Downbelow Station (Company Wars, #1)

Mar 13, 2013 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, books-i-own, hugo-award-winners

There is an entry in Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia regarding Downbelow Station. It reads: "...a 'chamber' opera like Downbelow Station highlights human actors, stagefront, ashen with stress."

Downbelow Station reads like a classical historical epic, with a large cast of characters, many of whom are family, lots of intrigue, shifting allegiances, backstabbing (sometimes quite literally), and of course, tragedy. I'm mentioning this, because many reviewers complain about the novel's...more There is an entry in Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia regarding Downbelow Station. It reads: "...a 'chamber' opera like Downbelow Station highlights human actors, stagefront, ashen with stress."

Downbelow Station reads like a classical historical epic, with a large cast of characters, many of whom are family, lots of intrigue, shifting allegiances, backstabbing (sometimes quite literally), and of course, tragedy. I'm mentioning this, because many reviewers complain about the novel's slow pacing. It does take a while to get into its stride, but once it does the pace picks up noticeably.

So, a novel about interstellar conflict? Yes, and also no. There are space battles here, but they don't fill a great many of the rather intimidating number of pages of this novel. Neither is this a military science fiction novel from a tactical point of view. Space Opera probably comes close, but refer the quote above. This is a very good novel that just happens to be a Science Fiction novel. The thing is, it is a really good novel. The emphasis, however, is on social sciences, economics, logistics and the importance of family. It is one of the most realistic science fiction novels I've read, too, in its depiction of life on a space station. The reader is right there in the corridors with the rest of the cast, smelling the fear, breathing the often stale air, stomach knotted with tension, while events on a grander scale and totally out of their control determine their fates.

This novel concerns itself with things like Martial Law and the abuse of military power. Reminiscent of cold war era intrigue (the novel won the Hugo Award in 1982), there are also scenes that might be re-enactments of Germany's Kristallnacht during the Second World War. People dragged from their homes, riots, collateral damage.

The resolutions to problems, plot dilemmas, were often vastly different to what I had foreseen. In some cases the suddenness surprised me. I would recommend this novel to anybody, especially science fiction readers, with a decent attention span. Oh, and especially those who don't need to be spoon-fed. It wants to be read! (less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This remains one of my favorite books. Cherryh works on a large canvas here, combining interstellar war and political intrigue and complex, sympathetic (or not so sympathetic) characters, all in a future that feels "lived in" -- I almost feel like I've walked Pell Station's echoing docks, heard the crash of seals as merchanters came in to berth, been slammed against my seat as Norway pulls a high-G course shift. Fortunes rise and fall, alliances shift, loyalties are tested, and the end comes at...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sword-and-laser

Executive Summary: If you like politics and war in a sci-fi setting where the focus is on the people and not the battles, this book is worth checking out. If you're looking for a lot of space battles however, you may be disappointed.

Full Review
I read this book as the March pick for Sword & Laser. It's still early in the month but so far most of the discussion seems to be in the Is anyone else having a hard time getting started? thread. I must say I don't really understand this.

Sure this boo...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Sean rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you’re going to say you know something about the science fiction genre (and for my own odd reasons I want to be able to say that*), you have to read C.J. Cherryh. She is one of the genre’s most respected writers both for the depth of her “world building” as they call it, and for the application of social and political theory that she brings to her works.

