November 8th, 2008
by
Liz Henry
Here’s a quick blog link roundup for posts on CJ Cherryh!
I recall trying to read her a few years back, having a violent allergic reaction to the prose style, or the subject, or just not being in the mood; but then quite recently tackling Cyteen and thinking it brilliant – I saw complicated issues about identity, truth, etc. in the politics of her society with clones & genetically engineered mutants who lacked particular civil rights. I would like to give more attention to Cherryh, and perhaps read the entire Atevi series in sequence over a period of a few weeks, for maximum immersive effect.
In reviewing the reviews of Cherryh it seems that what people love about her work is its density and complexity. The “fractal” nature of the details of character, politics, worldbuilding, even of the plot.
* bibliogramma aka Morgan Dhu, on On First Looking Into CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner.
Cherryh raises the interesting question of whether science is indeed a universal language, as many have argued, or whether the physiological nature of the organs of thought and perception in different species, the different psychological structures that will develop in beings with different biologies and hence different mating, reproductive, parenting and other behaviours, and the different cultures that can evolve among aliens, with alien brains and minds, living in alien environments, means that certain elements of scientific knowledge will be seen and used differently.
* Jo Walton’s overview of the Atevi series.
You know how people complain about SF worlds that only have one texture—the desert world, the world where all the aliens think alike? These are the antidote to that. The atevi have ethnicities and regional differences and priorities, they are hierarchical in the way they follow leaders, their superstitions and expectations are alien but consistent, and their planet feels like a planet with real history and geography. It’s fractal the way real things are. Nothing is neatly edged.
Cherryh’s real achievement here is the way she puts this over slowly. It’s an immersion course in living with atevi.
* Politics on Other Planets – Hammerfall thoughts by Yonmei here on this blog!
Mostly when SF writers invent political systems they are terribly simple. Feudalism is popular. Or empires with huge bureaucracies. Or else, if the writer isn’t interested, it’s just a non-thing. Who runs Earth in The Caves of Steel? Does Elijah Bailey vote? If so, who for? If even future earths can be this unpolitical, is it surprising that so many other worlds have a one world government.
* Long, juicy review of Cyteen by Sandra of Women and Words.
The interstellar cabals are Old Earth and its allies, set against former colonies like Cyteen who have won their independence the hard way. The dark human passions include sexual addiction, jealousy, and family ties that don’t just bind, they strangle to death. Blackmail and sacrifice are the norm in this world’s political structure. And all this wraps around a murder mystery spanning two generations. Toss in genetic manipulation and psychological controls that take on the ideas of Nature vs Nurture on a whole new level.
* Discussion of Cherryh in comments, on a post about a new book from DAW, The Collected Short Fiction of CJ Cherryh.
* C.J. Cherryh: Spec-fic Anomaly? by Loretta Sylvester of Worlds Well Written.
Cherryh’s novels are complex and her worlds are so finely woven that they feel like early memories. But her characters draw me to her books time and again. Examples: flawed hero-kings, wizard’s that disappear when most needed and reappear only to make a mistake, boys with the ego-centric misperceptions of youth, and powerful beings that have a child’s innocence of the mundane world in which they walk. I’ll not pretend she’s easy to read. Her prose is dense, her language sophisticated, and her sentence structure correct but at times wildly convoluted.
* An extremely brief review of Rider at the Gate. Telepathic space horses.
* Essay on feministe about women in literature. Cherryh’s work came up several times in the comments thread. Surprisingly often, I thought.
* FantasyLitReview’s Overview of The Faded Sun series (Alliance/Union). “CJ Cherryh consistently writes stories that generate real empathy for ‘the outsider’. Like Tristen in the Fortress series, Sten Duncan in Faded Sun is the lone human who cares at all about the alien, enemy Mri; Niun, the one Mri warrior never allowed into battle is equally an outsider among his own people. ”
And finally:
* CJ Cherryh’s home page, including some blog posts. (Someone should make her a real blog, I swear… it is not 1996 anymore.)
* Wikipedia entry for C.J. Cherryh
* FeministSF wiki entry for CJ Cherryh
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- More blogging by
Liz Henry at
http://liz-henry.blogspot.com
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Filed under Books & Literature, Criticism & Scholarship | Comments (4)
I have mixed reactions to C.J. Cherryh’s works… I love complex SF which I can delve into and find myself captivated. Sometimes this works with Cherryh’s writing (for example the Mri Wars trilogy) and sometimes I find her complexity is a barrier instead of an attraction.
However, I think I have pretty much every one of her books on my creaking bookshelves and will, no doubt, keep on seeing if her next works will captivate or not!
C.J. Cherryh was one of my first loves, though honestly I don’t think she’s a very good writer and I couldn’t finish Cyteen because I hated all the characters so much. But whenever a new Atevi book comes out, I reread at least the one before it and then the new one all together. I didn’t actually know she was a woman when I started reading her, it was a pleasant surprise.
When I said “writer” I meant putting language together nicely. Lots of repetition, some considerable awkwardness. But I can overlook that if the story is good and I bond with the characters.
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