Product Description
The spying, brainwashing, training tapes, and coercion run amok at Reseune, the city-sized laboratory on Cyteen where almost-human azi are grown and trained. Warped young scientist Justin and his azi, Grant, depend on each other for support. Little Ari Emory depends on her own azi: nursemaid Nellie and bodyguards Florian and Caitlin. In Cyteen: The Rebirth, the second part of the Cyteen trilogy, Ari learns why her life has been more unusual than some and why her mother was whisked away when she was 7 years old. She is a clone; and as if that weren't enough, her whole life is a laboratory experiment, an attempt to recreate the keen mind and cruel personality of the original Ariane Emory by recreating her past in Ari's present. As she grows older and wiser, Ari battles with her politically-minded relatives, Reseune powers-that-be, her responsibility to her azi, and plain old teenaged angst.Amazon.com Review
The spying, brainwashing, training tapes, and coercion runamok at Reseune, the city-sized laboratory on Cyteen wherealmost-human azi are grown and trained. Warped young scientist Justinand his azi, Grant, depend on each other for support. Little Ari Emorydepends on her own azi: nursemaid Nellie and bodyguards Florian andCaitlin. In Cyteen: The Rebirth, the second part of the Cyteentrilogy, Ari learns why her life has been more unusual than some andwhy her mother was whisked away when she was 7 years old. She is aclone; and as if that weren't enough, her whole life is a laboratoryexperiment, an attempt to recreate the keen mind and cruel personalityof the original Ariane Emory by recreating her past in Ari'spresent. As she grows older and wiser, Ari battles with herpolitically-minded relatives, Reseune powers-that-be, herresponsibility to her azi, and plain old teenaged angst. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Don't Buy This!
Buy the complete Cyteen version Cyteen not this.The publisher decided to chop Cyteen into 3 pieces and publish them separately - without the author's knowledge.

Title Confusion, and Amazon is just adding to it...
Do not confuse this volume for the eagerly anticipated Cyteen II:Regenesis due out in January 2009.This is the second of three shorter Cyteen novels (Betrayal, Rebirth, and Vindication) that were rolled up into the Cyteen omnibus edition that reads "Complete in One Volume" on the cover.This is Cyteen part II.

Part Two of Cyteen
With 'Rebirth' the Cyteen saga continues only this time with more by the cloned child, Ari Emory.As is appropriate, she was far tooyoung in the first book, 'The Betrayl'.It would be difficult to get the full scope ofthis book without reading the first one but better than not reading it atall.Book Two carries you between the whole political world and thereasons behind the creation of Ari Emory, to the formitive years of Ariherself.If you couldn't get book three EITHER, it would really be awaste, because this is definitely a bridge-book.Priceless though, for itis by following Ari's developement in book two that we understand thepowerful character created in book three.And secondly, it brings throughthe eyes of a growing child the world that is Cyteen, where all that seemsstrange to us is assimilated as merely part of her world.It is arefreshing way to consume the reality of a new universe the Cherryth doesso well.For not only does Cherryth bring to life new worlds with anintricate detail that leads one to question if Cherryth has actuallytraveled there, and not written them, but winds them around deep charactersand convuluted plots that keep even the most jaded readers of sciencefiction spellbound. ... Read more

Product Description
Lives were at stake on the far side of the world; and no other person on Earth except Superman stood a chance of helping those people if that dam went. Four more dams were downriver. That whole region, rocked by earthquakes and deluged by spring rains, was in imminent danger.

In this exciting novel, author C.J. Cherryh takes us deep into the private lives and thrilling adventures of Superman and Lois Lane. As Superman struggles desperately half a world away to save a village threatened by a bursting dam, Lois Lane throws herself into the rescue effort at a collapsed hotel in Metropolis—and emerges a hero. Caught in the glare of national media attention, nothing in her life will ever be the same again . . . including her relationship with Clark Kent.

About the Author

C.J. Cherryh is the author of more than fifty novels, and her work has been translated into fourteen languages. She has won the coveted Hugo Award three times, in addition to numerous other awards and honors. Perhaps best known for Downbelow Station and Cyteen, her novels regularly appear on bestseller lists. Ms. Cherryh lives in Oklahoma. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Too much emphasis on the romance
I grew up reading the Superman comics and watching the television show starring George Reeves. Therefore, there were aspects of this novel that were both more realistic yet mildly disturbing. In the area of more realistic, Superman and Lois are presented as real people with emotions. Lois is frustrated and emotionally distraught when Superman is off in Soviet Georgia saving hundreds of people when she wants him to be with her. When a hotel collapses and people die, Lois rescues a boy and people in Metropolis want to know why Superman set the priority of rescuing people in the mountains by the Black Sea. I found this a bit disturbing, as to me Superman is a superhero who rescues people and no one should criticize him for that.
Lex Luthor is a criminal, but not the supercriminal of the movies and comics. He is currently occupying a high security prison cell and he is the ex-fiance of Lois. The story is in many ways more of a romance novel than an adventure, as a great deal of emphasis is on the emotional interplay between Lois, Clark and the residuals Lois has with Lex. After rescuing the boy, Lois is a media celebrity, she has to wend her way through packs of reporters when she enters and leaves the Daily Planet building.
While I did enjoy some aspects of this story, the emphasis on the romantic involvement and emotional entanglements was too much for me. I prefer my superheroes to be a bit more involved on the super side and less with the emotional angst of life.

Super Reader
Luckily, as far as this book goes it is pretty far away from the other Lois & Clark type books. It is much more of a straight Superman adventure. This, as far as reading the thing goes, is most definitely a good thing.

Cherryh does a reasonable job of handling Superman doing one thing, and Lois another, as usually happens. If you are a Superman book fan and see this somewhere really cheap, you may as well grab it.

now this is a Lois & Clark *NOVEL*
I'd read some of the other Lois & Clark novels and absolutely hated them. I found them juvenile, fluffy, and riddled with the problems that had been a part of the tv show itself. The show, I loved, but I was not blind to its faults and the novels seemed to build themselves on those faults. Not so with this novel, this is a novel which does something Lois & Clark never quite managed to do, make Superman, Lois, Clark, and their world *REAL*. Superman truly goes international (and brings in the political problems that would inevitably arise with that, the US feeling proprietary over him) and Lois is competent, strong, and sure in herself which is something most incarnations of Lois Lane are not. This is a book I could *NOT* put down. That is something I cannot say for the other Lois & Clark novels I've read. They could barely be called novels, this one? It's a novel for Lois & Clark and general Superman fans alike. It could be a 'gateway' book for Superman fans, introducing them to the Lois & Clark world. It's definitely one I'm going to be re-reading on a frequent basis.

Save your money
I have to say, that I was very disappointed in this book. I have read far better stories on the fanfiction archive, and believe me when I say they are also more loyal to the show. The book was one long drag, and thinking back I can't remember how I even ever got to the end.

There's Superman, there's Lois - where's Lois and Clark?
...I had thoroughly enjoyed Cherryh's fantasy novels and so had high expectations of this book - based, so the blurb claimed, on my favourite series and penned by one of my favourite authors. How could it fail?

Well, quite simply, it failed for me because calling it a novel based on the TV series was a fraud and a misnomer. Calling it a novel based on the comic books would have been more honest.

What a huge disappointment! If you are a fan of the comic books you will probably enjoy this tale of Superman battling disasters while Lois investigates an entirely separate plot strand back in Metropolis. I think they were together for about 2 paragraphs in total.

Okay, slight exaggeration. But what I wanted to read about was the characters in the TV show and I didn't find them anywhere in this.

Coupled with the Superman dominated storyline, I found myself increasingly irritated with references and characterisations lifted straight from the comic books - in direct contradiction to the characterisations set up in the TV show. In Cherryh's novel for instance Lois has a cat. She does in the comics, certainly. It must have been invisible on the screen because I never saw it there. Or ever heard it mentioned. There were other such anomolies throughout.

By the end of this book I was wondering if Cherryh had even watched an episode of the show before penning this one.

Nice cover though. ... Read more

Product Description
Sten Duncan had saved the lives of the last warrior and the last priestess-queen of mankind's enemies, the mri. He had come to understand their ways and to value their code of honor. When they planned their escape and he was ordered to trap them, Sten fled into space with them instead. Far across the cosmos was their forgotten homeworld. He could help them find it--and maybe there find the secret that had eluded the military masters of Terra. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

It's hard to takes sides in this war
Again, as with _Kesrith,_ this is not a separate work, but merely the middle third of a very long novel about the postwar relationships between three very different species: the regul, non-warlike, physically unable to lie, who for two thousand years have hired the much more humanoid mri to fight their wars for them, and who have greatly benefitted thereby; the mri, psychologically as alien from humans as the regul, though they don't look it, and who will always do everything their own way, even if it means personal death and the end of their species; and humans, who seem not to have changed much after centuries in space. At the end of the first volume, the two surviving mri had been taken into the care (and control) of the humans, newly in control of Kesrith. Now, for reasons of his own, the governor has turned them loose in a ship with a navigational tape taken from one of their holy objects, which humans believe may lead them to unknown mri bases, but which the mri know will take them home -- back to the planet of their origins, which they had left apparently 100,000 years or so before. Accompanying them is Sten Duncan, a behind-the-lines tactical specialist who has become sympathetic to the mri. More than that, he finds that on this voyage he will not merely have to "go native," he will have to become as much a mri warrior as it is possible to become. And in that he eventually finds his true self. Cherryh continues to show the reader what each of the three species looks like in the eyes of the other two, which makes this trilogy a near-masterpiece of psycho-sociological inventiveness and understanding. Be sure to have the third volume close at hand!

