Port Eternity

Meet Dela Kirn - the mistress of the space ship "Maid of Astolat" and a household full of Azi (in case you had never read a Cherryh Alliance-Union novel that deals with the Union side before, Azi are vat-grown people which are not considered human from most people and who do not have emotions and desires and get programmed via tapes - different from the ones used for education of the real people). In addition to that she is also one of the richest and well-known women in the Union and lives a life of leisure. But she is not the narrator of this novel. That would be Elaine, her Azi hand-maiden (even if she was never called that, she is essentially that).

Azi do not have names, they have numbers. But in the Dela household, the ones that show more are part of her close circle and the ones that crew on her ship, have names - straight out from Tennyson's "Idylls of the King". And in case you somehow miss the names, each chapter starts with a few lines from it, pointing to what happens in the story of the "Maid". It's an Arthurian tale - in an unusual setting, with strange protagonist but still, following the story.

At the start of the story the ship is preparing to leave the planet with the newest conquest of Dela, Griffin, on its usual trip for her to get annoyed and bored with her latest lover and return to Lance, the Azi programmed to love her. Except that Griffin is different - which makes the Azi a bit worried. And then the unexpected happens and just before they can take their drugs and jump through the stars, the ship is pulled... somewhere. And the race to try to escape is on. Or so everyone thinks anyway.

So what do you think happens when the Azis whose personality is based on tape and who are named after heroes of a tape actually experience that tape? Exactly what you imagine. Did the tape change their personality or did it just wake something that was already in them? Or was that always going to happen?

And just to make the things even more complicated, there is something outside... wherever they are.

While reading the novel, your opinion of what you are reading shifts between a love story, a horror story, a science fiction one and an Arthurian one. It is all of them and none of them. Because of that it has a few problems - in places the push to get it closer to the Arthurian makes the actual story illogical. And I wish that there was a bit less of the wide-eyed Dela and her knights. It's trying too hard in places to keep the different kinds of stories together and fails in doing that. And for all its complexity, it is predictable in places.

It is not one of Cherryh's strongest novels but it is still worth reading. show less

A luxury yacht staffed by bio-engineered slaves is pulled through a knot in space-time and is besieged by a mysterious alien force. The yacht is themed on camelot and the slaves given the names and personalities of characters from Arthurian myth on the whim of the owner. Now those slaves have to confront the limits of their programming/brain-washing. Overall an interesting and unusual sf with the emphasis on characterisation.

This is a short novel about what happens when a ship gets lost in between galaxies, in a 'no man's land', and is unable to escape. The characterizations of the engineered servants and the "born" owners is interesting, and develops as the story progresses. I found myself sucked in and wondering how it was all going to turn out. I dropped it 1/2 a star for a less than satisfying ending, not typical of this author. Recommended.

Bio-engineered humans, servants of a Rich mistress with an Arthurian fantasy, acting out their roles within an unfolding crisis aboard a ship stuck in jump space.

Character viewpoint is through the rich womans maid.

Cherryh lives inside the head of her characters.

This is a short Alliance-Union novel.

The original DAW cover art is just terrible.

3.5 Stars

Apparently forgettable, since my records say I originally read it in 1998.

The Arthurian stuff didn't work for me, so mostly was interested in this as a precursor to the better known Cherryh stuff. Can see some echos of 40,000 in this too.

A bit confused and chaotic.