A review by outcolder
Merchanter's Luck by C.J. Cherryh

5.0

Beautiful. It is possible to read this as a psychological metaphor, with the sealed chambers in the spaceship Lucy standing in for parts of his mind. He knows they are there, he knows what is in them, but he keeps the doors sealed and the temperature at freezing. Suffering from PTSD, he is afraid of future violence, but the shame of the past violence is more important to him. He withholds information from a lover and her allies rather than reveal the depth of his past hurt. When a science fiction novel works well on those kind of levels, then I think it is important to ask why science fiction? Why not some other setting or time? By putting it all in outer space instead of the ocean or the Scottish Highlands or wherever, the loneliness, the desperation, the romanticism of this youth struggling to come out of his own shadows is made stronger and brighter and sharper.

There's some expired bits. Far in the future and light years from Earth, men still say to women, "can I buy you a drink?" Customs agents look at papers instead of biometry. Entertainment is stored on "tapes." Whatever. This book was so awesome, I am kind of mad at myself for not reading Cherryh back when these came out. Now I'm so hooked I might add an "h" on the end of my name just to be more s-f.