Arrive, forewarn, and prepare...
Surviving a graceful extinction, the two remaining Mri are kept alive in the labs of human scientists and protected from Regul - for now.

The Regul have destroyed all that remains of the Mri base on Kesrith, and look to exterminate them completely.

With a great weight of guilt for betraying what he knows Melein & Niun's wishes must be, Duncan is sent with the Mri and two Dusei to pilot their return to the origin of all Mri life: their ancient homeworld.

Dangerously quartered with them, Duncan must come to some uneasy arrangement, and it seems that nothing will do but that he renounces his humanity and becomes absorbed by the Kel.

Trailed by human warships bent on discovering the extent of the Mri threat, and by Regul ship also, it is a race against time to arrive, forewarn, and prepare.

As the trail of dead planets begin to streak past, all begin to fear for what will remain in the cradle of Mri civilization: Kutath.

kotori ojadis@yahoo.com

Much Better Than Book One (Kesrith)
Shon'jir, the 2nd book in the "Faded Sun" trilogy, is much better than Kesrith (the 1st book).It's not a matter of writing styles or ability (which are the same in both books: very good).It's just that in Shon'jir something actually happens.It even ends at a reasonable point (for the 2nd book in a trilogy).In the 1st book, Cherryh basically introduces the mri and the main charactersIn this book, she brings us through Duncan's journey (in all senses) towards the mri.A very good, very interesting book. ... Read more

Product Description
Kutath was an ancient world and a dying one. In ages past, its best sons and daughters had gone to the stars to serve as mercenaries in the wars of aliens. Now the survivors of its star-flung people, the mri, had come back-in the form of a single woman, the last priestess-queen Melein, and a single man, the last warrior Nuin. And one other-the human Sten Duncan who had deserted Earth-s military forces to swear service to the foes of his own species-.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fasten your seat-belt!
Wow! What a finish! This is the final third of the trilogy (don't even think of trying to read them out of order), and it's almost cinematic in the degree of slam-bang action the author includes to balance the sometimes lengthy psycho-sociological ruminations -- which are fascinating nonetheless. Kutath is the planet of the mri's origins before they went out into space as mercenaries, more than 100,000 years ago. Now, the last two survivors of that part that left have returned home and they're determined this time to have "a place to stand," the fears of humans and regul notwithstanding. And Duncan, fortunately for them, is a very large part of that. As in the first two sections, Cherryh shows us what each of the three species involved in this struggle look like from the viewpoint of each of the others, and this time the regul come up short in thinking they understand both humans and mri better than they actually do. A first-rate epic.

What conclusion will satisfy, when a planet is dying?
After countless generations of journeying, the Voyaging Mri, those of their people who went out have returned - the remanants all that is left of the thousands: Melein, she'pan of all the Mri, and Niun the last warrior of his planet Kesrith.

Returned to Kutath, Mri homeworld, to the planet so ancient it is dying, the long gone & windstorms sweeping across the continents denying any mercy or respite.

The dusei, great beasts empathic & occasionally bonded with Mri returned with these two survivors, and the dusei have found a natural habitat on Kutath...

Having defeated the champion of the ja'anom and Melein accepted as Mother to the clan, Duncan has been sent as their emmissary to the human ships in orbit - ships who have already destroyed what little of civilisation remained on Kutath, swayed by the greedy & treacherous Regul.

Tailed back, the Regul & human alliance (which followed the ship which sent Melein & Niun along with Duncan to Kutath) is badly shaken when Regul obliterate the warning beacon Duncan had set, calling for peace.

Returning to treaty Duncan alerts the human command to this treachery & assasinates the Regul Elder responsible for the atrocity.

The Regul linger on now only to eradicate the last of the Mri, fearing that that might and prowess which makes the Mri mighty warriors might now be turned against Regul races, and fearful that perhaps the Humans will enter into an alliance.

Duncan has been returned with an answer of hope, but to travel half a world across a desert of sand is not the work of days.

Half dying from the ardurous conditions and strain upon his human body, he returns to the Mri trailed by new disaster and precarious alliance in the space above planet.

Even within the humans ship there is dissent and misdirection, while the Regul quicken to maturity making them capable of decision & action.

In this amazing conclusion to the celebrated "Faded Sun" trilogy, Cherryh wraps up all, managing with deftness & skill to introduce even new characters who resonate with the reader.

Drawing forth fears and hopes and a stirring hate of the Regul even whilst understanding their convoluted reasonings, the reader is immersed in the fabulous worlds of Kel, Mri, and brotherhood.

References and comparisons to Samurai are ridiculous over-simplifications, for the Mri could as well be compared to the Hindu Indians, with their inward turning vision and disdain for outsiders.Even the Arabic nomads could have provided inspiration for the intricate and multi-layered aliens depicted by Cherryh in this series.

With keen anticipation I awaited the delivery of this final book, and satisfaction & loss both occur as I close the last pages and dwell on the endings.

It would give great pleasure to see this story extended beyond the original three books, and I believe there is a scope for it, but it's up to the author to provide it!

Here's hoping!

kotori ojadis@yahoo.com
... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

If the future had giant cans of RAID, the book would be six pages long
It's probably safe to say that there isn't anyone better at writing aliens than Cherryh.

Sure, some people manage to pull it off at least once, but Cherryh seems to have the knack of doing it again and again.Frankly, it's easy to make aliens that seem like people with bigger eyes or ears or a funny way of talking, or make your aliens so oblique that they're more setpieces for the characters to react to than anything else . . . Cherryh makes aliens that are actually alien in feel, but are still able to interact with the main characters and keep the plot moving.Sometimes the aliens are the main characters, and its the actual people who seem out of place.I really don't think she gets enough credit for it.

In this novel, one of her many Alliance-Union novels, she gives us the setting of Serpent's Reach.A part of the galaxy that is inhabited by a weird set of hive-mind insect aliens, its colonized by a band of humans . . . at which point the other races freak and proceed to not let anyone in or out, leaving the colonists that are in there to develop their own culture and relationship with the local marat.

So of course over the years the humans have developed into families that are constantly scheming and aligning with each other.But when one family gets wiped out, the lone surviving member of the family decides to take some action and bring everyone else down.

On its face, this is probably one of the harder Cherryh books to get into, the opening scenes with the family still alive seemed slow to me.Cherryh isn't really huge on exposition, so you can have to pick up the details of the culture as you go along, which can be difficult as everyone in the story more or less treats this all as utterly normal.But things pick up fantastically as soon as the family gets wiped out and Raen starts to put together her apparently ultra-complicated plan for revenge, which at first seems to involve mostly wandering around from place to place and doing her best not to get killed.

But what makes the book fascinating is how Cherryh creates this very isolated culture with its tiers (the Kontrins are in charge and basically immortal until someone shoots them, the regular Betas, and the slave-like clone azi), creates an entirely separate fascinating culture of the marat (a set of four hives, each one is linked in the head and thus not really able to wrap their mandibles around the thought of people dying), and then proceeds to ram the two together with a catalyst event to see what happens.

This can make for some rough going at times, because as I said earlier, Cherryh isn't really big on explaining things as she goes along, so some mental math is required to figure out who is who (I was still a bit lost on the differences between the two companies) or what exactly Raen is up to, but the end result moves, never stopping once the pieces are put into motion.Her ability to create rather gripping political battles out of a set of politics that she made up entirely is pretty unmatched, and in their own way are just as interesting as the battles that keep cropping up.As a race, the marat borrow a lot from insects, but no matter how often they appear in the book they never stop appearing utterly strange and unrelentingly dangerous.

It's a book of slow-burning pleasures, agreed, but the intersection of the marat, azi, Kontrin, and betas in their little chamber pot of a star system is way better than the description of the book would indicate (it's far from a typical revenge saga, with most of the principles hardly meeting) and its a testament to her skill that she can make a far-future setting with weird insect aliens seem completely real, so that the triumphs and torments that they go through are well-felt, and utterly earned.

I just hoped for a different ending
After reading Downbelow Station (highly recommended), I ventured into Serpent's Reach. Exceptional story telling and witt. At times I would just have to smile and admire the depth and complexity of this amazing plot. Cherryh does a great job of letting us in on the way a different species thinks, feels and communicates. Her ability to do this is second to none. My only complaint about this story (spoiler alert) is that Raen really doesn't save the day. As a matter of fact she makes things worse. Everything around her is disruppted, destroyed or dies. I was anticipating some remarkable twist that would make all things right, but it never came.

