# | Year | 1st Read | Title | Author(s) | My Rating | |
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1 | 2008 | | (0.5) Alliance Space Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| From audible.com:
Two Alliance-Union novels, Merchanter's Luck and Forty Thousand in Gehenna, bound in one omnibus volume for the first time!
Merchanter's Luck
His name was Sandor, and he was the owner and entire crew of a tramp star-freighter that flew the Union planets under false papers and fake names. Her name was Allison, and she was a proud but junior member of the powerful family whose mighty starship, Dublin Again, was the true queen of the spaceways. They met at Viking Station. She seeking a night's dalliance; he desperately in search of a spacer assistant. Their fateful meeting was to lead to a record-breaking race to Pell Station, thereby catching the calculating eye of the grim commander of the Alliance battlecraft Norway and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts.
Forty Thousand in Gehenna
When 40,000 human colonists are abandoned for political reasons on a planet called Gehenna, and re-supply ships fail to arrive, collapse seems imminent. Yet over the next two centuries, the descendants of the original colonists survive despite all odds by entering a partnership with the planet's native intelligence - the lizard-like, burrowing calibans. | |
2 | 2019 | | (1) Alliance Rising | C J Cherryh | | |
3 | 1981 | | (2) Downbelow Station Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C. J. CHERRYH'S BLOCKBUSTER INTERPLANETARY
Pell's Star occupied the central spot in the coming conflict between Earth's tired stellar empire and the tough onslaught of its rebellious colonies. Whoever controlled Pell's Downbelow station held the key to Earth's defensive perimeter - or the jumping off point for a Terrestrial offensive to regain the lost empire.
But Pell had always been neutral and was determined to remain so.
This is a powerful, complex and enthralling novel of interstellar conflict and ambitions. Inrits pages you will meet and strive with the many vivid persons, human and non-human, whose futures would hang on the outcome of that titanic struggle. | |
4 | 1982 | | (3) Merchanter's Luck Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
His name was Sandor and he was the owner and entire crew of a tramp star-freighter that flew the Union planets under false papers and fake names.
Her name was Allison and she was a proud but junior member of the powerful family whose mighty starship, Dublin Again, was the true queen of the spaceways.
They met at Viking Station, she seeking a night's dalliance, he desperately in search of a spacer assistant.
Their fateful meeting was to lead to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station, thereby catching the calculating eye of the grim commander of the Alliance battlecraft, Norway, and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts.
A supercharged "space opera" by the award-winning author of THE FADED SUN and the "Morgaine" novels. | |
5 | 1989 | | (4) Rimrunners Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| RIMRUNNERS In space the line between patriot and pirate is as thin as a laser. And a lethal battle for power can be as near as your starship's next deck...
THE SPOOK Loki - mercenary spy ship and bounty hunter. It's the legal arm of the Merchanters' Alliance; but once enlisted, no crew member leaves Loki alive...
THE SOLDIER BET YEAGER - a killer elite Earth Company Marine whose side lost. Now she's forced to escape aboard Loki, surrounded by enemies and hunting her old comrades. Yeager has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. A single wrong word can give her away. And the fighting skills she must use to survive may be her death warrant... C.J. CHERRYH "Shouts with tension... a hard-edged space opera with a strong female protagonist." -San Francisco Chronicle "An excellent novel.... One of the finest writers SF has to offer." -Science Fiction Chronicle | |
6 | 1991 | | (5) Heavy Time Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| Two asteroid miners find a dead, drifting ship - but its pilot, Paul Dekker, is alive, insane from shock, and screaming... screaming clues to a mystery that no one wants solved...
WHAT IS MAMA HIDING?
Paul Dekker, a kid with a dream, wakes to anightmare. His ship is stolen, his future destroyed, his beautiful partner missing, his memory gone. The ASTEX mining monopoly, Mama, accuses Sim, of being negligent, crazy, and foolish, as well as a cold-blooded murderer. And only a renegade miner, Morris Bird, will help Paul learn the truth.
Because somewhere in Dekker’s mind lies a dark secret that can change the fate of worlds.
"MARVELOUSLY SKILLFUL... exactly the thing her fans will hope to find." -Philadelphia Inquirer
"SUPERBLY RENDERED... believable backdrops, complex characters, and a tense well-paced plot." - Publishers Weekly
"VINTAGE CHERRYH." -Locus | |
7 | 1992 | | (6) Hellburner Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| "PACKED WITH INTRIGUE." -Washington Post Bookworld Ben Pollard thinks he's traded the perils of the Belt for security on Earth - until he's shanghaied to the orbital Sol II battle station. There he's forced to help a man Ben never wanted to see again, Jinxed pilot Paul Dekker.
