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The Hinder Stars #2
Alliance Unbound
The second novel of The Hinder Stars series returns to an intergalactic corporate conflict, set in the Hugo-award winning Alliance-Union Universe.
When Cyteen opened up faster-than-light travel, it gave the technology for free to any ship that could reach it; and with that technology, it provided a map of jump-points, points of mass enabling starships to navigate hyperspace safely.
The map of jump-points, however, stopped with the route to Alpha--thus excluding Sol, and Earth, and the Earth Company, whose gateway to the stars was Alpha. Cyteen knew exactly what it was doing with its gift. Sol and the EC could still reach Alpha with sub-light pusher-ships as it always had--but Sol and the Earth Company no longer had any authority in the Beyond.
But Sol intends to take back control of its star-stations and stop Cyteen's unbridled expansion, however it can. To do that, they are willing to starve Alpha, and concentrate their efforts on a huge FTLer capable of carrying military force.
When Cyteen opened up faster-than-light travel, it gave the technology for free to any ship that could reach it; and with that technology, it provided a map of jump-points, points of mass enabling starships to navigate hyperspace safely.
The map of jump-points, however, stopped with the route to Alpha--thus excluding Sol, and Earth, and the Earth Company, whose gateway to the stars was Alpha. Cyteen knew exactly what it was doing with its gift. Sol and the EC could still reach Alpha with sub-light pusher-ships as it always had--but Sol and the Earth Company no longer had any authority in the Beyond.
But Sol intends to take back control of its star-stations and stop Cyteen's unbridled expansion, however it can. To do that, they are willing to starve Alpha, and concentrate their efforts on a huge FTLer capable of carrying military force.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published February 7, 2023
64 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
C.J. Cherryh
292 books3,574 followersCurrently 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
November 20, 2024
Just to set expectations: This is very much the middle part of a story -- it picks up in the immediate aftermath of Alliance Rising and very much ends on a "To Be Continued ..."
It's also a great book.
[n.b. Untagged spoilers are about to abound for Alliance Rising, so if you haven't read that yet, stop reading this review, go read Alliance Rising, and then come back. I'll wait.]
So when last we left our heroes, Ross Monahan had been conked on the head, shoved into a spacesuit and unceremoniously booted from the airlock of his family's merchanter, the Galway, sent drifting towards the (much newer, larger and faster) merchanter Finity's End after Earth Company goons staged a takeover of the Galway as it set out to prove (or, maybe, catastrophically disprove) the existence of an actual FTL jump route that would for the first time connect Mother Earth to the rest of the interstellar society. (Earth being, at this point in the timeline, just a bit too far away from nearby stars to allow for an FTL jump; but in the previous book, Alpha Station and Galway had become aware of a couple of possible, previously-uncharted jump points that might allow Earth to join the FTL community instead of having to rely on a combination of sublight pusher ships and years-lagged radio communication to try to exert control over the various stations it had birthed, stations who ... really aren't all that interested in bowing to the Earth Company's whims any more, not to put too fine a point on it.)
As the book opens, Ross and a few of his older Monahan cousins have taken passage on Finity's End to be witness to the Earth Company's perfidy (which JR Neihart, Finity's captain, hopes might persuade the last few holdout stations and merchanters to join his nascent Alliance ...), while leaving other Monahans back on Alpha Station to await Galway's hoped-for return. Ross, who had been part of Navigation on his own ship, has been sitting the nav boards on Finity (and as the book opens, having some spooky and disorienting experiences for Reasons) while also trying to navigate the equally tricky contours of his relationship with one Jen Neihart -- they love each other very much, but there's the nagging awareness that most likely neither of them would be willing to actually leave their own ship permanently to be with the other (always assuming, of course, that Galway is still out there somewhere for Ross to leave ...). And which system's gravity well do they drop into as the book opens? Pell's! That's right, Downbelow Station itself looms on scan ...
And during their stay at Downbelow, Ross and the Neiharts will discover evidence of even more Earth Company machinations that will take them, eventually, to a particularly hellish sort of system for FTLers to drop into and jump out of, and a confrontation with some not-very-nice people.
And I have to say that I was so happy to revisit Downbelow again after all these years (well, technically the Hinder Stars books take place before all of the other Alliance/Union books), and to visit other places that had previously only existed as names or off-hand references, and to see the underpinnings being laid for events that will transpire in later books (that were written 45 years ago and what even is time?).
And the story is 100% pure high-octane Cherryh with the almost claustrophobically-tight POV and the deep attention to both small- and large-scale details -- at one point, Important Revelations are gleaned from a souvenir gathering dust on the shelf of a museum gift shop.
And I, for one, cannot wait for the third volume.
It's also a great book.
[n.b. Untagged spoilers are about to abound for Alliance Rising, so if you haven't read that yet, stop reading this review, go read Alliance Rising, and then come back. I'll wait.]
So when last we left our heroes, Ross Monahan had been conked on the head, shoved into a spacesuit and unceremoniously booted from the airlock of his family's merchanter, the Galway, sent drifting towards the (much newer, larger and faster) merchanter Finity's End after Earth Company goons staged a takeover of the Galway as it set out to prove (or, maybe, catastrophically disprove) the existence of an actual FTL jump route that would for the first time connect Mother Earth to the rest of the interstellar society. (Earth being, at this point in the timeline, just a bit too far away from nearby stars to allow for an FTL jump; but in the previous book, Alpha Station and Galway had become aware of a couple of possible, previously-uncharted jump points that might allow Earth to join the FTL community instead of having to rely on a combination of sublight pusher ships and years-lagged radio communication to try to exert control over the various stations it had birthed, stations who ... really aren't all that interested in bowing to the Earth Company's whims any more, not to put too fine a point on it.)
As the book opens, Ross and a few of his older Monahan cousins have taken passage on Finity's End to be witness to the Earth Company's perfidy (which JR Neihart, Finity's captain, hopes might persuade the last few holdout stations and merchanters to join his nascent Alliance ...), while leaving other Monahans back on Alpha Station to await Galway's hoped-for return. Ross, who had been part of Navigation on his own ship, has been sitting the nav boards on Finity (and as the book opens, having some spooky and disorienting experiences for Reasons) while also trying to navigate the equally tricky contours of his relationship with one Jen Neihart -- they love each other very much, but there's the nagging awareness that most likely neither of them would be willing to actually leave their own ship permanently to be with the other (always assuming, of course, that Galway is still out there somewhere for Ross to leave ...). And which system's gravity well do they drop into as the book opens? Pell's! That's right, Downbelow Station itself looms on scan ...
And during their stay at Downbelow, Ross and the Neiharts will discover evidence of even more Earth Company machinations that will take them, eventually, to a particularly hellish sort of system for FTLers to drop into and jump out of, and a confrontation with some not-very-nice people.
And I have to say that I was so happy to revisit Downbelow again after all these years (well, technically the Hinder Stars books take place before all of the other Alliance/Union books), and to visit other places that had previously only existed as names or off-hand references, and to see the underpinnings being laid for events that will transpire in later books (that were written 45 years ago and what even is time?).
And the story is 100% pure high-octane Cherryh with the almost claustrophobically-tight POV and the deep attention to both small- and large-scale details -- at one point, Important Revelations are gleaned from a souvenir gathering dust on the shelf of a museum gift shop.
And I, for one, cannot wait for the third volume.
October 15, 2024
Starships and space station politics— absorbing!
Tense unforgiving times for Finity’s End starship’s crew as they endeavour to bring the last two merchant family ships into an Alliance as a third power to counter the Earth Company’s enforcer’s actions in space. The two ships leave as Infinity comes into Pell, and before Senior Captain Neihart can speak with them.
An innocent look by Jen Neihart, the Senior Captain’s niece, her partner Ross Monahan and some of his cousins at Pell Station’s Gardens and trees have the Finity Starship Captains realising that illegal Sol items are showing up at Pell. How? Such items are sanctioned. Jen is a security officer for Finity. Ross, a Navigator from the Galaxy family ship, along with his cousins are currently attached to Finity.
From there it’s a small thought for Finity’s End to go to two mothballed space stations to investigate.
Ross is a talented navigator who feels the stars as living entities. It’s his abilities that in the end deduce something others doubt.
When Finity’s End breaks out into space station Olympus’s orbit they are unpleasantly surprised. There’s a pusher ship from Sol attached to the station, the two family ships they’ve been looking for and a third ship that looks very different.
What began as an economic endeavour has the potential to become something else
Cherryh and Fancher build the story in abbreviated actions and talk that alarmingly keeps the tension focused.
I’m happily exhausted! Grand Space Opera at its very best!
A DAW ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Tense unforgiving times for Finity’s End starship’s crew as they endeavour to bring the last two merchant family ships into an Alliance as a third power to counter the Earth Company’s enforcer’s actions in space. The two ships leave as Infinity comes into Pell, and before Senior Captain Neihart can speak with them.
An innocent look by Jen Neihart, the Senior Captain’s niece, her partner Ross Monahan and some of his cousins at Pell Station’s Gardens and trees have the Finity Starship Captains realising that illegal Sol items are showing up at Pell. How? Such items are sanctioned. Jen is a security officer for Finity. Ross, a Navigator from the Galaxy family ship, along with his cousins are currently attached to Finity.
From there it’s a small thought for Finity’s End to go to two mothballed space stations to investigate.
Ross is a talented navigator who feels the stars as living entities. It’s his abilities that in the end deduce something others doubt.
When Finity’s End breaks out into space station Olympus’s orbit they are unpleasantly surprised. There’s a pusher ship from Sol attached to the station, the two family ships they’ve been looking for and a third ship that looks very different.
What began as an economic endeavour has the potential to become something else
Cherryh and Fancher build the story in abbreviated actions and talk that alarmingly keeps the tension focused.