Downbelow Station is a book about war. The fact that it is war that takes place on spaceships and is fought with laser beams is really besid...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Luke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Okay, definitely a great book, but I had a few issues with it. Let me start by saying that Cherryh created a beautiful universe and a thrilling story in this book, one that impressed me more than I was expecting at all. The Earth fleet and its motives was my favorite part of the story. Its authoritative ideas and chilling image came across as very believable, even though there is nothing to realistically relate it to. But the sense of panic and survival in this book was very awe-inspiring, both...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Wesley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera

The world of Pell sits between the warring Earth Company Fleet and the socialist clone forces of the planet Union. Built by the enterprising Konstantin family, Pell Station has maintained its neutrality for over a century... until the war is dropped at their doorstep. Flooded with refugees and criminals, forces inside and outside the station work to bring down the Konstantins and usurp control of both the station and the life-giving world of Downbelow, populated by intelligent and gentle aliens...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here's the reason I don't read sci-fi: While the characters are all involved in elaborate plots featuring fantastic technology (in this case, cloning, subliminal messages, and trans-dimensional travel), I spend the whole book thinking, "they can colonize the far reaches of space, but they're still using clipboards, dot-matrix printers, and those magnetic keycards you get at Motel 6?"

Nothing dates faster than science fiction, and nothing's weirder than the realization that we have FAR more advan...more Here's the reason I don't read sci-fi: While the characters are all involved in elaborate plots featuring fantastic technology (in this case, cloning, subliminal messages, and trans-dimensional travel), I spend the whole book thinking, "they can colonize the far reaches of space, but they're still using clipboards, dot-matrix printers, and those magnetic keycards you get at Motel 6?"

Nothing dates faster than science fiction, and nothing's weirder than the realization that we have FAR more advanced stuff than all but the most futuristic sci-fi. It's life's little conveniences that really take quantum leaps, you know? Harrison Ford spends all of Blade Runner chasing androids around in a hovercraft, but he's navigating with the equivalent of a Commodore 64 and needs to track down a pay phone to make a call. My friends all have mobiles we jokingly call "tricorders," but it's not really that funny -- those things really can perform Dr. McCoy-like diagnoses (via WebMD, anyway, which is about as accurate as Bones anyway), and I bet President Obama's BlackBerry actually can launch missiles. Etc.

Still, if you can get past that, Downbelow Station is pretty good. It won the Hugo Award, and they seem to have a pretty good track record. And Cherryh has one of the most effective world-building techniques I've come across -- she calls it "tight third person," a series of near stream-of-consciousness passages in which you only notice the things the perspective character notices. Thus you get tiny, tantalizing glimpses of futuristic technology and alien races as throwaways -- the captain of the intergalactic battleship doesn't consider them important because she sees them all the time, and she's certainly not going to stop some random guy on the space station to explain how everyday life in their shared world operates. It can be very frustrating, but it gives you the feeling you're really immersed in another world.

All in all, pretty good. And it's one of sci-fi's modern classics, apparently, so check it out if that's your thing.(less)

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Feb 07, 2012 Joey-Joey-Jo-Jo rated it 4 of 5 stars

While slightly space opera-ish, this book mainly looks at the people who are usually on the sidelines of such stories. The novel focuses on the politics and life experiences of refugees, workers, administrators, and merchants caught up in an escalating war between two great powers. The common dilemma they face is how to react in the face of threats and coercion by the warring military powers. How much should they cooperate, how much of their old life can they save, and how can they protect their...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Ken T rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

Downbelow Station was my introduction to CJ Cherryh and it had me hooked by the fifth page. It tells the tale of the climatic struggle between the old Earth fleet and the rising power of Cyteen at the lonely space station around a distant world called Pell. The book follows the paths of the ruling class of the space station, an Earth Fleet commander, and a Cyteen operative/refugee amid a nearly apocalyptic confrontation between Cyteen and Earth.

Having never read her Cyteen books, I found the mys...more

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Dec 24, 2011 August Samuel rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book had a good premise, an interesting sort of gritty hard-sci fi method of space travel and the general tech of spaceships felt pretty cool and real. Then you started reading it. The characters in this book are racist, ignorant idiots, and completely unbelievably so. The planet below their space station has ewoks (yes, they're basically straight up ewoks) that happily serve as slaves to the humans of the space station.

"yes massa! yes massa!"

That's what I read. Nobody seems to think this...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Andreas rated it 1 of 5 stars

Stuck between the “old world” Terrans and the “new world” Union, Downbelow Station struggles to survive in an increasingly hostile universe. The book follows the denizens of the station and their machinations.

