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A review by justiceofkalr
Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
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.
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.