I’m happily exhausted! Grand Space Opera at its very best!
A DAW ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
August 7, 2025
Why yes, this is about as good as it gets: one of my favourite science fiction futures has more bits of history filled in, more places visited, more people and details, all with an incredibly tight and tense plot that relies on politicking and character far more than on action and violence (although not entirely lacking in the latter either). My only complaint is a bit of an abrupt and incomplete ending, but hopefully that means another sequel coming soon?
January 15, 2025
What to even say, beyond, I loved this!
If you have not read book one in this series, go do so before reading further, as there are some mild spoilers for book two coming up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Picking up not long after the end of Alliance Rising (book one), authors Cherryh and Fancher set Finity's Rising on course for Pell, with a few members of the Galway on board to learn the systems and boards in advance of the Galway hopefully acquiring a new ship after their return.
Ross is shadowing Finity's navigators, and chief navigator Kate Niehart is noticing Ross' talent; what she does not see immediately is Ross beginning to go the way of some navigators, which is seeing and feeling things from astral objects (stars, etc.) in a spooky, difficult to categorize way.
Jenn is noticing he's a little strange, but is eager to show him and the other Galway crew on board the treats of Pell, such as the botanical garden, and his first tree.
Once there, he's overwhelmed by the noise, the colours, and the sheer number of unusual and bright things. He's jumpy and shying at things he sees, but does calm down once among the plants. All the crew are taken by the three highly prized redwoods at the garden, but their existence, and a seemingly inconsequential item at the gift shop, gets Galway crew thinking about shipping something as delicate as a tricky to grow in space plant, and they begin piecing together a picture through forensic analysis of shipping histories, accounts and the like that points to an Earth Company (EC) presence, and likely specific First/Hinder Stars merchant ships in collaboration with EC, who are bringing in contraband or unique Earth goods, unbeknownst to other First Stars' Families. Finity's captains posit the smugglers are likely based at one of the Hinder Stars' abandoned stations.
JR Niehart is intent on tracking down two ships who still have not signed the Alliance agreement, and figures that they'll find them if they travel through a tricky bit of space to the most likely location. A Cyteen ship, the Little Bear (from book one), agrees to go with them as witness to what they might find, and boy, does Finity's End get a surprise, and experience some horrifying things at its destination. We also meet Signe Mallory's likely origin ship and its Captain, a tough, uncompromising man who cannot abide Cyteen and all it stands for.
Ross continues to go into nav fugues, and sounds more unhinged than ever, though Kate knows this is something that happens to the best navigators, and that he'll likely stabilize as time passes.
A lot happened in this entry, much of it shocking in its implications (yup, we're one step closer to the Company Wars). There are revelations, losses, and a better understanding, at least amongst the Nieharts and their few Galways that underhanded dealings have been going on a long time, and that there are those amongst EC who will not bend to the changes happening out past the First Stars' stations and ships.
The pacing is standard Cherryh: lay out the stakes and the players, and then ratchet the tension up to high and never stop till the end. Though this is a second book, there is no diminishing of pacing or flailing about to fill the time till the third book. Nope. This is claustrophobic, tense, and with wonderful filling out of details that are either not mentioned or merely hinted at in "Downbelow Station". It's made me want to return to that original story to revisit the outcomes of the stealthy and dodgy behaviour we're getting to see as yet another reason things eventually devolved to war.
I already said I loved this. All I can really add is that I really, really, really want book three in my hands already!
Thank you to Netgalley and to DAW for this ARC in exchange for my review.
If you have not read book one in this series, go do so before reading further, as there are some mild spoilers for book two coming up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Picking up not long after the end of Alliance Rising (book one), authors Cherryh and Fancher set Finity's Rising on course for Pell, with a few members of the Galway on board to learn the systems and boards in advance of the Galway hopefully acquiring a new ship after their return.
Ross is shadowing Finity's navigators, and chief navigator Kate Niehart is noticing Ross' talent; what she does not see immediately is Ross beginning to go the way of some navigators, which is seeing and feeling things from astral objects (stars, etc.) in a spooky, difficult to categorize way.
Jenn is noticing he's a little strange, but is eager to show him and the other Galway crew on board the treats of Pell, such as the botanical garden, and his first tree.
Once there, he's overwhelmed by the noise, the colours, and the sheer number of unusual and bright things. He's jumpy and shying at things he sees, but does calm down once among the plants. All the crew are taken by the three highly prized redwoods at the garden, but their existence, and a seemingly inconsequential item at the gift shop, gets Galway crew thinking about shipping something as delicate as a tricky to grow in space plant, and they begin piecing together a picture through forensic analysis of shipping histories, accounts and the like that points to an Earth Company (EC) presence, and likely specific First/Hinder Stars merchant ships in collaboration with EC, who are bringing in contraband or unique Earth goods, unbeknownst to other First Stars' Families. Finity's captains posit the smugglers are likely based at one of the Hinder Stars' abandoned stations.
JR Niehart is intent on tracking down two ships who still have not signed the Alliance agreement, and figures that they'll find them if they travel through a tricky bit of space to the most likely location. A Cyteen ship, the Little Bear (from book one), agrees to go with them as witness to what they might find, and boy, does Finity's End get a surprise, and experience some horrifying things at its destination. We also meet Signe Mallory's likely origin ship and its Captain, a tough, uncompromising man who cannot abide Cyteen and all it stands for.
Ross continues to go into nav fugues, and sounds more unhinged than ever, though Kate knows this is something that happens to the best navigators, and that he'll likely stabilize as time passes.
A lot happened in this entry, much of it shocking in its implications (yup, we're one step closer to the Company Wars). There are revelations, losses, and a better understanding, at least amongst the Nieharts and their few Galways that underhanded dealings have been going on a long time, and that there are those amongst EC who will not bend to the changes happening out past the First Stars' stations and ships.
The pacing is standard Cherryh: lay out the stakes and the players, and then ratchet the tension up to high and never stop till the end. Though this is a second book, there is no diminishing of pacing or flailing about to fill the time till the third book. Nope. This is claustrophobic, tense, and with wonderful filling out of details that are either not mentioned or merely hinted at in "Downbelow Station". It's made me want to return to that original story to revisit the outcomes of the stealthy and dodgy behaviour we're getting to see as yet another reason things eventually devolved to war.
I already said I loved this. All I can really add is that I really, really, really want book three in my hands already!
Thank you to Netgalley and to DAW for this ARC in exchange for my review.
August 1, 2024
From a netgalley ARC.
A mixed bag. I have no memories of book one. But based on my previous review, this book seemed similar.
I have read all of the Alliance-Union-Merchanter-Cyteen books, but most of these were before I was on Goodreads. I have re-read Downbelow Station and Merchanter's Luck relatively recently.
This book felt like a Merchanter book. But this had no recap. So trying to figure out the story at the beginning was tough. And the book was torturously slow. We were in several character's heads and they kept on recapping and reconsidering events and trying to figure out what would happen next. It made the book a lot longer than it needed to be.
There was a bit too much time at the Tree Museum on Pell. But it was a cool spot and understanding why it was cool was important to the plot.
There was a bit too much time spent on any of the formal communications - between ship and ship, between ship and station, between captain and captain, between captain and crew.
And then like in the first book, there was a bang up ending that left me wanting more. And wanting to re-read the whole series.
The whole point of colonies would seem to be that at some point they break free and are independent entities. And the parent of those colonies may not be ready to let go on the same timeline.
Still worth reading but not a good starting place. 3.5 of 5.
A mixed bag. I have no memories of book one. But based on my previous review, this book seemed similar.
I have read all of the Alliance-Union-Merchanter-Cyteen books, but most of these were before I was on Goodreads. I have re-read Downbelow Station and Merchanter's Luck relatively recently.
This book felt like a Merchanter book. But this had no recap. So trying to figure out the story at the beginning was tough. And the book was torturously slow. We were in several character's heads and they kept on recapping and reconsidering events and trying to figure out what would happen next. It made the book a lot longer than it needed to be.
There was a bit too much time at the Tree Museum on Pell. But it was a cool spot and understanding why it was cool was important to the plot.
There was a bit too much time spent on any of the formal communications - between ship and ship, between ship and station, between captain and captain, between captain and crew.
And then like in the first book, there was a bang up ending that left me wanting more. And wanting to re-read the whole series.
The whole point of colonies would seem to be that at some point they break free and are independent entities. And the parent of those colonies may not be ready to let go on the same timeline.
Still worth reading but not a good starting place. 3.5 of 5.
January 27, 2025
This was tense throughout and very compelling. The complex situations of space station and merchanter ships negotiating and dealing with the ongoing conflict with the Sol system is interesting and I really like getting this bit of history of this universe. I was fully invested and I think there's a lot of great things here.
That said, this book is very long and it has a lot of repetitions in different sections from different viewpoints going over the same information over and over again. I really think more should have actually been covered in this >600 page book. I'm grateful we have this, I can't wait for the next one, but I do wish there was less repetition.
That said, this book is very long and it has a lot of repetitions in different sections from different viewpoints going over the same information over and over again. I really think more should have actually been covered in this >600 page book. I'm grateful we have this, I can't wait for the next one, but I do wish there was less repetition.
August 7, 2025
Soooo good! This is another book that I've been looking at on my nightstand for awhile, just savoring the anticipation, sure that it would be wonderful and it was. CJ Cherryh is my second favorite author after Guy Gavriel Kay. I've read everything she's written alone and with Jane Fancher and reread most of her work periodically. Cherryh and Fancher tell a great story, full of tension, politics, economics and character choices. This is the second book in the beginning days of the Alliance. Earth Company hijacked the FTL ship Galway, owned and crewed the the Monahan Family and is hurtling towards earth. While some of the Monahans wait at Alpha Station, others are accepted on the Neihart Family's Finity's End as witnesses to the hijacking and trainees at their crew roles while Galway is gone. Finity's End's mission is to sign up the merchanter ships and space stations to the Alliance, setting out provisions and rules about ship ownership and merchant and station rights. EC has been letting Alpha decline and near starve for years in an effort to build an FTL ship there. But there are other nefarious EC games afoot. Super read. Classic Cherryh and Fancher. Highly recommended.
