Hey Alliance-Union people!

[sholio]

I was thinking about Alliance-Union tonight, having posted a Hellburner snippet for a prompt on Tumblr - so I looked it up to see if there was any news and it turns out the next book, Alliance Unbound, is up for preorder! .... in October 2024. So long to wait! But apparently (as per Cherryh's blog) she and her wife have had a truly dismal couple of health-issue-filled years, so all her books are extremely behind. But we have a cover and a release date!

I wasn't sure if it was going to be a direct sequel to the previous book or not, but now we finally know what it's about and more-or-less what era it's set in.


When Cyteen opened up faster-than-light travel, it gave the technology for free to any ship that could reach it; and with that technology, it provided a map of jump-points, points of mass enabling starships to navigate hyperspace safely.

The map of jump-points, however, stopped with the route to Alpha—thus excluding Sol, and Earth, and the Earth Company, whose gateway to the stars was Alpha. Cyteen knew exactly what it was doing with its gift. Sol and the EC could still reach Alpha with sub-light pusher-ships as it always had—but Sol and the Earth Company no longer had any authority in the Beyond.

But Sol intends to take back control of its star-stations and stop Cyteen's unbridled expansion, however it can. To do that, they are willing to starve Alpha and concentrate their efforts on a huge FTLer capable of carrying military force.


That sounds like the development of the rider-carrier fleet, doesn't it? Or was there a generation of Earth fleet ships before that? Anyway, it sounds like it's going to be a lot closer to the Hellburner/Downbelow Station era than I was expecting, both in time and physical space (the previous book was about a generation earlier and far away). Might we see a young Graff or Mallory in this one, maybe even a cameo from some of my beloved Hellburner crew? Discuss!

Comments

[yhlee]

AHHHHHH I still haven't read the two Hellburner books (it would help if I figured out which one was first, lol, I can look that up) and I really need to reread Downbelow Station but maybe I can manage it with this incentive!!

[sholio]

I should warn you that the previous Alliance-Union book to this one (Alliance Rising), while it had its moments, was also reaaaaaaaalllly sloowwwww. And I also find her other current series (Foreigner) absolutely glacial. So my expectations for this one are, let's just say, managed. But if it's set in a time period in that universe I'm really interested in, that would definitely help ...!

Edit: Oh yeah, and the order of the Hellburner books is Heavy Time and then Hellburner.

[yhlee]

I admit I skipped Alliance Rising after seeing some of the reviews. My reading of Alliance-Union has been very scattershot (I literally couldn't FIND some of the books because out of print or not available or whatever, and I was a broke college student at the time).

[sholio]

Yeah, Cherryh has this thing with some of her books where everything interesting happens in the last approximately 2 chapters and Alliance Rising is definitely one of those (at least that was my impression of it; I remember really liking some of the climax stuff and have absolutely zero memory of anything in the 400 pages leading up to it, though I did enjoy seeing stationer life dealt with in more detail than the rest of the books which generally focus on the ships/merchanters).

[yhlee]

Oh yeah, I'm not surprised. I think Cyteen mostly has okay pacing but the ending is sure a rush of a ton of WTF in the last two chapters, it's just a Thing with her.

Hey, maybe you'd know - I've been wondering for YEARS what is up with Conrad Mazian (??) and the Mazianni in Alliance-Union, because there are references to him and the Mazianni in some of the other Alliance-Union books I've read but he's never an actual character or we never run into the Mazianni. Are there books where he shows up or he's more than an off-screen mention? Because I am DYING of curiosity.

[sholio]

Downbelow Station deals with Mazian more than the other books do, IIRC, but I don't recall if he's actually in it as a character; it's more dealing with the overall political situation.

Mazian is the head of the Earth FTL military fleet. When political pressure on Earth turns against the war, Mazian turns pirate in order to supply his own ships (including press-ganging replacements for battle casualties) and eventually goes entirely rogue. The Mazianni are his faction, basically former Earth space marines turned space pirates.

