Alliance Rising

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 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 show more 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

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 show more 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. show less

No doubt this is C.J. Cherryh in the Alliance-Union universe, but without the most common view point of the displaced, disadvantaged core character. What is displaced is the past reality giving way to an unknown new one. The pushers in a ten year cycle between Sol and Alpha and the FTL ships of the trading families between Alpha, Bryant, Glory and Venture in what the rest of Beyond calls the Hinder stars are overshadowed by the Earth Company's huge Rights of Man building at Alpha and monopolizing all the resources from Sol. Into this mix come 4 FTL ships from Beyond, including the legendary leviathan of a Merchanter, Finity's End, the plans of which were stolen to build Rights. Nobody does exposition as adroitly as Cherryh, but after show more 100 pages of it, the engagement with the main characters is quite welcome, even if the usual anxious self-searching is almost absent. Those of us familiar with the A-U books know how tenuous the hopes of the main characters are, but we are also used to ambiguous endings. show less

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). show more (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. show less

I really enjoyed this look at the early history of the Alliance-Union universe.

Alliance Rising takes place before Downbelow Station and Heavy Time, and may be the earliest novel in the timeline. The novel provides backstory about the Alpha Station, perfect for those who read the early novels decades ago.

Alliance Rising focuses on the economic and political life of the Alpha Station before Sol (Earth) had direct FTL access to it. At the time, most seem to think that Sol will soon find the FTL jump points to break out to the wider universe. Sol’s building of a large ship at Alpha Station seems to reinforce this, and makes others throughout the merchanters and stations curious about the ship.

Alliance Rising contains a lot of information show more about how the Alliance-Union universe functions at the time of the novel, and the characters’ internal reflections and musings serve to flesh out the story. Indeed, the characters extended musings remind me of the interludes Cherryh wrote for the Merovingen Nights anthologies.

Alliance Rising is a buildup to the next novels in the Hinder Stars series. The action mostly comes mid-way through up to the end of the novel, not atypical of Cherryh's more anthropological novels. The style of the novel seems mostly of Cherryh, and I can’t really say I see much stylistic input from Fancher.

I am looking forward to the next novel, and won’t wait so long after its publication to read it. show less

I admit to being a total fan; why? Because I emerge from the story hopeful, energized, restored. I don't know how her stories do this for me. It's not the prose, it's the plot and the characters with shape and solidity and nuanced struggles.
And, of course, the return to the Alliance world was welcomed!

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.