"Hunter of Worlds"
May. 9th, 2004 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowHunter of Worlds was one of C. J. Cherryh's earliest novels; as far as I can tell, only Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth predate it. Nonetheless, it already displays the hallmarks of Cherryh's writing - a dense and convoluted plot, carefully designed alien races and cultures (complete with several pages of glosses of their languages), and considerable exploration of the relations among biology, culture and psyche. The story involves no less than four races: humans; the human-like kallia; the nocturnal and largely subterranean amaut; and the dominant race of the region, the predatory iduve. The plot involves a political dispute among the iduve, which expands to threaten the destruction of a planet already ravaged by human-amaut conflict. (It would be difficult to say more without either slighting the complexity of the plot or giving several pages worth of summary.) Most of the action is seen through the eyes of Aiela, a kallia, and Daniel, a human, who are both conscripted into the service of the iduve. (It is characteristic of Cherryh that we see much more from Aiela's viewpoint than from Daniel's.) It is through Aiela that we gain insight into the iduve. This is another common tactic with Cherryh: someone is isolated from his/her/its own race and immersed in the society of another. The difficulties of communication and comprehension this involves are mitigated by a forced telepathic link connecting Aiela, Daniel, and another kallia, Isande, who has lived her whole life among the iduve and is able - with some difficulty - to convey something of their nature to Aiela.
The iduve are, I think, the best-realized of the races in this story. They are pure predators in origin, and though they have come to prize rationality - and practice it, as well - they are subject, under certain circumstances, to terrifying fits of violence. Chimele, the most central iduve character, struggles to comprehend the different - and, to her, irrational - patterns of behavior of her servants. They constantly press against the limits of what she considers tolerable behavior (and Cherryh succeeds, to some extent, in helping us to understand those limits, and the effort Chimele must expend to avoid reacting violently). We see Aiela, Daniel, and other characters advising her and other iduve to certain lines of action - to us, naturally so - only to be met with incomprehension. We also see Chimele and her allies and enemies laying plans, rational by their own lights, only to see them bent or disarranged by the conflicting actions and desires of members of the other three races.
One of the finest achievements of any writer of science fiction or fantasy is to present believable, semi-comprehensible but definitely alien aliens. At one extreme you have the incomprehensible aliens of Weinbaum's A Martian Odyssey or Carr's The Dance of the Changer and the Three; though this can be well-done and produce good stories, it's something of an artistic blemish in my eyes. At the other extreme, you have the aliens who populate so much of media SF, who are little more than humans in peculiar makeup. Cherryh is among the best at avoiding both extremes. Some consider the hani of the Chanur series to be merely "humans in cat suits"; I disagree, but they are, certainly, among the least alien of her races. The iduve are among her finest creations.
It's hard to do justice to such an intricate novel in such a short review. I judge Hunter of Worlds to be of the middle rank among Cherryh's works; it does not have the psychological depth of, say, Cyteen or the slam-bang action of the Chanur trilogy, and the Faded Sun trilogy does far more with the theme of the isolated individual thrust among aliens. But, allowing for the limitations of scope, it's well worth reading, and I'm glad I finally got my hands on it.
The iduve are, I think, the best-realized of the races in this story. They are pure predators in origin, and though they have come to prize rationality - and practice it, as well - they are subject, under certain circumstances, to terrifying fits of violence. Chimele, the most central iduve character, struggles to comprehend the different - and, to her, irrational - patterns of behavior of her servants. They constantly press against the limits of what she considers tolerable behavior (and Cherryh succeeds, to some extent, in helping us to understand those limits, and the effort Chimele must expend to avoid reacting violently). We see Aiela, Daniel, and other characters advising her and other iduve to certain lines of action - to us, naturally so - only to be met with incomprehension. We also see Chimele and her allies and enemies laying plans, rational by their own lights, only to see them bent or disarranged by the conflicting actions and desires of members of the other three races.
One of the finest achievements of any writer of science fiction or fantasy is to present believable, semi-comprehensible but definitely alien aliens. At one extreme you have the incomprehensible aliens of Weinbaum's A Martian Odyssey or Carr's The Dance of the Changer and the Three; though this can be well-done and produce good stories, it's something of an artistic blemish in my eyes. At the other extreme, you have the aliens who populate so much of media SF, who are little more than humans in peculiar makeup. Cherryh is among the best at avoiding both extremes. Some consider the hani of the Chanur series to be merely "humans in cat suits"; I disagree, but they are, certainly, among the least alien of her races. The iduve are among her finest creations.
It's hard to do justice to such an intricate novel in such a short review. I judge Hunter of Worlds to be of the middle rank among Cherryh's works; it does not have the psychological depth of, say, Cyteen or the slam-bang action of the Chanur trilogy, and the Faded Sun trilogy does far more with the theme of the isolated individual thrust among aliens. But, allowing for the limitations of scope, it's well worth reading, and I'm glad I finally got my hands on it.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-10 09:08 am (UTC)Have you ever read ase's LJ? She's something of a Cherryh fan too.
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Date: 2004-05-10 09:32 am (UTC)