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kilroyPrint date: 1980 (20s: 1, 60s: 1, 70s: 1, 80s: 3, 90s: 2, 00s: 3)
Page count: 285 (4048 total)
I can't remember when I first heard of C.J. Cherryh. It must have been before I was a teenager; I have a weirdly clear recollection from when I was a kid of a book of hers with a cat-man on the cover. She has a reputation as one of those solid, dependable scifi writers who's written a million books over a few decades, each of which is a good read if not necessarily mind-blowing. But for whatever reason I've never actually gotten around to reading any of her work until now.
I am pleased to report that the book is consistent with her reputation. The book moves fast and keeps the action coming, describes clearly but doesn't generally waste time, and supports a large cast very well. The characters are admittedly a little sketchy (that is to say, they feel like sketches), and the plot does skip over things on occasion-- you never lose traction, but it's as if there are occasional potholes in the road of the book.
Where it really shines, though, is in the construction of the world the book inhabits. The technologies, races, and cultures all interact seamlessly in a unified whole. The aliens are actually alien and not dealt with lightly by any humans. The culture features long-term genetic alterations and the consequences of that are fully explored. Overall it achieves that benchmark of good scifi--a believably different world--with extraordinary depth and grace.
If the ending wasn't quite so circular or the progression of the plot a little clearer, I'd be keeping this one and passing it around. As it is, I'm very happy to have read it, but I think I'll leave the space on the shelf for something that really grabs me.
Verdict: Absolutely worth reading once, but probably not worth keeping. (6.5/14 keepers)
Completed: 11 (5 female authors, 6 male authors)
Rejected: 3 (3 male authors, 0 female authors)
Next book due: In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker, 4/27
Page count: 285 (4048 total)
I can't remember when I first heard of C.J. Cherryh. It must have been before I was a teenager; I have a weirdly clear recollection from when I was a kid of a book of hers with a cat-man on the cover. She has a reputation as one of those solid, dependable scifi writers who's written a million books over a few decades, each of which is a good read if not necessarily mind-blowing. But for whatever reason I've never actually gotten around to reading any of her work until now.
I am pleased to report that the book is consistent with her reputation. The book moves fast and keeps the action coming, describes clearly but doesn't generally waste time, and supports a large cast very well. The characters are admittedly a little sketchy (that is to say, they feel like sketches), and the plot does skip over things on occasion-- you never lose traction, but it's as if there are occasional potholes in the road of the book.
Where it really shines, though, is in the construction of the world the book inhabits. The technologies, races, and cultures all interact seamlessly in a unified whole. The aliens are actually alien and not dealt with lightly by any humans. The culture features long-term genetic alterations and the consequences of that are fully explored. Overall it achieves that benchmark of good scifi--a believably different world--with extraordinary depth and grace.
If the ending wasn't quite so circular or the progression of the plot a little clearer, I'd be keeping this one and passing it around. As it is, I'm very happy to have read it, but I think I'll leave the space on the shelf for something that really grabs me.
Verdict: Absolutely worth reading once, but probably not worth keeping. (6.5/14 keepers)
Completed: 11 (5 female authors, 6 male authors)
Rejected: 3 (3 male authors, 0 female authors)
Next book due: In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker, 4/27