[yhlee]

Gotcha - IIRC he doesn't show up in Downbelow Station, he's just mentioned in it, and that sounds like what I remember. Although THAT is a character I want a little more of as an on-page villain somewhere, because I have a Type. *files away for Yuletide* Thank you!

XD XD XD

[ursula]

Mazian is in Downbelow! Mallory hates him and spends a surprising amount of time speculating about whether he's fucking her fellow captain Tom Edger. I looked for fic and was sad not to find much on AO3.

[yhlee]

Wait what??? Did I just completely skip that chapter?!?!?! I don't remember ANY OF THAT. Which is totally possible - I think I read Downbelow in COLLEGE and I would actually skim past slow bits/descriptive passages. Okay, I think a reread of Downbelow is indicated. :D :D :D

Also, Signy Mallory is a GREAT terrible captain, if you know what I mean. :3

[ursula]

I know! I had read Downbelow twice before the recent re-read and the, uh, heavy implication went over my head both times.

Signy is great--that's honestly the only reason I tried again.

[yhlee]

Yassssss my library has it - they even have a large print edition, which is good to know. XD

[ilyena_sylph]

He's in at least three scenes!

[yhlee]

I apparently have COMPLETE AMNESIA about this book, what even. I sort of remember Signy Mallory and that azi dude she, uh, dubcon/noncon had sex with (???) at the beginning, something something "primitive" aliens, something something a riot on the station, something something the Konstantins broker a peace? I'm starting to think I just read one chapter at the beginning, a random chapter in the middle, and skipped to the end, even though I could have SWORN I read the whole thing. O.o

[ilyena_sylph]

The Audible Original audiobook is fuckoff amazing, if you like that kind of thing!

Also I am always happy to babble about Alliance-Union, I have a standing post!

Over here!

(Sorry, sholio, your faves are my least-faves, I can't help it.)

[yhlee]

Ah, thank you!! You know, I normally find audiobooks very difficult (I am a SPACE CADET and I zone out every five minutes), but I do enjoy listening to the narrators. I'll look into it!

Alliance-Union yayyyyyyy. :D :D

[ursula]

Agreed that Alliance Rising is painfully slow! I was amused that the main effect of Fancher's influence is to make sure you know how pretty the handsome men are, though.

[yhlee]

I don't think I've ever read Fancher's solo work although I could have sworn some exists??

[ursula]

There's a used bookstore near me that has a bunch of it, so I've read the back covers of several Fancher novels. They're all "A handsome young prince creates STORMS with his HUGE MAGICAL FEELINGS and bonds with SOME OTHER HANDSOME DUDE and oh I guess there's a woman somewhere.'

[yhlee]

Lol, I think I am supposed to be part of the target audience. (I inhaled Mercedes Lackey's the Last Herald-Mage in high school.)

[oracne]

Her work is VERY SLASHY OMG.

[(Anonymous)]

And unlike all previous Cherryh novels I read, characters get a chance to sleep.

[princessofgeeks]

Thanks for the heads up! This sounds great. I honestly can't remember if I read Alliance Rising; will have to check.

[viridian5]

I remember almost none of Downbelow Station except that reading it was a massive slog for me, and that's as a Cherryh fan. (A lot of my Andromeda fic showed some Cherryh influence.)

Alliance Rising wasn't a fave for me but I didn't think it was terrible. I felt like the first half of the book was slow and had too much rehashing, though events got more propulsive in the second half. I liked the friction between various human factions with very different cultures and interests. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and history making more than the characters though, whereas I used to connect to a lot of Cherryh's characters deeply.

[sevenall]

I'm very excited about both th Hellburner crew snippet and Alliance Unbound.

Young Graff and Signy would be a treat. I'm a little cautious about CJC sequels, because there tends to be a great deal of retcon in them. This is not always a bad thing, but sometimes kicks me out of my happy headcanon place.