Hellburner

A follow-on to Heavy Time, this is from the very early days of the Alliance-Union universe. This book focuses very much on military life at the front end of the procurement/testing realm of the military. A group of Belters is mixed up testing a new ship/missile that may or may not be too much for humans to handle. Very much from the POV of the pilots/testers, with not a lot of action. Good personalities and a lot of gritty realism. Good stuff.

This book is a sequel to "Heavy Time", which I really enjoyed. We're back for more with Dek, Ben, Meg and Sal, plus characters from other Alliance/Union novels interwoven in the plot.

As usual, the author does a fantastic job with characters and situations, building an intricate yet believable universe...I don't know how she does it.

Don't not read this book, it's very good, but I felt it could have been a bit better (I hold Ms. Cherryh to a very high standard) and a little more of a conclusion at the end would have been nice...or a sequel novel.

This is the continuation of the story started in the previous book Heavy Time which really needs to have been read first. It's very slow with a long build-up to half a page of action. The Afterword is perhaps the most interesting piece explaining the link between the situation the book finishes in and the known start of the third book, Downbelow Station. Not badly written in any way, but compared to all of Cherryh's other works, very little happens.

The story starts a year after Heavy Time, with Ben Pollard ready to complete his UDC assignments as computer tech and transfer to Earth itself - as a Belter - he's never been there before. However before he leaves a rival organisation -Fleet operations- requests a 'humanitarian' transfer to show more another Sol base, where his old rescuee Paul Dekker is in trouble again. Sal and Meg quickly appear too, their Sheppard ship having been met by an insystem Fleet Carrier. Dek is once more severely 'spooked', unable to track the current time and reliving his experiences from HeavyTime.

Ben, Sal and Meg's job is to get Dek back on his feet. Fleet has recognised that Dek's piloting ability is well above average and he is possibly the only person who can 'cut the tape' and train other Fleet pilots. The Fleet's newest technology are near c velocity riderships, that accompany the carriers in Earth's war with the clone based colonists of Cyteen. Dek was supposed to have piloted the first serious test run, but he was pulled for political reasons (relating to HeavyTime) at the last minute. His substitute crashed the ship, killing all the crew- Dek's teammates. Dek attempted a solo simulation of the ride, and ended up in hospital in the state Ben finds him.

Meanwhile politics are happening, the Earth Company and the Fleet are in opposition to peaceniks and local interests unable to comprehend the distances and issues surrounding interspace war. Lieutenant Graff is the Fleet officer left in charge in the (unexplained) absence of Captains Keu. He is the liaison between Fleet and UDC and also between the Sheppard pilots (like Meg) with other officers. And so he becomes the lynchpin when Fleet appoints the officious Commander Porey to get results. Hellburner follows Ben, Meg, Sal and Dek as they attempt to prepare themselves mentally, for the lightspeed experience involved in getting this prototype functioning.

Graff is the only character who appears in other Alliance books, and I would have preferred a lot more insight into his development. The writing remains pure Cherryh, but I never really cared for Ben or Dek in Heavy Time and I don't really care for them here either. Which leaves Meg, Sal and Graff, none of whom get much plot devoted to them. This is perhaps the problem with this book and to some degree with Heavy Time too; too many characters. Cherryh often writes very tightly focused on one key person. When the dialog and plot is spread over several people, especially in a book this short (just 285 pages) none of them really make an impact or get under the reader’s skin in a way that some of her later books manage. The dialog is better signposted than in Heavy Time, and while there are a few occasions when it isn't clear who we are following, they aren't frequent.

This is a very low technology SF novel, very much about personalities and people and politics, and if you enjoy that sort of thing you'll enjoy this. There is perhaps some thought to be given to the current military-Industrial complex that is such a concern in some areas. Not a favourite. show less

This book is a sequel to "Heavy Time", which I really enjoyed. We're back for more with Dek, Ben, Meg and Sal, plus characters from other Alliance/Union novels interwoven in the plot.

As usual, the author does a fantastic job with characters and situations, building an intricate yet believable universe...I don't know how she does it.

Don't not read this book, it's very good, but I felt it could have been a bit better (I hold Ms. Cherryh to a very high standard) and a little more of a conclusion at the end would have been nice...or a sequel novel.

A bit hard to follow in places, with a (deliberate, I assume) choppy writing style to reflect the POVs of the various characters. But a solid story, with insights into the early days of the Company Wars.

Cherryh uses the same characters as she used in Heavy Time in this book about their experiences in a military research program. Fortunately, the characters are a little less extreme here, with Pollard not being a complete jerk and Dekker a little less PTSD-ey. The main conflict here is between different branches of the military (whose top brass is not exactly amenable to suggestion and/or reasonable) having different ideas about how the program should be run, with a distant political backdrop of "peacers" who want to scrap the program entirely. The peacers repeatedly try to sabotage the program, causing the unknowing military branches to start pointing fingers at one another. While I'm still not a huge fan of the main characters, I did show more find the politics of the situation pretty interesting. show less

A wonderful return to form with the sequel to Heavy Time.

Hellburner takes the characters from Heavy Time and puts them in training for a secret make or break R&D program. It turns out to be the development of the rider ships that are used later in the series by the carriers. Cherryh also re-uses a good character from this book, and puts him on the bridge with Mallory on the Norway. I love how it all ties in.

Really enjoyed the book, and the characters, the setting was interesting, as was the plot. There was lots of politics and personal conflicts with all the factions, earther, belter, and spacer trying to understand each other and work together.

One of the best of the series. I would be Happy to read more about the four characters at show more the core of the book, and of course Graff. show less