A Spark in a Powder Room
Serpent's Reach (1980) is an SF novel in the Alliance-Union Universe.In 2223, the interstellar probe Celia discovered the majat, a sapient alien species, on Alpha Hydri III -- Cerdin -- in the Serpent's Reach.The majat body structure and organization was much like social insects such as ants.At the time of discovery, there were four different hives, each ruled by a collective intelligence with memories spanning millions of years.

There were no survivors from the Celia, but the hives did decide that each human was an individual intelligence.In 2229, the crew of the Delia probe was kept alive and, in 2235, under terms of the Hydri Treaty, one shipload of colonists was allowed to settle on the planet.These became the Kontrin Company.The colonists, however, brought a shipload of embryos, from which were grown the Betas.These Betas, in turn, grew clones of themselves, the azi, with biological timers that limited lifespan to forty years.

In this novel, Raen a Sul hant Meth-maren is Kontrin.She is the direct lineal descendent of The Meth-maren, destined to lead the family some day.For the past fifteen years, she has been learning the things that she should know to govern.Since all Kontrin have been made potentially immortal by the majat, she has many years of learning before she is old enough to have fun.

One day, the family estate at Kethiuy is visited by the Houses of Thon and Yalt, but these welcome guests bring others from the House of Hald and, worse yet, members of the Ruil-sept of the Meth-marens.Neither Hald or Ruil would have dared to set foot on the estate without Thon and Yalt.The Ruil cadet-sept has come to suggest a change in the relationships with the majat, but the talks are only a cover for an attack on the Sul-sept.

Only Raen survived the vicious attack by the Ruil-sept, Red and Gold majats and majat-azi.She manages to escape to the nearby Hive of the Blue majats and to convince the Hive Mother to help her wrest Kethiuy from the Ruil-sept and others who have assisted in the attack.She succeeds in destroying the Ruil-sept, but the Blue Hive is also destroyed and she is captured.

She is brought before the Council and Eron Thel, the head of the conspiracy, is almost allowed to relinquish Raen to her enemies.Yet Moth, second oldest of all Kontrin, protests that there has been no vote and Lian, the Eldest, agrees with Moth.Lian makes a speech, at the conclusion of which Moth kills all the known conspirators.Raen is banished from Cerdin.

She chooses to go to Meron.The following year, Pol and Morn Hald appear and confront her.She sends Morn away, but Pol stays for dinner.They meet occasionally at social events and smile at each other, but they never meet in private.

Raen lives through a few assignation attempts, but never gives the Council any reason to curb her freedoms.When Lian is assassinated, she continues her usual social activities.She moves on to Andra and then Kalind.But then she leaves Kalind on the Andra's Jewel.Every Kontrin seems to know that she is in transit but none knows where she is going.

During the voyage, Raen challenges an azi to a Sej match, to continue until the ship reaches her destination.Jim, the azi, agrees and they play ten games a night until the ship reaches Istra, the contact point with the Outsiders.Jim gains a lead until the final day and only loses the match in the last game.Jim now belongs to Raen, so she buys him a full set of luxury clothes and accessories and installs him within her quarters.

A Blue majat is also on the Andra's Jewel.On the last day of the voyage, he awakes and Raen calms him down.He is a messenger from the Kalind Blue Mother to the Istran Blue Hive.Raen suspects that he is the only Blue messenger to reach Istra since the destruction of the Cerdin hive.

In this story, Raen discerns a plot on Istra that didn't die with Eron Thel.She sets out to correct the problem, making contacts with Beta companies and the Blue Hive.She burdens Jim with more responsibility and he expands his programming.

This story is typical of the author, with one human becoming the main contact with an alien species.However, there are secondary plots, including the results of providing humans with potential immortality. Jim also undergoes a significant metamorphosis by immersing himself in Raen's deepstudy tapes.

Highly recommended for Cherryh fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures and human adaptations.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Amazing World and Culture Building!
What would a world be like if Ants were the evolved creatures?
What would their cultures be like? What would their values be? How could they interact with Humans? You will never look at a trail of Ants the same way again! What would happen if Humans could live for hundreds of years, how wealthy and powerful could they become?
These are the introductery concepts of this amazing story that explores betrayal, revenge, isolation in a new and fascinating way. This short book is plenty to work over for anyone. I just wish that Ms. Cherryh could manage to come back to this story some time and explore more of this fascinating tale.

One of my Favorites by Cherryh
Some of her works go slow for me, but I was completely enthralled by this story. Her characterizations are vivid and realistic. I've read it several times now! ... Read more

Product Description
A sequel to "Rusalka", set in the magical world of pre-Christian Russia. Petyr and Eveshka, now married and living in domestic bliss in Uulemet's cottage, begin to realize that the past is not truly buried. Premonitions lead to a sense of unease that is terrifyingly realized. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good
Good but not great. Better than Rusalka, because it enters the story with the characters more fully defined and fleshes out the relevant backstory and cosmology more. It also begins with the characters is a higher state of stability and happiness and then brings them crashing down threatened with utter ruin, which works in a classic dramatic sense. This is the way to make this kind of scenario play out, and shows Jim Butcher quite fully as the third rate hack he is by comparison. Nevertheless, as the series proceeds some of the appeal thorugh deconstruction of Western fairy tales and horror elements wears off somewhat, and the final arc somehow lacks the full urgency implicit to the scenario.

Worse than: Finity's End by C. J. Cherryh
Better than: Rusalka by C. J. Cherryh

Amazing
I read this book when I was in fifth grade... I just now found it because I had forgotten the name... I mean that was quite a few years ago.This book had made an impression, for the longest time I've tried to remember the title, I kept thinking it was Cherevnog so I'd do searches with it... but my search would come up empty.Finally after nearly 15 yrs I found the book that had caught and kept my attention at such a young age.This was the first and only fantasy novel I had ever read and it captivated me.Great book a MUST read, I will be purchasing a copy for my library.

Tried too hard to be something else.
Cherryh is one of my favorite authors, but this book disappointed me.As a folk tale, or combination of many folk tales, it was interesting, and the exotic, tsarist Russian location was very appealing.I liked the way the author brought together many magical beasts and beings, most of which would be unknown to a Western reader.However, the characters spend too much time arguing, worrying, and talking at each other about their anxieties, and they never really get around to interacting.The theme seemed to be something to do with "be careful what you wish for" but the lesson was lost in the confusion. The bad guys weren't so much evil as conflicted characters, and even they spent a lot of time justifying their actions and feelings to the others.In short, there was just too much talk!Most folk tales have good and evil and the line between them is broad and obvious; but in this book, everyone seemed to be on the same side.It made the story plodding and not much fun to read.I'm not sure whether Cherryh was trying to write a different kind of fairy tale, or had some other target in mind, but she didn't make it work.

This is by far the best series I've read by her.
Chernevog, Rusalka, and Yvengie are the greatest books.I enjoyed the atmosphere.An old-time russian fairy-tale.This series pulled together bits of all folklore I know, and even taught me some things I wasn't awareof. The characters are likeable, even the truely evil ones.You canimagine where they are coming from and why it is they are acting like theyare. Perhaps it is a bit predictable, but it's a fairy-tale.

A good read
Cherryh sets the book in old Russia and explores the old admonition, "Be careful what you wish for. You may get it."The characters spend much time worrying over unintended consequences of disturbing natureand run afoul of situations and villains as a result.Their indecision isoften painful to them and readers alike.The characters are well developedand the story interesting.My only regret is that I can read faster thanshe writes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Very Good End to the Trilogy
Kutath, the final book in the "Faded Sun" series, picks up where the 2nd book, "Shon'jir," leaves off.In this book, Duncan has completed his journey towards the mri and Cherryh takes us towards a final resolution of the mri/human/regul relationship.The book is just as well-written and interesting as "Shon'jir."About the only negative I can come up with is the somewhat drawn-out initial tableau involving walking across the desert:it gets a bit tedious after a while.A very good book.

Please Note -- order of the trilogy
Kesrith Comes first, Shon'Jir second, Kuthath last

When I saw the list, it was reversed

A culture on the verge of extinction fights for survival
C.J. Cherryh envelops the reader in a tale of one culture's struggle for survival in the face of overwhelming odds, and does so in the context of a riveting narrative. Cherryh has created, in her science fiction, one of the most cohesive futures I have ever encountered; this novel deeply explores one ancient culture living in that future. In a time when so many cultures and ways of life are vanishing from the earth, this tale set on a distant world hits very close to home.

When the Mri, a proud and noble race of warriors serving as mercenaries in exchange for a planet to call home, confront the human enemies of their employers, they encounter a method of warfare alien to their system of honor. No match for the Mri one to one, despite their similar physiology, the humans fight without honor, driving the Mri to extinction with superior numbers and firepower. Both the humans and the regul - former employers of the Mri whose trade disputes with humans sparked the war in which the Mri were slaughtered - see them as nothing more than professional warriors, the most dangerous killers in the galaxy. They take no prisoners, they have no fear of death, they keep the company of dangerous beasts. And yet there is a deep and powerful truth at the heart of Mri culture, hidden even to the warriors, who are the hand of contact with the outise world. True secrets of Mri culture have never been known to the outside, until one human being makes direct, personal contact. To understand their ways, he will have to become more Mri than human...

