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juushikaTitle: Forty Thousand in Gehenna (Unionside Book 1)
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: New York: Daw Books, 1984 (1983)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 445
Total Page Count: 201,290
Text Number: 593
Read Because: fan of the author/bond animal trope, purchased used from Powell's (as a gift fromcentury_eyes)
Review: The Union settlers that come to Gehenna as part of a political expansion find themselves abandoned there in the company of the native giant lizards who may have more sapience than it first seemed. This novel chronicles the fall and creation of civilizations, and as such has a strange structure. The first two thirds is an overview of broad swaths of time, seen in glimpses from various denizens; the staccato pacing helps balance the distant narrative. Only the final third introduces characters to appeal to reader investment; it also engages some bond animal tropes and brings to fruition issues of civilization, definitions of sapience, and a truly alien species interfacing with humans. Cherryh's novels are often one part politics and one part id—and Forty Thousand in Gehenna is a particularly pronounced example. It's a slow burn with a too-quick end, but pays off for readers that enjoy Cherryh's style or the tropes at play. I imagine it holds up well to rereads.
On Tumblr: regarding maps, crossposted below:
A post about maps in fantasy novels popped up on my dash at the same time I was reading this book. I don't by default care about maps; I don't think spatially and don't usually like the sort of worldbuilding that necessitates diagrams; I'm the Harry Potter-liminal and -fungible wibbly-wobbly spaces sort.
But CJ Cherryh's Forty Thousand in Gehenna does interesting things with maps. Rather than a single static map (stuck in the beginning of the book, separated from the physical reading experience or narrative progression), there's a map for each section. The book is about relationships between settler human and native alien cultures over the course of centuries; the native alien culture uses geography and earth-moving as communication, which conflicts with and later informs human city-building. As such, chronological maps of the area do more than explain the geography (which isn't complex, and doesn't need to be): they diagram the development of geography as communication over time—that is, they illustrate the entire point of the book. They also convey the physical and chronological scope; they also illustrate the ominous encroachment, the vast and ultimately inevitable change. But their primary purpose is to be ridiculously thematically apt, and I've never seen that in a map before.
these are all hella plot spoilers, i sorry for ruin obscure novel but you should read it anyway
#Juu reads #CJ Cherryh #who never disappoints #things this novel is also about: not-dragon psuedo-bond animals; sapience; how sapience affects the bond animal trope #what role communication plays in the bond animal trope #definitions of alien and intelligent and communication; definitions of humanity i.e. what constitutes a human culture #a surprising amount of id-fic in the final third: 'Do they love' she had written once comma naive #was my ENTIRE heart #spoilers be ye warned
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: New York: Daw Books, 1984 (1983)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 445
Total Page Count: 201,290
Text Number: 593
Read Because: fan of the author/bond animal trope, purchased used from Powell's (as a gift from
century_eyes)Review: The Union settlers that come to Gehenna as part of a political expansion find themselves abandoned there in the company of the native giant lizards who may have more sapience than it first seemed. This novel chronicles the fall and creation of civilizations, and as such has a strange structure. The first two thirds is an overview of broad swaths of time, seen in glimpses from various denizens; the staccato pacing helps balance the distant narrative. Only the final third introduces characters to appeal to reader investment; it also engages some bond animal tropes and brings to fruition issues of civilization, definitions of sapience, and a truly alien species interfacing with humans. Cherryh's novels are often one part politics and one part id—and Forty Thousand in Gehenna is a particularly pronounced example. It's a slow burn with a too-quick end, but pays off for readers that enjoy Cherryh's style or the tropes at play. I imagine it holds up well to rereads.
On Tumblr: regarding maps, crossposted below:
A post about maps in fantasy novels popped up on my dash at the same time I was reading this book. I don't by default care about maps; I don't think spatially and don't usually like the sort of worldbuilding that necessitates diagrams; I'm the Harry Potter-liminal and -fungible wibbly-wobbly spaces sort.
But CJ Cherryh's Forty Thousand in Gehenna does interesting things with maps. Rather than a single static map (stuck in the beginning of the book, separated from the physical reading experience or narrative progression), there's a map for each section. The book is about relationships between settler human and native alien cultures over the course of centuries; the native alien culture uses geography and earth-moving as communication, which conflicts with and later informs human city-building. As such, chronological maps of the area do more than explain the geography (which isn't complex, and doesn't need to be): they diagram the development of geography as communication over time—that is, they illustrate the entire point of the book. They also convey the physical and chronological scope; they also illustrate the ominous encroachment, the vast and ultimately inevitable change. But their primary purpose is to be ridiculously thematically apt, and I've never seen that in a map before.
these are all hella plot spoilers, i sorry for ruin obscure novel but you should read it anyway
#Juu reads #CJ Cherryh #who never disappoints #things this novel is also about: not-dragon psuedo-bond animals; sapience; how sapience affects the bond animal trope #what role communication plays in the bond animal trope #definitions of alien and intelligent and communication; definitions of humanity i.e. what constitutes a human culture #a surprising amount of id-fic in the final third: 'Do they love' she had written once comma naive #was my ENTIRE heart #spoilers be ye warned
