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Fenrille #3
The War for Eternity
The human colonists and the native bearlike creatures of the planet Fenrille join to resist an invasion from Earth
337 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 1983
108 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Rowley
53 books95 followersChristopher Rowley is a prolific writer of both science fiction and fantasy novels. He was born in 1948 in Lynn, Massachusetts to an American mother and an English father. Educated for the most part at Brentwood School, Essex, England, he became a London-based journalist in the 1970s. In 1977 he moved to New York City and began work on The War For Eternity, his first science fiction novel. He currently lives in upstate New York.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 13, 2025
This was a little hard to get into, starting off with some rather confusing fighting scenes. None the less, once you find out what is going on, it gets much better. Without the two prequels (which came much later), I do not think I would have enjoyed it as much. Rowley seems to have figured out that the reader needs more info about the planet to make sense of what is occurring in this book.
edit: reread 12/20
You can tell this is Rowley's first novel; he tries to pack way too much in here and does not give you much background, leaving the reader feeling a little lost. I actually started this twice and shelved it. Later, I read Rowley's Vang series (which is great) and then decided to try this one again, but with the prequels first (the prequels were written later). While still a little confusing at first-- info overload-- the story quickly settles down around a few main POVs.
The Highlanders are the families of the oldest colonists and the ones who harvest chitin. The coastal cities are populated by various neer do wells and run via organized criminal groups who have arrived in a series of starships. The coastals constantly stage massive raids of the highlands to steal the chitin and the highland families, in alliance with the natives, fight back fiercely. The book starts right in the middle of one of these raids...
A new ship from Earth arrives one day and disrupts this totally. Earth wants the chitin based longevity drugs and the leader of the newly arrived space marines is determined to bring the planet to heel. Along side the political intrigue, we learn more about the planet itself and the natives.
I will stop with the plot, as there are several neat twists and the ending is far out there. Rowley does a really nice job pacing the novel (after the weak start) and builds a very diverse and motley cast of characters. As usual, the characters can be very brutal, but emotions and actions go much deeper than that. 4 stars.
edit: reread 12/20
You can tell this is Rowley's first novel; he tries to pack way too much in here and does not give you much background, leaving the reader feeling a little lost. I actually started this twice and shelved it. Later, I read Rowley's Vang series (which is great) and then decided to try this one again, but with the prequels first (the prequels were written later). While still a little confusing at first-- info overload-- the story quickly settles down around a few main POVs.
The Highlanders are the families of the oldest colonists and the ones who harvest chitin. The coastal cities are populated by various neer do wells and run via organized criminal groups who have arrived in a series of starships. The coastals constantly stage massive raids of the highlands to steal the chitin and the highland families, in alliance with the natives, fight back fiercely. The book starts right in the middle of one of these raids...
A new ship from Earth arrives one day and disrupts this totally. Earth wants the chitin based longevity drugs and the leader of the newly arrived space marines is determined to bring the planet to heel. Along side the political intrigue, we learn more about the planet itself and the natives.
I will stop with the plot, as there are several neat twists and the ending is far out there. Rowley does a really nice job pacing the novel (after the weak start) and builds a very diverse and motley cast of characters. As usual, the characters can be very brutal, but emotions and actions go much deeper than that. 4 stars.
August 13, 2018
Colonists, arboreal natives and Earth government fight over the supply of a drug that extends human life on an alien world. In the end this was a pretty enjoyable military SF with good tactical writing and some good things to say about colonialism & corporatism. You do have to wade through some fairly sexist content to get to that, though.
Fun fact. The alien on this cover by Ralph McQuarrie looks almost identical the original concept art for Chewbacca that he did for the first Star Wars movie. Which makes perfect sense since the aliens in the book are pretty much Wookie rip-offs.
Fun fact. The alien on this cover by Ralph McQuarrie looks almost identical the original concept art for Chewbacca that he did for the first Star Wars movie. Which makes perfect sense since the aliens in the book are pretty much Wookie rip-offs.
July 13, 2023
Super neat worldbuilding. Pretty quickly paced with lots of lingo and vocab to pick up.
