Space Opera Fans discussion

Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh is our READER PICK for July. I'm including the 'classic' Russian cover because it's way cooler looking than the lame USA version which smushes the space station down into this tiny little thumbnail. I mean ... hello ... space opera fans love their space tech!



"Pells Station, orbiting the alien world simply called Downbelow, had always managed to remain neutral in the ever escalating conflict between The Company, whose fleets from Earth had colonized space, and its increasingly independent and rebellious colony worlds. But Pells location on the outer edge of Earth's defensive perimeter makes her the focal point in the titanic battle of colony worlds fighting for independence..."

Are you reading Downbelow Station? Tell us what you think and post links to your reviews in the thread below. Remember ... hide your spoilers behind the spoiler .html (click 'some html is ok' above the comment box to learn how).

I read this many years ago and wasn't enamored. If I remember correctly, there were no fully developed characters that I could identify with. Don't think I'm going to try reading it again. There are too many other books I want to read.

I'm not sure whether I read it or not. It's not in the mystery boxes in the icky spider closet, that's for sure (been slowly unpacking my legacy sci-fi collection). Maybe I'll snag it through inter-library loan and then invest in the paperback if I like it?

*UPDATE* - I've read some of her other series, the tongue-in-cheek one about the pride of alien lionesses who take in a poor, frail, helpless human male. :-)

I started this book yesterday. Made it to chapter 13. The first chapter read like the beginning of Star Wars. I get that it's just setting, but it's probably not the best way to introduce it in an interesting way that makes people not want to stop reading like I initially did. I don't even remember when she introduced the first character now. It's picked up stride since and I'm really happy it has because I've already purchased a few of C.J. Cherryh's other books and thought she'd be a must read considering all the hugo awards. I also decided it was prudent to start with the company books first to get a little background before moving on to the unionside series. It helps that you all and the aficionados are both reading now so I can kill a few birds with one laser. So far the book has been mildly amusing, but I think Betsy might be on to something here. The characters do seem quite shallow and I'm having a hard time envisioning 'downbelowers'. Basically, I'm trying to imagine what a skinny monkey like ape creatures with more rounded mouths looks like. They sort of remind me of Amy the Gorilla from the movie Congo. I'm kidding, I think. I will admit that some of their simple metaphoric language is interesting. Quite honestly they are probably some of the more interesting characters so far and that's probably not a good thing considering they're not fully sapient? Oh well plan to finish the book this week if all works out. Will check back in with final thoughts.

Oddly enough, I had a hardcover of this in my collection and had never read it. I think because I've some of her other books and didn't like them.

Finished this today.

My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I didn't care for this one either. I gave it three stars, for the story, but the writing was not to my tastes.

I hope I didn't discourage people from reading this.

Actually, Cherryh is one of my favorite authors. It's just that I don't think this one was one of her best, even though it won the Hugo. I liked the second and third in the series much better because they were about people.

Cherryh has a wide variety of work, some very creative and imaginative. I like some of her books that focus on initial contact between humans and aliens, but from the viewpoint of the alien culture. For example the Chanur series (the spacefaring lionesses that Anna mentioned) is one of my favorites. I also really like the Faded Sun trilogy, where the protagonists are the survivors of an alien but very human like race, allied with humans.

She also has a really good fantasy series, the Morgaine Saga which you fantasy buffs might enjoy -- the heroine has a magic sword and she and the hero (her liegeman) travel from planet to planet via world gates (something like stargates) chasing some really bad people.

But some of Cherryh's stuff really didn't work for me. I couldn't figure out Foreigner enough to even get half way through. And I didn't like Cyteen.

What I'm saying is don't judge Cherryh by just one or two books.

Thanks for your comments Betsy. After finishing Downbelow Station I actually really liked how it transitioned. The more hugo Award winners I read, the more I'm beginning to see that it's not always the quality of writing that is important, but the contribution to the genre as a whole that a book might bring. I think that Downbelow might be one of these examples. It offered up a very authentic alternate reality for the expansion of human kind into the stars in 1981. Someone else mentioned such things as the Alcubierre drive the other day and it can't help but make wonder how this idea will change how future science fiction writers interpret the idea of us discovering how to warp before we've even figured out the major dilemmas of how to safely travel through space. Downbelow Station started slow, but Cherryh seemed to find her voice through stronger character development in later chapters and I ended up really enjoying the book. I am a little sad to see that you didn't like Cyteen, that is discouraging since that's one of the other books of hers I bought along with The Pride of Chanur. I was also hoping that perhaps I could just skip to the rest of the Company Wars and move on to Unionside but now you've made me curious. So six more books to go in Company it is. Might be a while until I finally get to Cyteen, or is it possible to read as stand alone?

I'm not sure about contributions to the genre. Have you read much by Andre Norton? She did most of the things in this book better and twenty to thirty years before.

That said, I've heard good things about the Foreigner series from a friend. Shrug.

I haven't read any of Andre Norton's book unfortunately. Any suggestions Paul?

Rion wrote: "Might be a while until I finally get to Cyteen, or is it possible to read as stand alone?"

I think it's definitely readable as a stand alone. And a lot of people really liked it. It's pretty well written and covers some interesting topics; I just really didn't like the main character.

Rion wrote: "I haven't read any of Andre Norton's book unfortunately. Any suggestions Paul?"

Hmm, maybe The Zero Stone, Forerunner, or The Solar Queen.

Other favorites by her (not really space opera as such) are The Beast Master and Breed to Come. If I hadn't read these two, twenty times or more, I might have achieved my goal of reading everything by Norton by now. lol.

So you all only gave it 3 stars. Guess I'll move it down on my to-read list then.