Chanur's Endgame

Chanur #4-5

by C.J. Cherryh

This omnibus contains the final two Chanur novels, Chanur's Homecoming and Chanur's Legacy . This groundbreaking series chronicles the compelling first contact between humans and multiple alien races, and is noted for its unique that of the alien protagonists.

These two books feature the adventures of Tully, the only human crewmember of the spaceship Pride of Chanur; the ship's hani captain, Pyanfar; and Hilfy Chanur, Pyanfar's niece and crewmember who goes on to become the captain of her own ship, Chanur's Legacy. They must navigate delicate interstellar politics and interspecies conflict, even as the fate of worlds hangs in the balance.

Genres: Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Cats

720 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 5, 2007

About the author

Currently resident in Spokane, Washington, C.J. Cherryh has won four Hugos and is one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed authors in the science fiction and fantasy field. She is the author of more than forty novels. Her hobbies include travel, photography, reef culture, Mariners baseball, and, a late passion, figure skating: she intends to compete in the adult USFSA track. She began with the modest ambition to learn to skate backwards and now is working on jumps. She sketches, occasionally, cooks fairly well, and hates house work; she loves the outdoors, animals wild and tame, is a hobbyist geologist, adores dinosaurs, and has academic specialties in Roman constitutional law and bronze age Greek ethnography. She has written science fiction since she was ten, spent ten years of her life teaching Latin and Ancient History on the high school level, before retiring to full time writing, and now does not have enough hours in the day to pursue all her interests. Her studies include planetary geology, weather systems, and natural and man-made catastrophes, civilizations, and cosmology…in fact, there's very little that doesn't interest her. A loom is gathering dust and needs rethreading, a wooden ship model awaits construction, and the cats demand their own time much more urgently. She works constantly, researches mostly on the internet, and has books stacked up and waiting to be written.

Reviews

[Ted Bade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a two novel combination book and the novels are different although part of the same universe. he first one is the thrilling and very entertaining conclusion of the adventure started in the first three books. The ending is very intense and keeps on on the edge of their seat!

The second novel is an offshoot of the first 4 and follows one adventure of Hilly, the niece of Pyanfar, the main character in the first 4. As Ms. Cherryh is a real master of imagining non-human races, she continues to impress by adding more detail to those races introduced in earlier novels. Especially interesting is how she conceives the male members of the Han species.

[Bjørnar Tuftin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me ages to get through this. It had been 20+ years since I read the first three Chanur books, and the first novel in this omnibus never gripped me. I expect I just didn't remember enough of the previous book. But while I wouldn't call the second book in this volume a standalone novel, it depends too heavily on the others for that, it _is_ a new story with mainly new characters. And it's an exciting story.

I remembered the Chanur novels as having amazing worldbuilding, and Chanur's Legacy brought that feeling back. Cherryh's alien's aren't humans with slight differences on appearance, they have more or less genuinely alien psychologies due to a non-human mix of nature and nurture. Some of them more so than others. I wonder how much even Cherryh really knows about the mysterious Knnn or the Tc'a.

I highly recommend anyone to read some Cherryh. If SF is not your cup of tea, start with some of her fantasy instead.

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

You need to read the whole series. And fellow women readers you've got to love a race of people whose worse curse is may all your children be sons!

Cherryh is great at looking at modern problems and presenting in such a way that we have to think about the rights and wrongs of - in this case - sexual inequality.

[Carril Karr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the two books in this omnibus much more satisfying than the three in the other omnibus. Maybe because of the resolution reached and then the not so happy ‘ever after’.
Cherryh has a real knack with describing and working with ‘alien’ cultures.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chanur's Homecoming: This is the third book in a trilogy which begain in the second book in The Chanur Saga volume. Yes I know that does seem to make sense, but The Chanur Saga contains three books in one. I like the book, it finished the trilogy off very well. I wasn't a fan of Cherryh before I started reading the Chanur books, but this more and more I read of them the more I like them and this one was I thought the best yet. There was some ssimilarity between The pride of Chanur and the trilogy. Both started with human and Kif trouble at Meetingpoint and finished up with trouble back home. Having said that they were two different stories. Looking forward to Chanurs Legacy.

Chanur's Legacy: I had a little gap between finishing Chanur's Homecoming and starting this one and may be it was a mistake because I struggled to get into this. I found it slow to start, some of the names were similar and other were way too complicated which meant it was hard to keep track. Once I got near the end it seemed to pick up and I liked the end.

So overall I didn't think it matched up to the preceding trilogy, but it was okay.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

This omnibus volume contains the final two novels in one of my favorite SciFi series, the Chanur Saga by C.J. Cherryh. This is at least the second if not the third time I've read my way through the series, although I think it may be only the second time I've read the final novel, Chanur's Endgame. Cherryh has an uncanny knack in writing about alien species, albeit her aliens are invariably much like humans in their ways of thinking and acting. At least the hani are. I wonder if she'd ever consider writing a novel as seen from the perspective of a kif! But her aliens are just enough different, and just enough alien to keep you intrigued, and fascinated by trying to figure out what they might do next, and why they do the things they do, and react in the ways they do. Highly recommended, but with the caveat that you must read the preceding 3 novels in the series first.

[Tredain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent scifi from the perspective of 'the aliens', where the humans appear more alien. Fun read with technical mumbo jumbo that gives the tech a real touch without overloading the reading in sci fi jargon. Lots of excellent characters, each with great personality and a lot of depth. Great for fans of furry or sci fi in general

Finished the book. made me quite sad. I didn't want it to end. Miss Cherryh has a way of creating worlds and characters that come to life. It was so good I didn't want to part with it. I've looked into her other series and sadly none seem to quite capture my interest the way this short series did. I can hope hope she'll write another some day. But definitely not a series to pass up.

[marcia rutledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Chanur series is among Cherryh's best. Highly recommended. I've read them all twice. Also check out the Merchanter series.

[Jvanvelsor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this author and her incredibly creative and plausible aliens

[PETER BLAKEMORE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant story over 5 books. Excellent

[Steve]

no-one does aliens as good as Cherryh