December 13, 2024
I have always been impressed with how well Ms. Cherryh portrays the characters in her books, human and alien. How she writes then, how they interact with the world, makes the reader almost believe that they really exist. When reading the dialog in this novel, one quickly notices a clipped method of speaking, which I expect is her way of portraying the spacer families society in this book.
This book continues the series which tells the story of the merchant family alliance and how it began. I enjoyed the way the story moves, as the characters slowly learn what has been going on that has not been noticed related to the Earth Company's actions in the Hinder stars.
One of the main characters, Ross Monahan, a navigator trainee, learns of his abilities to "feel" stars. Another aspect of this SF universe that is well developed. She has been developing his character a lot and I wonder where it is leading.
This was a really good and suspenceful novel. I am looking forward to the next in this series.
This book continues the series which tells the story of the merchant family alliance and how it began. I enjoyed the way the story moves, as the characters slowly learn what has been going on that has not been noticed related to the Earth Company's actions in the Hinder stars.
One of the main characters, Ross Monahan, a navigator trainee, learns of his abilities to "feel" stars. Another aspect of this SF universe that is well developed. She has been developing his character a lot and I wonder where it is leading.
This was a really good and suspenceful novel. I am looking forward to the next in this series.
March 24, 2025
Jo Walton’s Reading List: November 2024 (on reactormag.com): “Don’t read this without reading Alliance Rising first. And if you have read other Cherryh Alliance-Union books I guarantee there is something in here that will make you choke on your tea. I thought this was great and it had a really powerful end. I couldn’t put it down once I started it. But what I want to say isn’t that. What I want to say is that we have a Best Series Hugo now, and if we don’t nominate the Alliance-Union series this year when there is a new book out in it, we may not ever have another chance. Cherryh was born in 1942; she’s 82. She’s going to write a finite number of new books. The award is for the series, not for the new volume. This series has been going since 1981, it has won two Hugos for individual volumes (Downbelow Station and Cyteen), it is one of the best series ever, one of the series that has shaped what stories of future history and space can be. And there’s a thing that happens where women writers become invisible as they get older. They keep writing, and selling books, but they don’t get award recognition and visibility. I understand that it’s easy to get excited about a new writer, and hard to stay excited about someone continuing to be excellent, but I don’t understand why this happens disproportionately to women. But anyway, if you have read any book in the Alliance-Union universe you can nominate the series for Best Series Hugo next year, and you should keep that in mind when it comes to nomination time. Are there five series with a volume out in 2024 that you think are better than this one? Really? If not, remember that it’s eligible and give it a nomination slot alongside the new hot things.” Amen!
Even more so than in Alliance Rising, there's a strong sense of reading a classic work of historical narrative—which is unexpected, given that this is science fiction. But the style, with its exhaustive expositions and repetitions, along with the galaxy-spanning canvas, the epic scope and stakes, and the existence of later (well, earlier...) books detailing the future of these characters and their looming war of independence, only reinforces the impression. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that the universe is really fully fleshed (“brilliantly realized detail”...), the tension keeps accumulating and everything is utterly believable. A true to form, remarkable, awe-inspiring tour de force.
To wit:
“He had grit. He was a hero by any standard, but he didn’t try to trade on it.”
“At some point, when dealing with willful self-deception, reason failed.”
“Time. Everything was time. And there was no buying back a wrong choice.”
“At least, he qualified—after a moment’s reflection on life on planets, a life more alien to him than Pell’s dockside—not in space, they weren’t.”
“People in the hire of a company that’s been dead set, historically, on its own interests rather than the fair trade we’ve all become accustomed to.”
“Maybe that was what they were trying to create on Pell Station, which never had experienced a vector shift: a fantasy of life on a planet.”
“In point of fact, Cyteen had never made shipping a priority. What, exactly, Cyteen did prioritize was something of a mystery to the rest of humanity.”
“The wobbles cut in, nature’s own reminder that humans weren’t built for what humans had chosen to do.”
“Damn sure the EC’s done everything possible to innoculate them against anything like free thought.”
“These two have been playing a long, dark game, and deceiving their own in the process, and profit isn’t the only god they answer to.”
“I’d like once to talk to somebody who’s come from Earth, or Mars, or wherever,” Siobhan said. “That would be so weird. I’d buy him endless drinks.”
“We by no means approve of all Cyteen does. But while we trade, we are preventing the worst case: the fragmentation of nations and the demonization of other humans.”
“All this . . . all this needless death and betrayal. And for what? The fools had no secrecy left.”
“Mallory worried about Cyteen. The Monahans had never had a day of grief out of Cyteen, but honest ships and stations had had lifetimes of personal grief from the Earth Company—while those two ships had lived high on lies for generations.”
“But Ross did have a Family, and hopefully, in the not-so-distant future, that Family would get their ship back to Alpha safely and Finity would send young Ross and his fellow Galways back to their own region of space. On that hoped-for day, the Galways’ collective lives would change forever. But then, on the day Galway dropped back into Alpha system . . . all of human space would change. Forever.”
“Heroes? Glory seeker? Money-grubbing idiots? All of the above?”
“Good Family with a solid ship and outstanding crew. They saw opportunity for themselves and all the Hinder Stars, and took a gamble with their ship and their First-shift crew, a gamble that could end up saving all of us.”
“They’d been sipping Scotch, he and Emilio, discussing shifting economics and the impact on longhaul trade of the two functioning megaships, Finity and Cyteen-built Dublin. Those two ships, the prototypes of an unacknowledged technological race between Pell and Cyteen, were a next logical step up in power, carrying capacity, and range. Independently developed, they were nonetheless very similar, extrapolated out of identical technology and constrained by the same fundamental laws of the universe.”
“(…) few people outside the Cyteen sphere of influence ever really encountered the enigmatic azi. According to the merchanters who dealt with them on a regular basis, there was little to differentiate them from born-men, other than mathematical infallibility, speed with answers, inability to appreciate jokes, and an annoying tendency to extreme good looks (…)”
“Emilio was a Pell stationer, many generations a Pell stationer, descended from one of the original builders, with a Pell stationer’s view of the universe—namely that the star-stations rightfully ruled everything within their star’s gravity well, including the occasional planet and all between . . . to hell with the EC.”
“In the opinion of the EC, every station ever built was the offshoot of the ships and station cores the EC had built at Sol centuries ago and pushed out to the Hinder Stars. In the EC mind, the spacers and stationers were all just EC employees. If stationers, impatient with answers that took decades to get—and then made no sense—found their own solutions in the interim, well, stationers were simply displaying the cleverness for which they’d been hired in the first place. Any innovations stationers made were on company time, and therefore company property. (…) None of them, not even Alpha . . . now . . . would willingly bend again to the EC’s ancient notions of ownership.”
“Let me interrupt your fantasy,” Lee said. “That Sol should fall in line and become just one more system supplying Pell and Cyteen on their terms; the Mother of Mankind, doing business with two upstart space stations orbiting uninhabitable planets with nothing friendly to human life in the game? Never! We spend our lives at this! We built your reality! Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Spare us your sentiment. You, sir, are working for Pell, a station that began in an act of outright piracy that handed the precedent on to Cyteen, to the regret of the entire human race. We are the authority here!”
“Merchanters. You haul freight, Captain. You simply move freight around. You don’t build. You haven’t a damn claim. Your size, and the disruption you’ve made in this station, doesn’t impress a pusher. Neither does your politics.”
“Fortunately, the Cyteen-side megahauler, Dublin, agreed immediately. Without Finity’s and Dublin’s initial financial input, the idea was doomed from the start. Together, JR and John Reilly had hashed out certain important principles.
They’d kept the language simple, the goals clear and unequivocal.
What was the Families’ overriding interest? The same as it had ever been: ships. Their ships.
And corollary to that priority: survival. Which meant maintenance to a standard.
Square dealing where it came to trade.
Finally—and the principle most likely to meet resistance from the EC—immunity from interference on ships from anything that sat locked in orbit—station, moon, or planet. That meant no unauthorized boarding, no internal inspections of ships or cargo in hold, and no detention of crew excepting on felony charges.”
“And a living world was under their feet, brilliant blue and white in the blindingly brilliant light of this violent star. He’d seen the planet closeup on vid as they approached. A planet that had intelligent beings who sometimes came up to the station and moved through the service tunnels. Who were employed to maintain such passages as their own habitat, where they lived and worked and dealt with humans. Downers, humans called them, their world being Downbelow. Hisa was their word for themselves, but one shouldn’t speak to them unless they spoke first.”
“God, three living worlds trading products and ideas. What can that do for us? All of us—including Sol. Sol with its history and luxury goods from the planet that birthed humanity, Cyteen with an entire populace run by insanely brilliant scientists pouring out tech—and Pell being the pin that holds it all together.”
“If the EC has any sense, which I don’t grant, they’ll view the Konstantins as the best ally they could have. Raise Konstantin hackles, push Pell and us into alignment with Cyteen and against them, and I’m afraid it’ll be the Carnath’s vision for the future that prevails. Hopefully whoever the EC sends will be able to see it, too. Pell has proven it can hold its own against Cyteen, but if Sol pushes too hard, they’ll come smack up against Cyteen politics, and that will not end anywhere comfortable for anyone.”
