A review by divadiane
Forty Thousand in Gehenna, by C.J. Cherryh
4.0
i completely forgot to post a review. So here’s what I posted in the discussion on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club:
I finally finished! It wasn't a struggle really, Downbelow Station was much harder to get through, in my opinion. In fact, I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit bewildering in places. I thought the hereditary names was actually pretty clever in giving us a hand-hold as to where these new characters fit in and were coming from. It was like a built in backstory, which didn't have to be info dumped. Cherryh's style is so, so spare. And it's worse even with the new native human Gehennan's in an attempt at a sort of dialect plus the fact that they communicated with sign language and patterning as well.
I thought the Weirds were an interesting bridge to the calibans. To me, it seemed Cherryh was saying they were an unknown direct side effect of azi reproduction and if the azi's abandoned on the planet had continued to have tape and their children had had it as well, the Weirds probably wouldn't have developed. As it was, their lack of verbal communication is what gave them that connection to the calibans and thus a means for the whole society to stabilize and survive. Otherwise, I think the calibans would've undermined all the settlements and killed everyone. As it was, the Weirds "saved" the rest of the Gehennans and made a Base untenable.
So, do people think that it was the brown calibans that brought about the destruction of the Styxside settlements (as was theorized by Elai)? But why? Is Cherryh saying because the female led society was better for calibans (because they didn't eat the grays) or because they were less war-like and understood the calibans better?
I finally finished! It wasn't a struggle really, Downbelow Station was much harder to get through, in my opinion. In fact, I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit bewildering in places. I thought the hereditary names was actually pretty clever in giving us a hand-hold as to where these new characters fit in and were coming from. It was like a built in backstory, which didn't have to be info dumped. Cherryh's style is so, so spare. And it's worse even with the new native human Gehennan's in an attempt at a sort of dialect plus the fact that they communicated with sign language and patterning as well.
I thought the Weirds were an interesting bridge to the calibans. To me, it seemed Cherryh was saying they were an unknown direct side effect of azi reproduction and if the azi's abandoned on the planet had continued to have tape and their children had had it as well, the Weirds probably wouldn't have developed. As it was, their lack of verbal communication is what gave them that connection to the calibans and thus a means for the whole society to stabilize and survive. Otherwise, I think the calibans would've undermined all the settlements and killed everyone. As it was, the Weirds "saved" the rest of the Gehennans and made a Base untenable.
So, do people think that it was the brown calibans that brought about the destruction of the Styxside settlements (as was theorized by Elai)? But why? Is Cherryh saying because the female led society was better for calibans (because they didn't eat the grays) or because they were less war-like and understood the calibans better?