This novel won the Hugo Award in 1982 so I was expecting a lot. Sadly, I found it very dull. The story itself is very interesting, as is the setting. Unfortunately I dislike Cherryh’s style. It has been described as “limited third person”, meaning that the author only describes what the cur...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Roger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I just finished C. J. Cherryh's "Downbelow Station". This is the first "foundational" novel of her "Alliance-Union" space opera series. This is NOT the first book in the series (that would be "Heavy Time"). According to the author, these books (with a couple of exceptions) can be read in any order. From her website...
"The novels in this universe, except Hellburner and Heavy Time, and Cyteen and Regenesis, can be read completely out of order...just like real history."

Having enjoyed her "Chanur" s...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I've read this book three times. I think it's an interesting and important work of science fiction. But at the same time ... it will make you think but there is not a lot of whimsy or humor here. None, really. You might see the hisa as a source of that but ... I don't think so. The hisa are 100% serious. The humans see them as childlike, but not in the sense that they are playful. I agree with Jo Walton that the hisa are "furry noble savages" as shown here. Kind of like H. Beam Piper's Fuzzies,...more I've read this book three times. I think it's an interesting and important work of science fiction. But at the same time ... it will make you think but there is not a lot of whimsy or humor here. None, really. You might see the hisa as a source of that but ... I don't think so. The hisa are 100% serious. The humans see them as childlike, but not in the sense that they are playful. I agree with Jo Walton that the hisa are "furry noble savages" as shown here. Kind of like H. Beam Piper's Fuzzies, without any apparent playfulness or whim. (You can say that the Fuzzies get the noble savage treatment too, for sure.)

This seems ... stilted in a way that it didn't when I read it previously. An io9 blogger claims that Cherryh wrote this as background to Merchanter's Luck. I don't know if that's true but this novel does feel like fleshed out notes, to some extent. Cherryh has the knack for creating viewpoint characters who don't have to be heroes. They may do epic things but they are far from perfect or even good, sometimes. We are told about their motivations but this book doesn't necessarily fully convince us or explain them.

Tech has outpaced the earlier books of this setting and some things seem weirdly dated. (Tape as media, papers as identification.) This is another thing that makes the book seem as if it belongs to an earlier era.

This setting has two major factions, Alliance and Union. Earth is a player but they are somewhat isolated, and they know it. Here, we only see Union from the Alliance and Earther point of view; to Alliance, the Union, with its use of assisted reproductive technology to quickly raise population levels (here, soldiers), is monstrous. (And they are, but we can't tell here if the Alliance really understands what is monstrous about this. And you have to read Cyteen to understand what is genuinely horrifying and not just Alliance and Earth people being unnerved.)

One thing I missed on previous reads: an Earth character thinks of the azi (genetically engineered humans) as mannequins. Through the first few decades of the 20th century at least, mannequins were essentially models for clothing. If you went to an expensive dressmaker, she would have employees to walk around so you could see what her designs looked like. (The Mystery of the Blue Train has a scene like this.) Cherryh probably knew this, but she may also have been thinking of the little posable figures that artists sometimes used as models. Either way, I think the usage is apt; but I particularly like the idea that the azi seem like mannequins: people wearing programmed-in human qualities like clothes.(less)

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Mar 18, 2013 aPriL MEOWS often with scratching rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, omg-so-exciting-couldnt-stop-readin, science-fiction

I think this is a brilliant book written by someone with a genius intellect. It required mastery of realpolitik political science and a deep awareness of human nature and perhaps someone who has met Machiavellin-style politicians and military leaders. Or, even more likely, an author who has such a mind herself!

