Review Summaries

• It is valued less for broad space adventure than for its precise depiction of trade networks and institutional dynamics. The way character choices feed directly into social structure gives the book its driving force.

Reviews

• Molto bello

  Sto esplorando i vecchi lavori di un'autrice che ho scoperto tardi ma di cui mi sono subito innamorata, di lei mi piace soprattutto la sua esplorazione di culture aliene con il confronto, perdente, della cultura umana. In questo romanzo si parla solo di uomini, ma a parte i brani descrittivi che possono risultare a volte lunghi, ma sono una sua particolarità, seguirli fornisce un grosso vantaggio nel comprendere lo sviluppo della trama che non lascia mai insoddisfatti. Aspetto con impazienza il seguito. Mi sono piaciuti molto i personaggi che sembrano comuni ma sono bel delineati, tanto da affascinare. Brava!

• another one from the best

  C.J.Cherryh wrote another novel in her Alliance/Union universe! Time to celebrate! In the best tradition of Hugo - Award winning "Downbelow Station" and "Merchanters Luck" another masterpiece of fast paced political Science Fiction - like she never was away. This one is set on Alpha Station and we meet our old friends, the ships Finity's End, Galway, and Dublin again. Sol's about to join FTL and the events leading to it. SF doesn't get any better than this. If you haven't done yet, read up on that dozen or so novels in this universe or even better - read everything from this author, she's been my favourite for 35 years, language, ideas, imagination, characters and scope of unparallelled quality - she's the best.

• Will Read Again

  All of the authors books are on my favourites list and this one very helpfully tied up some loose ends for me. Things I wanted to know and now do. One that I will put on my read again list, although after I have started right at the beginning of the series all over again. This felt different because it was coauthored and was a little harder to read as the ‘rhythm’ of the book was off by comparison to prior books in this universe

• CJ Cherry’s at her best. A must read for Union/Alliance fans.

  This is a great prequel for the Union-Alliance universe.

• Civilisations expand through trade.

  I hardly read any science fiction these days and haven't for many years but there is one author to whom I remained loyal long after all others had been dropped. But even CJC exhausted me with the Foreigner series. I know people who rate it highly but I've always felt some of her shorter books are her best and I stopped after the first trilogy . But the news of at least 2 new Alliance/Union novels was a cause for celebration, and the first of these has proved to be a worthy addition to the best future history I know of. This is a book about trade as a basis for power struggles between conflicting interests and there is much exposition and what in another author's hands would be simple scene setting, but with CJ Cherryh background adds vital depth to our understanding of motives of and the decisions made by the central characters. I think she is one of the greater political fictional writers alive, up there with the likes of John Le Carre as a creator of stories which shine very human lights on the drives and motivations of individuals whose choices underpin the larger consequences of national clashes and alliances. The thrilling action comes late in this volume but I suspect it sets a pace and urgency which will occupy the whole of the sequel and when both are to be read as a piece, the detail in the first half of this book will not seem over long as it may to some readers. Me, I enjoyed all of it and will be interested to see whether the revealing of this early part of her future history will enhance a rereading of Downbelow Station which in now on my to do list.

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