Chanur's Homecoming

by C.J. Cherryh

Book Overview

When those aliens entities called "humans" sent their first exploration ship into Compact space, the traditional power alliances of the seven Compact races were catastrophically disrupted. And, giving... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0886771773
• ISBN13: 9780886771775
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Best of the lot

Of course, saying that this is the best out of the entire series really means nothing to you because this isn't a series where you can just pick and choose which books you want to read. If you don't read the two books before it (actually three, if you want to get picky, although the prelude novel is basically standalone) you are not going to have a clue about anything that's going on here. Sure, astute readers will pick it up as they go along, but it won't have the same impact without having experienced the prior novels and the events in them. But, to recap: everything is falling apart. Pyanfar and her crew are running for their lives, alliances are being formed and broken and reformed all over the place, pitting species against species, the Compact is close to breaking and above it all rests the spectre of human beings, who might appear at any moment and totally disrupt all the balances. Cherryh must have intended the three novels to stand as one because there really is no break between them, especially in the first time. The last page of one leads you right into the first page of another, but with the first two books it's breakneck and breathless. Here, at least, we finally take a moment to get a breather and get a look at what's going on. For some reason, there's a greater emotional heft in this novel, I found myself connecting to events a little better, whether that was because I was familiar enough with the characters to actually care or because things had slowed down enough that I had a chance to care. Sometimes when the action was so dense you tended to get caught up in it and forget that these were real characters you were dealing with. Here, it's hard to forget, the tone of the novel is beaten and weary, the crew of the Pride has been running around like lunatics for two books straight now and they're tired and hungry and that attitude just seeps into every page of the novel. They want to nap for a week, but they can't, because only they know what's going on and it's up to them to rescue everything. Cherryh gets a lot of credit for creating credible alien politics here, it's so smooth that you don't realize how much genius went into the creation of the various races and their mindsets, and how each one plays into their own racial traits without falling into stereotypes. Sometimes things are a little too opaque for my liking, there were a number of scenes where alliances were switching or people were debating things where it was hard to follow just what the stakes were or who had switched sides and who was with who, especially since species were betraying each other and so on. But what the story loses in coherency (and the climax is a little vague, although the epilog does pretty much redeem everything) it gains in emotional content, whether from the constant struggle of the wounded Chur to stay alive, Pyanfar and her husband finally acting like they are married (Cherryh also sprinkles in some nice flashbacks), Jik and his c

Fourth Book in Series & End of Middle Trilogy

This is the fourth book in the (currently) five book Chanur series. It's also the end of the trilogy that's left incomplete in the supposed "omnibus edition" "The Chanur Saga." As usual for Cherryh, this is an excellently written book that reaches down into your gut and shakes you around. As I'm re-reading these books in quick order, I found this book to be a better read than the previous two in the trilogy. Essentially, it's written at a more sustainable emotional pitch. The first two books in the trilogy just never let up. From the minute you pick them up to the minute they (don't) end, everything goes wrong and everyone's either evil, an enemy, or a fool (or some combination of the three). This book gives you a bit of a break. There are actually other people in it besides the protagonists who are good, competent, and/or an ally. The pacing is also more reasonable. You're not on the edge of your seat on every page. The pitch actually increases fairly smoothly throughout the book. An excellent end to the middle trilogy of the Chanur series.

Finally back in print

The Chanur series is made up of 5 books. A prologue novel ("The Pride of Chanur"), a 3-part series ("Chanur's Venture", "The Kif Strike Back" and "Chanur's Homecoming"), and an epilogue novel ("Chanur's Legacy").The first 3 books are collected in "The Chanur Saga" omnibus volume -- an odd collection since the concluding volume of the central trilogy is HERE, and not in the badly selected "Saga".Note that this book does NOT stand on it's own. You need to start with "The Chanur Saga"

Excellent!

Simply excellent!The fourth book in the Chanur saga wrapped up the preceding trilogy wonderfully. An excellent read, the book keeps the reader in a state of high stress and energy throughout as the space-fairing, wounded and physically exhausted leonine crew of `The Pride of Chanur' struggle desperately to save themselves, their species, and all space-traveling races from war on a scope one recently tortured and terrified character describes as: "New kind thing. Not with rule. ... This new kind word. ... War, Pyanfar, all devils in hell got no word this thing I see."This is not a stand-alone book. To receive the full impact you have to read the series in order. There are politics involves, species defined words and concepts; the technologies behind starship travels, warped time and the fragile Compact that holds all together. Even beyond the storyline I think the best thing about the Chanur saga and other of C. J. Cherryh's novels is the underlining theme that just because something/someone thinks and reasons other than yourself and your ways, that does not make them evil or wrong.

The funniest and most thoughtful of the Chanur series

I almost always rate Cherryh's books high, but this one's definitely one of her best. The Chanur series as a whole is so much fun that I've read every book in it half-a-dozen times at least. Cherryh's hani are one of the most inspired species ever created in the science fiction genre; creative, smart, short-tempered and tough, they're always at the center of a great story. Cherryh in general excels at this sort of anthropological science fiction; any of the Chanur books are definitely worth reading.