Now Dekker's the center of a lethal mystery, while military, political, and corporate rivals on two worlds conspire to use him and Pollard as lab animaIs in a war for humanity's soul. And to save themselves, Pollard and Dekker must master and wield the awesome power of Earth's most secret weapon...
HELLBURNER
"Cherryh remains near the top of the field in both world-building and characterization.... In her gifted hands, Merchanter is becoming one of the best-built and most lived-in futures in science fiction." -Chicago Sun-Times
"Cherryh does to the future military establishment what she did to future corporations: gives a close and skeptical look at what it's like to be at the bottom of the pyramid." -Locus
A MAIN SELECTION OF THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOK CLUB® | |
8 | 1994 | | (7) Tripoint Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| Bestselling author C. J. Cherryh proves once again that SF can be thrilling, knife-edged human adventure. Set in the complex future of Downbelow Station, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, here is her latest Merchanter adventure...
TRIPOINT
Merchanter Cargo Chief Marie Hawkins has never forgiven the crime, nor sought justice. Only vengeance. And, for 23 years, the Hawkins’s clan ship, Sprite, has lived with her vendetta - and with her son, Tom, the boy sired in the violent assault.
Marie’s attacker, Austin Bowe, is captain of the Corinthian. When both ships dock at Mariner Station, Marie vanishes and Tom searches for his mother... only to find himself trapped on Austin's ship with a half-brother he never knew he had and a crew fanatically loyal to Bowe. Now as the Corinthian flees the pursuing Sprite and a raider guns after both, the lives on board the two Merchanter ships are in the hands of Tom Hawkins. To save them all, Tom must trust his sworn enemy...
His father.
"SUCCEEDS... MAKES THE CONFLICTS AND CHANGES [THE CHARACTERS] EXPERIENCE FEEL VITAL AND REAL." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
"PSYCHOLOGICALLY COMPELLING... SATISFYING." - Publishers Weekly
A MAIN SELECTION OF THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOK CLUB® | |
9 | 1997 | | (8) Finity's End | C J Cherryh | | |
10 | 1981 | 1989 | (9) The Pride of Chanur Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company - a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown - and he was a prisoner of his discoverer/captors the sadistic, treacherous kif, until his escape onto the hani ship THE PRIDE OF CHANUR.
Little did he know when he threw himself upon the mercy of THE PRIDE and her crew that he put the entire hani species in jeopardy and imperiled the peace of the Compact itself. For the information this fugitive held could be the ruin or glory of any of the species at Meetpoint Station.
A DAW BOOKS ORIGINAL - NEVER BEFORE IN PAPERBACK -
DAW BOOKS 10 Our tenth year leading the sf field | |
11 | 1984 | | (10) Chanur's Venture Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| CHANUR'S VENTURE Pyanfar Chanur thought she had seen the last of Tully, the lone human who had so disrupted the peace of Meetpoint Station and gained the Chanur clan the enmity of half a dozen races as well as their own. But in this striking sequel to the Hugo-nominated PRIDE OF CHANUR, Tully is back, bringing with him a priceless trade contract with human space. A contract which would mean vast power, riches, and a new hornet's nest for Pyanfar and the Pride!
This is a rousing good tale, and Cherryh's feisty hani are the most believable alien characters to come down the SF pike in a long time... These swaggering, vain, tough-talking, hani heroines make Chewbacca look like a pussycat." - KLIATT
"TOUR DE FORCES." - Algis Bundrys, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION | |
12 | 1985 | | (11) The Kif Strike Back Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| CHANUR'S REVENGE KIF POWER, HANI PRIDE...
When the kif seized Hilfy and Tully, hani and human crew of The Pride of Chanur, they issued a challenge Pyanfar, captain of Pride, couldn't ignore, a challenge that was to take Pyanfar and her shipmates to Mkks station and into a deadly confronation between kif, hani, mahendo'sat, and human. And what began as a simple rescue attempt soon blossomed into a dangerous game of interstellar politics, where today's ally could become tomorrow's executioner, where methane breathers became volatile wild cards playing for stakes no oxy breather could even begin to understand... | |
13 | 1986 | | (12) Chanur's Homecoming | C J Cherryh | | |
14 | 1992 | | (13) Chanur's Legacy | C J Cherryh | | |
15 | 1983 | | (14) Forty Thousand in Gehenna Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| FORTY THOUSAND IN GEHENNA
"Set in the same future as the Hugo-winning Downbelow Station, but fully self-contained, this is a story on the classic theme of human underestimation of the alien. The 40,000 colonists on Gehenna are abandoned for political reasons. When the re-supply ships fail to arrive, the colony begins to collapse. But the real story is yet to come.
