Jane S. Fancher

Beguiled once again by Cherryh!

Starting off I found this a dense read. Having been a Cherryh reader for years I was scrambling to recall the earlier novels I'd read eons ago and to have those line up with the present happenings. Not that it's necessary to read these before Alliance Rising but as I am an avid fan I was busy sorting through what I already knew to meld this current offering of the Alliance-Union saga with what has gone before. (As it happens I was sorting my hard copy Sci-fi show more collection and one of the first books I picked up was a 1988 copy of Cyteen. I feel a re-read coming on!)
What a solid return Alliance Rising is to a cosmos I have freely rummaged through over the years, compliments of the masterful Cherryh!
Alpha Station, part of the Hinder Stars, unusually receives recent visitations from a number of ships. It turns out to be a consortium led by James Robert Neihart, captain of a massive space ship, Finity's End. This puts some stress on the station, particularly when security has been virtually seconded by Earth Company as part of their project to build a huge ship, The Rights of Man, at a cost that has become a financial albatross hanging around the neck of the station master and of the ships that serve Alpha and the Hinder Stations. There is a struggle going on at the command level of the station and the visit by Finity's End ups the ante. Drawn into the struggle is the Captain and crew of the Galway, and in particular crew members Ross and Fallon.
Cherryh's writing style has that distinctive gravelly, almost staccato note that conjures up the differences of those wed to star travel, and of the family ships like Galway running on luck, hope and the often uncanny ability to parse the cards one's dealt.
Pride and loyalty to one's ship is foremost but a time has come when the Merchanter families need to band together. And it starts here!
As always with Cherryh, a masterpiece is unfolding, and I'm thrilled to have a front row seat. I have stars in my eyes!

A NetGalley ARC show less

Doing very well as the prequel duology to Jane's intensely character driven trilogy (you don't need to have read the trilogy first, this makes as much sense on it's own) right up until the very protracted end. It is the backstory of Wesley Smith, and why he ended up on the distant world of NateHumid, where we meet him in the trilogy.

Wesley Smith is the grandson of the prestigious Seneca Smith who developed the instantaneous communication network that has supported mankind's' expansion into show more space. Wesley has grown up with her learning all her tricks and many more. By the time he reaches the official Academy he's bored by tall the repetitive lessons, and beginning to suspect that there is an error in the underlying physics. However in order to explore this properly, he has to be accepted in the NetAT, the Design headquarters looking after all of the 'Net. Seneca herself set a rule banning this until the applicant had reached an age of 25, so Wes has 6 years to kill. Seneca has almost died, and is connected too a life support Unit. Which contrives to bypass varies legalities but her status remains much in doubt. Wes' visits to her remain his sole solace.

The opening book contains mostly Wes' high jinks with a few asides of social commentary (eg how 21st cen texting nearly killed literacy). Most of these are viewed through the role of Wes' tutor JP, who is working for at least on e of the NetAT factions. It becomes apparent that not everybody wants Wes to succeed. The diversions to Wes' point of view are mostly distracting in the earlier sections Later on his voice becomes more important.

All of Jane's work that I've read is intensely character driven. Worlds are only described in passing as the characters experience them. This does mean that sometimes it takes a while to get a feel for the place because it's natural for the characters and hence they don't spend a lot of time admiring the view. At the conclusion the action scene - when it finally arrives is very well scripted and cleverly done. however the following 100 pages are almost unnecessary, the tidying up of a few loose ends that are irrelevant and mostly clear from the main trilogy anyway. 100 pages is far too much for such stuff. there follows another 30 pages of afterword explaining Jane's history with writing this series - although interesting it again is probably best left for a webpage somewhere.

Interesting and inventive character driven SF looking at the role of technology in society.
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Pretty much as above, the tidying up at the end does drag a little. but the characters really sparkle. In some ways Wes is almost a Mary Sue, and too intensely good at everything, but his charm comes through so strongly that we don't mind, and he has responsibility to know and act accordingly. He could twist everyone around his finger, but doesn't. show less

Superb. Thoroughly engaging and complex debut novel.

Mankind has spread through the galaxy, with the aid of what these days might be known as cloud computing - the Nexus Space Internet - some dimensional fold that allows instantaneous information communication and storage. Naturally the administration of this vital resource has spawned a complex bureaucracy - NetAt, as well as specialist professions authorised to make changes to the Net. Meanwhile colonists have developed their own unique show more planetbound cultures, distinct and as untrusting of spacebaced authority, as the spacers are of them.

the story opens with a NetAt Special OPs captain - Loren Cattrell, being called off leave to investigate a 'glitch' in some Net records involving the colony of Natehumid. This is also an opportunity to take along one Stephen Ridenour, a freshly graduated whizkid, potentially suitable NetAt candidate - who admittedly didn't have an easy time at college. His thesis was inspired by Wesley Smith, thrown out of NetAt and now resident at Natehumid. As they arrive at NateHumid everything seems tranquil, even idyllic, with residents and spacers cooperating far more freely than usual. Even Stephen's nervousness seems under control. However when within minutes of landing the ship's security officers are attacked by the president's son for doing no more than asking questions, it seems as if Natehumid is too good to be true. Loren's only chance of a simple resolution may be Stephen's attempt to get along with the exiled irascible genius Wesley Smith.

