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This was ... decent, I suppose? It's hard for me to take seriously a story where a planet's population is decimated and of the population that remains, somehow they all stick together while everyone's split into groups.

I think the core narrative is done better in the Baru Cormorant series, and I'd recommend that trilogy over this, unless the next few books pick up dramatically.

This one is always a joy. This was my introduction to Cherryh, all those years ago, and I've loved it every time I read it.

Holy shit, did I ever hate the protagonists in this book. It's saying something when the rapist space captain manages somehow to be the least unlikable character. The story ended, and I don't even remember how their arcs did, nor do I care. Comfortably my least favorite of this series.

This is a re-read; I read this book years ago, and have forgotten most of it, so here we go again.

I'm already really enjoying seeing the bones of the Company/Union conflict and the way the Union's uniformity makes the viewpoint characters from the EC side of the conflict uncomfortable. Cherryh's writing does great work in not outright othering them; she's on record saying that she doesn't think that the "sides" in this conflict break down well into good/evil buckets, and it shows.

I finished this on the plane to Chicago, having "burned" through it. It's got more characters in common with Heavy Time than I strictly expected, and it ended up a lot less bloody in the end than the previous book. The themes of political and cultural ignorance didn't really go away, though; the militaries don't communicate, the political allies don't understand each other, and everything hinges on misunderstandings.

Still very Cherryh :D

... so now I'll pick up book two. Apparently this starts immediately after the end of Heavy Time; I'm curious where she takes things.

This was very much a Cherryh book, both in the dialog and in the pacing. Her novels tend, in my experience, to be characterized by a slow burn with a lot of focus on motivation and intention, with viewpoint characters' perspectives providing the lens through her worldbuilding shows through, followed by intense, staccato action sequences.

It's interesting to see the Alliance-Union universe before Alliance.

I was reminded of this series yesterday; I've only read the one book in it (Downbelow Station) but Cherryh is one of my favorite authors of all time, and I think in celebration of Labour Day this year, I'll read this series from the beginning.

What an interesting world; humans exist, but in an environment where gods and -- I think? -- fungal meta-organisms for the basis for power.