A review by sleeping_while_awake
Forty Thousand in Gehenna, by C.J. Cherryh
3.0
Forty Thousand in Gehenna is a story set in the Alliance-Union universe, and is briefly mentioned in Cyteen. Unfortunately when I went to read this, I didn't remember the mentions in Cyteen too well. When I read Cyteen I remember the mentions being really interesting. Since this book was written before Cyteen, it's rather sparse on the 'why' of the major plot detail.
Gehenna is a new world that is colonized by Union, the homogeneous space state (I guess that's what you refer to it as) that's always doing spooky bio-engineering and cloning that's banned in the Alliance. They are attempting to colonize as many worlds as possible to antagonize the Alliance. Union sends humans and azis, human clones that are essentially emotionally and behaviorally brainwashed to act in a certain manner, to seed this new world. However, Union has no intention of ever following up or ever checking in on how their settlers are doing.
Something along the lines of not enough resources and they just wanted to piss the Alliance off and make a mess of a new world.
The colonists are left with the instruction that in three years Union ships will arrive with supplies and bring more equipment for development. Everyone is committed to the project.
Although Union was sure there weren't any sentient creatures on Gehenna, that is not the case. There are few lizard species, one being the caliban which is very large, that appear a lot smarter than they seem. Without giving spoilers, the story follows the colonists and their descendants over many years, and their adaptation to the world on which they have been abandoned.
Thrown into the mix are the azi, which reproduce, and contribute some strangeness to the genetic lines.
The colonist portion in the beginning was my favorite, and probably rated 4 stars. However, when it got to the descendants, my interest waned some. It's very much an anthropological story, but Cherryh never gives the whole picture. Sometimes I really wanted an info dump with lots of explanation of the culture, but that didn't really happen.
The way in which the descendants talked and interacted was somewhat clunky. It makes sense that they changed over time, but it was difficult to understand what they were thinking and planning. Maybe that's the point, as any outsider would have the same trouble.
Certainly, the story does feel dated somewhat, but it's a decent read about what happens to a colony on a new world that is abandoned. It doesn't become a Lord of the Flies or Hunger Games kind of story (although that would have been entertaining), but one in which it seems plausible.
Gehenna is a new world that is colonized by Union, the homogeneous space state (I guess that's what you refer to it as) that's always doing spooky bio-engineering and cloning that's banned in the Alliance. They are attempting to colonize as many worlds as possible to antagonize the Alliance. Union sends humans and azis, human clones that are essentially emotionally and behaviorally brainwashed to act in a certain manner, to seed this new world. However, Union has no intention of ever following up or ever checking in on how their settlers are doing.
Something along the lines of not enough resources and they just wanted to piss the Alliance off and make a mess of a new world.
The colonists are left with the instruction that in three years Union ships will arrive with supplies and bring more equipment for development. Everyone is committed to the project.
Although Union was sure there weren't any sentient creatures on Gehenna, that is not the case. There are few lizard species, one being the caliban which is very large, that appear a lot smarter than they seem. Without giving spoilers, the story follows the colonists and their descendants over many years, and their adaptation to the world on which they have been abandoned.
Thrown into the mix are the azi, which reproduce, and contribute some strangeness to the genetic lines.
The colonist portion in the beginning was my favorite, and probably rated 4 stars. However, when it got to the descendants, my interest waned some. It's very much an anthropological story, but Cherryh never gives the whole picture. Sometimes I really wanted an info dump with lots of explanation of the culture, but that didn't really happen.
The way in which the descendants talked and interacted was somewhat clunky. It makes sense that they changed over time, but it was difficult to understand what they were thinking and planning. Maybe that's the point, as any outsider would have the same trouble.
Certainly, the story does feel dated somewhat, but it's a decent read about what happens to a colony on a new world that is abandoned. It doesn't become a Lord of the Flies or Hunger Games kind of story (although that would have been entertaining), but one in which it seems plausible.