We are in an era where simple vocabulary and simple lessons are the rules for being published and being popular among many readers, for example, a book describing the moralistic quanderies...more I think this is a brilliant book written by someone with a genius intellect. It required mastery of realpolitik political science and a deep awareness of human nature and perhaps someone who has met Machiavellin-style politicians and military leaders. Or, even more likely, an author who has such a mind herself!

We are in an era where simple vocabulary and simple lessons are the rules for being published and being popular among many readers, for example, a book describing the moralistic quanderies of sparkling vampires is promoted as amazing new teen 'literature' preparing 21st century youth for the travails of being adults.

How frightening is that? No matter how simple and plain-speaking, or dumb-downed, we seem to want the education of the general population to be (religious and politically-correct 8th grade knowledge being the recognized successful attainment level for graduation from secondary school), this in no way prevents political manipulation or moral depravity occurring in government or business. I prefer books that explain how the real world works - not in order to become a pawn of evil but in order to understand how society functions. Whether you approve of books which show what is behind the curtain of respectability and conformity or not, the fact is that unpleasant realities exist and having a clever educated mind is better preparation for adult life.

Case in point is this novel. The world of Downbelow Station is a realpolitik science fiction novel which resembles the how of high-level decision-making which has been historically made on Earth. I'm afraid sound-bite cultural intellectualism is not enough to read the book with understanding or 'down below' depth. If you naturally mine news stories for the true story behind the decision, this book is exciting.

Set in 2352, various businesses (which desire for money) and political (which desire for power) interests are smelling blood in the water. The balance between: the Earth Company, otherwise called The Company; free merchanter transport starships; the star-stations such as Pell, some of which are huge space stations circling planets and others which are minor depots; militarized Company Probe/explorer Fleet ships, originally working for the Company but growing increasingly independent; and The Union, a new political government which developed in the areas of space called the Beyond -beyond Earth's and The Company's territory and reach - has been slowly upset by technological advances and the long distances between human habitats. Earth itself has set a course of isolation, deeply disturbed by the finding of life on Pell's world, a furry sentient race called the Hisa -ironically as genuinely culturally moral as the human race pretends to be. Earth has decided space doesn't matter except for mining, which it does on objects as close to Earth as possible. The Company is in flux, barely grasping the understanding of its days as a powerful player in space are ending. The Fleet, starved of funds and attention from Earth and The Company is more pirate than police. The Union, forced to the use of cloning birth-labs, developing from a few rebels resistant to The Company's taxes and control into a Communistic political power, has become reliant on its own resources and technology. Far more people are being born on space stations, starships and planets other than Earth. Everyone is only beginning to realize that Earth and The Company are no longer relevant, but despite growing new centers of political power, people are reluctant to throw off centuries of belief, custom and authority from Earth.

As the story opens, war skirmishes between the various human space inhabitants are growing in violence and frequency, particularly between The Union and organizations still claiming a loyalty to Earth/The Company. Predatory behavior by the Fleet and The Company are weakening bonds and historical links from the star-stations and the merchant starships for Earth. Tensions are rising while the interdependent organizations are deciding who with to ally themselves. Star-stations and merchants are finding themselves caught between the interests of The Company, The Fleet and The Union, despite declaring neutrality. The Union has declared itself as the sole authority of the Beyond and is attacking star stations and planetary business installations. The Beyonder Rebellion has been gaining momentum for decades and now refugees are flooding Pell.

