It's Sunday. Let's Talk BOOKS 📚 May 21, 2023

I have been addicted to books since around the fifth grade

You can read the longish introduction to the series in either

Let’s Talk BOOKS 2023-04-02 Genre: Romance

Let’s Talk BOOKS 2023-04-16 Genre: Mystery & Thrillers 

Other previous editions of Let’s Talk BOOKS: Let's Talk BOOKS 2023-04-23 Genre: YA (Young Adult)It's Sunday. Let's Talk BOOKS 📚 May 7, 2023 Genre: Detective 

My Favorite Authors/Books: The Dragonriders of P.E.R.N

I have reread these books far more than any other. It took me decades to understand that for me it isn’t the setting or the time frame or the technology or lack thereof — it is always the characters. 

Did the author bring them to life for me? Can I imagine them moving about their life from the descriptions of the author? Their friends, family, lovers, enemies — all of it has to be real enough to make me care about what happens to them.

Anne McCaffrey brought the people and the dragons of PERN to life so clearly that I can still close my eyes and see the whirling multifaceted eyes of Ruth, the White Dragon, glistening in wonder the first time he saw their homeworld from the bridge of one of the starships that brought the original colonists to PERN over 2,000 years earlier. [A scene from All The Weyrs of Pern published in 1991].  

C. J. Cherryh — The Chanur stories 

https://www.cherryh.com/www/univer.htm

SFWA [Science Fiction Writers of America] Grand Master C.J. Cherryh has written more than seventy books, including the highly popular Foreigner science fiction series. She won the Hugo Award for her novels Downbelow Station and Cyteen, and her short story "Cassandra." She has also won the Campbell Award, Locus Award, and more.

The books I’ll be covering today are the Chanur series.   Fantastic Fiction listings for the individual stories:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/c-j-cherryh/chanur-saga/

The Pride of Chanur {nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.} Chanur's Venture The Kif Strike Back (never, ever joke about titles: your publisher may use one) Chanur's Homecoming (Ulysses has nothing on Pyanfar) Chanur's Legacy.

C J Cherryh may have been the first author to bring an alien species to life for me in a way that made me think of them as alien, not as human-like people. 

Here is her description of the Hani, the species of the Chanur line: 

Hani are catlike, spacefaring, attitudinal, and protective of their violent and aggressive menfolk; and yes, I've made a little commentary on gender politics; but I've also tried to tell an honest, light, and rowdy story about very different aliens and a strayed human. Pyanfar never wanted him for a passenger...but having him....well, life just couldn't be the same. And if you think mahendo'sat politics gets thick...Pyanfar agrees.

Pyanfar's motto is, when confronted with vastly intelligent, aggressive politics: Do something totally irrational and let the enemy think himself to death.

That motto, of Pyanfar’s, by the by, appears to me to have been written with the current crop of MAGA conservatives in mind. Food for thought. 

I first read these books in the mid 1980s. I re-read them about once or twice a decade. You can read a preview of The Pride of Chanur online here:  https://read.amazon.com/?kcrFree=only&tag=speculativefic051-20&asin=B00F3KXN1U

Once you read about the ship of Captain Pyanfar Chanur, The Pride, and her crew, you’ll never forget them. 

From that preview: 

… the distinguished Captain Pyanfar Chanur, who was setting out down her own rampway for the docks. She was Hani, this captain, magnificently maned and bearded in red-gold, which reached in silken curls to the middle of her bare, sleek-pelted chest, and she was dressed as befitted a hani of Captain’s rank, blousing scarlet breeches, tucked up at her waist with a broad, gold belt, with silk cords of every shade of red and orange wrapping that about, each knotted cord with a pendant jewel on it’s dangling end. Gold finished the breeches at her knees. Gold filigree was her armlet. And a row of fine gold rings and a large pendant pearl decorated the tufted sweep of her left ear. She strode down her own rampway in the security of ownership, still high-blooded from a quarrel with her neice — and yelled and bared claws as the intruder came bearing down on her…  

Other Science Fiction series I’ve loved and reread over the years: 

Ben Bova — The Grand Tour https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ben-bova/grand-tour/ 

It starts with Powersat: 

America needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to provide it. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which would gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth. Now, rivals want to buy Dan out and take control of his dreams. And, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat.

David Weber — The Honor Harrington series https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/david-weber/honor-harrington

It starts with On Basilisk Station: Commander Honor Harrinton of the Royal Manticoran Navy has been exiled for making a superior officer look foolish. Now, she is in command of an aged light cruiser patrolling a godforsaken quadrant of the galaxy. To cap it all, the local system's aborigines smoke homicide-inducing hallucinogens.

Arthur C Clarke — Rama https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/arthur-c-clarke/

It starts with Rendevous With Rama:  In 2130, a new celestial body is discovered heading toward the Sun. Earthlings name this object "Rama" -- a vast cylinder, about 31 miles long and 12 miles across, with a mass of at least ten trillion tons. The spaceship Endeavor, directed by Commander Bill Norton, lands on Rama and has three weeks to explore its hollow interior. Inside the vessel they discover a completely self-contained world -- a world that has been cruising through space for perhaps more than a million years.

Jaunita Coulson — Children of the Stars https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/juanita-coulson/children-of-the-stars/

It starts with Tomorrow’s Heritage: 

2041. A world in peril... When the first alien was approaching Earth, it found itself in the grip of the all-powerful Saunder Family. Every member of this dynasty seemed at war with the other. Ward Saunder is the now-dead genius who dared to dream and become a touchstone for all other Saunders. He protected people against the Death Years and the Chaos. Jael, the family Matriarch, shares Ward's determination to make the Saunders a dynasty. Patrick, or Pat, the eldest son, is a political opportunist, head of the Earth First Party. He had learned how to wield power and lead with dignity from his mother Jael. He is keen to protect the future of the planet by establishing enclaves in the Antarctic, freezing the bodies of people. Todd is the idealist who tries to keep the peace within the Saunder family. Mariette is rebellious, building a new frontier and standing out as the girl of the clan. In the quest for the Chairmanship of the people, the Saunders must struggle and fight in a contest over Earth's very future. Project Search is in action, while brave pilots take to the stars. Can human civilization survive with the coming of alien life, and can the Saunders find a way to listen to one another and lead humanity to that survival?

If you have read any of these books or any Science Fiction story you’d like to talk about, c’mon in, sit down and put your feet up and Let’s Talk BOOKS!

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