“But it was necessary to try. Somewhere in the cogs of the machine, there had to be human beings who, once getting out here, once getting in contact with people in the Beyond, once exposed to the thriving network they’d built . . . were capable of understanding that there were ordinary human beings out here—even where it got strange, at Cyteen—human beings that wanted fairly reasonable things, on a human scale, and that in all this vastness of stars and planets, there really was enough for everybody to live a reasonable life.”
“He’d had his own talk with Ross, early on, but a mere Senior Captain wasn’t up to finesses of particle physics with a strung-out Navigator, and when Kate’s early explanation also referenced Ross’s monkeys and an elephant, he’d thrown up his hands in defeat.”
Even more so than in Alliance Rising, there's a strong sense of reading a classic work of historical narrative—which is unexpected, given that this is science fiction. But the style, with its exhaustive expositions and repetitions, along with the galaxy-spanning canvas, the epic scope and stakes, and the existence of later (well, earlier...) books detailing the future of these characters and their looming war of independence, only reinforces the impression. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that the universe is really fully fleshed (“brilliantly realized detail”...), the tension keeps accumulating and everything is utterly believable. A true to form, remarkable, awe-inspiring tour de force.
To wit:
“He had grit. He was a hero by any standard, but he didn’t try to trade on it.”
“At some point, when dealing with willful self-deception, reason failed.”
“Time. Everything was time. And there was no buying back a wrong choice.”
“At least, he qualified—after a moment’s reflection on life on planets, a life more alien to him than Pell’s dockside—not in space, they weren’t.”
“People in the hire of a company that’s been dead set, historically, on its own interests rather than the fair trade we’ve all become accustomed to.”
“Maybe that was what they were trying to create on Pell Station, which never had experienced a vector shift: a fantasy of life on a planet.”
“In point of fact, Cyteen had never made shipping a priority. What, exactly, Cyteen did prioritize was something of a mystery to the rest of humanity.”
“The wobbles cut in, nature’s own reminder that humans weren’t built for what humans had chosen to do.”
“Damn sure the EC’s done everything possible to innoculate them against anything like free thought.”
“These two have been playing a long, dark game, and deceiving their own in the process, and profit isn’t the only god they answer to.”
“I’d like once to talk to somebody who’s come from Earth, or Mars, or wherever,” Siobhan said. “That would be so weird. I’d buy him endless drinks.”
“We by no means approve of all Cyteen does. But while we trade, we are preventing the worst case: the fragmentation of nations and the demonization of other humans.”
“All this . . . all this needless death and betrayal. And for what? The fools had no secrecy left.”
“Mallory worried about Cyteen. The Monahans had never had a day of grief out of Cyteen, but honest ships and stations had had lifetimes of personal grief from the Earth Company—while those two ships had lived high on lies for generations.”
“But Ross did have a Family, and hopefully, in the not-so-distant future, that Family would get their ship back to Alpha safely and Finity would send young Ross and his fellow Galways back to their own region of space. On that hoped-for day, the Galways’ collective lives would change forever. But then, on the day Galway dropped back into Alpha system . . . all of human space would change. Forever.”
“Heroes? Glory seeker? Money-grubbing idiots? All of the above?”
“Good Family with a solid ship and outstanding crew. They saw opportunity for themselves and all the Hinder Stars, and took a gamble with their ship and their First-shift crew, a gamble that could end up saving all of us.”
“They’d been sipping Scotch, he and Emilio, discussing shifting economics and the impact on longhaul trade of the two functioning megaships, Finity and Cyteen-built Dublin. Those two ships, the prototypes of an unacknowledged technological race between Pell and Cyteen, were a next logical step up in power, carrying capacity, and range. Independently developed, they were nonetheless very similar, extrapolated out of identical technology and constrained by the same fundamental laws of the universe.”
“(…) few people outside the Cyteen sphere of influence ever really encountered the enigmatic azi. According to the merchanters who dealt with them on a regular basis, there was little to differentiate them from born-men, other than mathematical infallibility, speed with answers, inability to appreciate jokes, and an annoying tendency to extreme good looks (…)”
“Emilio was a Pell stationer, many generations a Pell stationer, descended from one of the original builders, with a Pell stationer’s view of the universe—namely that the star-stations rightfully ruled everything within their star’s gravity well, including the occasional planet and all between . . . to hell with the EC.”
“In the opinion of the EC, every station ever built was the offshoot of the ships and station cores the EC had built at Sol centuries ago and pushed out to the Hinder Stars. In the EC mind, the spacers and stationers were all just EC employees. If stationers, impatient with answers that took decades to get—and then made no sense—found their own solutions in the interim, well, stationers were simply displaying the cleverness for which they’d been hired in the first place. Any innovations stationers made were on company time, and therefore company property. (…) None of them, not even Alpha . . . now . . . would willingly bend again to the EC’s ancient notions of ownership.”
“Let me interrupt your fantasy,” Lee said. “That Sol should fall in line and become just one more system supplying Pell and Cyteen on their terms; the Mother of Mankind, doing business with two upstart space stations orbiting uninhabitable planets with nothing friendly to human life in the game? Never! We spend our lives at this! We built your reality! Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Spare us your sentiment. You, sir, are working for Pell, a station that began in an act of outright piracy that handed the precedent on to Cyteen, to the regret of the entire human race. We are the authority here!”
“Merchanters. You haul freight, Captain. You simply move freight around. You don’t build. You haven’t a damn claim. Your size, and the disruption you’ve made in this station, doesn’t impress a pusher. Neither does your politics.”
“Fortunately, the Cyteen-side megahauler, Dublin, agreed immediately. Without Finity’s and Dublin’s initial financial input, the idea was doomed from the start. Together, JR and John Reilly had hashed out certain important principles.
They’d kept the language simple, the goals clear and unequivocal.
What was the Families’ overriding interest? The same as it had ever been: ships. Their ships.
And corollary to that priority: survival. Which meant maintenance to a standard.
Square dealing where it came to trade.
Finally—and the principle most likely to meet resistance from the EC—immunity from interference on ships from anything that sat locked in orbit—station, moon, or planet. That meant no unauthorized boarding, no internal inspections of ships or cargo in hold, and no detention of crew excepting on felony charges.”
“And a living world was under their feet, brilliant blue and white in the blindingly brilliant light of this violent star. He’d seen the planet closeup on vid as they approached. A planet that had intelligent beings who sometimes came up to the station and moved through the service tunnels. Who were employed to maintain such passages as their own habitat, where they lived and worked and dealt with humans. Downers, humans called them, their world being Downbelow. Hisa was their word for themselves, but one shouldn’t speak to them unless they spoke first.”
“God, three living worlds trading products and ideas. What can that do for us? All of us—including Sol. Sol with its history and luxury goods from the planet that birthed humanity, Cyteen with an entire populace run by insanely brilliant scientists pouring out tech—and Pell being the pin that holds it all together.”
“If the EC has any sense, which I don’t grant, they’ll view the Konstantins as the best ally they could have. Raise Konstantin hackles, push Pell and us into alignment with Cyteen and against them, and I’m afraid it’ll be the Carnath’s vision for the future that prevails. Hopefully whoever the EC sends will be able to see it, too. Pell has proven it can hold its own against Cyteen, but if Sol pushes too hard, they’ll come smack up against Cyteen politics, and that will not end anywhere comfortable for anyone.”
“But it was necessary to try. Somewhere in the cogs of the machine, there had to be human beings who, once getting out here, once getting in contact with people in the Beyond, once exposed to the thriving network they’d built . . . were capable of understanding that there were ordinary human beings out here—even where it got strange, at Cyteen—human beings that wanted fairly reasonable things, on a human scale, and that in all this vastness of stars and planets, there really was enough for everybody to live a reasonable life.”
“He’d had his own talk with Ross, early on, but a mere Senior Captain wasn’t up to finesses of particle physics with a strung-out Navigator, and when Kate’s early explanation also referenced Ross’s monkeys and an elephant, he’d thrown up his hands in defeat.”
September 2, 2024
**Alliance Unbound** is the second installment in a series exploring the origins of the Merchanter Alliance within the Alliance-Union universe, picking up directly after the events of **Alliance Rising**. The story unfolds aboard the ship *Finity's End* and is primarily told from the perspectives of two characters: Ross Monahan, a young Navigator from the Family ship *Galway*, and Senior Captain JR Neihart. Additionally, Security Officer Jen Neihart, Ross's lover, contributes to the narrative from a lesser viewpoint. As the story begins, *Finity's End* is en route to Pell Station for much-needed shore leave. During their stay, the Monahans—guests on *Finity*—notice Earth-based goods on the station that, as traders from that region of space, they know shouldn't be there. This discovery prompts the Neiharts of *Finity* to investigate the link between the black-market items and two merchanter Family ships that they have been unable to locate in their efforts to recruit them into the Alliance. What they uncover leads to shocking revelations about Earth's plans to assert control over all human-inhabited space.
Although many details from the first book are recapped in **Alliance Unbound**, the narratives are closely connected, making it essential to read **Alliance Rising** first. At times, the recaps can slow the pace, as characters repeatedly recount events from the previous book. True to C.J. Cherryh's style, this book is rich with the politics, culture, and science of her universe, interwoven with intrigue and action. However, due to its heavy exposition, **Alliance Unbound** may be better suited for longtime fans of Cherryh's work rather than newcomers.
Although many details from the first book are recapped in **Alliance Unbound**, the narratives are closely connected, making it essential to read **Alliance Rising** first. At times, the recaps can slow the pace, as characters repeatedly recount events from the previous book. True to C.J. Cherryh's style, this book is rich with the politics, culture, and science of her universe, interwoven with intrigue and action. However, due to its heavy exposition, **Alliance Unbound** may be better suited for longtime fans of Cherryh's work rather than newcomers.
