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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.

I definitely want to know how this story ends, but hoo BOY do they noodle around getting there!

I enjoyed the first one enough to immediately move on to the second.

As always I'm amazed at Tchaikovsky's ability to take a grim and somewhat disturbing scenario and find the essential grain of Humanity at its core, finding the optimism and kindness in even the most alien of characters. A fantastic book.

I am definitely having the "oh fuck" shivers while reading this one. It's darker, in a lot of ways, and would make a decent horror movie.

Well, I flat out devoured this one.

This was, as expected, a fun, cozy read. There were no surprises here, but it was enjoyable.

I was not really impressed with this one. The setting -- a Seattle full of fictional coffee shops and real interstate exits, in what seems to be a near future where nanotechnology is a novel treatment, but not world-changing? -- is okay, I guess, but the characters left me cold. The protagonist was a pretty good teenager, in the sense that they whipped from mood to mood without rhyme or reason, but they weren't a lot of fun to read.

I don't foresee reading the sequel.

Sloooow going, here. I think I'm struggling with the tropes a bit.

I picked this up for a re-read after a conversation with a friend who's a huge fan of the series. I'd read it... gods, years ago. Decades, even. I remember liking it, but finding it frustrating how the only "good people" were queer.

And, I mean, that's just not the case. I'm fascinated by how wrong my recollection of the book was. The only thing I was right about was that I enjoyed it.