--Phil MacEachron ... Read more

Product Description
A compelling heroine...a future as detailed as that of Herbert's Dune...and finely orchestrated suspense right up to the end.Strongly recommended.Amazon.com Review
A compelling heroine...a future as detailed as that ofHerbert's Dune...andfinely orchestrated suspense right up to the end.Strongly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Don't Buy This!
Buy the complete Cyteen version Cyteen not this.The publisher decided to chop Cyteen into 3 pieces and publish them separately - without the author's knowledge.

Last of the Cyteen Trilogy
The culmination of books one and two,' The Betrayl' and 'The Rebirth',the Vindication finally wraps up the saga and all the loose ends and potetials that Cherryth has so wickedly created. A lesser author would loseyou with the complexity of the characters and the plot and the world, butCherryth just manages to capture your mind, suck it into the book, and holdit hostage until the thing is done. WARNING, do not start reading this bookbefore a work day.Or, any of Cherryth's.Start on friday night, so thatyou will have plenty of time or you might end up in a lot of trouble. Bythe end of this book, you will want to re-read all the alliance books justto reexperience the saga now that Union has been made real to you.

As apublic service announcement, the other books loosely in the order writtenis 'Merchenter's Luck', 'DownBelow Station', 'Forty Thousand in Gehenna','RimRunner', and 'Tripoint'.

...glimpses the future, food for thought.

I enjoyed all three books of the Cyteen trilogy, and Vindication was an excellent conclusion to the series. Besides good character development, the book vividly describes a society and future for the human race that is credible and believable.

Human cloning is possible today.In the future of "Cyteen", human cloning techniques have developed to the point that copies of people can be produced and raised so that the copies, in effect are the original people, down to their memories, feeling and reactions to specific stimuli.

Ari Emory, the clone, political leader of Union, lives to take revenge on those who assasinated her original.Quite a concept, and carried out brilliantly by Cherryh, one of the finest writers of fiction I have ever read. Dan Kardas

A book you that every SF fan should have read!
Daniel Spichtinger Cherryh manages to create a highly complex universe. Many details of the plot refer to other novels (e.g. to Downbelow Station). Anybody who has read other works by Cherryh will enjoy these cross references. But the book is also delightful because of its thrilling story, intriguing characters and the dense athmosphere Cherryh creates. Reading the Cyteen novels is one of the most pleasent experiences I ever had (at least with books). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

All the world comes to the fair, sooner or later
Adams, Robert: "Prologue" - This overview of the fair at Ithkar outlines its evolution from a simple religious festival, honoring the first appearance of the Three Lordly Ones in their Divine Egg, to a weeks-long fair. The temple makes good money, providing well-kept, well-policed fairgrounds.

Carter, Lin: "The Goblinry of Ais" - Lady Ais is a great beauty, whose fame has spread far over the years. But now she's interested in something more dangerous than politics...

Cherryh, C.J. "To Take a Thief" Sphix, like the small sly animal that's his namesake, is a 'good' thief: he never takes anything whose loss'll hurt the victim. But no one can ever keep to one level of evil...

Clayton, Jo: "Jezeri and Her Beast Go to the Fair and Find More Excitement Than They Want" When Jezeri's family took in Old 'Un, Tanu (a tiny little thing, whose like had never before been seen), crept out of his gear and won Jezeri's heart. Unfortunately, someone at the fair appears to know more about Tanu than Jezeri does...

Llywelyn, Morgan: "Fletcher Found" - The narrator, a "cuckoo's chick" among the mountain forge-folk, has in his loneliness become convinced that he's a foundling of those beings from another world, the Three Lordly Ones.

Mathews, Patricia: "Well Met in Ithkar" Master jeweller Corielle is reestablishing herself after what she can only now call 'the fortunes of war'. She'll never forget the voice of the man who ordered the beating that blinded her, even years later at Ithkar fair. But how can she formally identify him by voice alone?

Mayhar, Ardath: "Esmene's Eyes" Esmene's magnificent embroidery is magical - when she pours her very life into it. Despite her illness (she's slowly dying of internal injuries), she answers the priests' summons the fair, to wield her talents one last time.

Norton, Andre: "Swamp Dweller" Kara is one of the Quatka, animal trainers whose companions are Second-Kin to them, cherished and communicated with. Even the ugly, abused reptile Kara found in a beast seller's cage at the fair deserves consideration. But Kara feels that he has hidden potential...If you like this story, try Norton's _Moon of Three Rings_.

Sampson, Judith: "Qazia and a Ferret-Fetch" The evil wizard Chond is more than a match for any hero, and his ferret-fetch familiar will never let a prisoner escape. But when blind Hoel fetches up at the Joyous Goblet in Ithkar, tavernmistress Qazia won't let her guest be dragged away. (The ferret-fetch, by the way, is an interesting character in his own right.)

Schlobin, Roger C.: "For Lovers Only" Brother Jerome "the Huncher" piously wears a hair shirt - concealing his thefts from the temple treasury. He was driven half-crazy (and into the monastery) when his lover dumped him *very* brutally for a richer man, and he's financing a suitable revenge.

Schutz, J.W. "Dragon's Horn" - Tonya's father left only debts and the Enchanted Doll Show. While the dolls move by enchantment, they need human voices; Tonya hires strangers to fill out the parts of Dragon and King, while Lord Caum licks his chops, waiting to enslave Tonya if she can't pay off the debt after the fair...

Schwartz, Susan: "Homecoming" Andriu fled his novitiate at the Temple of the Three Lordly Ones fifteen years ago. As a dream-singer, able to shape reality with his songs, he's been in and out of scrapes for years. Now suffering from lung-fever, he's come home. But someone has far worse trouble than he; Vassilka needs an exorcism for an unborn child...

Springer, Nancy: "The Prince out of the Past" Even spirits are drawn to Ithkar Fair.

Waters, Elisabeth: "Cold Spell" Eirthe the candlemaker refused a Thotharn priest's request to make candles in the likeness of wealthy merchants. He retaliated by cold-cursing her: her candles will no longer burn. But she can't prove he's running a protection racket, so how can she make a living?

This book was full of interesting and compelling stories.
The stories in this book are fascinating. It delves into the lives of manystrange and colorful people. There are interesting and fanciful tales ofadventure. It is a non stop look into the way many different authors weavetheir tales. ... Read more

Product Description
This omnibus contains the final two Chanur novels, Chanur's Homecoming and Chanur's Legacy. This groundbreaking series chronicles the compelling first contact between humans and multiple alien races, and is noted for its unique viewpoint: that of the alien protagonists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

We are the aliens here!
Every detail of this universe has logic and history. Cherryh drops you into this story just as he dropped Tully at Meetpoint. It is so well thought out that it seems highly probable we'll be meeting one of the Prides, (but hopefully not the Kif) when we finally develop "faster than light" drive. May we all live to see it.

Return of the Pride and Chanur, the next generation.
Really anyone (smart) who loves sci-fi should really love this set but only along with the Chanur Saga. Overall, this is one of my favorite series of all time, and it still holds up, but really by todays standards two books is about the correct size.

The entire Chanur story is a very cool one in which the Protagonist is a Lioness Privateer, along with her female cousins staking the families fortunes on their spacefaring business ventures. One day a hairless alien walks naked onto their loading dock bruised and bleeding, and thus begins the adventure. It makes for an interesting perspective, as the human is the alien, and thus has to have his words translated for the story.

In Chanurs Endgame, we find the end of that story in Chanur's Homecoming, and the first story in the next generation of the family in Chanur's Legacy, as Hilfy, Pyanfur's willful niece gets her own ship and insist on having her own way.

I hope that one day Ms. Cherryh might find it in her heart to grace us with a few more tales from Meetpoint Station. But in any case this is an excellent read!

This is a reprint!
I was disappointed to find that this was a compilation of books I already owned.I did not return it, because a friend of mine wanted it.Would be nice if description would specifically state "previously published as".

Have a very Cherryh Holiday
For a very Cherryh Christmas (or Hannukah, or --?), give the SF fans on your list the five Chanur books in two omnibus volumes: The Chanur Saga, and Chanur's Endgame.

I liked the Chanur saga: The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture and The Kif Strike Back, but I absolutely loved the Chanur's Endgame - the omnibus finis of the saga, with Chanur's Homecoming completing Pynafur's tale, and Chanur's Legacy moving on to the story of the mature Hilfy as captain of her own ship.

I had doubts that I could enjoy Hilfy's story as much as Pyanfur's books, but it was everything I could have hoped for. I give both books in Chanur's Endgame a five star rating - and if it were possible, I'd give it a ten.

Pyanfur's finale was full of political double-cross, suspenseful action, and the extremely alien aliens that Cherryh does so well. Pyanfur played for the highest possible stakes in a game of cross-species brinkmanship that would result in the destruction of her home world and her entire species if she made one false move.

Hilfy's story was an amusing revelation of the shto', and has an ending I'll never forget. I love the humor and the intelligence that permeates C.J. Cherryh's writing. This Science Fiction fan says of the Chanur books: highly recommended.