"Over a period of 200 years, the descendants of the colonists who couldn't impose Terran conditions on Gehenna become a part of Gehennan ecology themselves, by entering a partnership with the planet's native intelligence the lizardlike, burrowing calibans.
"Cherryh tantalizes our minds with these enigmatic aliens, captures our hearts with her characters and involves us completely with her mix of broad and narrow views of a new culture's rise. Once again, Cherryh proves herself a consistently thoughtful and entertaining writer."
- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY | |
16 | 1988 | | (15) Cyteen | C J Cherryh | | |
17 | 2009 | | (16) Regenesis | C J Cherryh | | |
18 | 1982 | | (17) Port Eternity Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
Their names were Lancelot, Elaine, Percivale, Gawain, Modred, Lynette and Vivien, but they were not characters from legend. They were made people, clone servants designed to suit the fancy of their opulent owner, the Lady Dela Kim. And they worked aboard the Maid, an anachronistic fantasy of a spaceship, decorated with swords, heraldic banners, old-looking beams masking the structural joinings, and lamps that mimicked live flame.
They lived in a kind of dream, and had no idea of their origins, their prototypes in those old, old story tapes of romance, chivalry, heroism and betrayal.
Until a wandering instability, a knot in time, a ripple in the between sucked them into a spatial no-man's-land from where there seemed to be no escape. And they were left alone, with the borrowed personas of their ancient namesakes, to face a crisis those venerable spirits were never designed to master!
- A DAW BOOKS ORIGINAL - | |
19 | 1984 | | (18) Voyager in Night | C J Cherryh | | |
20 | 1985 | | (19) Cuckoo's Egg Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| CUCKOO'S EGG
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.
A Science Fiction Book Club Selection. | |
21 | 1978 | | (20) Kesrith Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
This is the story of three people: Sten Duncan, a soldier of humanity; Niun, last warrior of the mri humanity's enemies; Melein, priestess-queen of the final fallen mri stronghold.
This is the story of two mighty species fighting for a galaxy: humanity driving out from Earth, and the enigmatic regul struggling to hold their stars with mri mercenaries.
This is a story of diplomacy and warfare, of conspiracy and betrayal, and of three flesh-and-blood people who found themselves thrown together in a life-and-death alliance.
A DAW BOOKS CLASSIC | |
22 | 1978 | | (21) Shon'jir Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
Sten Duncan had saved the lives of the last two of humanity's deadliest enemies, during the takeover of their planet Kesrith. Sten therefore felt responsible for them and for their future - if any.
For though the two mri were brother and sister, they represented different power-castes of their ancient warrior-race. Niun was the last of the bred samurai. Melein, though young, was perforce the last priestess-queen.
But struggle and mutual danger had sealed Sten Duncan to their loyalty. As their blood-brother, he would have to help them flee mankind and take the long, long evasion-route across the cosmos to a legendary lost planet which might afford the mri one more chance.
"When another Darkover novel, a book by C. J. Cherryh, or a new Arthur C. Clarke book comes along, I still drop everything I can to read it. And I still feel the tingling eagerness...." -Lester Del Rey, Analog
- A DAW BOOKS ORIGINAL - NEVER BEFORE IN PAPERBACK | |
23 | 1979 | | (22) Kutath Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
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, Niun. And one other - the human Sten Duncan who had deserted Earth's military to swear service to the foes of his own species.
Here is the grand climax of the highly praised novels of the Faded Sun, candidates for Hugo and Nebula awards. Complete in itself, it is a science-fiction novel of the highest caliber, an in-depth study of the last stand of an alien culture confronted with the devastating vengeance of two star-conquering races.
A DAW BOOKS CLASSIC | |
24 | 1980 | | (23) Serpent's Reach | C J Cherryh | | |
25 | 1981 | | (24) Wave Without a Shore Cover Blurb | C J Cherryh | | |
| C.J. CHERRYH
Freedom was an isolated planet, off the spaceways track and rarely visited by commercial spacers. It wasn't that Freedom was inhospitable as planets go. The problem was that outsiders - tourists and traders - claimed the streets were crowded with mysterious characters in blue robes and with members of an alien species.
Native-born humans, however, said that was not the case. There were no such blue-robes and no aliens.
Such was the viewpoint of both Herrin the artist and Waden the autocrat - until a crisis of planetary identity forced a life-and-depth confrontation between the question of reality and the reality of the question....
A different sort of interplanetary novel by the author of DOWNBELOW STATION and THE FADED SUN.
- A DAW BOOKS ORIGINAL - | |
26 | 1985 | | (25) The Scapegoat | C J Cherryh | | |
27 | 1976 | | (26) Brothers of Earth | C J Cherryh | | |
28 | 1977 | | (27) Hunter of Worlds | C J Cherryh | | |