'Downbelow Station' is the first of many Cherryh novels taking place in the Earth Company/Union/Merchanter's Alliance universe, and a must read for anyone interested in the series. It gives the background to the 'company wars', and the birth of The Merchanter's Alliance and an independent Pell station. Some good characterizations, such as Signy Mallory of the Norway. The depiction of the friendly 'n fluffy alien hisa of Pell is somewhat silly however. The book is moderately paced till the last chapter or so, where it suddenly speeds up. This is where the writing changes from being mediocre to outstanding. ( )

This was one of the first serious science fiction novels I read. I loved it. It's not for rollicking adventure "only" sci/fi fans, it's a very thought provoking read. If paced storyline development isn't your thing, you won't like it, you'll get bored and unhappy. There is some action, it's just not an "action" science fiction. It is also the 1st of the 3 foundational novels (with Cyteen and Regenesis, in that order) of CJ Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe - which is the setting of many of her largely standalone sci/fi novels. Cherryh's Chanur books have a little more excitement if that's your need, while still being intellectually thought provoking.

Cherryh's big contributions to the genre are 1) showing realistically how mankind's cultural development probably will take place after we move off this planet and 2) the most interesting ever perspectives of any writer - of how alien cultures might see us.

The author has an asteroid, 77185 Cherryh, named after her. Referring to this honor, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory writes of Cherryh: "She has challenged us to be worthy of the stars by imagining how mankind might grow to live among them. ( )

Prix Hugo en 1982 et nommé au Locus (déjà ça classe...)
J'y retrouve ce que j'aime chez Cherryh, cette capacité à me faire entrer en quelques pages dans un univers imaginaire, dans la tête de ses personnages. J'aime le rythme qu'elle donne, le travail de la langue (bien d'autres livre de l'auteur ont un travail encore bien plus poussé).
Celui-ci est l'un de mes favoris, histoire, univers, personnages, style...

To give you a head start, this novel won the Hugo price in 1982 and was named for the Locus.... Not bad hu?
This C.J.Cherryh book is one of my favorite, so easy to immerse in her universe in a few pages, to be in the head of her characters. I love the rhythm she fives, the work on the language -this one is light on the language.
Definitely one of my favorite as it has a perfect mix of story, universe, characters and style. ( )

Scifi classic about a human space station and furry aliens caught between two equally unappealing sides in an interstellar war. ( )

The Alliance-Union novels can be read in any order, since very few of them are actually tied together. If you want to read the stories in the order in which they occur, I believe this is the first after the much earlier Heavy Time and Hellburner.

This book deserves its Hugo and, in my opinion, should have picked up the Nebula over Bishop's No Enemy But Time. It's a great place to start your introduction to a great universe. ( )

A great read. Various factions vie for control of a vital space station. The only drawback is that it starts a little slow. If you can get past the first half, the ending just sails by. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/187631.htm...

Oogh. It really took me a long time to get into this. Roughly 450 pages (out of 520) to be precise. In fairness I thought the end was indeed exciting, but I spent the beginning and middle utterly baffled about who was in which faction, why the factions were in conflict, and really why I should care. The aliens were not particularly alien, I had difficulty distinguishing between the human characters, and the plot seemed incomprehensible. Perhaps it is unfair of me to demand of science fiction that it should not make me work too hard for my pleasure, but I feel I work hard enough during the day and have a right to some light escapism in the evenings. If I want to read gripping space opera I'll go back to Bujold.

As I said, the end was good, but I didn't really feel it was worth the effort of getting there. ( )

C.J. Cherryh's Downbelow Station is a celebrated novel, the 1982 Hugo winner. I would put it in the category of "good books that, with a few improvements, could have been truly superb." That sense that it didn't quite reach its potential ultimately left me a bit disappointed, especially with an ending which seemed to come together a bit too easily. The strength of the book is a well-conceived plot that builds tension and moves to an effective climax.

The characters are interesting, with few who are clearly good or clearly bad. My first area of disappointment had to with some surprising character twists at the end, especially the ultimate resolution of the Signy Mallory storyline (and her relationship with Josh), which didn't quite "click" for me. I wish the Cherryh had given us a bit more insight into what was going on in these characters' minds, so that the ending, while still a surprise, would have felt like an organic evolution the characters' acts, wills and motivations (no easy feat, admittedly).

The second disappointment for me was the aliens. The native inhabitants of the planet are reasonably interesting, but not strikingly nonhuman in the way that the most fascinating aliens are. They are a lot like wimpy humans with a twist, "little guys" who naturally enough the good people want to protect and the bad people want to exploit. These differing attitudes about how the aliens and their planet should be treated are a source of one of the important plot lines in the book, but again the conclusion of this storyline could have been more effective if the aliens {in their alien-ness) had some surprising impact on the resolution.

While it is set in the context of interstellar war, it's far from the militaristic style of say David Weber; the actual space battles are either skipped entirely or only described in cursory detail. I don't want to sound too negative . . . I recommend Downbelow Station to any science fiction fan. ( )

Link to a review on my personal website (might be in Swedish). ( )

Different powers are in the process of staking out borders, and the story follows some of the people involved in and afflicted by that process, centring on the space station - planet duo of Pell.

The story is simple and straightforward, as is most of the characters. Despite the lack of psychological complexity that at least I have come to expect from Cherryh this is a good read.

Recommended.

Added September 8th 2008----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This book sets the stage for the Company Wars sequence, and rereading it after I read the others is a delight in finding connections with the other stories - connections you won't get if you read this one first, because it's impossible to remember every little tidbit of side information thrown at you for what you think is general atmosphere.

Of course the book is a bit too much of telling how things are and too little of getting the feel of the characters and the place. But if you're willing to take a dive into a whole universe, this book is very much worth it. ( )

Excellent SF novel and works better with Cherryh's narrative style. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book, despite its many flaws. Most frustrating and damaging was the fact that the sentence structure is frequently utterly dreadful. I rarely went more than a few pages before stumbling over a sentence with confusing grammar and being completely dropped out of the narrative. Secondly I thought the book could have been greatly improved by tightening up the story and cutting it down, seeing as all the characters were almost identical, it really didn't seem worth having so many of them! Despite those issues however the plot is fascinating and engaging and the universe (or universes plural maybe) are very well crafted and interesting. ( )

http://www.leftfield.org/~rawdon/book... ( )

One of the very few books I didn't finish. This was boring, boring, boring. I liked Cherryh's first couple of books, but it's been all downhill since then (I stopped decades ago, who knows, might like her latest works). ( )

good book ( )

Excellent ( )

Fabulous book. Wonderful setting that has a gritty reality to it. Interesting, real, complex characters, and a story that grabs you and won't let go. Wonderful aliens who are not just humans in funny suits. Lots of layers and shades of grey. Wonderful look at human nature, the uses and abuses of power, and the different approaches to dealing with absolute power. Though it is over 20 years old, it is not dated in the least. ( )

Very good. Second reading after many years. Goes well with Heavy Time and Hellburner which I just finished. ( )

http://pling.livejournal.com/117642.h... ( )