Search Results for: cherryh book club

Announcing the Black Gate Book Club: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh

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Last year, when I reviewed C.J. Cherryh’s The Pride of Chanur, Adrian Simmons mentioned he had been thwarted by her Hugo-winning Downbelow Station (1981). That led to him suggesting another go at it, but this time with the impetus of a reading group to spur him on and to discuss it. Thus the idea of the Black Gate Book Club was born. It’s taken a year to actually get around to getting this off the ground, but here we are. For forty…

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The Most Ambitious First Contact Saga in Science Fiction: The Foreigner Series by CJ Cherryh

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Art by Michael Whelan (1,2,6,7), Dorian Vallejo (3), Stephen Youll (4,5), Donato Giancola (8,9), and Todd Lockwood (10-19) I like to talk about SF and fantasy series here, and last week I dashed off a quick article about a 9-volume space opera that caught my eye, Lisanne Norman’s Sholan Alliance. The first two commenters, R.K. Robinson and Joe H, both compared her novels to the queen of modern space opera, C.J. Cherryh. That certainly got me thinking. Like Norman, Cherryh is published by…

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Black Gate Book Club, Downbelow Station, Final Discussion

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Welcome to the final round of the Black Gate Book Club, where we hash out or feelings and impressions on C.J. Cherryh’s 1981 classic Downbelow Station (DbS).  We also give DbS our final score– and things get contentious! Need to catch up on the discussion?  Easily done with these convenient links to the first, second, third, and fourth rounds. Adrian S. I finished DbS last week. Third time was on the money!  Since I appeared to be the slow elephant I assume…

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Black Gate Book Club, Downbelow Station, Fourth Discussion

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Welcome back to the Black Gate Book Club! We are rapidly closing in on C.J. Cherryh’s Downbelow Station (DbS).  You can get to speed with the first, second, and third rounds. Adrian S. Fourth round! Okay, page 285 and Fletcher, you are right that things are (finally) happening quick. The Union Fleet has dropped into the system, and the Company Fleet and the militia go out to meet them.  I like the idea that all the ships look the same…

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Black Gate Book Club, Downbelow Station, Third Discussion

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Welcome to the second round of discussion on C.J. Cherryh’s classic 1981 novel Downbelow Station. New to the program? Check out the first and second rounds. We lose Chris on this one, perhaps a casualty of a bad Jump from the Beyond. Fletcher and myself carry the standard of the Black Gate Book Club as best we can! Adrian S. Third round! And it is appropriate that I just started book 3 of DbS.  I’m on page 190, so I have surpassed…

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Black Gate Book Club, Downbelow Station, Second Discussion

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Welcome to the second round of discussion on C.J. Cherryh’s classic 1981 novel Downbelow Station. New to the program? The first discussion can be found here. Chris Hocking gets the ball rolling this time around. Chris Hocking Hi people, I had business travel to do and took Downbelow Station on the plane for some serious reading. I came away from it realizing that I had developed an unusual (for me at least) attitude toward the book. This is an intense…

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Black Gate Book Club, Downbelow Station, First Discussion

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Welcome to the very first post of the Black Gate Book Club!  What are we up to?  As Fletcher Vredenburgh said in his introduction to the Book Club: The plan is to read Downbelow Station over the month of June and post a discussion of it each Monday afternoon. This time around, the Book Club participants will include Adrian Simmons, Charlene Brusso, Chris Hocking, and me. We’d love it if you’d read along with us and join in the conversation….

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The Omnibus Volumes of C.J. Cherryh, Part III

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We’ve come to the end of our three-part series on DAW’s omnibus reprint volumes of C.J. Cherryh’s early fantasy and space opera novels. Part I examined The Faded Sun Trilogy, The Morgaine Saga, and The Chanur Saga, all published in the year 2000, and Part II continued with Chanur’s Endgame, Alternate Realities, and Alliance Space. In Part III, we’ll take a look at The Dreaming Tree, At the Edge of Space, and The Deep Beyond., each of which collects a pair of novels. With The…

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Vintage Treasures: The Flashing Swords! Original Anthologies, edited by Lin Carter

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Paperback editions of Flashing Swords! #1-5 (Dell Books, 1973-1981). Covers by Frank Frazetta (1 & 2), Don Maitz (3 & 4), and Richard Corben Lin Carter is best remembered these days as the editor in charge of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy line, which was by any measure a monumental achievement, bringing back into print a truly impressive array of important fantasy books, many in serious danger of being forgotten. But Carter’s career extended beyond that. He was a very prolific…

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Vintage Treasures: The Hugo Winners, Volumes 4 & 5, edited by Isaac Asimov

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The Hugo Winners, Volume 4 and Volume 5 (Doubleday, April 1985 and April 1986). Covers by Kiyoshi Kanai and Tita Nasol Last week I looked back at three of the finest science fiction anthologies ever published, The Hugo Winners, Volumes 1, 2, & 3. The first two volumes, included in my introductory order with the Science Fiction Book Club in 1976, were essentially my introduction to science fiction, and they bear much of the responsibility for turning me into a…

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