Plot is basically Avatar (2009) movie but with humans sort of fighting each other, with one side allied with the aliens, fighting over a precious natural resource of the planet.
Climax is pretty bonkers and really interesting.
Really wished there was more focus on the alien race and their culture and their relationship with humans. Would have loved an alien protagonist character considering the beautiful cover piece by Ralph McQuarrie is what drew me to the book in the first place.
Full of random sexist bullshit.
Tolkien would be proud of how shitty and rushed the human/human "romance" was.
Entertaining and neat besides that.
3.5/5
Plot is basically Avatar (2009) movie but with humans sort of fighting each other, with one side allied with the aliens, fighting over a precious natural resource of the planet.
Climax is pretty bonkers and really interesting.
Really wished there was more focus on the alien race and their culture and their relationship with humans. Would have loved an alien protagonist character considering the beautiful cover piece by Ralph McQuarrie is what drew me to the book in the first place.
Full of random sexist bullshit.
Tolkien would be proud of how shitty and rushed the human/human "romance" was.
Entertaining and neat besides that.
3.5/5
April 7, 2024
A hard military sci-fi with parallels to 'Dune' and 'Avatar'. Human clans and the bear-like aliens of Fenrille unite against Earth's invaders for control of a drug that can make you live forever. The descriptions of a brutal futuristic guerilla war on a unique alien world hasn't been replicated since.
August 28, 2023
DNF at 36 pages in, if you like James Cameron's Avatar but wished it was infused with about 800% more military sci-fi, have I got the book for you...
November 15, 2020
Been meaning to re-read this forever and finally got around to it. It is actually genius - a finely balanced novel about, essentially, future colonialism, economic models, evolution and eugenics, all wrapped up in a perfectly-paced future war story. The fore-thinking about tech and how this would evolved to support future battles is also prescient, though we are arriving there in perhaps 50 years rather than the hundreds suggested in the novel. It's fairly modern for it's avoidance of sexist tropes also - they're in there, for sure, but being a bastard to women is basically tick one on the list of ways to tell who are the "bad guys", while the "good guys" are led by and include all of the female characters.
I'm not sure that I agree with all the viewpoints in the stories being played out, but there is something appealing about the Fundan society and their relationship with the Fein of mutual respect and trust - though also darker edges of the aforementioned colonial/ parternalistic lordship. I suppose they represent the "good" side of colonialism and inclusive social programmes to "improve the stock" - high quality education being the primary one. Though this education divorced from modern nuclear families, I don't really have a problem with that as I don't really see the nuclear family as a particularly desirable construct.
The coastal sink cities represent an excess of capitalism and exploitation, while the Old Earth space navy are superfluously the opposite - masquerading as communistic state control but actually corrupt through and through. Arguably no one comes across very well but the debate is subtle and well-presented and this book is well worth reading.
If you can get a copy, of course - mine is well over 30 years old and I believe the only edition published in the UK, so there's that.
I'm not sure that I agree with all the viewpoints in the stories being played out, but there is something appealing about the Fundan society and their relationship with the Fein of mutual respect and trust - though also darker edges of the aforementioned colonial/ parternalistic lordship. I suppose they represent the "good" side of colonialism and inclusive social programmes to "improve the stock" - high quality education being the primary one. Though this education divorced from modern nuclear families, I don't really have a problem with that as I don't really see the nuclear family as a particularly desirable construct.
The coastal sink cities represent an excess of capitalism and exploitation, while the Old Earth space navy are superfluously the opposite - masquerading as communistic state control but actually corrupt through and through. Arguably no one comes across very well but the debate is subtle and well-presented and this book is well worth reading.
If you can get a copy, of course - mine is well over 30 years old and I believe the only edition published in the UK, so there's that.
November 24, 2012
Book #3 of a loose four book sequence (The Founder, To A Highland Nation, The War for Eternity, The Black Ship). Good, solid series. Each book is different, but weave together with great effect. Definitely my favorite of the four.
July 23, 2008
Great story, very cool.
April 28, 2015
1995 grade D
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews