Definitely a high 3.5 stars, but not quite a 4 for me, Cherryh’s _The Pride of Chanur_ combines space opera with some gritty “hard-ish” sf elements in the beginning of a saga that deals with the political and economic ramifications of first contact. In this first volume of the Chanur saga we follow the exploits of a crew of Hani (lion-like aliens) on the eponymous merchant space freighter The Pride of Chanur. Expecting nothing more than a routine run across their trade routes, Pyanfar Chanur, captain of the Pride, imagines the worst trouble she’s likely to have to deal with is her headstrong niece Hilfy. Of course she’s wrong and what was proving to be a rather boring trip becomes deadly as they run across trouble in the form of an alien stowaway while they are docked at the Meetpoint space station. The reader is thrust into the middle of things which quickly come to a head as Cherryh examines what appears to be one of her favourite tropes: the idea of the human being as alien. In this case our point of view characters are the lion-like Hani and our view of the lone human character is completely from the outside as the typical barriers of communication, biology and mind-set stand between full understanding. The Hani themselves are an alien species that is only one part of a precarious Compact between numerous alien races: the ape-like Mahendo’sat, the tall and whispy Stsho, and the long snouted and nefarious Kif all of whom share at least a minimal biological similarity and exist in a precarious political balance of trade and travel. Added to this fragile structure are aliens of an even more strange make-up: several species of methane breathers whose biology and mind-set are a mystery even to those with whom they share space, but who barely manage to co-exist with the others.All that is needed to throw the entire political structure of the Compact off-balance is one secret advantage that can be exploited by one member race at the expense of the others. Enter Tully, a lone human in Compact space recently captured and tortured by the Kif in the hopes of gaining sole access to human space for exploitation, only to escape and seek refuge in the belly of The Pride of Chanur. Too altruistic to exploit or harm Tully, and too mistrusting of the wily Kif to return him to their clutches, Pyanfar cuts and runs in the hope that she can escape the Kif hunter ships and find refuge and aid among the people of her homeworld. Pyanfar hadn’t gambled on the single-mindedness of the Kif captain whose reputation and very existence now hinge upon regaining his lost prize and she gets much more than she bargained for as the Kif calls in more and more ally ships in a hunt across the galaxy and Pyanfar’s allies and options become thinner and thinner as her journey progresses.Cherryh covers a lot of ground in this first volume: what does it mean to be an alien? How do we communicate and interact with each other? How far should one go int he name of one’s principles at the expense of other’s lives? An especial concern for the Hani is the relation between genders. The Hani themselves have an interesting social make-up in which all males are confined to their homeworld due to their unsuitability to interacting with other races: they are far too violent and headstrong to be trusted amongst races whose ways and customs differ so greatly from their own and to whom the slightest insult could mean interstellar war. While the males rule the clan Holds that retain political power on their own world and seem to inspire some level of deference in their females, it becomes apparent that they do not do this without the aid of their high ranking wives and the fact that females control all interstellar travel and trade definitely makes the gender politics of the Hani interesting. One of Pyanfar’s greatest concerns is how to deal with a male alien amongst her all-female crew.I’m curious to see where this story goes: what will become of Tully and the entire human race now that it has been discovered by a society made up of multiple alien species? Are the Kif really as evil as they are painted in this volume or is there more to them than black hats? Will we ever learn more about the mysterious methane-breathers and their own designs within the Compact? This is only my second Cherryh novel, but I certainly enjoyed it enough to want to continue going through her extensive oeuvre. My real quandary is what to tackle next? Continue exploring Compact space with Pyanfar and her crew? Check out one of her gritty sci-fi books concentrating solely on the human political and ideological conflicts within the Alliance-Union universe? Follow Morgaine in her science-fantasy adventures through gates that bend space and time? See how she tackles an homage to the genre classic Dune with the Kesrith saga? Explore the ramifications of cloning in the classic Cyteen? Re-examine the ‘human-as-alien’ concept with Cuckoo's Egg? The opportunities are almost endless and the embarrassment of riches makes the choice a difficult one.
Aw man, I am out of practice with hard science fiction. This book took me forever to get through, and it’s not that it wasn’t enjoyable, or even particularly lengthy. Our author, she’s… she’s not one to take you by the hand and gently lead you into the storyline. Nope. Nope, this story is told by the alien main characters, and as such they talk like Aliens and make Alien references and have a whole base of knowledge that is 100% Alien and you as a human have fuck-all chance of understanding most of what’s going on.They’re telling the mahendo’sat that the hani want the hakkikt? Okay! Sure! We’ll roll with that!Then take in the fact that one of the characters—the lone human—is speaking a language that the Alien translation equipment can only guess at, meaning that half the conversations read like “They tell me go, go ####no weapons towards me ###come back ### want my door ## where you go# give me ###,” and it was just… It took me a while, guys. And I’m still pretty sure I missed some of the more nuanced plot details.However! What a fun story!The hani are members of a feline race where the women leave to kick ass and conquer and trade, and the men stay home fighting among themselves and generally being useless and high-strung. Our heroines, the crew of The Pride of Chanur, are hanging out at a space dock restocking and whatnot when suddenly a totally bizarro animal runs into the hold of their ship and proceeds to glare at them, bleed all over the place and pass out on the floor. Initially, there’s a certain amount of horrified fascination among the crew, because what the hell is it!?Furless, stupid teeth, blunt fingers, making weird choked noises, wild-eyed, apparently suicidal… no one has ever seen something like it before, but they think it’s sentient and they think it’s male.“Mouth shape is different. Can’t say we can ever do much with his language, either. It’s like trying to talk to the tc’a or the knnn… maybe even a different hearing range, certainly not the same equipment to speak with—gods, no guaranteeing the same logic, but the latter I think we may have. Some things he does make half sense.”Of course, discovering a new species has all sorts of interesting ramifications, not the least of which are a) where did he come from, b) are there more of him and c) is it worth protecting him from his captors if it means creating a potentially catastrophic interplanetary war over who claims the rights to his people’s galaxy?I loved the alien perspective on our variety of skin colors, our inability to fare well during major space jumps, our patchy hair coverage, the way that females of our species look different than males, and our overall cluelessness coupled with stubborn pigheadedness. Plus, kudos for inserting a human into the story and then ignoring him for chapters at a time because he wasn’t the important part, just the implications of him were important. Puts me right in my place.Overall, it’s worth the read for the Amazon Warrior Lionesses and the Kidnapped Human Who’s Way The Fuck Out Of His Depth, but be aware of the somewhat confusing dialogue and the telling-not-showing style of writing.
