shadowsong26 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shadowsong26) wrote2012-08-06 09:59 pm
shadowsong26) wrote2012-08-06 09:59 pm
so i'm gonna randomly talk about this book i read now
So, I just reread one of my favorite novels, 40,000 in Gehenna, written by C.J. Cherryh (the first one of hers I read, as a matter of fact). And...iono, random thoughts ensued. Mostly good ones, but, especially having read most of the Foreigner series (my favorite of Cherryh's novels/series), there were some things that stuck out at me in a less-good way.
The book is in the Alliance-Union universe, but all the 'verse background that is needed is covered pretty well in the first couple chapters. Anyway, the Union sets up a colony on a planet in the Gehenna system. The area they settle has a climate and year/seasons roughly similar to temperate zones. Most of the planets' species are reptilian--of note are ariels, pretty flying lizards, and calibans, large, ugly, burrowing ones. There are about a hundred military personnel, about four hundred science/research types, and 40,000 azi--people grown in labs essentially for slave labor. The colonists are left on the planet, with the promise that ships will come with some more supplies/whatnot in three years. Some of the azi are assigned mates and begin producing children, some of the born-men (novel's word) start doing the same.
The ships do not come, and the colony essentially collapses.
Offworld, the colony is traded to the Alliance as part of a treaty, and the reader is told that the Union Powers That Be never actually intended the colony to thrive. And now they've passed it on to their Cold War-esque enemies in hopes of keeping them bogged down in cleaning up the mess for a few decades.
I have two problems with this novel, and they both become apparent around here. The first is the timeline. The colony as established has collapsed within the first couple decades of life on the planet, around CR (colony reckoning) 80,, the azi settlement has disbanded and split into two along two separate rivers. And then about a hundred years later, the two settlements are basically reaching quasi-medieval levels of civilization. Part of it is the relationship they have with the calibans, I guess, it just...feels absurdly fast to me, for society to completely re-stabilize and reform twice in little more than a century.
The other problem is the pacing. Basically, the first 200 pages are a long, often slow-going setup for the last 200 pages, which is essentially a novella that deals with questions of anthropology and the Observer's Paradox, non-human sentience, sexism/feminism, how the definition of humanity is affected by close relations with a completely alien sentience...yeah. I love the novel for the last 200 pages, but the first 200 I kept asking myself why I'd liked this so much the first time. It's that big a distinction.
But anyway, now that that's out of the way, the things I really like about this novel:
As always, Cherryh is brilliant in depicting non-human sentience without excessive anthropomorphism, something which a lot of sci-fi writers fall short of. I love this book--and most of her work--because she deals with the issues that come up in a first contact situation (of which there are basically two--one botched by not recognizing the calibans' sentience, one that is explored in more depth when the Alliance shows up after society has started reforming into something that the visiting space travelers have to handle carefully) so amazingly well, in ways that tie in with her portrayal of non-human sentience. It probably helps that she doesn't usually put sentient aliens as POV characters--we only get what her human characters see.
Like many (most) sci-fi writers, Cherryh looks at real-world issues through the lens of the fantastical/paranormal/whatever, which is pretty much what sci-fi has been used for since it's creation. Accordingly, there is a subtle feminist undertone (at least that I picked up on this read-through) in the last part of the novel. I love it in large part because it's subtly done--the two societies that form up, one is a kind of stereotypical patriarchal clannish society with strictly defined gender roles, the other is much more fluid. A male observer integrates with the first society, and a female with the second. When the two groups war, the second society wins.
The other part of that is the observers themselves--Genley, when McGee finally manages to get into the Cloud River society, expresses concern to their director that she'll get too attached/go native because she met the current ruler when said ruler was a ten-year-old and 'maternal instinct!' The base director does not quite laugh in his face, but makes it quite clear that McGee is going to stay where she is. Genley also goes along with the "natural progression of human societies", declaring the Styx society he's observing to be more advanced than the Cloud one, which McGee points out is stupid to say since the calibans alter the progression anyway, and also points out that different societies developed in different ways on Earth, so it's a fallacy anyway. He then goes with the "she's getting too attached and coming up with crazy sentimental theories again!" Base director again calls him an idiot.
Guess which one of them learns how to communicate effectively with calibans.
Yeah.
I think what I like best about the way this is dealt with is that, while the Styx society is built along more sexist/gender-codified lines, Genley is the only one who comes off as a jackass because of his views of women. The ruler of the Styx society comes off as a jackass for other reasons, but not for that. A lot of feminist literature goes the route of ALL MEN ARE JACKASSES, and it's really nice to see one with that kind of storyline that isn't.
