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hank's review against another edition
4.0
I never know how to review ominbus books. Merchanter's Luck was probably a 3.5 rounded down, a good, albeit, mundane story about a down on his luck space merchant trying to scrape by. It was fine.
40,000 in Gehenna was a solid 4 star. Definitely different than other colonization stories that I have read. At the beginning, I kept drawing parallels with the Azi to another book I read recently, Just City. In Just City there were machines trying to become and get recognition for sentience. The Azi seemed exactly opposite. They were humans trying desperately to have born men make all the decisions for them. I am not sure how Azi personality and genetics contributed to the later part of the novel but that is probably something I missed, not something that isn't there.
The Calibans were fascinating and the whole novel for me was trying to figure out their place in society and motivations. I would say nothing was fully explained by the end but enough to let the mind wander. The Weirds/Riders/Caliban society that Cherryh set up is truly unique and interesting to spend time in.
My 1 to 1.5 star docking is due to Cherryh's writing style. I can only describe it as brusque. It is very direct with much left to read between the lines and I am not a huge fan of it. Cormac McCarthy seems to be able to pare down his words and still let the language flow. The flow of this is like teaching a teenager to drive a manual car.
I own Cyteen but am not excited to read it. All three of the books I have read by Cherryh have been imaginative but harder to get through.
40,000 in Gehenna was a solid 4 star. Definitely different than other colonization stories that I have read. At the beginning, I kept drawing parallels with the Azi to another book I read recently, Just City. In Just City there were machines trying to become and get recognition for sentience. The Azi seemed exactly opposite. They were humans trying desperately to have born men make all the decisions for them. I am not sure how Azi personality and genetics contributed to the later part of the novel but that is probably something I missed, not something that isn't there.
The Calibans were fascinating and the whole novel for me was trying to figure out their place in society and motivations. I would say nothing was fully explained by the end but enough to let the mind wander. The Weirds/Riders/Caliban society that Cherryh set up is truly unique and interesting to spend time in.
My 1 to 1.5 star docking is due to Cherryh's writing style. I can only describe it as brusque. It is very direct with much left to read between the lines and I am not a huge fan of it. Cormac McCarthy seems to be able to pare down his words and still let the language flow. The flow of this is like teaching a teenager to drive a manual car.
I own Cyteen but am not excited to read it. All three of the books I have read by Cherryh have been imaginative but harder to get through.
justiceofkalr's review against another edition
5.0
This is kind of an odd pairing of books. They're both excellent books set in the same universe, but they're also very different books from each other. I guess it makes a nice sampler?
essinink's review against another edition
5.0
So, this is my new recommended starting point for those who aren’t sure about Cherryh or her Alliance-Union ‘verse, and don’t want to jump into Downbelow Station. Alliance Space is an omnibus publication of two novels that really don’t have much in common: Merchanter’s Luck (1982) and 40,000 In Gehenna (1983). The first is a short and fast-paced space adventure, the latter is a generational novel set on an alien planet. Between the two, I think the reader gets a good overview of Cherryh’s strengths, and some introduction to her weaker stock characters.
I read and enjoyed Merchanter’s Luck earlier this year, so the rest of this review is entirely concerned with 40k.
Shortly after the end of The War, Union (a genengineering space state) sends a handful of citizens and 40,000 azi (a lab-cloned, brainwashed slave class) to the planet Gehenna II. Gehenna is temperate, and supposedly devoid of sapient life, making it an ideal colony world. But the resupply ships never come, and the superficially lizardlike calibans are more than they seem. To survive the next three centuries, the human descendents of the azi partner with the calibans and become something new.
Generational novels are hit-and-miss with me. I thought that Sue Burke’s Semiosis was tiresome, but enjoyed both Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy (even though the latter had creeptastic ethics). The difference seems to come down to the ever-nebulous quality of ‘execution,’ but this is one of the good ones.
At the beginning, the azi are horrifying. It’s not so much them as individuals, but the fact of their existence. This is a class of lab-designed humans whose will, morality, and dreams are all pre-designed by the State. They are ‘happy,’ because they have no choice to be otherwise. Their born children do not suffer this state, and that changes things. As terrible as the political abandonment of the colony is, I couldn’t help but feel hopeful for ensuing generations.
From colony inception, to colony collapse and the rebuilding of civilization 40,000 skips around a bit. It becomes clear early in the book that there’s a lot more to the native calibans than the survey team assumed, but Cherryh doesn’t make the mistake of lifting the curtain on motivations. From beginning to end, the calibans remain alien, and in that alien-ness, they reshape the new human population to their own ends.
When spacefaring humans inevitably re-discover Gehenna, they’re faced with a Trekian conundrum: a first-contact scenario with their own species. The resulting debates, conflicts, and assumptions are slow-paced but fascinating. There’s a lengthy section of conflicting scientific reports and theories that reads very true-to-life, alongside the ethical debate of introducing advanced technology to what is now a nascent alien culture. The overall focus remains planetside, but the reader does get tantalizing glimpses into the wider political situation.