Good conclusion to series
Cherryh continues to be an excellent writer. I've owned the entire series in hardcover for years.I've also, reread this series several times along with her other books.very few dissappoint.The alien viewpoints are among the best written. ... Read more

Product Description
There was a star Gate in Azeroth marked by alien fires that Morgaine must seal. But Morgaine and Vanye have brought devastation to the peaceful land. For the hordes of Shiuan were on their heels, determined to conquer a new land for themselves and to avenge their lost planet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Fires of Azeroth
Good science fiction book that supposedly has ties to the creation of the WarCraft Gaming series.

Character-driven fiction of the VERY highest quality . . .
Wow -- what a climax! The final extended battle scene in this third volume of the trilogy, the summing up of all the threads of plot and character that began in Andur-Kursh months ago -- or maybe thousands of years ago -- all are brought together here. And Cherryh's skill in laying out the scene is such that you don't know what's going to happen until it does. Where the first volume was set in a land of mountains and crags, and the second in a drowning, swampy world, Azeroth is a land of vast forest and vaster plains. The qhal in this world have become the best they could be over the centuries, guarding the forests and the villages of men, laying down laws that ensure peace, and protecting the Gates of their world. Unfortunately, this also makes them difficult to persuade of the need for violence to deal with the scores of thousands of invaders from Hiuaj and Shiun who came through the Gate from their dying home world at the end of the last volume. Vanye is separated again from Morgaine, to whom he is bound by an unbreakable oath, though it's clear now that his regard for his mistress is far stronger than any oath he could take. The character of Roh, Vanye's cousin, inhabited now by an ancient, shape-changing qhal, is also developed with great adeptness and considerable sympathy. Finally, the crescendo of the final chapters is nearly unmatched in fantasy or science fiction, even in Cherryh's other works.

Stunning: heads and shoulders above the first two books
I'm the guy who wrote reviews more or less trashing the first two books of the series, largely because of the repetitive quality of the narrative.The first book does set up the characters and plot, but still dwelled on campires and cold food and finding shelter all too much.The second book continued that trend, but in some ways was worse:e.g. it spent the first few chapters on a character whom the writer just gives up on soon thereafter, and it was repetitious thematically in addition to narratively. The little bit of action suffered from Cherryh's penchant for being cryptic at the crucial moments of confrontation."Fires of Azeroth" stands in sharp contrast to both, and it rewards the reader who decides to keep reading.The book flies by with fascinating, unique creatures, deep, complex, and fleshed-out characters of all kinds, towns (instead of just wilderness hacking), confrontations, plausible character development and transformation, a very delicate authorial touch on the subtle romantic tension between the two main characters, and action more gripping than I've read in ages.Cherryh still suffers from a tendency to write a bit cryptically during the action scenes, but these make sense (compared to "Wells" the action of which I thought was pretty close to incomprehensible to the reader) here, and are engaging.That's to be preferred, perhaps, to writers who merely dictate the action, or, like Tolkein, keep deferring it (in my opinion).A huge surprise, this is one of the best fantasy books I have ever read.I'd read the first book at a good pace, really blow through the second book, and then savor this one, the third.

One Of The Best Fantasy Books I've Ever Read
This is One Of The Best Fantasy Books I've Ever Read.

The apex of the Morgaine series.
If you can only read one of the Morgaine trilogy, let it be this one. As with "Well Of Shiuan", this book presents important moral questions to Nhi Vanye and to the reader. But unlike "Well..." this one is far less dark, and not all the characters Vanye and Morgaine encounter are quite as ruthless and self-serving as most of the characters in the previous novel in the series. The dealings of Morgaine and Vanye with the peace-loving humans and qhal of the forest adds a Tolkien-esque air to this particular installment. All this coupled with the development of Roh's character, and Vanye's developing relationship with him, makes for superb reading. ... Read more

Product Description
When a barvarian horde led by the young Jegrai invades the lands guarded by the Order, disaster seems inevitable. But scientist-mage Felaras discovers the truth behind the invasion--Jegrai's people aren't raiders but refugees, in search of sanctuary from powerful enemies! Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

premise interesting, but book doesnt follow through
If you are looking for the detailed world building and the finely crafted characters of a good Cherryh book, this unfortunately is not the book.It takes an interesting premise and bogs down into a series of boring committee meetings.Potential conflicts are either ignored, or come to too easy of a resolution.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars
This is a Mercedes Lackey novel. It has her style writen all over it. It's not up there with her best books, but her fans will like it.

Excellent
Reap the Whirlwind is an excellent collaboration by Lackey and Cherryh. Cherryh's work is obvious in the plot and setting; every scene fits yet the book isn't predictable or flawed by excess drama. Lackey's influence on the characters is equally obvious; they're warmer and better developed than Cherryh's usually are. Collaborations are often worse than either author produces alone, but as a fan of both Lackey and Cherryh I'm happy to say that this one works.

A Hidden Treasure
"Misty" Lackey (Mercedes) contributed to the writing of this delightful little book of "magic" ie...science...fantasy. It is set in a world where there is a society that is devoted to learning andknowledge. It also contains lots of swordwork and battles but with littlegore. The heroine is an older woman who is fighting to keep her societyfrom tearing itself apart politically. There are mongol type hordes fleeingfrom a greater danger, alliances, political intrigue, life, death,betrayal, love, and retribution. This is a wonderful summer beach readwhere you will laugh, cry, and even cheer the good guys in the end. This isa good read for high schoolers and an easy read for adults who just want ashort escape for a while. If you are expecting a CJ Cherryth book, it'snot in her style. It's more in the style of Mercedes who contributed mostof the plot, style, etc. to the book.Girls will especially like this booksince the heroines are real and believeable. The people in this book aren'tshown as superheroes or perfect characters. The young have problems, theold have ambitions, and the innocent sometimes gets hurt. Prettybelieveable for a story!

Lackey wrote it, not Cherryh.
Mercedes Lackey actually wrote the text of this book, not CJ Cherryh. If you are a Cherryh fan, you will probably not like it. It takes good basic plot and wordbuilding and ruins them with plebeian writing and puerileideas, typical of Lackey's work. ... Read more

Product Description
The world of Shiuan was doomed. Rising waters and shattering earthquakes had sealed its fate. The only escape routes were the Gates. And just as this knowledge dawned on the desperate tribes and cities there appeared the woman Morgaine--whose mission was to seal Shiuan's Gates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

First-rate for a "middle" book
The middle volume of a trilogy is always a difficult animal: It lacks both the background and set-up material necessary to introduce the story, and the climax promised for the final third. Here, Cherryh forthrightly treats it as the "bridge" story it is, and it's a rather depressing read -- though necessary for what comes after. Where Andur-Kursh in the first book was a land of armed holds on crags and hard winters, Hiuaj is a slowly-drowning land of earthquakes under the thumb of the qual halflings of Shiuan to the north. Jhirun is a young barrow-folk girl of the south, dangerously fey in the eyes of her family and neighbors, who rejects her home for the legendary prospect of safety in the north when Morgaine and Vanye, her sworn right hand, appear suddenly before her. But where Morgaine spent only a hundred years in the Gate between coming and going, the army she led in Andur-Kursh, and which disappeared into the Gate of Ivrel, landed in Hiuaj a thousand years in the past, and Jhirun is one of their distant descendants. Morgaine's quest this time is to pursue Vanye's cousin, Roh -- who is no longer what he seems -- in an attempt to close Shiuan's Gate before Roh can use it for his own ends. It's a much darker and much more unpleasant journey than the straightforward quest in the first book, but Roh is a fascinating character: How much of the original man is left, how much is now the body-changing qual who inhabits him? You should have all three volumes lined up on your shelf so you can read straight through this one, put it down and pick up the third volume. The whole epic runs to 700 pages and it's well worth your time.

Hurry through this to get to Fires of Azeroth
Cherryh seems to be just warming up here.The first book, "Gate," set up the characters, but was otherwise not up to much."Well" is choppy and repetitive -- and in desperate need of editing (like dropping the first couple of chapters, and drawing out the ending so it reads better), but is well worth rushing through to get to "Fires of Azeroth.""Fires" brings it all together, with fantastic dialogue, action, characters, and so on.So don't give up.Blow through this, and get to Azeroth.You'll be happy you did.

The excellent follow-up to "Gate of Ivrel"
This tale of Morgaine and Vanye following Roh through the gate into a world slowly being engulfed by rising seas is a good deal more engrossing than "Gate of Ivrel". It's a very dark tale, Roh, the halfling qhal, and the humans from the Barrows-hold all seem to be only out for themselves. But it is definitely a fine story, raising important moral questions mainly about Vanye's loyalties and the nature of evil. Many books claim to have transcended the black/white portrayal of good and evil, but with this book (and its even better follow-up, "Fires of Azeroth"), Cherryh truly does achieve what most of them couldn't; exhibiting the ambivalent nature of the border of good and bad. Superb.

TENSION ... that makes you beg for more.

This whole series, consisting of "Gate of Ivrel", "Well of Shiuan", "Fires of Azeroth", and "Exile's Gate", is my favorite of any author's, and I've read A LOT.

