Early Cherryh proves she was a sci-fi master all along

The best of C.J. Cherryh's speculative fiction, Cyteen and its progeny, is such an admirable accomplishment, that one can easily find fault with her numerous other novels in comparison. As Joyce Carol Oates can testify, that is the problem with being a prolific writer. Evenso, many of Cherryh's lesser works exceed the best work product of more commercial science fiction writers such as Orson Scott Card and Anne McCaffrey. Hunter of Worlds, the second of the two early Cherryh novels in this twin volume, is such a book.

But, first, let's consider Brothers of Earth, thought to be her earliest published novel. Like its companion, Brothers focuses on humans severed from the worlds they know. Cjan, the methi of Nephane, is a human who was shipwrecked with a small team on an alien world that had already had its fill of human treachery. After she proved herself to have no immediate vision of conquest, she was elevated to a leadership position that prevented conflict with nemet theology. It is a role she shares with another methi on the other land mass of the world, Indresul, which is hostile to Nephane. Meanwhile, humans from the occupation centuries ago have gone wild in an isolated part of the small planet and are generally avoided by the nemet. Into this balanced scenario, literally drops Kurt Morgan, the sole survivor of a battle between Cjan's people and his own, who have been engaged in a world destroying war for millenia. The two enemies tolerate each other out of a mutual need to have some contact with another human. Ultimately, each of them must decide whether to accept a diminished role in nemet affairs or use the nuclear weapons Cjan still possesses to dominate or destroy the planet.

Brothers is prescient about some of the themes of Cherryh's later fiction. There are intelligent, but different, species, locked in conflict, but seeking equilibrium. The core of the tension between Cjan and Kurt is the mutual animosity between the genetically engineered and natural humans. Throughout most of the novel, reason takes a back seat to emotions, including greed, pride and religious orthodoxy, for humans, but particularly for nemet.

Hunter of Worlds features three species that have reached an accommodation. The space lords, the Orithain Iduve, started all species in their section of the universe on the path to space. The Kalliran are a race of bourgeois bureaucrats who accept domination as the price of peace. The Amaut, would-be farmers, provide muscle for the Iduve with their excess population while pursuing their own trade routes. Both Kalliran and Amaut are sometimes bound as slaves to the Iduve. Enter humans, who the Orithain have had little to do with. Specifically, enter a single human, Daniel, captured by the Iduve along with the world-born Kalliran Aiola, to be used in a scheme by Chimele, the Orithain chief of the world ship Ashanome. Her brother, Tejef, insulted her and the other Orithain of Ashanome in an unforgivable way a few years ago and the time allotted for vengeance by the governing council is running out. Aiola, Daniel and another mind-melded Kalliran, Isande, will be the bait used to draw Tejef out of hiding.

Article Author: Mac Diva

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