Reviews

Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh

spindleshanks22's review

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4.0

3.5

Excellent world building. Slow and meandering plot for first 90%. Final 10% felt rushed and frenetic, without a satisfying conclusion.

carokinkead's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

tankard's review against another edition

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3.0

6/10

kelseyroach's review

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adventurous slow-paced

3.0

zkendall's review

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4.0

Incredibly slow start, way too heavy on exposition. But the second half was solid. Overall good characters and plot and writing.

erkm's review

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tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

piperita's review against another edition

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5.0

The premise of the book is quite straight-forward: 300 years into the future, humans [quite realistically] develop the ability travel and live among the stars; the vast distances separating them ensure that they become culturally-isolated, which leads to the development of various different factions – biggest among them being the Earth humans and the Union, kind of an allegory for the United States and the Soviets during the height of the Cold War, which was around the same time this book was written.

Only, this book is much, MUCH more nuanced than allegorical propaganda. While the Union in this book remains a mysterious, looming presence, you are shown quite explicitly that what is standing in for the USA is rotten, convoluted, and ultimately doomed to failure. And conversely, that the Union men and women (when they are given voice) are humans with individual feelings and emotions, no matter how “scary perfect” they may appear on the outside.

This complexity of issues continues elsewhere in the book as well.

This book is… Gross. And I mean it in the best, most loving way possible. It’s set in a dirty, grimy, stretched-to-capacity world that’s crumbling down and populated by self-centered, imperfect, raw characters. And that is what makes it so, so beautiful. It’s people react in a distinctly human way – no matter how much we may want to deny the reality of it. They care about their families, THEIR friends and tribes first. They create an Other to alienate and designate the enemy to create cohesion in their own ranks. They are, for the most part, really quite unfair and abusive to the alien natives of the world they are occupying. They react violently to the suggestions of change, and they spin stories – oh, how they spin stories – to make themselves feel right and justified when something doesn’t go their way for reasons they perceive to benefit that Other.

On the topic of spinning stories, I was completely struck by how flawed and unreliable the narrators where. Sci-fi as a genre unfortunately tends to suffer with the unambiguous hero syndrome, wherein the reader is told, from the start, whom they need to sympathize with. No such thing occurs in this book. You are given access to the minds of several people, and you can choose to sympathize with any that you like. Some are, yes, nastier than others, but the book doesn’t make them wrong for it. It just shows you the nastiness in vivo and allows you to decide for yourself whether you wish to designate that person as a villain or not.

And on the topic of those characters, through this book I have found my new favourite character. I know a lot of people write about her, but Signy Mallory is, hands down, the BEST character of the novel; in some ways, she encapsulates the novel. She is Nasty, with a capital N. She is far, FAR from being some kind of an ideal hero you want to see yourself become – instead, she is a complex, flawed, scarred and jaded woman. She is ruthless, calculating, and arrogant (with, admittedly, enough reason for that arrogance); it is implied that
Spoilershe initiated at least one sexual encounter with another character that at MOST would have been a situation where the consent was dubious, though more likely than not it was actually unambiguous sexual abuse. This is the woman you are introduced to - in something like the second chapter of the book.


And then, you see that she is a highly intelligent, courageous leader who is fiercely protective of those under her command. In one section of the book, she describes having just undergone an exhausting battle and an FTL jump (which in this world leaves the travellers mostly incapacitated), but she still drags herself up and forces herself to walk around her ship so that she can personally check-in on her crew to reassure them with her words and presence. She has nurtured and cultivated incredibly strong bond between herself and her crew, to the point where they will all like one go to hell and back for their loyalty to her and her ship. In some ways, it appears as if she and her ship are synonymous, treated as one powerful, unstoppable entity – and this motif is built up and reinforced over the course of the book so that when you get to the finale and witness the full force of that association… It was incredibly powerful.

And on that note, one of the reasons I found this book to be incredibly enjoyable was because it chooses to completely omit sexism. It just… isn’t there. I was waiting, with baited breath, for one of the male captains with a bad case of sour grapes to make a reference to Signy’s gender and imply incompetence because of the shape of her genitalia.

That never came. She is called a merciless tyrant, a ruthless killer – arrogant, prideful, over-bearing, threatening. But never, not ONCE, does her gender ever come into discussion. She is Mallory of Norway, and that is all anyone cares about.

Likewise, the other women in the book are also solely evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses as humans; they are not treated as a special sub-class or interest group, they are not segregated or relegated to specific “womanly” tasks or evaluated on a special “lady” criteria. I have spoken at length about Mallory because the sheer power and flaw of her character left a very strong impact on me, but the other women in the novel are also very, very strong. Elene Quen is pragmatic and tough; her sister-in-law less so, but she does the best she can as a human being with her types of flaws and strengths. Satin, the sole alien PoV character, is brave and curious and I found that I eventually started looking forward to her segments of narration because they provided refuge and respite from the gloomy, dirty world of the novel. And when Signy talks about the people under her command, she always refers to her “men and women”; they are never just “men”, because they are not just men. Cherryh is very careful to include women in the background – and occasional trooper, a named station worker, a Union woman, a merchanter ship captain, a prison guard. And none of them, not a single one, are ever singled out for their gender. They’re treated as unquestionable equals, and are allowed to be just as good – or just as terrible – as any male character in their position could be.

Adding these complex, flawed characters into Cherryh’s constructed, flawed world (that has a few very delightful and subtle tricks and ideas of its own) left for a very rich, very enjoyable read. I had raced through this book once already, staying up through the night to read it faster, and I know I have missed many things so I will be re-reading it again, and adding this book (though perhaps not the edition I read – too many typos and character mistake names, eugh) to my personal collection.

justiceofkalr's review against another edition

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5.0

Three and a half stars.

This book starts out pretty slow for the first third or so and then gets massively better. Still I'd like to have cut out most of the chapters with the alien "hiza", also called Downers by the humans. A couple other reviewers have noted the weird slave stereotype undertones to them. Their complete servitude really bugged me and the way they talked was so hellish to slog through. And on top of it I didn't really feel like their chapters added that much. I wanted to put the book down every time I got to one of Satin's chapters.

The first third is a lot of set-up and at times feels a bit slow and confusing. It's worth it and necessary in order to set up for the rest of the book. After the set-up things massively pick up and get interesting with a three way war. Signy Mallory who appears only briefly at the very beginning takes a much larger role when the action picks up. She's probably my favorite character in the book. The Konstantins, who effectively rule Pell, are also fairly interesting but at times the feel kind of flat and boring in their constant and unwavering goodness. Despite not liking Lukas he was a much more interesting character in his scheming.

So while the set-up is kind of a pain the rest of the book is worth it by far. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.

mabs's review

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tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

chirson's review against another edition

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3.0

It's fascinating, but prohibitively written at points. There are many issues with it that made me uncomfortable, and the perspective made it quite a challenge at times, but I am glad to have read it, and since I liked Cyteen a lot, will give another Cherryh a try at some point.