At the Edge of Space: Brothers of Earth / Hunter of Worlds [Mass Market Paperback]

C. J. Cherryh's early science fiction novels are being reissued by DAW in omnibus editions. Some of the them--The Morgaine Saga and The Faded Sun--are extraordinary bargains, because the books included are classics. At the Edge of Space is also a good deal, because Hunter of Worlds, arguably Cherryh's best novel, is worth the price of the volume. Unfortunately it is bound with what may be her first novel, the amateurish Brothers of Earth.

Hunter of Worlds gives you the trademark elements of Cherryh's best work: two cultures with a balanced if unequal relationship are intruded upon by a hairy, vulgar thing called a "human." (He's not even empathic!) We see the action from the non-human perspective. The operatic grandness of the iduve--clannish space predators like wolf packs--contrasts with the delicate slave race (their name escapes me) mediating between human and iduve. Cultural clashes drive the action, and planets are the pawns of political intrigue.

Here is the best possible introduction to Cherryh. If you enjoy the politics of Hunter of Worlds, you will love the Richardsonian volumes of the Foreigner series. If you enjoy the richly imagined cultures and languages, and the conflicts that follow from them, you will enjoy the Chanur series and the Faded Sun books, in which multiple races collide over their culturally determined values. If, like me, you fall in love immediately with the extraordinary Chimele, then read the Morgaine Saga.

The two stories in this volume are totally independent of each other. In the forward, Cherryh tries to paper over this by saying in the vast reaches of human space, totally different things can be happening at the same time. In reality, these stories just have nothing to do with each other. Outside of being some of Cherryh's very earliest work, they have no business being in the same book. HOWEVER, from the point-of-view of price and of getting these books back in print, I think the publisher had a good idea in doing this. Each of the stories is interesting and about equally well done. If you haven't read these books, then this volume is a good way to get them both. Here are my individual ratings:

"Brothers of Earth" is Cherryh's first novel. It's an interesting book, but bears no resemblence to her later books. It's a fairly well written book that explores some interesting concepts. Unfortunately, the book doesn't really go anywhere. Specifically, the main character isn't pushing towards some kind of solution. He's essentially along for the ride. The end result is that things just happen and then the book ends. It's not a very satisfactory ending at all. If you're a die-hard Cherryh fan, I'd say you should read this book just because it's her first. It's not bad, but it's also not that good.

You can tell "Hunter of Worlds" is a very early C.J. Cherryh novel. The text is nowhere near as riveting as her later works. You can see where her later style comes from in this work, but it's really not fully present here. In general, it's an ok story. But, you never really buy into it fully. It's like you pick up in the middle of something and then put it away after something happens. You get an inkling of what the various races are like, how they behave, and what they're capable of, but it never really meshes into a consistent whole. You know that the races are different, but you really don't feel it in your bones about WHY they're different. I'm glad I read the book, but it's merely a shadow of Cherryh's later works.

At the Edge of Space (2003) is an omnibus edition including Brothers of Earth and Hunter of Worlds. These two early SF novels are in the Hanun Rebellion subseries of the Alliance-Union universe and take place at the periphery of human space.

In Brothers of Earth (1976), Kurt Morgan was a crewman on the Endymion, an Alliance ship, which had followed a Hanen ship away from the destruction of Aeolus. Both ships are now dispersed atoms, with Kurt the only survivor. His life capsule brought him down on an alien planet.

The nemet find him sleeping on the seashore by a large bonfire. They think that he is signaling for help, but he is merely careless of any possible natives. Since he is on Tamurlin land, Kurt might have met death at the hand of fellow humans; three centuries ago, the planet was ruled by the Hanen, but then the nemet rose up and drove the invaders into the wilderness.

Now Kurt is bound for the nemet port of Nephane. On the way, he begins to know Kta, the ship captain; they discuss many things and learn to get along with each other. All is well until they enter the port and it finally becomes clear to both human and nemet that the ruler of Nephane is Kurt's enemy.

Kurt goes over the side and tries to drown himself, but Kta and his crew save the human and talk him into staying alive. He is taken to Djan-methi, the Hanen ruler of Nephane. She knows who he is from his ID disk and he quickly learns that she is alone in Nephane. Aeolus had finally sent another party to the planet and she is the only survivor; in fact, she herself had killed a few of the other Hanen.

Djan has a Sufaki lover and seems to favor the conquered natives; she takes Kurt as a temporary lover and then releases him to Kta and the House of Elas. Kurt becomes house-friend of Elas, meets Mim (a clani of the house), and later marries her. He tries to ignore various provocations by the Sufaki who follow T'Tefur, Djan's former lover, but later he is kidnapped and beaten and then Mim is taken and abused. When he goes to Djan after escaping, she refuses to believe his story.

In Hunter of Worlds (1977), the iduve raised the kallian and the amaut from primitive societies to the metrosi (spacefaring civilization). For the past five hundred years, however, the iduve have wandered far from Kej, their home star, only to return to local space within the past seven years.

While the iduve were away, the amaut drifted elsewhere and humans moved into metrosi space. When the amaut returned, they drove the humans off their former worlds and evacuated a mere portion to human space. Some few humans remained, but were reduced to almost mindless slaves under the amaut.

The Orithain craft Ashanome has come to Kartos Station looking for two persons, a human indentured slave on the amaut ship Konut and a kallian. Noi kame -- shipbred kallians -- take Daniel Fitzhugh off the Konut. Other noi kame search the station files and select Aiela Lyailleue, a young ship commander, as the kallian choice. Both have chiabres implanted within their brains to allow them to exchange thoughts. Aiela is awakened first to adjust to the thoughts of the shipbred Isande, a servant of the Orithain. After two days of practice, Isande is sedated and Daniel is awakened to begin exchanging thoughts with Aiela. Now all three are asuthe, interconnected through Aiela's brain.

Chimele, Orithain of the people of Ashanome, is searching for Tejef, the rejected son of her father and an outcast from her nasul. Under the ruling of the Orithanhe, the only authority higher than the Orithaini, Tejef was given a Kej year and three days to run. Then Ashanome was given twice that interval to find him and do whatever they wished with him.

Daniel was originally taken by the amaut from human space. The iduve had learned about such excursions and sought a knowledgeable informant. From Daniel's statements, they deduced the presence of Tejef and then extorted from the Orithain of the Chaganokh, a minor iduve nasul, the name of the planet where Tejef left their ship.

Standing off Priamos, Ashanome sends Daniel down to infiltrate the human mercenaries working for Tejef. Landing some of their own troops on the planet, they apply pressure on Tejef's operation. Then Daniel comes across a ten year old human refugee and abandons his assumed role to rescue her.

These novels are very characteristic of many later works by this author. The storylines are much like the Chanur stories: a lone human is stranded among aliens with strange customs and has to learn new ways. The ultimate story with this theme is probably Cuckoo's Egg, where the human is brought into the alien environment as an infant.

Highly recommended for Cherryh fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of personal experiences within exotic cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin