![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Alternate Realities: Port Eternity, Voyager in Night, Wave Without a Shore
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: New York: Daw, 2000 (1982, 1984, 1981)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 525
Total Page Count: 150,434
Text Number: 440
Read Because: personal enjoyment, from my library
Review: A great introduction to Cherryh—although I say this as someone who still hasn't finished a novel. It's more accessible than finding a starting place in her extended series, while still taking place in the Alliance-Union universe: practiced space opera-level scifi without the detraction of the genres trappings. And it feels like Cherryh distilled: premises are slightly inscrutable, forcing the reader to actively engage with the text; the concepts are original (in Voyager in Night, brilliantly so) and the philosophy is intense.
Wave Without a Shore is the collection's highlight, a pretentious and affected, utterly delightful philosophical investigation with id-level characterization; cousin in some ways NBC Hannibal and Tartt's The Secret History, and as enjoyable to read. Cherryh occasionally overreaches into the unsubstantiated profound, and too many stories have unnecessary action sequences for their climaxes; there are flaws. But I loved this collection, and thought it a fantastic introduction; I'll certainly read more of her in the future.
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: New York: Daw, 2000 (1982, 1984, 1981)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 525
Total Page Count: 150,434
Text Number: 440
Read Because: personal enjoyment, from my library
Review: A great introduction to Cherryh—although I say this as someone who still hasn't finished a novel. It's more accessible than finding a starting place in her extended series, while still taking place in the Alliance-Union universe: practiced space opera-level scifi without the detraction of the genres trappings. And it feels like Cherryh distilled: premises are slightly inscrutable, forcing the reader to actively engage with the text; the concepts are original (in Voyager in Night, brilliantly so) and the philosophy is intense.
Wave Without a Shore is the collection's highlight, a pretentious and affected, utterly delightful philosophical investigation with id-level characterization; cousin in some ways NBC Hannibal and Tartt's The Secret History, and as enjoyable to read. Cherryh occasionally overreaches into the unsubstantiated profound, and too many stories have unnecessary action sequences for their climaxes; there are flaws. But I loved this collection, and thought it a fantastic introduction; I'll certainly read more of her in the future.