Cherryh's style is clean and dry, but at the same time very intense and passionate.Instead of using flowery words and melodrama to spoon-feed emotion to the reader, she uses common words and short, almost aggressive phrasing.The tension and passion and danger are drawn with a sharpness and clarity that is almost painful.A deceptively simple word or glance between these characters, whether friends or enemies, will at times bring that tension to a breathless peak, but without the expected release afterwards.

This is not an easy, exciting Harlequin-esque roller-coaster of peaks and valleys.This is a sharp ridge on a bare mountain with an occasional rock slide.

This is not a graceful Puccini aria that makes you want to weep and feel melancholy.This is avant-garde jazz where a single painfully high note is drawn out in the background for so long that you find yourself begging for a release that you fear may never come but then again do you really want it to?

It's exhausting, but in the best sense.

And about the 4th time I read the series, I found that it was funny too!It is, of course, a very dry humor, but it's there.And not a joke or eccentric comedic bit player to be seen.

It's easy to fall in love with these characters.They're very different from each other, but they're both excruciatingly familiar!

Cherryh creates the perfect male characters for a straight female audience.Cherryh's men are the kind many of us would create for ourselves.(Which is very different from the men male writers create.)Cherryh's men are capable of great valor and honor, but also of very deep emotion and affection, and self-reflection.

Also, her men often feel strong love and affection and respect for other men, without there being any sexual element to it.This is not only unique, but very difficult.The ability to create tension between male characters who love each other without it reading like sexual tension or a Sunday night "family drama" is something I rarely see.I appreciate it when I do.

My circle of friends has a shorthand way of expressing our reaction to this exhausting mix of physical danger and emotional tension, just by groaning "AAAAAHHHHGHHHHGHGHHHHHG!!!".If one of us starts off a conversation this way, another might say "Are you dying, or did you just finish a Cherryh?" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

quite amusing.
The first part of the Sword of Knowledge trilogy is the best one. A vivid descripition of the fall of an empire and the flight of a couple of scientists with a powerful secret ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The first of Merovingen Nights
Numbering can get confusing as this book is shown as No. 1, but the following anthology is also shown as No. 1. The main character, Altair Jones, is one of those people that you are immediately drawn to (somewhat like Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo").The young woman Jones has inherited a canal boat from her mother, and poles it through the canals of a Venice like city, sometimes carrying people, and sometimes carrying freight.The job brings her into contact with a wide range of society and leads to various adventures.It is the Jones character, more than anyone, who carries the series forward in the following anthologies.

Jones does not really trust men, but when she rescues one from a canal she becomes involved in an affair.Mondragon enters into her life.The canalers have their own form of society, separate from the nobel families, merchants, artisans, entertainers, etc.From their standpoint, it is pretty much live and let live as long as other people don't cause them trouble.

I always wished that Cherryh would give us more of Jones, but we have to make do with rationed out segments in the following anthologies.Like Lisbeth Salander, she does not deal with police, but canalers have their own ways of settling things if you get on their wrong side.

Worth seeking out. Great SF, great world, great storytelling
This book is CJ Cherryh at her best. Six hundred years ago, an alien race declared that a human colony was in *their* space and the humans needed to leave. But not all of them were willing to be evicted, and they endured the "Scouring" when the Sharrh came to finish the job. The planet itself added to the survivors' problems, with earthquakes and floods, so the cities -- particularly Merovingen, where the action takes place -- began to sink into the sea. The descendents cursed their ancestors for fools, ever since.

The story itself -- about a 17 year old "canal rat" who saves the life of a rich and gorgeous guy -- is one of her best love stories, and the action is non-stop. But it's her ability to create a believeable universe that awes me about the author. The world Cherryh created is absolutely real, and she brings it to life with its grittiness, poverty, and refusal to embrace despair. This is definitely SF, not simply a love story with space aliens on a blue screen in the background; Cherryh extrapolates the religions and economics that would result from the abandonment of the human colony.

Sometimes, an author will have a very clear picture of the world but deftly keep most of the details in her head, revealing them only as the need arises. In this case, the world-building details are clearly described, complete with appendices at the back of the book -- because Merovingen became the setting for one of the better Shared Worlds book series. (This is a whole, standalone novel, which you could read without feeling that you're committed to a lifestyle; the others in the series are short stories tied together with a Cherryh-written frame.)

I've had this book since it first came out, and I've re-read it several times. The spine is almost worn through, and my name is scribbled inside the front cover because I've loaned it out so often. It's truly a great SF novel: not in a life-changing Dune sort of way, but just a "Darnit, that's a good story!" sense. With so many Amazon sellers having inexpensive copies of this out-of-print title, it's silly *not* to get a copy.

A good book from a great author.
Before I talk about the story, you need to know two things about the book.
First, the story is set in the universe of the Union-Alliance novels, yet you don't need those books to know what's going on.The book is a stand alone and has lots of information in the back with maps, chapters on history, fashion and even language.
Second, this was meant to be the first in a series of books, very much like the Thieves' World series, but instead of a walled city of the Middle-Ages filled with magic and crime, this was more like a city-state of Italy (during the Renaissance) filled with politics and, sometimes, guns.
And the series did go on as other authors added their own skill and stories to the books that followed.
Now, for the story.Like all of her books, C.J. Cherryh starts small, with a character we think of as normal and a daily event.Altair Jones, the main female character, rescues a man who is tossed into one of the canals.This is normal - bodies are always being tossed in by gangs.But he lived and happens to be a high-born.He also happens to be in the middle of something that seems to get bigger and bigger as the story moves along.By saving him Altair might have also gotten herself involved with a mess that could end up with HER in the canals.
The dangers increase as the knots in this plot are untied and we get close to the truth about what is going on and why.C.J. Cherryh is an artist, crafting the story carefully from start to finish, she never wastes a page, a word or a letter.
This is a must for any of her fans or a good book to start with for people who don't know her works.
I plan to find the rest to see how well the saga went!

I'm 14 and I got the entire book!
ok alot of people didn't really get it, I did. I'm not sure if I just have good reading skills or what. I loved this book, after the first time I read it, I bought it. I love the characters, the descriptions of the scenes and the people were very precise and detailed, alot of books don't give me that clear of an image of the setting to which the author wanted to depict. this one did and it made the reading experience more enjoyable, the plot was difficult and thus made it more interesting and hard to follow, giving the reader more to think about and to keep guessing. I love books like these and I wish authors would write more like them.

Ummmm? What was the main plot?
This book, though I gave it a good rating, was laking a few things. The first thing it was laking was complex characters. They were good or bad, beautiful or ugly, smart or stupid. Second, was that the descriptions of both the sceneries and the characters weren't believable. There were also thing that were over complicated. Like the plot. There couldn't just be a thing happening, or even a thing inside of a thing. No, it was a thing, inside of a thing, inside of a thing inside of a thing, et cetra. I meen, come on, do you really need all those plots and scheems to write an interesting story and keep a plot going? Other than that I loved this book. There were quite a few moments in the book where I wanted to [hit] one of the charcters on the head and scream at them "What were you thinking!..." There were also time when I felt sorry for them, were proud of them, and pleased that they had done something I wanted to happen. The plot, though complicated, was understandable, and you knew exactly what was happening, when it was happening, and whom it was happening to. Not to mention that you were yelling at all the characters at the time! I loved this book, for all that I hated it, I think everyone who loves fantasy should read this marvelous book! ... Read more

Product Description
When the kif seize Hilfy and Tully, Pyanfar and her shipmates enter into a simple rescue attempt that soon becomes a deadly game of interstellar politics. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

I *really* don't want this high-powered intellectual adventure to end . . .
Despite the Star Wars-like title, this is the third in the four-volume Chanur saga and it's basically more of the same, picking up immediately where _Chanur's Venture_ ended -- or stopped. (The division between the two is pretty artificial and may have been ordered by the publisher for budgetary reasons.) Again, Pyanfar Chanur and her intensely loyal crew, all of them her cousins, are trying desperately to survive in the midst of a far-ranging political struggle among half a dozen disparate races over vast distances. Pyanfar and her trading ship got sucked into the plans of her mahendo-sat allies (except maybe they're not such good allies after all) and now she finds herself hooked up with a very ambitious kif -- who, although unpredictable and extremely dangerous, is almost the only one who hasn't played her false. Even Tully, the semi-derelict human whom she rescuedin the first book, an action that largely set off this four-volume saga, seems to have withheld vital information regarding humanity's pending incursion into the volume of space governed by the Compact. Cherryh continues to explicate alien society and psychology without stinting on an action-filled plot. In fact, the last section, with two dockside battle scenes developing pell mell and in parallel and described in alternating chunks, will have you crouched on the edge of your chair. Again, the end of the book is merely a pause; you will want to have the concluding volume handy so you can segue to it immediately.

