olegx's review
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Что у Черри отлично получается (как минимум в этой вселенной), так это описывать полу-изолированные коммьюнити и их взаимодействия. Это более-менее политическая драма про два сорта космических торговцев и самую отдаленную космическую станцию из обслуживаемых ими. В основном набор разговоров в комнатах, и хотя персонажи не прям сияющие, прописаны они и их мотивы/цели/конфликты достаточно хорошо, что мне было нескучно.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
Disappointing. This was definitely not as good as the books I remember from the series. Mostly due to the pacing. It was just too torturously slow. It did speed up for the ending and it was a good ending. And it was basically a prequel and prequels have their own difficulty. Still it was fun to revisit the world and might encourage some re-reading. After all I have 2 shelves of Cherryh's books, I might as well re-read some of them. 3.5 out of 5 with that extra .5 coming with the last tenth of the book.
essinink's review against another edition
3.0
(Review written 2 months late, and I lost my notes, so this is very abbreviated.)
As part of the Alliance-Union universe, this is an interesting bridge. As a standalone novel, it suffers.
There's a kind of claustrophobic despair common to AU books that's missing here, possibly because of the multiple PoV. The writing is also in multiple iterations of the same discussions. It would have been a tighter read if those discussions were restricted to the characters with the highest stakes.
As part of the Alliance-Union universe, this is an interesting bridge. As a standalone novel, it suffers.
There's a kind of claustrophobic despair common to AU books that's missing here, possibly because of the multiple PoV. The writing is also in multiple iterations of the same discussions. It would have been a tighter read if those discussions were restricted to the characters with the highest stakes.
wunder's review against another edition
Hard pass after just one chapter. The approaching mysterious ship could not have been less suspenseful. Basically, we watched the characters staring at the arrivals board. And there was a bar fight that didn't happen for any useful reason and where we didn't care who won. And lots of infodump. I'm not a fan of the informational prologue, but that would have been a huge improvement here.
The final straw was basic editing lapses. Fallon was described as "time-dilated as hell" on two consecutive pages, oops. But the ridiculous thing was describing how the time-dilation on the sublight runs had affected him. Excuse me! The fundamental point of Einstein time-dilation is that the time experienced in the frame of reference moving close to c is completely indistinguishable from time elsewhere. The time is exactly the same. Writers have had well over a century to get used to that. Special relativity was worked out 37 years before C. J. Cherryh was born.
I'm OK with fantasy physics and some bad plotting, but one chapter was enough to make it clear that this book does not respect the time and attention the reader is offering. I've read plenty of C. J. Cherryh, but this may be the last one I read.
The final straw was basic editing lapses. Fallon was described as "time-dilated as hell" on two consecutive pages, oops. But the ridiculous thing was describing how the time-dilation on the sublight runs had affected him. Excuse me! The fundamental point of Einstein time-dilation is that the time experienced in the frame of reference moving close to c is completely indistinguishable from time elsewhere. The time is exactly the same. Writers have had well over a century to get used to that. Special relativity was worked out 37 years before C. J. Cherryh was born.
I'm OK with fantasy physics and some bad plotting, but one chapter was enough to make it clear that this book does not respect the time and attention the reader is offering. I've read plenty of C. J. Cherryh, but this may be the last one I read.
rcriii's review against another edition
3.0
I like C. J. Cherryh, but this book was just so-so to me. Character development was thin, so it was hard to bring myself to care much about anyone person or faction. There are a couple of obvious bad guys, but no clear good guys here. All in all, a wasted opportunity, since there are a lot of good ideas.
colossal's review against another edition
5.0
Political intrigue and clashing mindsets at the beginning of the Alliance from Cherryh's mammoth future history.
Alpha Station is the closest jump point to Earth and something of a backwater. It's under a lot of stress because for decades all its resources have gone into a bold Earth Company plan: a gigantic ship built from blueprints stolen from Pell Station, a powerful political center of human space. It appears to be built as a military ship with a mission to enforce Earth Company will on the Beyond. After the giant ship Rights of Man performs poorly in testing the whole station is shocked when Finity's End, the giant ship who's plans Rights was built from, arrives spectacularly in-system in a show of maneuvering that terrifies everyone. But what is one of the largest ships in human space doing in a backwater like Alpha?
I've been a huge fan of Cherryh and her Alliance-Union books for a very long time, but after the disappointment of [b:Regenesis|3689197|Regenesis (Cyteen, #4)|C.J. Cherryh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316469120s/3689197.jpg|8754115], I was a little worried about what I'd be reading here. However, this was brilliant and a triumphant return to her future history in its most well known period, or at least close to it. [a:Jane S. Fancher|283894|Jane S. Fancher|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1422929505p2/283894.jpg] is co-credited here and I think her contribution is clearly a positive one, but given these two have been together for a very long time, I always wondered if more of Cherryh's books had a silent co-author.
