Sadly inconclusive, as a middle book must be, but "The Kif Strike Back" is pretty much the best-composed of the Chanur books so far: it goes somewhere and does something without losing the reader along the way. This is still mostly conniving-shooting-running by frustrated and frustrating characters, but there is more development at hand for major characters and clearer motivations for the various (and more numerous) sides involved. ( )

I have to admit I'm bouncing hard off these. I don't want to bounce, either, especially since Cherryh writes some of the smartest ongoing SF series out there. I think it's mostly the Chanur and the weird aliens in this sociopolitical mess, the discordant dialogue, the whiny hume, and the fact that the payoff doesn't quite match the amount of work it obviously requires to follow the plot... not even mentioning the names.

Wow. I must sound like I hated this.

The reality is a bit stranger. I did like some of the payoffs and twists. I did like some of the intrigues and I appreciated even if I didn't go ga-ga over the fairly deep world-and-culture building when it came to the Chanur or any of the four main races.

In fact, if it had a slightly slower pace with a different hook, I would have probably luxuriated in getting to know all the players better. I've loved exactly that kind of tack from this author.

As it is here, it feels simultaneously thin and rushed even when a lot of thought was put into so many of the smaller elements. Since this is the second time I've attempted the read and I'm having exactly the same issues as the first time, I seriously think it's a personal issue. :)

Fortunately, I still love the majority of her works, so I'm just writing off this series as an "it's me, not you" kind of thing. :) ( )

The Kif strike back by CJ Cherryh. This continues on the story from Chanur’s Venture. The ship gains more unexpected crew members while Pynafar has to follow up on retrieving lost crew. The interactions between different races continues to be done well and very believable. ( )

(Review of all four books on Chanur's Homecoming) ( )

I gave up on this book .. Gods rot it! Most of the book is conversation and it is in pidgin alien English. You cannot read this type of dialog very fast and retain any of what you read. Also a lot of the conversation seems like rehashes of previous arguments with a little bit more added. I also did not particularly like the human character, Tully. Yes, he has had a terrifying experience with the Kif... but his constant whining started to grate on my nerves.

Perhaps I stopped too soon and things would pick up more but I just lost interest in reading the book by page 200 or so.

I might read other books by this author but not in the Chanur series ( )