Again, Great Writing, But No Ending
This is the sequel to "Chanur's Venture."It continues where that book leaves off.Unfortunately, like that book, this one doesn't end properly.The ending here is slightly more reasonable than what the publisher did with "Chanur's Venture," but if you read this book, you'd better have a copy of "Chanur's Homecoming" (the sequel) handy.As with the prior Chanur books, this one is excellently written.However, this one does go on a bit too much with everything possible going wrong at the worst possible time.After about 170 pages of that in "Chanur's Venture," the additional 270 pages here gets exhausting.If the book had ended at a more reasonable point, I'd have given it four stars.

A must read...
If you are an avid Sci-Fi reader and especially look forward to aliens and adventure, then you need this book, and all of the other Chanur books.

Another great book in the Chanur series!
If you like space, aliens, and politics, this struggle will appeal to you.Pyanfar again attempts to protect her human friend and gets her family/crewspiraled into another political hurricane which could cost her familyeverything. ... Read more

Product Description
They said that Ciaran Cuilean was fey-that he had the touch of the Sidhe on him, and on his lands. And it was true. Elvish blood ran in his veins, and he had been to that other world-that parallel and magical land of Eald, where Arafel, the Lady of Trees, held dominion.But what should have been a blessing was as much a curse--for jealousy and fear grew in the lands of men. Shadows of newly awakened evil swarmed across both landscapes threatening to bring the clang and reek of war from the warm hearthstones of the mortal world keeps to the silvery heart of Ealdwood. And Ciaran knew that he must once again put his humanity aside and reclaim his haunted weapons from the Tree of Swords or see both his worlds fold into darkness! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Glossary Included
Perhaps this was a poor introduction to the writing of C.J. Cherryh.The best thing about the book was that it includes a glossary of sorts so you know how to pronounce all the names since they are all Celtic, Welsh, or Old English.Most of the first half of the book is spent introducing the characters and establishing their relationships, but very little is done until nearly midway through in establishing the plot or building to the climax.There is very little, if any foreshadowing, so there's nothing the reader can use to guess how things might turn out.I'm guessing "Down Below Station" would have been a better introduction to the writer.

a great book by a great author
from the back of the book: "They said that Ciaran Cuilean was 'fey'- that he had the touch of the Sidhe on him, and on his lands. And it was true. Elvish blood ran in his veins, and he had been to that other world -that parallel and magical land of Eald, where Arafel, the Lady of Trees,held dominion.But what should have been a blessing was as much a curse- for jealousy and fear grew in the lands of men. Shadows of newly awakenedevil swarmed across both landscapes, threatening to bring the clang andreek of war from the warm hearthstones of the mortal keeps to the silveryheart of Ealdwood. And Ciaran knew that he must once again put his humanityaside and reclaim his haunted weapons from the Tree of Swords or see bothhis worlds fold into darkness!"I first read this book when I wasabout ten, and it made an indelible impression on me. This is definitelyone of the best books C.J. Cherryh has ever written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Outstanding reading experience!
I first encountered Cuckoo's Egg many years ago, and have reread it several times. I have purchased replacements when lent-out copies never returned, and hope that those wanderers have found readers that have appreciated them as I have. This novel is among the best I've ever read, for many reasons.

Cherryh (as is typical for her work) does an excellent job of creating an entire world within which the story takes place.

This is not "hard" science fiction; technology is present, but almost subliminally. The cultural background of the world becomes the source of wonder and motivation, rather than gadgets.

As the story unfolds, the reader gradually comes to understand the world, and why the protagonist is who, and where, he is.

This is neither a mystery novel, nor an intellectual puzzle, but is rich in moments when another bit of the vision snaps into focus.

That is as close as I will come to spoiling the experience, and if you are reading this review, I encourage you to take the journey first-hand without preconceptions.

A science fiction classic
Duun takes the alien infant from the hands of the meds, and carries it up the mountain to his own childhood home. There, he rears the boy as he was reared - except that he had family around him, a family now long gone. He trains the child for entry into his own Hatani guild, that of his people's judges and leaders, although he realizes what will happen when others see Thorn for the first time. After all, he has hard enough work himself to overcome the initial revulsion and instinctive distrust for anything so different. So Thorn grows up wondering: Are there other people like him somewhere? Why is he smooth-skinned, without Duun's furred pelt and without Duun's clawed hands? Why does he lack Duun's pointed, mobile ears, and why is his sense of smell so limited? Yet he has talents of his own, and he can do things that Duun cannot...what is he, anyway? And why?

This is only my second Cherryh book, and I found it just as fascinating as the first one I read by this prolific author. World-building, character development, and plot development all came together in just the right mix. When I reached the end at last, it made perfect sense but still managed to surprise me. Thought-provoking today despite being published decades ago, which as far as I'm concerned makes it a science fiction classic!

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

A Changeling Among Aliens
Cuckoo's Egg (1985) is the third SF novel of the Age of Exploration Series, but is essentially a standalone work.Dana Duun Shtoni no Loghn is a Hatani, a judge without appeal.He has been called Sey -- general -- and Mingi -- lord -- but now he is just Dunn.He is unique, for none have been asked to judge so important a question.

Duun accepts the bundled infant from the meds and starts to care for him.He soon stinks of urine and excrement, but he does not clean himself off, for the infant is more comfortable with the stench.Duun does ask his friend Ellud to prepare Sheon, the estate where he grew up, to provide a simpler environment for the infant's development.

When Sheon has been cleared of the people who had claimed the property, Duun takes the infant there and raises him to be hatani.Since the infant differs from ordinary shonunin, Dunn has to adjust his lessons.Most things, like the five fingers instead of four, are insignificant, but the child grows up to be scent-blind and lacking much fur.

Duun calls the infant Haras, with Thorn as his use name.He teaches Thorn to never say "can't" unless he is physically, mentally or emotionally unable to do something and Thorn finds that Duun never asks him to do anything that he cannot do.Duun also teaches Thorn to deny many of his needs, for these are really only desires.

Duun also teaches Thorn hand-to-hand combat, escape and evasion, and other martial skills.Duun is better than Thorn at close combat, despite the severe injuries that had scarred his face and torso, but the damage to his knee made him less agile than Thorn while climbing.Besides, Thorn's feet gave him a better grip on rocks than Dunn's claws.

One day Thorn is running from Duun as usual, but heads down the mountain instead of up, for he knows that Dunn would expect him to use his greater climbing ability.He runs all the way down to the nearby settlement where he can expect food and water.As he nears the first house, he sees and hears two children playing in the yard.Thorn notices that they are not like him, but look much like Duun.

Seeing him, the children huddle together and yell at him.An adult comes out of the house, sees him and goes back for his gun.Thorn decides not to attack them, but instead runs for home.Other adults join the chase, shooting at Thorn and hitting him once in the arm.Dunn finds him, tells him to go to the estate and continues on to the hunters.When Thorn hears more shots, he turns and runs back toward Duun, but once again Dunn finds him and this time he escorts him home, carrying him over the last part.

After this episode, Dunn leaves Sheon and takes Thorn to the capital city.There he provides Thorn with companions in his studies.These four young shonunin mostly accept Thorn without objections, but they are still aware of the differences.

In this story, Thorn learns that he is different from Dunn and everyone else he sees.From the description, Thorn appears to be human, but his eye structure doesn't fit this assumption.Human or not, Thorn has some needs that Duun can't train out of him;even as an infant he had a need for close intimacy which Duun filled by holding him most of the time.Later, Duun provides him with a new teacher, Sagot, a 159 year old great-great-grandmother who has raised many boys and is not embarrassed when a young man cries in her presence.

Thorn knows that he is different from everybody else, but he later discovers that some people actively hate him and are willing to kill him in cold blood.Duun has always known this and has protected Thorn as much as he could, but he cannot keep others from plotting against Thorn and himself.At least Thorn learns that there are people that he can trust.

This story does not seem to be part of any of the author's universes.In fact, Thorn may not be human.The ending leaves plenty of dangling plot threads, but I do not know of any sequel.Be warned that you will be left wishing for more!

Highly recommended for Cherryh fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of adventure, close relationships and unresolved mysteries.

-Arthur W. Jordin

One of Cherryh's Best
In this story, an alien world whose inhabitants are vaguely feline (not unlike Chanur) is visited by a human ship.The aliens are at a very early stage of space voyaging, but they manage to kill the humans and take the ship.Then, by cloning (although this is not explicitly stated) they create a human baby to be studied.The story follows his growing up and how his captors/foster parents deal with him.The book is powerful because of the viewpoints Cherryh creates.We see both through the alien eyes and through those of the young boy learning to be an adult.It is the tension produced by this dual view that makes the book so engrossing.Cherryh raises questions of ethics and explores the parent/child bond in an unusual and wonderful way.