You don't need prior knowledge of the Alliance-Union universe to pick this one up, but like most of Cherryh's books, it's still fairly dense and doesn't coddle the reader. It is set earlier than any other book in this series though, and reading it knowing where a lot of these events end up certainly adds something to the story, but it's entirely accessible (or as accessible as Cherryh gets) without all the foreknowledge.
The Alliance-Union series is an amazing future history and I thoroughly recommend it. It's probably notable that this book will put the whole series in contention for the Best Series Hugo in 2020, something I really hope it wins.
Alpha Station is the closest jump point to Earth and something of a backwater. It's under a lot of stress because for decades all its resources have gone into a bold Earth Company plan: a gigantic ship built from blueprints stolen from Pell Station, a powerful political center of human space. It appears to be built as a military ship with a mission to enforce Earth Company will on the Beyond. After the giant ship Rights of Man performs poorly in testing the whole station is shocked when Finity's End, the giant ship who's plans Rights was built from, arrives spectacularly in-system in a show of maneuvering that terrifies everyone. But what is one of the largest ships in human space doing in a backwater like Alpha?
I've been a huge fan of Cherryh and her Alliance-Union books for a very long time, but after the disappointment of [b:Regenesis|3689197|Regenesis (Cyteen, #4)|C.J. Cherryh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316469120s/3689197.jpg|8754115], I was a little worried about what I'd be reading here. However, this was brilliant and a triumphant return to her future history in its most well known period, or at least close to it. [a:Jane S. Fancher|283894|Jane S. Fancher|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1422929505p2/283894.jpg] is co-credited here and I think her contribution is clearly a positive one, but given these two have been together for a very long time, I always wondered if more of Cherryh's books had a silent co-author.
You don't need prior knowledge of the Alliance-Union universe to pick this one up, but like most of Cherryh's books, it's still fairly dense and doesn't coddle the reader. It is set earlier than any other book in this series though, and reading it knowing where a lot of these events end up certainly adds something to the story, but it's entirely accessible (or as accessible as Cherryh gets) without all the foreknowledge.
The Alliance-Union series is an amazing future history and I thoroughly recommend it. It's probably notable that this book will put the whole series in contention for the Best Series Hugo in 2020, something I really hope it wins.
tome15's review
4.0
Cherryh, C. J., and Jane S. Fancher. Alliance Rising. The Hinder Stars No. 1. Daw, 2019.
Fans of C. J. Cherryh’s early work have been waiting a long time to her to return to world of Finity’s End, Merchanter’s Luck, and Downbelow Station. The new Hinder Stars trilogy is set at a very early period when the Alliance that will become a major player in the Company Wars is just being formed. We get the back story on the first great merchant ships and the conflict between Earth Company and earth’s first interstellar stations. There is a little adventure, a moderate amount of romance, and a lot of talk about economics. I know how that sounds, but the drama is tense—even in the economics talk. Even though this is a prequel, it is not where I would recommend a new reader to start the merchanter books. Downbelow Station is still the best starting place. Note that most of Cherryh’s merchanter stories can be read as stand-alone works. FYI: Jane Fancher is Cherryh’s longtime partner, and I wonder whether she as been a silent collaborator on any of the earlier works. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
Fans of C. J. Cherryh’s early work have been waiting a long time to her to return to world of Finity’s End, Merchanter’s Luck, and Downbelow Station. The new Hinder Stars trilogy is set at a very early period when the Alliance that will become a major player in the Company Wars is just being formed. We get the back story on the first great merchant ships and the conflict between Earth Company and earth’s first interstellar stations. There is a little adventure, a moderate amount of romance, and a lot of talk about economics. I know how that sounds, but the drama is tense—even in the economics talk. Even though this is a prequel, it is not where I would recommend a new reader to start the merchanter books. Downbelow Station is still the best starting place. Note that most of Cherryh’s merchanter stories can be read as stand-alone works. FYI: Jane Fancher is Cherryh’s longtime partner, and I wonder whether she as been a silent collaborator on any of the earlier works. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
sleeping_while_awake's review
3.0
I was excited to see a new novel in the Alliance-Union universe, as I've read most of the books in the series. Alliance Rising takes places on Alpha Station, in the so-called Hinder Stars, closer to Earth than Pell or Cyteen.