Do You like book The Pride Of Chanur (1982)?
Think I might try this series. Repeating characters across all the books? Good character growth and development? Any little hint of romance? Is it closer to Vorkosigan or Liaden?
—Jacqueline
The concept of a human being the strange and unknown alien among ‘aliens’ is very unique and I really enjoyed it. The descriptions of the main species meeting a human for the first time was well done.Humans being the ‘aliens’ was a very unique concept and I wish this was a more common theme in science fiction!The writer’s style took a bit of getting used to though because many things are simply inferred which I’m not used to. For example, how the ships travel through ‘jump’ is a bit confusing as when they exit jump (hyperspace/starburst/etc.) they have to slow down or the ship is destroyed and everyone gets sick from it because of pressures on the body. Things like that, and the way politics worked among the various alien species could have been explained better. My only other issue was that it was a bit hard keeping all the species straight. I think they would have jumped out and been more clear had they been capitalized.Overall, very unique and interesting perspective on what it means to be an ‘alien’.
—Eli
Mada sam ovo pročitao 1988 u izdanju Mladosti na upis me potaklo svježe izdanje Algoritma, posebice jer vidim da su namjerili izdati i ostale iz serije.Kako se radi o vrhunskoj space-operi preporuka svim SF-ljupcima.Jedna od rjeđih knjiga gdje se Zemljani nađu kao slučajni "alieni" u tuđem, izuzetno fascinantnom svijetu.Za ostatak prikaza posuđujem riječi kolege:------------------Fascinantno je ono što je u stanju smisliti ženski mozak.Ako ste čitali Bujoldicinog Milesa vidjeli ste hrpu raznih civilizacija no ono što je smislilaC.J.Cherryh je daleko luđe.Labava trgovačka zajednica nazvana Kompakt sa hrpom neobičnih vrsta sposobnih za svemirske letove.Zajednička trgovačka postaja - Sastajalište - pod dvojnom upravom. Zašto?Ne "snifaju" sve rase isto:Kisikaši:------------Hani - doslovno prave mačke, lavolike, grivaste s pandžama, matrijarhat - samo žene u svemiru.Mahendo'sat - smeđi ili crni primati oko ljudske veličine ili veći. Znatiželjni, inventivni i politički orijentirani.Stsho - lomljivi blijedoliki "jahači" , ksenofobni i neagresivni. Imaju tri roda gtst, gtste i gtsto koji se mijenjaju pod stresom.Kif - ovi su najgadniji, najviši, predatori s dva reda zubi (jedni čupaju, drugi žvaču). Agresivni i smrtonosni,trebaju živi plijen.Metanci:-----------Tc'a i Chi - Tc'a su velika žuta, petooka, crvolika stvorenja. Ne zna se točan odnos dvije vrste no pretpostavlja se simbioza. Izuzetno tehnički napredni i moćni no obzirom da imaju višestruke mozgove i komuniciraju u matricama vrlo ih je teško (nemoguće) shvatiti. Uvijek upravljaju metanskim dijelovima svemirskih postaja.Bilo bi zanimljivo vidjeti kako izgledaju planete naziva V'n'n'u, Tt'a'va'o ili Chchchah.Knnn - višenožna kosata čuda. Tehnološki najnaprednija vrsta Kompakta. Samo Tc'a mogu komunicirati s njima(ili samo tako tvrde). Knnni su potpuno nerazumljivi ostalima te ih se nastoji ne provocirati. Trguju tako da uzmu što god im je zanimljivo i ostave ono što misle da je kompenzacija (što je značajan napredak na ranijiobičaj samo uzimanja trgovačkih brodova). Jedini razumiju hipersvemir kako spada.I tu su, naravno, ljudi koji imaju sreću da ih pronađe jedan Kif princ i posluži se prvim istraživačkim ljudskim brodom pa se stvari debelo zakuhaju kada jedini preživjeli čovjek pobjegne i zatraži utočište kod...Jedini problem u svemu do sada je prijevod samo prve knjige Chanur sage, da se ne spominje ostatak opusa izuzetno kvalitetne SF & F autorice.No to vas ne smije omesti da uživate u prvom nastavku odlične space opere koje su prilično rijetke u ovako kvalitetnoj izvedbi.--------------------tko imalo uživa u space operi obvezno čitati!
—Krbo