January 3, 2025
Alliance Unbound has a great universe, a good plot, good characters and way too much interior monologuing and dialoguing. The universe has FTL travel through a handful of star systems, each with a station for trade. Communication, however, remains at the speed of light and worse, an FTL route to Earth is still theoretical. In this universe, everyone’s current events, history and lifespan are out of sync with everyone else except fellow travelers. Earth is left with old feelings of primacy, entitlement, suspicion and jealousy. Earth Corporation is actively pursuing firmer control of their far flung people. Crews of FTL ships want protection for their trade in goods and information and are forming Alliance.
Our hero, Ross, is experiencing survivor’s guilt and a spooky talent for feeling timespace around stars. He spends a lot of monologue agonizing about his situation. Jen, I’m sorry to say, is in love with the boy, has a few plot developments and no real self development. She’s not quite a sexy lamp, but her plot points seem like they could belong to any character. The character of senior ship’s captain, JR, was most interesting to me. He is struggling to form the Alliance amongst entities with diverse interests. His interior monologues often deal with strategies for building trust and protecting his family. Ross and Jen’s monologues often repeat various concerns and at several points became very tiresome for me.
Our hero, Ross, is experiencing survivor’s guilt and a spooky talent for feeling timespace around stars. He spends a lot of monologue agonizing about his situation. Jen, I’m sorry to say, is in love with the boy, has a few plot developments and no real self development. She’s not quite a sexy lamp, but her plot points seem like they could belong to any character. The character of senior ship’s captain, JR, was most interesting to me. He is struggling to form the Alliance amongst entities with diverse interests. His interior monologues often deal with strategies for building trust and protecting his family. Ross and Jen’s monologues often repeat various concerns and at several points became very tiresome for me.
October 29, 2024
Some books are written to find an audience. Others are written to please fans who are already in place. Alliance Unbound, the second volume of The Hinder Stars series, is one for C. J. Cherryh’s fans begging for more Alliance Space stories. The merchanters Finity’s End and Little Bear leave Alpha Station and head for Olympus, a station controlled by the increasingly belligerent Earth Company. Negotiations, bargaining, and hostilities ensue. Warning: the action doesn’t pick up until the plot is well along. Cherryh fans will be undaunted.
Cherryh is one of the few authors who have written stories about the economics and politics of transitioning from slower-than-light starships to FTL. If that sounds too deep in the wormhole weeds, you are probably not a fan.
Cherryh is one of the few authors who have written stories about the economics and politics of transitioning from slower-than-light starships to FTL. If that sounds too deep in the wormhole weeds, you are probably not a fan.
October 20, 2024
Alliance Unbound - not quite up to spec
I understand the reasoning behind the chapter approach (2 authors) in this 2nd volume of the Hinder Stars. I've been waiting impatiently for a year for this sequel. Good story, but too much info gets repeated from one chapter to the next. If you are a Cherryh fan, you are used to getting fed cryptic pieces of data/info through the book. But this was the 1st time I felt I was being force fed info and it was on repeat throughout the novel. 1st volume sucked me in. This one kept me orbiting on the edge. I'm going to go reread the Kif and Chanur sets to get my mind reset correctly. Sorry CJ.
I understand the reasoning behind the chapter approach (2 authors) in this 2nd volume of the Hinder Stars. I've been waiting impatiently for a year for this sequel. Good story, but too much info gets repeated from one chapter to the next. If you are a Cherryh fan, you are used to getting fed cryptic pieces of data/info through the book. But this was the 1st time I felt I was being force fed info and it was on repeat throughout the novel. 1st volume sucked me in. This one kept me orbiting on the edge. I'm going to go reread the Kif and Chanur sets to get my mind reset correctly. Sorry CJ.
December 6, 2024
C. J. Cherryh (https://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAS...) and Jane S. Fancher (https://janefancher.com) coauthored this novel. Between them, they have published dozens of novels. Alliance Unbound was published last October and is the second book in their Hinder Stars series. It is the 84th book I completed reading in 2024.
I received an ARC of this book through https://www.netgalley.com with the expectation of a fair and honest review. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to some violence and mature language, I categorize this novel as PG.
The novel is set in the far future. Earth has colonized the stars but has had to rely on sub-light ships to move supplies and people to the stars. The Cyteen are an offshoot of human colonization. Their citizens are known as the Azi. Cloned humans, who are part machine created from human biology. To their credit, the Cyteen have developed faster-than-light travel and have freely shared the technology with all.
The Earth Company (EC) had funded the original human expansion into the stars. They wielded dictatorial control using their pusher supply ships as leverage over the colonists. With the introduction of FTL drives in the colonies, Earth quickly began to lose control. The long light-speed limited connection between Earth and the colonies makes travel and simple communication a multi-year one-way trip.
Now there is growing evidence that that Earth is trying to reassert control. The flourishing FTL merchants want to retain their freedom and block the efforts of Earth. The FTL ships are each run by a different family. They began to organize and founded the Merchants' Alliance to protect themselves and the stations they serve.
When the story opens almost all of the merchant ships and stations have signed onto the Alliance. The megaship Finity’s End captained by JR Neihart has been busy gathering signatures for the Alliance. While visiting Pell Station they discover evidence of unsanctioned trading of items from Earth. The trading seems to be connected to one of the merchant ships they have been seeking.
This leads Finity and her crew to the thought to be deserted Olympus Station. What they find there is an active Earth presence and a pusher ship delivering supplies to the station. They also find the two missing merchanter ships they had been seeking. With the Cyteen ship Little Bear as a witness to any treachery, Captain Neihart attempts to talk reason to the EC personnel on Olympus.
The details of the story weave around three main characters. Captain JR Neihart and his efforts to gather signatures to the Alliance document, then later negotiate with the secret EC facility. Promoting the Alliance and interacting with the EC have put him under great stress.
Ross Monahan is a navigator in training and part of the family crewing the FTL merchant ship Galway. He earned his spot on Finity by escaping Galway as EC enforcers took it over. He brought the word of their act of piracy to the Alliance. He struggles with confidence and is one of the few who ‘hear’ the stars.
Jen Neihart, JR’s niece, works ship security. She has also become romantically involved with Ross. She is dealing with the EC threat and with the pending breakup when Ross returns to his extended family on the Galway.
I enjoyed the 19 hours I spent reading this 607-page science fiction novel. There is a bit of action, but this is a slow-paced political thriller set in space. While it is the second novel in the series, it does read well on its own. I have had the opportunity to read two other good novels by Ms.Cherryh. Those are Visitor and Resurgence. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 3.8 (rounded to 4) out of 5.
You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).
I received an ARC of this book through https://www.netgalley.com with the expectation of a fair and honest review. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to some violence and mature language, I categorize this novel as PG.
The novel is set in the far future. Earth has colonized the stars but has had to rely on sub-light ships to move supplies and people to the stars. The Cyteen are an offshoot of human colonization. Their citizens are known as the Azi. Cloned humans, who are part machine created from human biology. To their credit, the Cyteen have developed faster-than-light travel and have freely shared the technology with all.
The Earth Company (EC) had funded the original human expansion into the stars. They wielded dictatorial control using their pusher supply ships as leverage over the colonists. With the introduction of FTL drives in the colonies, Earth quickly began to lose control. The long light-speed limited connection between Earth and the colonies makes travel and simple communication a multi-year one-way trip.
Now there is growing evidence that that Earth is trying to reassert control. The flourishing FTL merchants want to retain their freedom and block the efforts of Earth. The FTL ships are each run by a different family. They began to organize and founded the Merchants' Alliance to protect themselves and the stations they serve.
When the story opens almost all of the merchant ships and stations have signed onto the Alliance. The megaship Finity’s End captained by JR Neihart has been busy gathering signatures for the Alliance. While visiting Pell Station they discover evidence of unsanctioned trading of items from Earth. The trading seems to be connected to one of the merchant ships they have been seeking.
This leads Finity and her crew to the thought to be deserted Olympus Station. What they find there is an active Earth presence and a pusher ship delivering supplies to the station. They also find the two missing merchanter ships they had been seeking. With the Cyteen ship Little Bear as a witness to any treachery, Captain Neihart attempts to talk reason to the EC personnel on Olympus.
The details of the story weave around three main characters. Captain JR Neihart and his efforts to gather signatures to the Alliance document, then later negotiate with the secret EC facility. Promoting the Alliance and interacting with the EC have put him under great stress.
Ross Monahan is a navigator in training and part of the family crewing the FTL merchant ship Galway. He earned his spot on Finity by escaping Galway as EC enforcers took it over. He brought the word of their act of piracy to the Alliance. He struggles with confidence and is one of the few who ‘hear’ the stars.
Jen Neihart, JR’s niece, works ship security. She has also become romantically involved with Ross. She is dealing with the EC threat and with the pending breakup when Ross returns to his extended family on the Galway.
I enjoyed the 19 hours I spent reading this 607-page science fiction novel. There is a bit of action, but this is a slow-paced political thriller set in space. While it is the second novel in the series, it does read well on its own. I have had the opportunity to read two other good novels by Ms.Cherryh. Those are Visitor and Resurgence. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 3.8 (rounded to 4) out of 5.
You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).
July 17, 2024
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
This second book in the Hinder Stars ('Alliance-Union Universe Prequel') series picks up almost from where we left off after book one. Ross Monahan has been on the ship Finity's End with some other Gallaway crew after the events of the last book. On their mission to sign up more family ships to the fledgling alliance they've arrived at Pell to find the last few ships they've not talked to yet. They soon discover that the station is not as dormant as expected and that the Earth Company has an unexpected presence in the region.Like with most of Cherryh's books, this one is a slow burn with a lot of politics and maneuvering. The universe we are in - it has enough 'realism' to make everything feel grounded and the few magic technologies (i.e., FTL) are suitably limited to feel appropriate. And this is the lynchpin for the whole story and premise - the long time it takes to travel in space, regardless of the method, and what such long distances mean for humans: their sense of belonging and governmental/commercial control.