The writing is excellent, the various characters really stand out, sympathetic with vulnerabilities and strengths of their own. The worlds and societies are well imagined and enjoyable. I'm not a huge fan of frequent jumps from one viewpoint to another, but it is well handled here. There are a lot of names and even worse abbreviations to get to grips with, but it all becomes fairly clear quite quickly. The story does come to quite an abrupt halt, very obviously part of a trilogy. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the continuations.

One area I'd particularly highlight for praise is the keeping separate of the various characters thoughts. Stephen. Loren and the Planetsiders all have very different expectations of each other, and interpretations of why certain actions were performed and what the consequences might be vary - each obviously based on the different characters past experiences and observations. This is something that is very difficult to do well without any crossover from one to another, and Jane has done this exceedingly well - and managed to keep the reader up-to-date as well.

Thoroughly enjoyable, well worth re-reading and I'll definitely be downloading the next installments soon.

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Can't believe it's been so long since I re-read these. The characterisation really is excellent, and dominates the story, such that the plot and hte world-building are less important. I certainly didn't struggle with the abbreviations this time around, but keeping track of the various potential motivations and why, x thought z might do something, does require a certain amount of concentration.

Remains very enjoyable, and a world I'd certainly like to visit. show less

The second book of the latest Union-Alliance series, the Hinder Stars trilogy, co-written with Cherryh’s long-term partner Fancher. Cherryh has a whole timeline worked out for her novels, which even includes the stuff that doesn’t, at first glance, seem to fit into her Union-Alliance universe, like the Faded Sun trilogy. But this new trilogy definitely does fit in.

There’s Earth, and Earth Company (EC), and it set up a series of stations orbiting nearby stars. Initially kept supplied by show more near-speed-of-light pusher ships, but then one station discovers FTL, and two breakaway polities form, one based around Cyteen and the other around Pell. The EC was unhappy with this, and this kicked off the Company Wars. All of this is covered in earlier novels by Cherryh.

The Hinder Stars are those stations closest to Sol. In the book preceding this one, Alliance Rising, the EC wants to reassert control, takes over Alpha (Barnard’s Star) and builds its own massive FTL troop carrier. Meanwhile, a FTL route was discovered between Alpha and Sol, meaning pusher ships will no longer be the sole link between Earth and the expanding number of stations, which by now are carrying on very happily by themselves.

Alliance Unbound is set after those events. While visiting Pell Station, the crew of Finity's End, a FTL megaship, which is on a mission to sign up all the merchant ships and stations to its Alliance, becomes suspicious of some luxury items it finds on the station. Which leads them to a supposedly mothballed station. And it turns out the EC is secretly supplying it with pusher ships, in the hope of… taking over the stations in the name of the EC.

At times, the prose felt almost like distilled Cherryh. It’s always been brusque and direct, but here more so; and yet there’s a lot of interiority, a lot of guessing and second-guessing. But the plot rolls on relentlessly, which makes for a fast read. I’ve read a lot of Cherryh’s novels, some of them so long ago the details are a little hazy… But even so, it felt like there was some retconning going on here. It’s intriguing stuff, and gives more of an insight into Cherryh’s universe, even if some of the details didn’t quite line up with what I remembered from other Union-Alliance novels.

It’s not like this has never happened before in fictional universes - cf John Varley’s Eight Worlds and Steel Beach - and it’s more or less inevitable as authors dig deeper into previously unexplored areas of their own universes. Having said that, the pusher ships as described in Alliance Unbound struck me as a fascinating concept to explore - cut off for years, while in the outside universe decades pass. And yet I don’t believe Cherryh has written a novel about the pushers. The first explicitly Union-Alliance novel she wrote was Downbelow Station, which won the Hugo in 1982, and that’s set during the Company Wars.

I think I’ve said before that I enjoy exploring science fictional universes, and will often forgive most, but not egregious, deficiencies in the writing while doing that. Happily, there’s nothing here by Cherryh to forgive. She’s an excellent writer, and still going strong, if Alliance Unbound is any indication. She has a huge back-catalogue to explore, and that’s not including the 20+ Foreigner novels, and it’s definitely worth doing so. show less