Re: C.J. Cherryh

For an interesting historical/political 
background for fleet actions, I'd recommend her 
_Downbelow Station_ in which the terran navy has 
essentially been reduced to independently 
operating as warlords, given their lack of either 
support from or recall to home, yet still 
attempting to fulfill their strategic mission. 
(Caveat: as such, the navy are *not* depicted in 
the best light, but it's interesting all the 
same.)

<pre>
Hi all,

I think this got lost originally during that FT 
list server burp earlier
last week. Here goes again...

This is old news for some, I'm sure, but if you 
haven't read them and
you're a hard science fiction fan, get as many of 
C.J. Cherryh's novels as
you can find...

I'm just starting the fifth 'Chanur' book - 
brilliant aliens, great story,
and interesting tech. (In order: "The Pride of 
Chanur", "Chanur's
Venture", "The Kif Strike Back", "Chanur's 
Homecoming", "Chanur's
Legacy". The first three have been released 
together fairly recently as
one big paperback volume.)

My favourite part of the Chanur books is that 
the 'big enegmatic alien
threat from the dark beyond that threatens all 
the characters know and 
love'... is humanity...

She's also one of the only authors I've read who 
has an idea how BIG space
is, and can communicate that in her writing. 
Really great spaceflight
descriptions - things like effect of FTL/time lag 
on comms & sensors,
near-FTL time dilation, etc.

As a bonus, Cherryh does some of the best alien 
societies I've read.
Really *alien*, and well presented.

Get down to your local library or bookstore and 
grab them.

ObGZG bit: There's a lot of inspiration for 
Stargrunt II or FMASk 
scenarios in these books, actually. Firefights on 
space station docks and
corridors, mostly. FT stuff too, but you'd have 
to use houserules to
really get the flavour of Cherryh's books in FT.

Enjoy,

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- <a 
href="http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html">http://
warbard.iwarp.com/games.html</a>-

</pre>