At the Edge of Space: Brothers of Earth / Hunter of Worlds

by C.J. Cherryh

Book Overview

Brothers of Earth: The leader of the Hana was a Priestess-Ruler in a world of humanoid aliens. Yet she was more closely related to her human prisoner, Kurt Morgan, though their star nations had been... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756401607
• ISBN13: 9780756401603
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: DAW
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.5" x 1.5" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Humans Among Aliens

At the Edge of Space (2003) is an omnibus edition including Brothers of Earth and Hunter of Worlds. These two early SF novels are in the Hanun Rebellion subseries of the Alliance-Union universe and take place at the periphery of human space. In Brothers of Earth (1976), Kurt Morgan was a crewman on the Endymion, an Alliance ship, which had followed a Hanen ship away from the destruction of Aeolus. Both ships are now dispersed atoms, with Kurt the only survivor. His life capsule brought him down on an alien planet. The nemet find him sleeping on the seashore by a large bonfire. They think that he is signaling for help, but he is merely careless of any possible natives. Since he is on Tamurlin land, Kurt might have met death at the hand of fellow humans; three centuries ago, the planet was ruled by the Hanen, but then the nemet rose up and drove the invaders into the wilderness. Now Kurt is bound for the nemet port of Nephane. On the way, he begins to know Kta, the ship captain; they discuss many things and learn to get along with each other. All is well until they enter the port and it finally becomes clear to both human and nemet that the ruler of Nephane is Kurt's enemy. Kurt goes over the side and tries to drown himself, but Kta and his crew save the human and talk him into staying alive. He is taken to Djan-methi, the Hanen ruler of Nephane. She knows who he is from his ID disk and he quickly learns that she is alone in Nephane. Aeolus had finally sent another party to the planet and she is the only survivor; in fact, she herself had killed a few of the other Hanen. Djan has a Sufaki lover and seems to favor the conquered natives; she takes Kurt as a temporary lover and then releases him to Kta and the House of Elas. Kurt becomes house-friend of Elas, meets Mim (a clani of the house), and later marries her. He tries to ignore various provocations by the Sufaki who follow T'Tefur, Djan's former lover, but later he is kidnapped and beaten and then Mim is taken and abused. When he goes to Djan after escaping, she refuses to believe his story. In Hunter of Worlds (1977), the iduve raised the kallian and the amaut from primitive societies to the metrosi (spacefaring civilization). For the past five hundred years, however, the iduve have wandered far from Kej, their home star, only to return to local space within the past seven years. While the iduve were away, the amaut drifted elsewhere and humans moved into metrosi space. When the amaut returned, they drove the humans off their former worlds and evacuated a mere portion to human space. Some few humans remained, but were reduced to almost mindless slaves under the amaut. The Orithain craft Ashanome has come to Kartos Station looking for two persons, a human indentured slave on the amaut ship Konut and a kallian. Noi kame -- shipbred kallians -- take Daniel Fitzhugh off the Konut. Other noi kame search the station files and select Aiela Lyailleue, a young ship comma

C.J. Cherryh's First two Novels.

C.J. Cherryh's first two written novels are bound together in one omnibus edition here. For a long time these two stories were among my least favorite stories from my favorite writer. Recently I read them together in this edition, and thoroughly enjoyed them. The Brothers of Earth story, is a pretty straightforward moral lesson on the futility of war. The Hunter of Worlds Story is one I just hadn't gotten until this last read. If you love Ms. Cherryh's culture building stories, here is the key to this story. We are told that the Iduve are above us on the evolutionary ladder like we are above amoebas. But what did they evolve from??? When you read this story, Imagine what a super evolved shark culture would be like. Great, Great writing.

One for two deal

C. J. Cherryh's early science fiction novels are being reissued by DAW in omnibus editions. Some of the them--The Morgaine Saga and The Faded Sun--are extraordinary bargains, because the books included are classics. At the Edge of Space is also a good deal, because Hunter of Worlds, arguably Cherryh's best novel, is worth the price of the volume. Unfortunately it is bound with what may be her first novel, the amateurish Brothers of Earth.Hunter of Worlds gives you the trademark elements of Cherryh's best work: two cultures with a balanced if unequal relationship are intruded upon by a hairy, vulgar thing called a "human." (He's not even empathic!) We see the action from the non-human perspective. The operatic grandness of the iduve--clannish space predators like wolf packs--contrasts with the delicate slave race (their name escapes me) mediating between human and iduve. Cultural clashes drive the action, and planets are the pawns of political intrigue.Here is the best possible introduction to Cherryh. If you enjoy the politics of Hunter of Worlds, you will love the Richardsonian volumes of the Foreigner series. If you enjoy the richly imagined cultures and languages, and the conflicts that follow from them, you will enjoy the Chanur series and the Faded Sun books, in which multiple races collide over their culturally determined values. If, like me, you fall in love immediately with the extraordinary Chimele, then read the Morgaine Saga.