The main premise of the book is economics! How a struggling station and its merchanter ships can be successful. The Neihart family, of the Finity's End ship written about in other books, comes to Alpha Station to pitch what is essentially a union for all merchanter ships in space. The smaller families on Alpha are wary of the outreach.
Additionally, the station leadership is at odds with each other. Sol has been building a large ship for years, taking up valuable resources from the mercanter families, and there is no clear end in sight. The ships has been communicated as a family ship, but it appears Sol has other intentions for that ship that could cause problems for other parts of the universe.
There's a potential route from Sol to Alpha station directly, which would make the station rich. However, the man who knows isn't sure if he should release the information, as it may cost him his job and influence.
Although Alliance Rising is a slow-paced book like any Cherryh novel, it was middle of the road for me in terms of likeability. I liked the return of the Neiharts, which were familiar. But, I didn't really connect with much of the new family characters. I would have liked someone that stirred up some trouble to create tension.
The station leadership drama I enjoyed, but I would have liked to get to know them more outside of their job roles.
Overall, it is an ok entry and I hope the subsequent ones have some characters that really interest me.
The main premise of the book is economics! How a struggling station and its merchanter ships can be successful. The Neihart family, of the Finity's End ship written about in other books, comes to Alpha Station to pitch what is essentially a union for all merchanter ships in space. The smaller families on Alpha are wary of the outreach.
Additionally, the station leadership is at odds with each other. Sol has been building a large ship for years, taking up valuable resources from the mercanter families, and there is no clear end in sight. The ships has been communicated as a family ship, but it appears Sol has other intentions for that ship that could cause problems for other parts of the universe.
There's a potential route from Sol to Alpha station directly, which would make the station rich. However, the man who knows isn't sure if he should release the information, as it may cost him his job and influence.
Although Alliance Rising is a slow-paced book like any Cherryh novel, it was middle of the road for me in terms of likeability. I liked the return of the Neiharts, which were familiar. But, I didn't really connect with much of the new family characters. I would have liked someone that stirred up some trouble to create tension.
The station leadership drama I enjoyed, but I would have liked to get to know them more outside of their job roles.
Overall, it is an ok entry and I hope the subsequent ones have some characters that really interest me.
casella's review
3.0
Cherryh returns to the Alliance-Union universe for the first time since 2009's Regenesis—and as Regenesis is an odd direct sequel to Cyteen (1988), it's more like 3 decades since Cherryh directly engaged with this universe. Alliance Rising is weird, in a couple ways, and I say this as someone pretty deeply Cherryh-obsessed. The writing is not so much a departure as a expansion-to-exclusion of one particular internal-expository style that Cherryh usually uses more thriftily. There's shockingly little that happens, or is even said, in this novel—lots of narrative summation, lots of quasi-stream-of-consciousness internal contemplation. Both of those are things Cherryh excels at, but they're usually balanced more with other elements. The other weird thing about this novel is where it fits in her larger future history—it slots so tightly in the timeline between other works, that an informed reader has very little imaginative wiggle room. It's hard to care too deeply about the Hinder Star stations, because we know, very clearly, what their hopes and dreams will come to, in just a few short years or decades after this novel closes. Made me reflect on prequel-peril and expanded-universe woes generally. I'm still hopeful to see what Cherryh's doing next—there were hints way back when that the Alliance-Union and Compact storylines might actually be about to merge, which would be wild, but that might be something left to the imagination.
joeyh's review
3.0
Mixed feelings; I wanted to rate this higher just because it's finally more Merchanter's, after 20 years. And the element of in a space opera is appealing and kind of upends some of the common dystopian elements of this subgenre. And that's made more complex and interesting by us knowing how what starts here is going to play out, that many of the aspirations here are going to eventually fail, that it's going to get seriously grim.
But this also suffered some from being a prequel, and perhaps trying to explain too much about specific little details in the later books. And, it kind of felt like there were too many viewpoint characters; a particular captian's viewpoint in particular felt like we never got inside his head but only saw from his eyes in a way that is not Cherryh at her best. Also we only see one side of an important relationship that develops, while knowing that the other person in the relationship is potentially highly untrustworthy, which made the development of that relationship feel like it was missing important internal developments, or was being glossed over.
Spoiler
covert unionisingBut this also suffered some from being a prequel, and perhaps trying to explain too much about specific little details in the later books. And, it kind of felt like there were too many viewpoint characters; a particular captian's viewpoint in particular felt like we never got inside his head but only saw from his eyes in a way that is not Cherryh at her best. Also we only see one side of an important relationship that develops, while knowing that the other person in the relationship is potentially highly untrustworthy, which made the development of that relationship feel like it was missing important internal developments, or was being glossed over.