[CEF]≫ PDF The Faded Sun Kesrith AllianceUnion Universe C J Cherryh 9780879973933 Books

The Faded Sun Kesrith AllianceUnion Universe C J Cherryh 9780879973933 Books

Download As PDF : The Faded Sun Kesrith AllianceUnion Universe C J Cherryh 9780879973933 Books

The Faded Sun Kesrith AllianceUnion Universe C J Cherryh 9780879973933 Books

One of my favorites! I think it was one of Cherryh's earlier works. Still a lot of world building and universe building. The characters are complex in the story leads and unexpected directions. I'm very glad that this is available once again. Originally I purchased the three individual novels when they were published a long time ago it's a great read this applies to all 3 novels in the Faded Sun series. Kutath and Shon'jur


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The Faded Sun Kesrith AllianceUnion Universe C J Cherryh 9780879973933 Books Reviews

More so than most of Cherryh's work, this is very much the first volume of a trilogy, quite unable to stand on its own. You'll have to be prepared to read straight through the 750+ pages of the three volumes. It starts out with the end of a forty-year war between humans and the regul, an unpleasant but socially very complicated species, a war the regul -- or, at least, the war-making faction -- having signed a peace treaty. The regul, not being physically or psychologically capable of making war themselves, have for two thousand years made use of another, more human-like species, the mri, as their surrogates. The warrior caste of the mri, which is all that humans (or even most regul) have had experience with, are notably unyielding, uninterested in outsiders, unwilling even to consider change from their customs. They will suicide at the drop of a dishonorable gesture, they don't take prisoners, they don't understand mass-warfare, and even a single mri warrior is very, very dangerous. And now the species is nearly extinct. Sten Duncan comes to Kesrith, home world of the mri and a colonial resource of the regul, as aide to the new human governor and gets caught up in affairs beyond his understanding. The mri are his lifelong enemy, but he becomes closely acquainted with a young warrior in desperate circumstances and witnesses a genocide that changes him profoundly. That's most of the plot of the first volume, right there. But, of course, this being Cherryh, the book is far more than that. The most fascinating aspect is the reader's experience of each of the three species involved from the perspective of each of the other two. This author, like Le Guin, can be masterful when it comes to complex alien psychology, and there's a great deal here to think about before you start on the second volume.
Book 1 of the Faded Sun trilogy sets the stage for the rest of the series. Cherryh does an excellent job of presenting the setting and backdrop for the story in this first book, but the actual plot for the series only just gets started here. Character introductions and development are the focus for the great majority of this book, until about 3/4 of the way through when a shockingly sudden disaster strikes and the action really begins to roll. Niun and Duncan are the main protagonists, while also being antagonistic to each other. Besides the Regul, it is hard to see who the real 'bad guys' are so far in the series. The complexity of alien-human interactions are what Cherryh is famous for, and she doesn't disappoint here. Well defined alien species, with complex cultures and histories populate this universe of the intergalactic future. While the entirety of this book takes place on the world of Kesrith, you can see that an entire universe remains to be explored in the rest of the series.

The Faded Sun trilogy (1978-1979) is actually part of a broader saga, The Alliance-Union universe, which include most of Cherryh's other novels (32 novels all together in the saga). Cherryh says that these books can be read in any order, without regard to publication or chronology of the events, with the obvious exception of series within the universe (such as the Faded Sun trilogy). It is a fascinating universe with tons to offer and plenty left to explore, and I encourage all to delve even deeper into these worlds than this series alone allows for.
Warning This is part of a "trilogy". So if you read this, plan on reading the other two novels. But if you don't like this, you probably won't like the remainder. Book 2 starts immediately right after the cliffhanger that ends this work.

The problem with reviewing this specific work is that for whatever reasons either the author or (more likely?) the publisher wanted a trilogy. So they got one. But that means taking a whole and cutting it into parts. Parts which may not be of equal "value", however one defines that concept. Such is the case here. This is clearly a work that ends for no other reason than to end one work and start another. With large amounts of setting the complex universe in which the characters exist and events happen. And a cliffhanger ending that means you have to immediately read the follow up novel.

I do disagree with those reviewers who think this specific work moves too slowly or is too short on adventure or excitement. Having read so many of her other great works, I've come to appreciate her 3rd person limited style of writing that is deliberate, bringing her complex universe to life and making her characters, especially the complex alien races, seem fully realized. This is what she does so well. And in this case we really have four races. A future human space-based civilization in her Merchanter Alliance-Union Universe (see, for example, Downbelow Station). Then the Regul, who act a bit like Ferengi (in the STNG universe), a long-lived corpulent race out for selfish reasons to benefit their specific clan. The Mri, a nomadic honor-bound race divided up into three castes (child care, warriors, and scholars), who have been working as mercenaries for the Regul for over 2,000 years. And who are fighting the Regul's war with humanity. A war which is now ending with the Regul signing a peace agreement with the humans, one that has terrible implication for the Mri. And then there are the bear-like Dus, who have a telepathic-like manner of communicating strong emotions with the Mri. Nearly all of this work takes place on one planet, Kesrith, the current homeworld of the Mri and birthplace of the Dus. It is a very desert-like planet. With little civilization outside of the Regul city, sited near a water reclaimation facility adjacent to a salty sea, that is near the center of the Mri race, their temple/complex, the eddun.

The heart of the novel is the interaction between the human protagonist, Sten Duncan, who is the military Surface Tactical (special forces) assistant
to the incoming human governor, as humans take over Kesrith from the Regul, and the two young Mri, in their 20s one a warrior (Niun), the other a former warrior forced into the scholar caste who is being groomed to become the Mri's next ruling queen/priestess (Melein). The duplicitious Regul and the not-to-be-fully trusted governor provide the motivation for the events that bring Sten and Niun into intimate contact in the desert, and set their adventure in motion.

One thing that is interesting is that because this is one of her earliest novels, things seem a bit off when trying to slot it into the universe she really developed in her novels of the 1980s. Things just seem a bit off. For example, the FTL jump travel. The chronology in Angel With the Sword shows the Mri/Regul Wars happening in the 27th century.

It is unfortunate that this was published as a trilogy. Both the 1st and 2nd works were published in 1978. So it would've been easy to publish them as one continuous, sustained novel. CJ Cherryh did learn her lesson with Cyteen, which was originally published as one long novel, before the publisher butchered the work and cut it into an artificial "trilogy". She later denied that option to publishers and it is now rightly and most thankfully only published as the one long work it is!
One of my favorites! I think it was one of Cherryh's earlier works. Still a lot of world building and universe building. The characters are complex in the story leads and unexpected directions. I'm very glad that this is available once again. Originally I purchased the three individual novels when they were published a long time ago it's a great read this applies to all 3 novels in the Faded Sun series. Kutath and Shon'jur