If you’re a reader who likes action, this probably isn’t the book for you. This is a story of civilization over 200+ years; it’s all about a population and its environment. As such, there’s not much in the way of heart-stopping action. It’s more like history. Sometimes events occur in close detail, and other times you blink through a massive timeskip to get to the next ‘big moment.’ I should warn you that character names do repeat, but maps and generational charts are provided at opportune moments.
5* to 40k, and 4* to Luck makes this a volume that rounds up to the full 5*. Go forth and enjoy~
I read and enjoyed Merchanter’s Luck earlier this year, so the rest of this review is entirely concerned with 40k.
Shortly after the end of The War, Union (a genengineering space state) sends a handful of citizens and 40,000 azi (a lab-cloned, brainwashed slave class) to the planet Gehenna II. Gehenna is temperate, and supposedly devoid of sapient life, making it an ideal colony world. But the resupply ships never come, and the superficially lizardlike calibans are more than they seem. To survive the next three centuries, the human descendents of the azi partner with the calibans and become something new.
Generational novels are hit-and-miss with me. I thought that Sue Burke’s Semiosis was tiresome, but enjoyed both Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy (even though the latter had creeptastic ethics). The difference seems to come down to the ever-nebulous quality of ‘execution,’ but this is one of the good ones.
At the beginning, the azi are horrifying. It’s not so much them as individuals, but the fact of their existence. This is a class of lab-designed humans whose will, morality, and dreams are all pre-designed by the State. They are ‘happy,’ because they have no choice to be otherwise. Their born children do not suffer this state, and that changes things. As terrible as the political abandonment of the colony is, I couldn’t help but feel hopeful for ensuing generations.
From colony inception, to colony collapse and the rebuilding of civilization 40,000 skips around a bit. It becomes clear early in the book that there’s a lot more to the native calibans than the survey team assumed, but Cherryh doesn’t make the mistake of lifting the curtain on motivations. From beginning to end, the calibans remain alien, and in that alien-ness, they reshape the new human population to their own ends.
When spacefaring humans inevitably re-discover Gehenna, they’re faced with a Trekian conundrum: a first-contact scenario with their own species. The resulting debates, conflicts, and assumptions are slow-paced but fascinating. There’s a lengthy section of conflicting scientific reports and theories that reads very true-to-life, alongside the ethical debate of introducing advanced technology to what is now a nascent alien culture. The overall focus remains planetside, but the reader does get tantalizing glimpses into the wider political situation.
If you’re a reader who likes action, this probably isn’t the book for you. This is a story of civilization over 200+ years; it’s all about a population and its environment. As such, there’s not much in the way of heart-stopping action. It’s more like history. Sometimes events occur in close detail, and other times you blink through a massive timeskip to get to the next ‘big moment.’ I should warn you that character names do repeat, but maps and generational charts are provided at opportune moments.
5* to 40k, and 4* to Luck makes this a volume that rounds up to the full 5*. Go forth and enjoy~
katmarhan's review against another edition
4.0
9/10
This omnibus contains both [b:Merchanter's Luck|57100|Merchanter's Luck (The Company Wars, #2)|C.J. Cherryh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328037793l/57100._SY75_.jpg|55628] and [b:Forty Thousand in Gehenna|57148|Forty Thousand in Gehenna (Unionside, #1)|C.J. Cherryh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440848230l/57148._SY75_.jpg|1185217], books in [a:C.J. Cherryh|989968|C.J. Cherryh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1244675150p2/989968.jpg]’s Union-Alliance series. The fist is a tight story of a merchant ship and its captain and crew that follows closely after [b:Downbelow Station|57045|Downbelow Station (The Company Wars, #1)|C.J. Cherryh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388858297l/57045._SY75_.jpg|55573], and the second is a sprawling story of a world that is colonized, abandoned, and recolonized. Very different stories, both excellent.
This omnibus contains both [b:Merchanter's Luck|57100|Merchanter's Luck (The Company Wars, #2)|C.J. Cherryh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328037793l/57100._SY75_.jpg|55628] and [b:Forty Thousand in Gehenna|57148|Forty Thousand in Gehenna (Unionside, #1)|C.J. Cherryh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440848230l/57148._SY75_.jpg|1185217], books in [a:C.J. Cherryh|989968|C.J. Cherryh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1244675150p2/989968.jpg]’s Union-Alliance series. The fist is a tight story of a merchant ship and its captain and crew that follows closely after [b:Downbelow Station|57045|Downbelow Station (The Company Wars, #1)|C.J. Cherryh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388858297l/57045._SY75_.jpg|55573], and the second is a sprawling story of a world that is colonized, abandoned, and recolonized. Very different stories, both excellent.
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