Pell Station can be described as literally in the middle. Developed and managed by the Konstantin family, circling the planet known as Pell's World inhabited by the darling Hisa, they provide supplies and resident housing to transients and minors, politicians, businessmen and military travelers. But nothing has prepared them for this. As the last free star-station between Earth and The Beyond, the war has reached them. The refugees, brought by the Mazian Fleet vessel Norway , commanded by 49 year old Signy Mallory, cannot be refused. The Fleet is armed, the station is not. The refugees are filthy, traumatized and desperate. It's possible Union spies are among them, but the chaos of transporting thousands has made checking identities almost impossible. However, one refugee is clearly Union, possessing the unearthly beauty of lab-grown humans, Joshua Talley, a prisoner-of-war, but he is claiming asylum on the neutral Pell Station, asking for the Adjustment. Damon Konstantin finds Adjustment morally reprehensible, but as the son of Angelo Konstantin who is in charge of Pell, he must assess and decide. His wife, Elene, a former Merchanter, is processing the refugees down in the dock areas, and has received news all of her family has died aboard her famlly-based merchant freighter starship. Damon's brother, Emilio, is at Downbelow on Pell's Planet, taking over from Jon Lucas, about whom disturbing reports of abuse of the Hisa has necessitated recalling him to Pell Station. Lucas hates the Konstantins more than he hates the Hisas. Adding to the stress, Company men, led by Segust Ayres of the Security Council, is looking for transport to jump him to the new border between The Union and Earth, but Mallory is refusing his authority, a sign of the growing independence of The Fleet from its former employers. Ayres wants to negotiate a truce with The Union. The refugees have selected a man, Vassily Kressich, to represent them in the Pell council trying to decide how to handle the influx of people who they have temporarily placed in Q, or quarantine. Unfortunately, the refugees are organizing criminal gangs in Q, and are short on law, resources and space station territory. Kressich is unfortunately a coward and not a leader, and the gangs keep him hiding in his room.

Opportunities for betrayal and grabs for political power grow, conspiracies for murder are planned, alliances are reassessed and reform, secrets are being revealed and exciting battles for survival ensue when the Union warships arrive. Nobody is watching the Hisa, the simple, sweet, non-violent Hisa, who are seen as hairy primitives capable of housework and little else, who are all over the star-station and Pell's Planet.

The innocent, 'love you!' Hisa. Boy, do they have a surprise for everyone.

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Mar 11, 2013 Amita rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, sword-and-laser

This is one of those times where I wish I could give half stars, because this book is more of a 3.5 for me.

Things I liked:

- Different POVs, giving us insight into many of the major parties involved in the Pell situation. Giving each facet of the conflict a voice helped bring a depth to the politics of the universe, and for much of the book I wasn't entirely sure who was "right" and who was "wrong."

- Josh and Mallory, for very different reasons. Josh is the character I'm most sympathetic to, fro...more This is one of those times where I wish I could give half stars, because this book is more of a 3.5 for me.

Things I liked:

- Different POVs, giving us insight into many of the major parties involved in the Pell situation. Giving each facet of the conflict a voice helped bring a depth to the politics of the universe, and for much of the book I wasn't entirely sure who was "right" and who was "wrong."

- Josh and Mallory, for very different reasons. Josh is the character I'm most sympathetic to, from his troubled origins and Adjustment, to his loyalty to Damon and Elene. I was most interested in his story, and I wish I could have gotten more of it. Mallory, on the other hand, is a straight up jerk. She does some super questionable things, and I'm not sympathetic to her at all. But she's very REAL, and one of the most complex POVs we get in this book. Her actions, her thought processes, and her loyalties are very much analytical and calculating. Emotions do not factor in much here, and when they do it's pride and selfishness. (view spoiler)

- The complicated politics and multifaceted conflict. This isn't a straight up good guys vs. bad guys situation. There are many factors that throw a wrench in any attempts at a two-sided showdown between Earth Company and Union, and each one is intriguing.

Things I didn't like:

- The writing. The first couple sections were particularly dense and hard to get into, thanks to the necessary info dump. The first chapter was just 300 years of history to set the stage, and while that's important, I feel there might have been a better approach. Her writing style is odd, dense but also fragmented. It reads almost like stream-of-consciousness, and important events are revealed too subtly. I don't like authors taking me by the hand, but I also don't like puzzling out meanings in the text itself.

- The Hisa. At first I hoped the Hisa would bring more to the story than just being loveable and sweet. I'm entirely sympathetic to them, and I love their society, but they're pretty pointless in this story.