I have read all the Alliance-Union books way back in the day and loved the universe back then and I still do so today. Cherryh has a unique talent for making space feel BIG, and even though the story is told from multiple POVs, none of them are from the 'other' side which leaves it up to the reader to try to figure out what the antagonist goals are. I love the premise, the characters and the mystery - when something new is discovered, it never feels like just a plot device.
On the negative side, there's a lot of unnecessary repetition. We get a lot of inner dialogue from characters and each event is gone over multiple times with the current situation analyzed over and over again. In some aspect, the book expects quite a bit from the reader - in others, it feels like there is way too much exposition for implications that the reader already knows. I have to admit at parts I started skimming forward with thoughts of 'Yes I know already' going through my head and wondering if the editor was doing their job.
Still if you've enjoyed the Alliance-Union universe in the past, this new series is highly recommended, as is for any fans of hard sci fi. Start with the first volume though, not this one. If you did read the first one, you'll likely enjoy this one just as well. I will definitely be picking up the next book when it is released. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
November 13, 2024
I have been reading and enjoying C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union hard sf space opera series since the late 1970's/1980's. C.J. Cherryh won her Hugo Awards for Best Novel for two books in this series - Downbelow Station and Cyteen.
The first book in the current sub-series, the Hinder Stars was published in 2019. The name of the 2019 book was Alliance Rising. I don't know why it took until 2024 for book two Alliance Unbound to be published. (There was a global pandemic in between. Just saying.)
You don't absolutely have to have read any of Cherryh's books before to enjoy either Alliance Rising or Alliance Unbound but, as with all good series books, you will enjoy it more if you had read the 27-plus earlier books in this long-running series.
That said, I totally enjoyed book two without having to go back to read Alliance Rising again first. I just love this particular hard sf soap opera series.
What makes it soap opera, in my book, is that the action primarily takes place on starships (or at least ships in space). There ARE aliens in this series but none in either of the most recent books. (Except mentions in passing.)
What there IS are Merchanter trade Families which each crew their own ship. They have their own Merchanter culture. The ships take on cargo at various space stations (which have their own Stationer culture).
What I like best about these two new Alliance books is that Ms. Cherryh has gone back to the founding of the Alliance (the treaty between the Merchanter ships and Stationer space stations that states that ALL trade must travel ONLY on Family owned & crewed ships).
The Alliance started when Sol (the original Earth solar system) and its Earth Company which had NOT received FTL (Faster Than Light) tech starships when Cyteen (later founder of the Union) discovered FTL tech was doing its best to force its way into the FTL club and re-take control of mankind's many and scattered space stations & starships which had been quite happy with the Earth Company being bottled up in the Sol System.
We had never seen this origin story before and I'm glad that Ms. Cherryh is now going back to fill in this time period in her long-running series. I just hope the next book is published in less than five years from now!!!
Highly recommended for well-developed characters, lots of character-driven action, and a very well-told tale!
The first book in the current sub-series, the Hinder Stars was published in 2019. The name of the 2019 book was Alliance Rising. I don't know why it took until 2024 for book two Alliance Unbound to be published. (There was a global pandemic in between. Just saying.)
You don't absolutely have to have read any of Cherryh's books before to enjoy either Alliance Rising or Alliance Unbound but, as with all good series books, you will enjoy it more if you had read the 27-plus earlier books in this long-running series.
That said, I totally enjoyed book two without having to go back to read Alliance Rising again first. I just love this particular hard sf soap opera series.
What makes it soap opera, in my book, is that the action primarily takes place on starships (or at least ships in space). There ARE aliens in this series but none in either of the most recent books. (Except mentions in passing.)
What there IS are Merchanter trade Families which each crew their own ship. They have their own Merchanter culture. The ships take on cargo at various space stations (which have their own Stationer culture).
What I like best about these two new Alliance books is that Ms. Cherryh has gone back to the founding of the Alliance (the treaty between the Merchanter ships and Stationer space stations that states that ALL trade must travel ONLY on Family owned & crewed ships).
The Alliance started when Sol (the original Earth solar system) and its Earth Company which had NOT received FTL (Faster Than Light) tech starships when Cyteen (later founder of the Union) discovered FTL tech was doing its best to force its way into the FTL club and re-take control of mankind's many and scattered space stations & starships which had been quite happy with the Earth Company being bottled up in the Sol System.
We had never seen this origin story before and I'm glad that Ms. Cherryh is now going back to fill in this time period in her long-running series. I just hope the next book is published in less than five years from now!!!
Highly recommended for well-developed characters, lots of character-driven action, and a very well-told tale!
March 16, 2025
This is my favorite SFnal world, bar none. So I loved this, and I really hope there's going to be a sequel.
But...
If you don't already love this world, this book and its prequel will not make you love it.
Conversations. CONVERSATIONS. Something happens. Different people explain it and analyze it and talk about it for pages and pages and pages in talking heads scenes with little gesture and not a lot of character revelation. Yes, this would happen in real life. But yes, the plot could have progressed without recounting every single conversation word for word. I hate to say it's slow... but it's slow.
There could have been more description and more action to take the place of all that talking.
Some new ideas here. Interesting! Earlier books don't talk about the Ardaman limit and how ships interact with it. It's fascinating. I love Ross hearing the stars.
Geek point: It's weird to read a book when you've known the filk song about the events already for decades. I saw "Shalleen" and was like... that won't be around long. Though apparently she doesn't really drift in pieces around Shalleen Point because she's more just become pure energy and possibly a small black hole.
Rant about Cyteen: I totally get Mallory. (Signy's dad? Grandfather?) Even without knowing, as I would love to know, the backstory. I have trouble, actually, with the Cyteen books. Because azi are slaves. They're created to be slaves and actually in most cases are unable to have true free will (there are hints that Alphas can kind of get there sometimes). To me, that's abomination. Not because they're clones, but because they're slaves. The terraforming a live ecosystem thing is gross too, but slavery is a hard pass for me. I understand the distinction between Carnath/Emory and ships that happen to be registered Cyteen-side like Little Bear, but I can see why someone would draw a hard line, even without knowing the specific story.
(It also makes me amazed that later, Signy doesn't just execute wossname the azi sleeper agent as soon as she finds out what he is. Possibly because this part of the story was of course developed long after DS was written.)
Anyway. I loved despite its issues because of the world. Newcomers will not, I'm afraid.
Most characters come across as of European descent, other than those on Little Bear.
But...
If you don't already love this world, this book and its prequel will not make you love it.
Conversations. CONVERSATIONS. Something happens. Different people explain it and analyze it and talk about it for pages and pages and pages in talking heads scenes with little gesture and not a lot of character revelation. Yes, this would happen in real life. But yes, the plot could have progressed without recounting every single conversation word for word. I hate to say it's slow... but it's slow.
There could have been more description and more action to take the place of all that talking.
Some new ideas here. Interesting! Earlier books don't talk about the Ardaman limit and how ships interact with it. It's fascinating. I love Ross hearing the stars.
Geek point: It's weird to read a book when you've known the filk song about the events already for decades. I saw "Shalleen" and was like... that won't be around long. Though apparently she doesn't really drift in pieces around Shalleen Point because she's more just become pure energy and possibly a small black hole.
Rant about Cyteen: I totally get Mallory. (Signy's dad? Grandfather?) Even without knowing, as I would love to know, the backstory. I have trouble, actually, with the Cyteen books. Because azi are slaves. They're created to be slaves and actually in most cases are unable to have true free will (there are hints that Alphas can kind of get there sometimes). To me, that's abomination. Not because they're clones, but because they're slaves. The terraforming a live ecosystem thing is gross too, but slavery is a hard pass for me. I understand the distinction between Carnath/Emory and ships that happen to be registered Cyteen-side like Little Bear, but I can see why someone would draw a hard line, even without knowing the specific story.
(It also makes me amazed that later, Signy doesn't just execute wossname the azi sleeper agent as soon as she finds out what he is. Possibly because this part of the story was of course developed long after DS was written.)
Anyway. I loved despite its issues because of the world. Newcomers will not, I'm afraid.
Most characters come across as of European descent, other than those on Little Bear.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2024
4.5*?
I liked Unbound notably more than Rising. Rising had much of the hallmarks of a Cherryh novel, but felt like it also missed her usual marks in many respects. My assumption was her collaboration with another author was a driving factor in what I saw as a dip in quality, but Unbound has convinced me otherwise. So if you weren't sold on Rising, but enjoy Cherryh as an author generally, I recommend you keep going with the Hinder Stars.
Alliance Unbound continues the story of Finity and (some of) the Monahans. Cherryh's AU universe has an exceptionally realistic feeling far-flung future, and Unbound continues the trend, delivering tense political and social drama, with bits of action interspersed. Unusual for an AU book, a little bit of pseudo mysticism creeps in, but in a way that doesn't feel out of place. We get to revisit Pell a bit, explore some of the previously known (but not to us readers) Hinder Stars, watch the birth of the Alliance and what I assume must be the Ferdinand-esque start of the Company Wars.
The first half of the story continues to develop the characters and relationships, and setup the plot. The second half is extraordinarily tense, but (typical Cherryh) it is all tension and suspense with a quick burst of action/climax that end without the resolution giving us the answers we really want.
I'm at least optimistic we will get some of them as I believe there is a 3rd Hinder Stars novel planned (which I anticipate with much greater eagerness than I felt after Rising), so at least this won't leave us with the typical, meandering path of the AU universe books where so much is left unsaid.