I really like this kind of nuanced portrayal, of just about everything.
Anyway, I really love this book--the last half of it, at least--and definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to read it. And the rest of Cherryh's work, too.
The book is in the Alliance-Union universe, but all the 'verse background that is needed is covered pretty well in the first couple chapters. Anyway, the Union sets up a colony on a planet in the Gehenna system. The area they settle has a climate and year/seasons roughly similar to temperate zones. Most of the planets' species are reptilian--of note are ariels, pretty flying lizards, and calibans, large, ugly, burrowing ones. There are about a hundred military personnel, about four hundred science/research types, and 40,000 azi--people grown in labs essentially for slave labor. The colonists are left on the planet, with the promise that ships will come with some more supplies/whatnot in three years. Some of the azi are assigned mates and begin producing children, some of the born-men (novel's word) start doing the same.
The ships do not come, and the colony essentially collapses.
Offworld, the colony is traded to the Alliance as part of a treaty, and the reader is told that the Union Powers That Be never actually intended the colony to thrive. And now they've passed it on to their Cold War-esque enemies in hopes of keeping them bogged down in cleaning up the mess for a few decades.
I have two problems with this novel, and they both become apparent around here. The first is the timeline. The colony as established has collapsed within the first couple decades of life on the planet, around CR (colony reckoning) 80,, the azi settlement has disbanded and split into two along two separate rivers. And then about a hundred years later, the two settlements are basically reaching quasi-medieval levels of civilization. Part of it is the relationship they have with the calibans, I guess, it just...feels absurdly fast to me, for society to completely re-stabilize and reform twice in little more than a century.
The other problem is the pacing. Basically, the first 200 pages are a long, often slow-going setup for the last 200 pages, which is essentially a novella that deals with questions of anthropology and the Observer's Paradox, non-human sentience, sexism/feminism, how the definition of humanity is affected by close relations with a completely alien sentience...yeah. I love the novel for the last 200 pages, but the first 200 I kept asking myself why I'd liked this so much the first time. It's that big a distinction.
But anyway, now that that's out of the way, the things I really like about this novel:
As always, Cherryh is brilliant in depicting non-human sentience without excessive anthropomorphism, something which a lot of sci-fi writers fall short of. I love this book--and most of her work--because she deals with the issues that come up in a first contact situation (of which there are basically two--one botched by not recognizing the calibans' sentience, one that is explored in more depth when the Alliance shows up after society has started reforming into something that the visiting space travelers have to handle carefully) so amazingly well, in ways that tie in with her portrayal of non-human sentience. It probably helps that she doesn't usually put sentient aliens as POV characters--we only get what her human characters see.
Like many (most) sci-fi writers, Cherryh looks at real-world issues through the lens of the fantastical/paranormal/whatever, which is pretty much what sci-fi has been used for since it's creation. Accordingly, there is a subtle feminist undertone (at least that I picked up on this read-through) in the last part of the novel. I love it in large part because it's subtly done--the two societies that form up, one is a kind of stereotypical patriarchal clannish society with strictly defined gender roles, the other is much more fluid. A male observer integrates with the first society, and a female with the second. When the two groups war, the second society wins.
The other part of that is the observers themselves--Genley, when McGee finally manages to get into the Cloud River society, expresses concern to their director that she'll get too attached/go native because she met the current ruler when said ruler was a ten-year-old and 'maternal instinct!' The base director does not quite laugh in his face, but makes it quite clear that McGee is going to stay where she is. Genley also goes along with the "natural progression of human societies", declaring the Styx society he's observing to be more advanced than the Cloud one, which McGee points out is stupid to say since the calibans alter the progression anyway, and also points out that different societies developed in different ways on Earth, so it's a fallacy anyway. He then goes with the "she's getting too attached and coming up with crazy sentimental theories again!" Base director again calls him an idiot.
Guess which one of them learns how to communicate effectively with calibans.
Yeah.
I think what I like best about the way this is dealt with is that, while the Styx society is built along more sexist/gender-codified lines, Genley is the only one who comes off as a jackass because of his views of women. The ruler of the Styx society comes off as a jackass for other reasons, but not for that. A lot of feminist literature goes the route of ALL MEN ARE JACKASSES, and it's really nice to see one with that kind of storyline that isn't.
I really like this kind of nuanced portrayal, of just about everything.
Anyway, I really love this book--the last half of it, at least--and definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to read it. And the rest of Cherryh's work, too.