- The Konstantins. Not that I didn't like them as people, but they were a little too straightforward. The rest of the characters have nuance and depth. The Konstantins are just the Good Guys, and this is evident because they're actually ~nice~ to the Hisa. This is literally the only role the Hisa have, to show how good the Konstantins are. In fact, the Hisa refer to good men as Konstantin-men, versus all bad guys as Lukas-men. This is pretty silly. In 300 years of humans being on Pell and interacting with Hisa, only the Konstantins have ever been nice to them and only Lukas has ever been mean? No one is in between? Humans are pretty much an invading species on their planet and recruiting Hisa labor for their own supply bases, you'd think there would be more to Hisa/human relations. Another thing which doesn't really make sense, since the bases are pretty rudimentary and still in the process of being built, even though Pell has been supplying stations with food and water for centuries.

I'm definitely interested in Cherryh's universe, though. I will likely read more of her books in the future, if I can get a better grip on her writing style.(less)

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Sep 24, 2011 William March rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Downbelow Station is categorized as Science Fiction but it would be more accurate to categorize it as Political Science Fiction, as the plot focuses mostly on the politics and nature of societies at war. The science fiction backdrop feels more like an afterthought than an integral part of the story.

The plot revolves around Pell, an independent space station orbiting a planet called Downbelow, that is caught in the middle of two warring colonial powers and a large group of mercantile shipping int...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Alex Ristea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, science-fiction, standalone, sword-laser, trade-paperback, read-2013

This quote from the introduction by C.J. Cherryh grabbed me right away:

"So if you look up at night toward the Whale and the Great River, those of you who can find that view at night, you can see the very places I write about. And if you do see a bright flash out there, do tell me. Some of these people are armed and dangerous.
But space is wide. You don't need the Whale and the River. If you look up at any two starry points of light in your own sky, you can very easily think of ships going betwee...more This quote from the introduction by C.J. Cherryh grabbed me right away:

"So if you look up at night toward the Whale and the Great River, those of you who can find that view at night, you can see the very places I write about. And if you do see a bright flash out there, do tell me. Some of these people are armed and dangerous.
But space is wide. You don't need the Whale and the River. If you look up at any two starry points of light in your own sky, you can very easily think of ships going between them, and those ships full of life and commerce, each ship with its own story, maybe human and maybe not.
People ask where writers get ideas.
Take my advice. Some cool, clear night, drive to a country place where city lights don't block your view. Turn off the car lights. Get out and look up. And see our real neighbourhood.

Downbelow Station won the Hugo award in 1982, and it's interesting to keep that in mind when reading Humanity is a space-faring civilization, with lots of cool sci-fi things...except we still read things on printouts and have magnetic key cards. I don't blame the author at all—what I mean to say is that it's incredible how far technology has advanced. In 20 years, will we look back at our silly touch-screen technology and augmented reality glasses? Probably.

Anyway, back to the story.

It had darker undertones than I had expected, and struck some emotional chords, especially when it came to the alien life: the hisa. Here I was hoping for a guns-blazing, ships-manoeuvring type of story—instead it was an introspective view of how interstellar conflict and ambition affects personal lives.

The Downers absolutely made this book for me: their excitement, their way of talking, the way the author puts you inside their heads when it's their POV chapters. And especially their use of "love you" in conversation. The parts of this story dealing with them were my favourite by far.

I also liked that the science fiction was a bit more subtle than say, Leviathan Wakes. Cherryh doesn't hit you over the head with the different mindsets between stationers and merchanters, and all the politics that appear on the station Pell. Clearly, she has put a lot of thought behind it, but it informs the writing and isn't explicit.

This is a sci-fi classic, and I can see why. It doesn't have the same focus on character development that I've become used to with modern writing, but it was better than I would have thought for such an old novel.