I do find it odd that an author who spends so much effort masterfully developing characters, often leaves us wanting (usually with 0 hope for further detail) in terms of what their actual fate will be.
I liked Unbound notably more than Rising. Rising had much of the hallmarks of a Cherryh novel, but felt like it also missed her usual marks in many respects. My assumption was her collaboration with another author was a driving factor in what I saw as a dip in quality, but Unbound has convinced me otherwise. So if you weren't sold on Rising, but enjoy Cherryh as an author generally, I recommend you keep going with the Hinder Stars.
Alliance Unbound continues the story of Finity and (some of) the Monahans. Cherryh's AU universe has an exceptionally realistic feeling far-flung future, and Unbound continues the trend, delivering tense political and social drama, with bits of action interspersed. Unusual for an AU book, a little bit of pseudo mysticism creeps in, but in a way that doesn't feel out of place. We get to revisit Pell a bit, explore some of the previously known (but not to us readers) Hinder Stars, watch the birth of the Alliance and what I assume must be the Ferdinand-esque start of the Company Wars.
The first half of the story continues to develop the characters and relationships, and setup the plot. The second half is extraordinarily tense, but (typical Cherryh) it is all tension and suspense with a quick burst of action/climax that end without the resolution giving us the answers we really want.
I'm at least optimistic we will get some of them as I believe there is a 3rd Hinder Stars novel planned (which I anticipate with much greater eagerness than I felt after Rising), so at least this won't leave us with the typical, meandering path of the AU universe books where so much is left unsaid.
I do find it odd that an author who spends so much effort masterfully developing characters, often leaves us wanting (usually with 0 hope for further detail) in terms of what their actual fate will be.
January 24, 2025
Okay, going to admit I've been a CJ Cherryh fan for years (1983 was my first read of her works). Probably my favorite series has been her Alliance or Company War or Alliance-Union, whatever you want to call it andI've been waiting for Alliance Unbound to come out for a while. Since I'd finally burned down my to read list to some degree decided to get started on this one and going to open by saying better than a 4 star rating I'm giving but not 5 star worthy for the entire book.
Something that I love is Ms. Cherryh and Ms. Fancher filled us in on more of the back history and what happened to Fletcher to make him the significant piece in the Merchanter Alliance. Wow, what a way to deliver this. While a little slow in the beginning what I did love is Ms. Cherryh continued from Alliance Rising with us following Ross and how he and different members of Galway (who were beached after Galway and their 1st shift were hi-jacked by the Earth Company) now working on board Finity's End. What sold me so hard on this one is while a little bit of time has occurred between when the authors released Alliance Rising and this one came out and the stories tie together nicely! What adds to it is the descriptions provided of the environments and the expansion of the Human Known Space (as Ms. Cherryh has set up within her world). Jump/hyper space was alive in her world before but the descriptions provided here really added to things. Merge that with solid characters who made youwant to know more abou them totally make this an outstanding book that I didn't really want to put down. My only problems that I had is it opened a little slow (necessary to set the environment) and I found it a little hard to believe is Earth Company people being as hard won about the Company and their objective given the time required. That said, read it!
Something that I love is Ms. Cherryh and Ms. Fancher filled us in on more of the back history and what happened to Fletcher to make him the significant piece in the Merchanter Alliance. Wow, what a way to deliver this. While a little slow in the beginning what I did love is Ms. Cherryh continued from Alliance Rising with us following Ross and how he and different members of Galway (who were beached after Galway and their 1st shift were hi-jacked by the Earth Company) now working on board Finity's End. What sold me so hard on this one is while a little bit of time has occurred between when the authors released Alliance Rising and this one came out and the stories tie together nicely! What adds to it is the descriptions provided of the environments and the expansion of the Human Known Space (as Ms. Cherryh has set up within her world). Jump/hyper space was alive in her world before but the descriptions provided here really added to things. Merge that with solid characters who made youwant to know more abou them totally make this an outstanding book that I didn't really want to put down. My only problems that I had is it opened a little slow (necessary to set the environment) and I found it a little hard to believe is Earth Company people being as hard won about the Company and their objective given the time required. That said, read it!
January 1, 2025
The sequel to 'Alliance Rising' moves the action from the docks of Alpha Station to the decks of FTL trading ship, 'Finity's End'. It is about a year since 'Galway' left Alpha to trial jump points to Sol, and Ross Monahan escaped from the ship to warn the newborn Merchanter Alliance of piracy by Earth Company soldiers.
Ross and a cohort of his family have joined Finity's End whilst the rest of the Monahan family waits at Alpha to hear the fate of their shanghaied shipmates.
The possible fates that may have befallen 'Galway' are an undercurrent through the entire narrative. But it is whilst touring the sights of mighty Pell Station that Ross and Jen Neihart stumble on evidence of smuggling operations by the two elusive merchanter ships which are yet to sign on with the Merchanter Alliance. And this leads the crew of Finity's End to Olympos Station, supposedly decades abandoned.
This one is a slow burner. It takes quite a while to get into stride, but provides an immersive dive into the economics, politics and practice of interstellar trading, colonialism and outward expansion. Plus an insight into the curious mechanics of navigating FTL jumps, and the spidey sense of the very elite of navigators (like our Ross). It also carries the trademark Cherryh technique of stretching its characters to maximum stress and exhaustion, where life and death decisions are made, and the consequences can be dire if they are incorrect.
We may have witnessed the first shots fired in the Company Wars, and a clue as to whence came the name Mallory. But as to the fate of 'Galway'. We will just have to wait.
Ross and a cohort of his family have joined Finity's End whilst the rest of the Monahan family waits at Alpha to hear the fate of their shanghaied shipmates.
The possible fates that may have befallen 'Galway' are an undercurrent through the entire narrative. But it is whilst touring the sights of mighty Pell Station that Ross and Jen Neihart stumble on evidence of smuggling operations by the two elusive merchanter ships which are yet to sign on with the Merchanter Alliance. And this leads the crew of Finity's End to Olympos Station, supposedly decades abandoned.
This one is a slow burner. It takes quite a while to get into stride, but provides an immersive dive into the economics, politics and practice of interstellar trading, colonialism and outward expansion. Plus an insight into the curious mechanics of navigating FTL jumps, and the spidey sense of the very elite of navigators (like our Ross). It also carries the trademark Cherryh technique of stretching its characters to maximum stress and exhaustion, where life and death decisions are made, and the consequences can be dire if they are incorrect.
We may have witnessed the first shots fired in the Company Wars, and a clue as to whence came the name Mallory. But as to the fate of 'Galway'. We will just have to wait.
September 3, 2025
The second installment in the Hinder Star series within the Alliance-Union universe suggests multiple volumes to follow, possibly as many as in the Foreigner series based on the limited scope of the tale as told so far. For this reader, the prospect of multiple novels of equal size bloated by character ruminations repeating the same points, issues, concerns, etc. as the plot inches forward, is unappealing, in spite of my fondness for the primary author and her novels.
Strong on characterization, relationships, setting, establishing the conflict and stakes, nevertheless the novel spends an inordinate amount of time before reaching the first critical event that moves the plot forward. It stalls again until the FTL ships take flight and the author returns to her strengths - bringing to life her vision of crews and ships operating in space.
Even so, with each transit via FTL to a new location, the brief moment of excitement and stress ends, and the great distances to be traversed in normal space is replicated in the monotony of the narrative. In the final 100-odd pages the action revives only to return to coasting before a last anti-climatic event. The reader and the cast of characters are left with many more questions than answers - good for sequels but not that satisfying.
Divided in to 5 books with multiple sections/chapters in each, not much would be missed by reading the first 25 pages then skipping to Book 5 - not the whole story but the gist would come through.
Strong on characterization, relationships, setting, establishing the conflict and stakes, nevertheless the novel spends an inordinate amount of time before reaching the first critical event that moves the plot forward. It stalls again until the FTL ships take flight and the author returns to her strengths - bringing to life her vision of crews and ships operating in space.
Even so, with each transit via FTL to a new location, the brief moment of excitement and stress ends, and the great distances to be traversed in normal space is replicated in the monotony of the narrative. In the final 100-odd pages the action revives only to return to coasting before a last anti-climatic event. The reader and the cast of characters are left with many more questions than answers - good for sequels but not that satisfying.
Divided in to 5 books with multiple sections/chapters in each, not much would be missed by reading the first 25 pages then skipping to Book 5 - not the whole story but the gist would come through.
October 1, 2024
Thanks to NetGalley, DAW, CJ Cherryh, and Jane S. Fancher for access to an e-arc.
Alliance Unbound is book 2 in the Hinder Stars series which is set earlier than the existing Alliance-Union series. This is the formation of the Alliance. I think. We are defintely seeing setup into the Company Wars. You don't need to have ready any Alliance-Union novels for this series to make sense. It may be better if you haven't so you don't keep checking on exactly where these events fit into the timeline and decide that you need to re-read all the Alliance-Union books only to find your library no longer has them and your collection only has 5 or 6. If you haven't read them, it means you could read Downbelow Station and Cyteen (my favourite) for the first time.
Like every Cherryh I have read, you are dumped into the story and the details are coming at you and no one is quite clear what is going on. There are POV characters that were POV characters in book 1 but the setting has moved from Alpha station to Finity's End as she travels from station to station. It starts slow as the political information builds and the characters discover more. The last third is very quick moving and I dealy hope there will be at least one more book in this series. I think that Fancher/Cherryh collaborations have (slightly) less convoluted prose than Cherryh's solo work. I love her style, but I know it isn't for everyone.
Highly recommended. Should start with book 1.