Brilliant as usual
I've only read a few Cherryh novels but none have failed to impress me yet (including the amazing Cyteen, one of the best SF novels I've ever read), particularly how she manages to keep everything in a consistent universe (the Alliance-Union series, for those taking notes) while spinning off any number of stories about different people in different parts of the giant canvas she's constructed.While I like overarcing plots and continuing stories just as much as the next guy, I love the possibilities of this setup, since any story could conceivably happen against this background, it's only really bordered by her imagination.And what ideas she has.Cherryh isn't a "hard SF" writer, and more often she deals with the fine details of characterization and interactions and the like, all of which to me resonate more on an emotional level than watching a writer go through the motions and prove some obscure law of physics with his plot.Sometimes you want to learn and sometimes you want to be entertained.In this book, we have the exact setup that the title suggests, a boy is raised on an alien world and realizes quite early on that he's not quite like anyone else who lives there.The whys and hows are left until nearly the end, as Cherryh drips hints little by little, but it's the interactions that count for the most here, whether their between the boy, Haras and his "father" Dunn, or Dunn and the other people of his race, or Haras and others, the book sparkles, keeping it's own momentum even when it's just people standing around and talking.Cherryh manages to craft an entire alien culture without requiring the reader to go read a separate sourcebook, giving us just enough details to fill in the blanks, making them not so alien that we can't relate to them but giving us a general sense of their "alieness" (along the lines of visiting an unfamiliar country with an utterly new culture).The style of the book is notable as well, in keeping with the alien viewpoints, Cherryh affects a brilliant use of minimalism and stream of consciousness, driving the book along with short, to the point sentences, breaking it up with cascading series of phrases illustrating thoughts, giving the book a taut, lean feel that almost makes it feel like it's from another world.In the end the plot is almost secondary, she immerses you in this new world and makes you care about these people who aren't us and in a genre where people try to be as weird as possible, this is something indeed.One of her best book, although not as famous as the oft-mentioned Cyteen or Downbelow Station (also excellent reads), this is well worth checking out for fans of literate, well thought out SF, and remains an underappreciated and minor masterpiece of the genre. ... Read more

Product Description

They named him Thorn. They told him he was of their people, although he was so different. He was ugly in their eyes, strange, sleek-skinned instead of furred, clawless, different. Yet he was of their power class: judge-warriors, the elite, the fighters, the defenders.

Thorn knew that his difference was somehow very important -- but not important enough to prevent murderous conspiracies against him, against his protector, against his caste, and perhaps against the peace of the world. But when the crunch came, when Thorn finally learned what his true role in life was to be, that on him might hang the future of two worlds, then he had to stand alone to justify his very existence.

Customer Reviews (4)

Growing Up Among Aliens
The Deep Beyond (2005) is an omnibus edition including Serpent's Reach and Cuckoo's Egg. These early SF novels take place on alien planets rather than human space.Both are about young people who are raised among aliens.

Serpent's Reach (1980) is an SF novel in the Alliance-Union Universe.In 2223, the interstellar probe Celia discovered the majat, a sapient alien species, on Alpha Hydri III -- Cerdin -- in the Serpent's Reach.The majat body structure and organization was much like social insects such as ants.At the time of discovery, there were four different hives, each ruled by a collective intelligence with memories spanning millions of years.

There were no survivors from the Celia, but the hives did decide that each human was an individual intelligence.In 2229, the crew of the Delia probe was kept alive and, in 2235, under terms of the Hydri Treaty, one shipload of colonists was allowed to settle on the planet.These became the Kontrin Company.The colonists, however, brought a shipload of embryos, from which were grown the Betas.These Betas, in turn, grew clones of themselves, the azi, with biological timers that limited lifespan to forty years.

In this novel, Raen a Sul hant Meth-maren is Kontrin.She is the direct lineal descendent of The Meth-maren, destined to lead the family some day.For the past fifteen years, she has been learning the things that she should know to govern.Since all Kontrin have been made potentially immortal by the majat, she has many years of learning before she is old enough to have fun.

One day, the family estate at Kethiuy is visited by the Houses of Thon and Yalt, but these welcome guests bring others from the House of Hald and, worse yet, members of the Ruil-sept of the Meth-marens.Neither Hald or Ruil would have dared to set foot on the estate without Thon and Yalt.The Ruil cadet-sept has come to suggest a change in the relationships with the majat, but the talks are only a cover for an attack on the Sul-sept.

Only Raen survived the vicious attack by the Ruil-sept, Red and Gold majats and majat-azi.She manages to escape to the nearby Hive of the Blue majats and to convince the Hive Mother to help her wrest Kethiuy from the Ruil-sept and others who have assisted in the attack.She succeeds in destroying the Ruil-sept, but the Blue Hive is also destroyed and she is captured.

She is brought before the Council and Eron Thel, the head of the conspiracy, is almost allowed to relinquish Raen to her enemies.Yet Moth, second oldest of all Kontrin, protests that there has been no vote and Lian, the Eldest, agrees with Moth.Lian makes a speech, at the conclusion of which Moth kills all the known conspirators.Raen is banished from Cerdin.

Cuckoo's Egg (1985) is the third SF novel of the Age of Exploration Series, but is essentially a standalone work.Dana Duun Shtoni no Loghn is a Hatani, a judge without appeal.He has been called Sey -- general -- and Mingi -- lord -- but now he is just Dunn.He is unique, for none have been asked to judge so important a question.

Duun accepts the bundled infant from the meds and starts to care for him.He soon stinks of urine and excrement, but he does not clean himself off, for the infant is more comfortable with the stench.Duun does ask his friend Ellud to prepare Sheon, the estate where he grew up, to provide a simpler environment for the infant's development.

When Sheon has been cleared of the people who had claimed the property, Duun takes the infant there and raises him to be hatani.Since the infant differs from ordinary shonunin, Dunn has to adjust his lessons.Most things, like the five fingers instead of four, are insignificant, but the child grows up to be scent-blind and lacking much fur.

Duun calls the infant Haras, with Thorn as his use name.He teaches Thorn to never say "can't" unless he is physically, mentally or emotionally unable to do something and Thorn finds that Duun never asks him to do anything that he cannot do.Duun also teaches Thorn to deny many of his needs, for these are really only desires.

Duun also teaches Thorn hand-to-hand combat, escape and evasion, and other martial skills.Duun is better than Thorn at close combat, despite the severe injuries that had scarred his face and torso, but the damage to his knee made him less agile than Thorn while climbing.Besides, Thorn's feet gave him a better grip on rocks than Dunn's claws.

One day Thorn is running from Duun as usual, but heads down the mountain instead of up, for he knows that Dunn would expect him to use his greater climbing ability.He runs all the way down to the nearby settlement where he can expect food and water.As he nears the first house, he sees and hears two children playing in the yard.Thorn notices that they are not like him, but look much like Duun.

These stories are unrelated to any other works by the author.Serpent's Reach ends at a suitable point and fits neatly into the Alliance-Union universe.Yet Cuckoo's Egg ends with many dangling plot threads.Indeed, it is difficult to place this work in any of the author's known universes, although it is arbitrarily placed in the Age of Exploration Series.There is some question about whether Thorn is truly human.

Highly recommended to Cherryh fans or to anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures and cross-cultural relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

On being an Alien
Voyager in Night takes you inside the personality, inside the world view, inside the feelings of an utterly alien computer program.
These stories develop the same combination of shock, revulsion and empthy as the protagonist journeys from something like human to something very different.Cuckoo's Egg resonates with Pyanfar Chanur, in that the protagonist starts as an Alien.Who we come to admire and respect.
Serpent's reach, the protagonist starts out fairly human.As in Voyager, the destination is immortality and a hive mind. Essential Cherryh!

Reissue of two great C.J. Cherryh Stories
The Deep Beyond contains two of C. J. Cherryh's great early works.

Serpents reach is a masterpiece of world building as it gives a totally plausible, totally believable world where Ants are the intelligent and evolved race. It explores how virtual immortality could affect wealth power and family relations.This is a great story about betrayal and revenge and acceptance.

The Cuccoo' s Egg is another great story that might be compared to the part (the part that you don't get to read., about when Valentine Smith is still on Mars.)of "Stranger in a Strange Land"As it is the story of a human boy raised on an alien planet by aliens, in an attempt to understand humans and to make up for killing humans. Hard to explain but a great read.

If you don't already have these two great stories... This is a great book to buy.

A long over due re-issue of 2 books
The Deep Beyond title reflects that old adage of map makers of yore:Here there be Dragons.And the implied warning that Dragons rule their worlds.

Serpent's Reach was printed in August 1980 by DAW and Cuckoo's Egg was printed in October 1985 by DAW.Both, according to C.J. Cherryh's website, take place in The Alliance-Union Universe, but much further down the time line from her classic Cyteen. (Cyteen is a MUST read for any person interested in Science Fiction.) While I rate both books at 4 stars, I am suprised that Cuckoo's Egg from the Era of Exploration was paired with Serpent's Reach from the Era of Rapprochement.A more natural pairing would have been Forty Thousand in Gehenna with Serpent's Reach as both are from the Era of Rapprochment with a focus of humans merging into the Alien's societies. (I suspect as those two novels together would have about 700 pages, this may have forced the publisher's choice.)Cuckoo's Egg has a tricker focus hinted so strongly by the title Cuckoo's Egg.

All of Cherryh's work should be required reading in Science Fiction and The Deep Beyond brings out-of-print works back for fans old enough to have read the first printings and for new Science Fiction fans born since 1985.Oh, the cover of The Deep Beyond is the same as the 1985 1st Edition of Cuckoo's Egg.


... Read more