Downbelow Station (Daw Book Collectors)

Very nicely plotted hard sci fi. Characters are dry but not necessarily flat. Enjoyable and mind expanding.

I'm still in love with this book. There are strong characters in extreme situations trying, for the most part, to live honorably.

C.J. Cherryh's Downbelow Station is a celebrated novel, the 1982 Hugo winner. I would put it in the category of "good books that, with a few improvements, could have been truly superb." That sense that it didn't quite reach its potential ultimately left me a bit disappointed, especially with an ending which seemed to come together a bit too easily. The strength of the book is...more

C.J. Cherryh's Downbelow Station is a celebrated novel, the 1982 Hugo winner. I would put it in the category of "good books that, with a few improvements, could have been truly superb." That sense that it didn't quite reach its potential ultimately left me a bit disappointed, especially with an ending which seemed to come together a bit too easily. The strength of the book is a well-conceived plot that builds tension and moves to an effective climax. The characters are interesting, with few who are clearly good or clearly bad. My first area of disappointment had to with some surprising character twists at the end, especially the ultimate resolution of the Signy Mallory storyline (and her relationship with Josh), which didn't quite "click" for me. I wish the Cherryh had given us a bit more insight into what was going on in these characters' minds, so that the ending, while still a surprise, would have felt like an organic evolution the characters' acts, wills and motivations (no easy feat, admittedly). The second disappointment for me was the aliens. The native inhabitants of the planet are reasonably interesting, but not strikingly nonhuman in the way that the most fascinating aliens are. They are a lot like wimpy humans with a twist, "little guys" who naturally enough the good people want to protect and the bad people want to exploit. These differing attitudes about how the aliens and their planet should be treated are a source of one of the important plot lines in the book, but again the conclusion of this storyline could have been more effective if the aliens {in their alien-ness) had some surprising impact on the resolution. While it is set in the context of interstellar war, it's far from the militaristic style of say David Weber; the actual space battles are either skipped entirely or only described in cursory detail. I don't want to sound too negative . . . I recommend Downbelow Station to any science fiction fan.   hide

Wow! This is the foundation for several other books I read before this one. I am blown away by the underlying currents and consistancy in the universe Cherryh presents. Realistic characterization and amazing flow of events. Beautifully told story!

Hard SCi-Fi to add to your Nest of reads