Alliance Unbound is book 2 in the Hinder Stars series which is set earlier than the existing Alliance-Union series. This is the formation of the Alliance. I think. We are defintely seeing setup into the Company Wars. You don't need to have ready any Alliance-Union novels for this series to make sense. It may be better if you haven't so you don't keep checking on exactly where these events fit into the timeline and decide that you need to re-read all the Alliance-Union books only to find your library no longer has them and your collection only has 5 or 6. If you haven't read them, it means you could read Downbelow Station and Cyteen (my favourite) for the first time.
Like every Cherryh I have read, you are dumped into the story and the details are coming at you and no one is quite clear what is going on. There are POV characters that were POV characters in book 1 but the setting has moved from Alpha station to Finity's End as she travels from station to station. It starts slow as the political information builds and the characters discover more. The last third is very quick moving and I dealy hope there will be at least one more book in this series. I think that Fancher/Cherryh collaborations have (slightly) less convoluted prose than Cherryh's solo work. I love her style, but I know it isn't for everyone.
Highly recommended. Should start with book 1.
September 2, 2025
struggled with this
Those book, and the previous book, are set in a time before the other, already published books. Not really sure how long before Downbelow Station.
It was frustrating because many of the names are the same. And I knew some of the events that would happen.
But the biggest frustration was the repetitive telling of the same events. Sometimes 2 but sometimes more. It was like we were reading the thoughts of 3 people. And each thought process also repeated.
For example, something is happening. We read the thoughts of John, JR, Jen, and Emilio. All different perspectives and each wondering what the others think. Sometimes I would be reading, thinking I was rereading a page, but NO. Just another person thinking about the same event and wondering what the others thought. Then some of them get together and rehash again. And then we read either the thoughts of people after, or what happens when each person tells their group.
The basic story is great and I look forward to the third to learn the outcome and how they got to the way things are in Downbelow Station. But it would have been tighter and more enjoyable without the constant repetition.
Those book, and the previous book, are set in a time before the other, already published books. Not really sure how long before Downbelow Station.
It was frustrating because many of the names are the same. And I knew some of the events that would happen.
But the biggest frustration was the repetitive telling of the same events. Sometimes 2 but sometimes more. It was like we were reading the thoughts of 3 people. And each thought process also repeated.
For example, something is happening. We read the thoughts of John, JR, Jen, and Emilio. All different perspectives and each wondering what the others think. Sometimes I would be reading, thinking I was rereading a page, but NO. Just another person thinking about the same event and wondering what the others thought. Then some of them get together and rehash again. And then we read either the thoughts of people after, or what happens when each person tells their group.
The basic story is great and I look forward to the third to learn the outcome and how they got to the way things are in Downbelow Station. But it would have been tighter and more enjoyable without the constant repetition.
January 5, 2025
I'm a longtime fan and follower of CJ Cherryh and her Alliance/Union universe is my favorite. I don't think I'm a fan of the co-author approach in this novel however. I found the repetition of the same problems being rehashed over and over again in different POVs extremely tedious. I have NEVER had that reaction to a Cherryh novel before. I think Alliance Unbound was about twice as long as it needed to be. I have NEVER before wanted a previous Cherryh book to be over already.
Another disappointment I had was with the plot wrap-up. Cherryh's endings usually pull all the threads together in a satisfying and interesting way. This one just ended. I know this is a multi-book narrative arc, but after all that wading through the repetition of arguments and rationalizations for every single action taken I wanted a little more payoff.
Of course I am delighted to get these new works telling the stories of what happened before the rest of the books in the universe, and I look forward to the next. So many questions to get answered! (I hope)
Another disappointment I had was with the plot wrap-up. Cherryh's endings usually pull all the threads together in a satisfying and interesting way. This one just ended. I know this is a multi-book narrative arc, but after all that wading through the repetition of arguments and rationalizations for every single action taken I wanted a little more payoff.
Of course I am delighted to get these new works telling the stories of what happened before the rest of the books in the universe, and I look forward to the next. So many questions to get answered! (I hope)
August 15, 2025
I'm surprised C.J. Cherryh allowed her name to be on this book because it's not even close to her standard. Jane Fancher is the co-author, but I have to assume that she did most of the repetitive, hard-to-read writing.
I read it because I read "Alliance Rising," the first of two prequels to the Alliance-Union series, which includes the Hugo-winning "Downbelow Station," and I thought I'd go for the whole experience. With "Alliance Unbound," that meant skimming six pages of pointless meandering about what might happen and what could be happening to get one paragraph of plot advancement.
The book checked in at 416 pages, but 175 seems enough to tell the continuing story of the conflict between the always evil Earth Company and its always evil minions, and the noble Merchanters who are battling for their survival. There's a love story thrown in that's pretty poorly done as well.
In short, this is a really bad book, and it got two stars only because C.J. Cherryh should never be saddled with a one-star review.
I read it because I read "Alliance Rising," the first of two prequels to the Alliance-Union series, which includes the Hugo-winning "Downbelow Station," and I thought I'd go for the whole experience. With "Alliance Unbound," that meant skimming six pages of pointless meandering about what might happen and what could be happening to get one paragraph of plot advancement.
The book checked in at 416 pages, but 175 seems enough to tell the continuing story of the conflict between the always evil Earth Company and its always evil minions, and the noble Merchanters who are battling for their survival. There's a love story thrown in that's pretty poorly done as well.
In short, this is a really bad book, and it got two stars only because C.J. Cherryh should never be saddled with a one-star review.
October 31, 2024
About fifty years ago C. J. Cherryh created a future universe of giant stations and a mercantile association that provides trade. Recently, along with Jane S. Fancher, she is looking at a time when FTL travel has just been invented, and jump points to Earth deliberately not provided because of the Autocratic EC behavior (think China of today).Earth can still reach human space with giant pusher ships that require decades to make the trip. Alliance Unbound (hard from DAW) follows the further adventures of the large FTL ship Finity. The Finity ran into trouble with the EC in a previous book that I haven't read. The Finity finds possible proof that Earth is working from an abandoned station and heads out searching for clues. Of course it finds danger. This is a universe with unarmed family crewed ships so nobody shoots missiles. I really enjoyed returning to this universe and this feels like the C. J. Cherryh when her award winning series first appeared.
November 9, 2024
Alliance Rising was ending on a cliffhanger with the starship Galway leaving Alpha station for a dangerous journey into the unknown towards Sol station. I was expecting the sequel to unveil the unfolding and subsequent steps of that adventure.
Instead, deviating from the obvious course, the authors' smart idea was to keep the suspense around Galway and Sol for the nexi book and to steer the story of this second book towards additional mysteries.
But the start of Alliance Unbound was weak, scary weak, with too much room dedicated to young adult romance for at least the first third; luckily, after that, the story returns onto a stronger path of trips to ghost space stations, political intrigues, a hunt for rogue spaceships and thrilling deep space mysteries.
So, in the end, this second book was a strong one and, like the first and maybe even more, it ends again with a huge cliffhanger; we can only hope we won't have to wait another 5 years to have the sequel.
Instead, deviating from the obvious course, the authors' smart idea was to keep the suspense around Galway and Sol for the nexi book and to steer the story of this second book towards additional mysteries.
But the start of Alliance Unbound was weak, scary weak, with too much room dedicated to young adult romance for at least the first third; luckily, after that, the story returns onto a stronger path of trips to ghost space stations, political intrigues, a hunt for rogue spaceships and thrilling deep space mysteries.
So, in the end, this second book was a strong one and, like the first and maybe even more, it ends again with a huge cliffhanger; we can only hope we won't have to wait another 5 years to have the sequel.
June 13, 2024
Thanks to CJ Cherryh, Jane S. Fancher, DAW, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is the second of The Hinder Stars series which take place before The Company Wars series. Although not the first in the series, it can be read independently of the first book.
If you’re a fan of science fiction and you haven’t read CJ Cherryh, you are missing out on multiple series of well written stories by an absolute Master of her craft. This book deals with conflicts that arise in a trading universe where one group, the EC, wants to assert themselves to displace the existing merchants. As is typical of a CJ Cherryh book, the world building is excellent, the characters are well drawn, and the story progresses well. Recommended.
This book is the second of The Hinder Stars series which take place before The Company Wars series. Although not the first in the series, it can be read independently of the first book.
If you’re a fan of science fiction and you haven’t read CJ Cherryh, you are missing out on multiple series of well written stories by an absolute Master of her craft. This book deals with conflicts that arise in a trading universe where one group, the EC, wants to assert themselves to displace the existing merchants. As is typical of a CJ Cherryh book, the world building is excellent, the characters are well drawn, and the story progresses well. Recommended.
November 21, 2024
I really wanted to give this three start, but in the end I couldn't. I've complained regularly about overwritten stories, but this one takes the cake. Rather than cut a quarter or a third, this one shouldn't even be half its length. The problem is not just too much exposition. The repetition is awful. A seen is defined. Then one or more people record the scene, taking almost as many pages as the original scene.
The basics are good, the continued story about the formation of the Alliance in the Alliance-Union universe. The problem is that the add on writer is ruining it as Cherryh just doesn't seem up to her better writing decades ago. Fancher is ruining it.
The basics are good, the continued story about the formation of the Alliance in the Alliance-Union universe. The problem is that the add on writer is ruining it as Cherryh just doesn't seem up to her better writing decades ago. Fancher is ruining it.
December 4, 2024
This book was exciting and detailed and a great follow up to the original book in this series. However, it really needs at least one additional book to continue and resolve many of the issues raised in this book. I have read all the many books about different aspects of this universe that begins with the expansion of humans out their solar system. Even without the history, this series of 2 books can be read by a novice to this series, but they will have to let some of the history and political interactions slide. It’s still going to be exciting. For those of us who have been immersed in the ongoing history of expansion and very complicated politics, it’s a winner.
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