A review by fairymodmother
Forty Thousand in Gehenna, by C.J. Cherryh
3.0
This was a hugely ambitious work. I think you can feel the influence of Foundation and Dragonflight in it, and perhaps Clan of the Cave Bear, but with a distinct writing style and focus.
CONTENT WARNINGS: (just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-The concepts. Cherryh put forth an exceptional effort to hit on every moral issue confronting populating a new planet with lifeforms that do not mirror any known species, and what to do when that new population "goes native" in the sense that they become inextricably linked to the new planet with a separate path towards culture. AND ALSO questions of the morality of a world with high tech, clones and so on. Whew, there was so much to chew on in this book.
-The scope. Truly staggering. We follow about 400 years of history, from the time they are selected for colonizing a new planet to 300 years after, when that colony has been cut off and then reintegrated into the planetary federation.
-The aliens. I thought this idea was very cool and handled much better than many first contact scenarios. The work that went into figuring out their culture was impressive.
-The POVs. We have shifting POVs including people in command, people who are effectively slaves, scientists, all told through a mix of media--journals, memos, reports, and classic storytelling with the limited narrator.
-A few great lines. There were a few things that really stuck out to me in the writing. One of my favorite parts was That was really great.
Things that didn't quite grab me:
-Characters. So much effort went into the world, its history, the cultures that were developing etc. that the people in it felt more or less extraneous to me. They were there just to demonstrate what the world was doing and how observers would react. I did not connect emotionally with anyone. Even the ones we got to see a bit more "personally" felt like author stand-ins, and almost all of the emotional moments were overshadowed for me by obscene cruelty shown by anyone observing the person experiencing emotion. Most interactions were incredibly toxic in ways that I'm not sure follow without examination of why this would be their inclination.
-Elly's story. Given what we see later, this did not add up to me. I also hate the woman rival thing (ESPECIALLY WITH HER BROTHERS EW).
-Names. This was really difficult. Everyone was named one of 5 or 6 names across time.
-The whys. We saw so much of what and how but very little why. The set up with Union and Alliance made very little sense to me. The idea of two separate cultures growing seemed plausible, but I didn't understand why. Things kept happening to drastically alter history but I kept asking why? And I just don't think that was the focus. The focus was very much on the thought experiment of how this would play out if human history were condensed and reverted back to the stone age from well into the space age.
-The end. It felt fairly abrupt and a bit less thoughtful than the rest of the book had been.
I'm glad I read it and will certainly try more by this author as I believe her imagination and skill to be unique, but I don't think I can honestly say I loved it. 3.5 for me and I'm very torn on which way to round. I think down because I really did like it, but I don't think I'll pick up this series again next, necessarily, and I'm not sure I'd unreservedly recommend it.
CONTENT WARNINGS: (just a list of topics)
Spoiler
rape, sexual coercion, animal cruelty, misogyny, ableism, slavery, gore/body horror (not of eyes), parental neglect.Things to love:
-The concepts. Cherryh put forth an exceptional effort to hit on every moral issue confronting populating a new planet with lifeforms that do not mirror any known species, and what to do when that new population "goes native" in the sense that they become inextricably linked to the new planet with a separate path towards culture. AND ALSO questions of the morality of a world with high tech, clones and so on. Whew, there was so much to chew on in this book.
-The scope. Truly staggering. We follow about 400 years of history, from the time they are selected for colonizing a new planet to 300 years after, when that colony has been cut off and then reintegrated into the planetary federation.
-The aliens. I thought this idea was very cool and handled much better than many first contact scenarios. The work that went into figuring out their culture was impressive.
-The POVs. We have shifting POVs including people in command, people who are effectively slaves, scientists, all told through a mix of media--journals, memos, reports, and classic storytelling with the limited narrator.
-A few great lines. There were a few things that really stuck out to me in the writing. One of my favorite parts was
Spoiler
when a scientist was questioning gender as a social construct and how hard it is to remove ourselves from human thinking, but when you do you start to see that most of our beliefs on "how things are" is mostly just a myth we tell ourselves to make life simpler.Things that didn't quite grab me:
-Characters. So much effort went into the world, its history, the cultures that were developing etc. that the people in it felt more or less extraneous to me. They were there just to demonstrate what the world was doing and how observers would react. I did not connect emotionally with anyone. Even the ones we got to see a bit more "personally" felt like author stand-ins, and almost all of the emotional moments were overshadowed for me by obscene cruelty shown by anyone observing the person experiencing emotion. Most interactions were incredibly toxic in ways that I'm not sure follow without examination of why this would be their inclination.
-Elly's story. Given what we see later, this did not add up to me. I also hate the woman rival thing (ESPECIALLY WITH HER BROTHERS EW).
-Names. This was really difficult. Everyone was named one of 5 or 6 names across time.
-The whys. We saw so much of what and how but very little why. The set up with Union and Alliance made very little sense to me. The idea of two separate cultures growing seemed plausible, but I didn't understand why. Things kept happening to drastically alter history but I kept asking why? And I just don't think that was the focus. The focus was very much on the thought experiment of how this would play out if human history were condensed and reverted back to the stone age from well into the space age.
-The end. It felt fairly abrupt and a bit less thoughtful than the rest of the book had been.
I'm glad I read it and will certainly try more by this author as I believe her imagination and skill to be unique, but I don't think I can honestly say I loved it. 3.5 for me and I'm very torn on which way to round. I think down because I really did like it, but I don't think I'll pick up this series again next, necessarily, and I'm not sure I'd unreservedly recommend it.