars, to when the Merchanter Alliance is forming, getting names signed to a formal alliance. It centers around Alpha Station, the first station established from Earth, but things are in a mess, with Earth Company trying to assert itself from ten years away, by building a new ship to supposedly rival the big FTL ships, like Finity's End. The station and the ships that support it have been neglected for the last twenty years in order to build Rights of Man, and things are coming to a head. With a touch of romance and a very satisfying ending I give this my highest recommendation! ( )

A long awaited return to Alliance/Union space is well worth the wait. The Merchanter Families are always the best of these characters and it's great to spend time with them again, even if they don't actually leave the station. It's not at as politically dense as Cyteen but it moves faster with more action, and the ramifications for the rest of the trilogy? will be just as important.

I'm not quite sure when this is set in the fairly complex Alliance timeline. Somewhat later than Finity's End is sure, as the teenaged Fletch from there is now 1st Security on Finity, which has made an unusual docking at Alpha, bring the offer of the Alliance to the five Families who call that their home port (a quaint notion to Finity's way of thinking). (After some discussion, apparently this is actually a prelude to the whole company wars series, with names being re-used on the ships, hence this is early probably before Downbelow). One of those Families are the Monahons on Galway, of which Ross is junior Nav, shadowing the venerable main crew. Ross gets caught up in the brawl when security clamp down on the spacer's first gathering with Finity's crew. Because Finity aren't aware of the tensions on Alpha. Unlike other stations in the Beyond this is Earth Company station, and Sol despite the long lag, are accustomed to having things their way. There's several tangles to the politics, with station Admin more concerned about raw materials from wherever they can afford it, ships needing re-supply, and always Sol wanting their priorities, including a new longhauler that no-one can fly.

I'm not sure where Fleet fit into this timeline, they should still be around somewhere, but aren't even mentioned (see above, as a prelude Fleet doesn't exist yet, the later books in this trilogy may introduce them). Ross is great, just junior enough to have thing explained to him, but grown-up enough that we don't have to deal with angst, even when finity's female crew are attractive. There's some good interactions with station admin which is a side of the story we don't often get in this universe. Somehow though it's just a little thin, it doesn't quite feel portentous enough events of this magnitude, with Sol and it's billions on the verge of finally crossing the FTL gap into the Beyond proper.

Jane has always worked behind the scenes on CJC's novels, and it's good to see she's finally credited on the authorship. There's certainly no noticeable change in voice or tone between any sections, so any direct writing she's contributed has been well blended in. I've no idea who's been involved with the cover design, but it bears no relation to the story at all.

Another really enjoyable installment in this universe. It isn't a recommended starting point, Downbelow Station and maybe Finity's End are required reading beforehand (as this is a prelude, I'd still recommend reading them first, and then coming back to this) but for anyone roughly familiar with the politics, it's all heading in a great direction. ( )