Read with the Sword & Laser book club—March sci-fi pick. A bit early, but I want to hop right into the forum discussions without fear of spoilers.(less)

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Mar 09, 2013 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, sword-and-laser

Really, this book is 3.5 stars, and the demotion is mainly due to it taking me so long to get into the characters. Cherryh's world -- galaxy, really -- is enormous, and she needs a fifth of her book to set up the extraordinarily complex political and social structures. Her introduction of characters was slow, but provided enough misleads and second guessing as to make the characters grow more interesting as the story progressed.

The story itself is about the speed at which humans begin to evolve...more Really, this book is 3.5 stars, and the demotion is mainly due to it taking me so long to get into the characters. Cherryh's world -- galaxy, really -- is enormous, and she needs a fifth of her book to set up the extraordinarily complex political and social structures. Her introduction of characters was slow, but provided enough misleads and second guessing as to make the characters grow more interesting as the story progressed.

The story itself is about the speed at which humans begin to evolve socially once space travel and space colonies are a reality. It's a political book, without too much of the science behind how they got there, which suits me just fine. I liked the archetypes she created for colonials/stationers, merchanters, and Unionists, and I like that this wasn't a clear-cut Empire vs. Rebellion story. It resonated with me on the level of "Okay, so the Empire's not so great, but the Rebellion is total chaos." Pell and the Konstantins' situation as a wishful neutrality in this war-torn era is the place I'd most likely find myself.

I'll be honest, though, I wasn't a hundred percent invested in most of the characters. Maybe it's Cherryh's style or just the fact that I really wanted to get back to certain viewpoints, but I found myself glazing over when we were in a point of view I didn't enjoy as much. Mallory is a fascinating character, and one whom I never really like but end up rooting for nonetheless; however, her POV is so busy as she goes through political stratagem after military schematic that I sighed every time it was her turn. There were also just a ton of characters whose alliances and motives I could never quite keep straight, but that's likely more a personal attention-span problem.

I think the complexity of the story is why the hisa are so important. Their wonderfully simple, emotional viewpoint is a welcome break from the worried and frustrated humans. The hisa calm the pace, and their childlike nature and straightforward perspective make us care for them on a level we just can't for the humans. I love the way Cherryh describes them, love their patois, love every time they say "love you." They harbor none of the resentment a lesser author would give to this race and never break character by acting too human. They even distinguish good humans from bad humans instead of generalizing. If they occupied any more of the story, it might have become an Avatar-esque oversimplification of a native species, but as is, it's a reminder of what exploration means: the melding and evolution of multiple cultures. I looked forward to every chapter in Satin's point of view.

Among the humans, Talley was easily my favorite and had all the best surprises. He starts out, like the hisa, an innocent with whom the reader can easily side. However as his character and motives grow more complex, he keeps the reader and other characters guessing. Ayres was interesting as well, and I liked the evolution of his relationship with Azov and Jacoby. Never a clear line in this tale.

On a completely different note, I will say this story does have a strikingly unique feature that made me just about stand up and cheer: happily married couples.

I am known to get extremely frustrated with romantic plot lines in the middle of big stories. Romance has a tendency to detract from the actual plot, just something authors throw in because everyone does it. Characters starting a relationship in the middle of an epic space battle often make me go, "Really? You think now is the best time for this?" On the flip side, so many stories begin with unhappily married couples or widows/widowers deep in grief. If a character begins happily married, you can rest assured that will change by the end. It's like a happy marriage is the fiction in fiction.

This story has not one but 3 happily married couples, if you hisa bonding as marriage, who stay happily married to the end. The couples all function well as couples and do not waste time with typical bickering. They see the chips fall, and they do what has to be done to keep their loved ones alive, even when that means separating for unknown periods of times. The characters in this story have a very believable concept of focus and priorities, and for that I tip my hat to Cherryh. Our time is not wasted learning about the relationships' histories. It is enough to know that these people got married because they loved each other, and that love is going to motivate their actions in crisis. Done and done with no wistful gazing at the the stars.

