Amph The Worlds of CJ Cherryh

I could try if you wanted, but I'm not sure it would be safe. It was all one grand, over-arching story, so I don't really remember where one begins and the other ends. So spoilers are possible. But if you want to try, I'm game.

 

Welcome, Jabba-wocky. Glad you found your way here. I can understand about not wanting to give stuff away, but it's really ok.

Have you read anything else by Cherryh?

 

Thanks.

I've also read:
Downbelow Station
Cuckoo's Egg (a novella, sold together with Serpent's Reach under the joint title "The Deep Beyond")


Hammerfall is sitting on the shelf, but I need to get through my March copy of Asimov's before I start on any new novels. What about you guys?

 

Just Faded Sun, but I think she has another trilogy+sequel, can't remember the title, that I'm considering getting as soon as I can get to the library.

The first book ends with Duncan on the human (regul?) ship, with the two mri, headed for the human base on the planet whose name I forget. And if you're not totally confused now . . .

 

I've read Hammerfall, The Forge of Heaven, Downbelow Station, some short stories, and my favorite-- Cyteen

And, of course, currently reading the Faded Sun trilogy...

 

How far along are you?

I haven't started the second book, but I'm takig ikt on the plane tomorrow (I figure it'll help p;ut me to sleep and thus diminish the jet lag ).

 

Not too far in the second book. I've been focusing on other things

 

Upping this...

I'm not quite done with the Faded Sun trilogy, but I'm getting there...

 

Let me know when you finish.

I want to get other people's opinion on it, but I read it a few years ago now, so I:

A) Don't remember specifics all that well, so I'd hope someone else in the discussion could help guide us in that respect

B) Don't want to accidentally blab out a bunch of spoilers because I don't remember when stuff happens.

 

I'm still here and all... haven't finished the book, but will continue it...

 

I had never read Cherryh until recently. She is going to be the GOH at a sci-fi literature convention I am attending in Sept, so I thought I should get familiar with her work.

I started out reading a short story of hers titled ?The Sandman, the Tinman, and the Betty B? which I found interesting enough to want to read more. So off I went to Half Price books to look for a smaller book to start out with.
I just finished reading ?Port Eternity? And I must say, I wished I had discovered her sooner. I like her style.

 

Oh yeah, I think I've read Port Eternity! Cool Seriously, she seems to be relatively unknown for how incredibly good she is. Is it juts the genre she writes, perhaps-- and softer, more action-oriented and flashier SF is easier to mass-market? I don't know. *shrugs*

 

I'm still stuck on book 2. It's a bit hard to get through; there are a lot of details, and all the strange words mess me up. Some of it, I suppose, has to do with the fact that I prefer fantasy over sci-fi. Still, I'd like to be able to finish it. Have you?

 

No, I've been reading some other stuff in the meantime...

 

Just finished the Faded Sun trilogy!

 

Nice!

So tell us what you thought, eh?

 

I don't want to spoil NYCitygurl... well, the points I outline beow aren't spoilers, anyway, I don't think.

I really like the relationship between Sten Duncan and Niun-- it's really one of the centerpieces of the whole story, and rightly so. Alien/Human learning-to-love-and-be-equals relationships are always interesting, and rarely boring (one of my other favorite books, the Enemy Papers by Barry B. Longyear, is another one that explores this topic wonderfully). It's so full of potential. I would've been interested in more of Duncan's thoughts, though, more of what drove him to do what he did. I also really like the character of Boaz. In fact, I really like the character of Stavros- so intelligent and layered a character-- although we don't see him all that much.

I don't exactly like the Regul, although I could probably get along in actuality better with them than Mri, but I like the concept of them well enough, and the politics with them at the end is interesting.

Mri themselves... like I said before, I found them a little too close to actual Earth societies (Arabian nomads?) for comfort. Melein, I didn't like so much at first, but she seemed to find her voice.

A very interesting story, I'll admit. And while I wasn't *quite* satisfied with the ending, I'm not sure how it could have gone differently.

 

Has everyone disappeared around here? Or am I scaring everyone away?

 

I'm around Still in the second book, though. I haven't read it in a while; I should probably pick it up again . . .

 

I'm still here, but ti's clearly been too long since I read this thing. Most of what I remember are vague details about Mri society. I was going to try and refresh my memory before attempting to hold any cogent conversation. And that besides, I'm just really busy in RL at the moment.

 

I still need to work my way up to where you all are at in the worlds of Cherryh.

Right now I am in the middle of (well, a bit past the middle by now) of Rusalka. The idea of the bok fascinated me because she based the story on actual slavic myth and expanded on it.

Right now I am up to the point where they are on their way to finding Chernovag on the boat and are just settling down to sleep after having put to shore for the night.

When I bought the book, I noticed that the one next to it was titled Chernovag, so I assume this is the first in a series? Chernovog is also a slavic deity, so I am interested in how she develops this character as well, so I will be picking up the other book to read soon as well

 

Rusalka? That's one I haven't heard of before. How is it?

 

Shrunken Jedi,
A Rusalka is a creature from Slavic mythology. Essentially, it is the spirit of a woman who drowned, usually via murder or suicide, who haunts the body of water where she died. She entices men to her and then kills them.

Cherryh's tale tells the story of a Rusalka and her Wizard father who endeavors to bring her back to life. He enlists the help (though grudgingly) of two youths who were forced to flee into the forest (where the wizard lives and his daughter haunts the river flowing through it) to escape retribution for crimes of which they are innocent. Once they return the maiden to life (though I suspect she still is not quite human) they go off on an adventure to find the man who the maiden loves (and who may have had something to do with her death) so that her father can free her spirit from his grip (somehow he still has some kind of psychic hold over her). That man is named Chernevog and was once a student of the old wizard.

That?s as far as I am into the tale right now, but I do know that the name Chernevog is a variation on the name of another Slavic god called Czernobog who is also featured as a character in ?American Gods? by Neil Gaiman.
That is what drew me to wanting to read this tale in the first place, you see, Rusalka is the first of a trilogy of tales based in the same world, the second title being ?Chernevog? And having just finished ?American Gods? just prior to being in the bookstore that day and seeing these books together on the shelf, the title intrigued me. But I had to read the first book in the series didn?t I, LOL? I am going to read ?Chernevog? next followed by the third book in the series, ?Yvgenie?

Oh, you asked me how it is, well, I must say, I do like it a lot.

 

Cool

She does seem to use a lot of Russian names/heritage, etc. in her writing. In Cyteen, the planet was in large part settled by Russian immigrants and many of the names sound Russian.

 

That story sounds really good I'll have to give it a try. Is it a stand-alone or part of a trilogy?