Final thoughts: If you enjoy complex political drama and also outer space, you will really love this book. If you're like me and have trouble keeping up with complex political drama, I suggest you keep a wikipedia page open and handy.
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May 29, 2012 Sean Arthur rated it 4 of 5 stars

An... interesting book. Cherryh is a fairly big name in scifi, but I've barely read anything of hers (the rather dull and unfulfilling Rimrunners was it until now). Thought I ought to remedy that.

Downbelow Station is not what I was expecting. It's an epic, in the sense of being about large-scale events and having a lot of characters to keep track of. It's also dated--it was published in the early 80s, and it shows. In the exposintro most of all.

We've got two main sides and a bunch of neutrals tr...more

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Jun 04, 2008 Terence rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-fantasy

CJ Cherryh is one of the best SF authors around, and Downbelow Station, the first of the Union/Alliance novels, is still the best in the series. It's nearly flawless in terms of plot, characterization, and pacing.

Signy Mallory is one of the more memorable ships' captains in SF, making Kirk and Picard look like colorless wimps. (Sigourney Weaver would be perfect in this part.)

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Mar 12, 2013 David Sven rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, audiobooks

Detailed worldbuilding, engaging political intrigue, deep plot and story line, large cast of POV characters with complex relationships, macro socio-political and socioeconomic themes.
So why have I given this 3 stars instead of 5. I had a big problem with the style of narration, which was exacerbated by some very ordinary audio narration. I really wish I could have gotten an ebook or DTE for the Sword and Laser group read. I just found Brian Troxell’s voice narration flat and boring. Unfortunatel...more Detailed worldbuilding, engaging political intrigue, deep plot and story line, large cast of POV characters with complex relationships, macro socio-political and socioeconomic themes.
So why have I given this 3 stars instead of 5. I had a big problem with the style of narration, which was exacerbated by some very ordinary audio narration. I really wish I could have gotten an ebook or DTE for the Sword and Laser group read. I just found Brian Troxell’s voice narration flat and boring. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a physical copy anywhere.

But beyond that, Cherryh’s writing style is very concise – too concise for me because I thought the character conversations sounded like they were reading from a script and it just didn’t grab me at all. The only exception would be Mallory, a no nonsense Captain in charge of her own battleship. The concise, clipped dialogue actually suited her abrupt “Do as I say and do it now or I’m going to shoot you in the head” attitude. The other possible exception would be the Hisa, Pell’s indigenous aliens who spoke a kind of patois and so the style suited their broken English quite well.

Still, there is a lot to like about this book. Cherryh is very good at explaining macro economical and political developments and events and the impact those events have on populations. She is good at highlighting broad themes like might is right vs people power, and questions of whether true freedom or independence can really exist if people only have a choice between two parties. The story is driven as much if not more by major events as it is by characters. I found the development of those big events very intriguing and that is the main reason I stuck with the book. The characters themselves, not so much. I almost gave this book away in the first half where the plot was still being setup and there was no way to know how everything would come together. Fortunately, I kept going and by halfway I was swept away by the tide of events that started cascading one upon the other.

The book is set some 300 years in the future. An Earth based private company AKA “The Company” has monopolised space exploration, building a network of space stations as stepping stones in the search for habitable planets, maintaining control of its assets because of the stations’ reliance on Earth. But after habitable planets are found, The Company’s control has fractured as new non-earth centric cultures and alliances form in space and war breaks out between “the Company” and “The Union.”
Pell station is one of the first stations to be built above a planet “Pell.” AKA “Downbelow Station.” Pell Station and Downbelow struggle to maintain independence from the warring factions as hostilities escalate.

For all this brewing violence we don’t get much in the way of fleshed out violence or space battles. A lot of the action is implied where we see the build up and then the aftermath, but not the action itself at times. I didn’t mind that so much, because Cherryh doesn’t do action that well anyway in this book. But she is ok at building prebattle tension.

This could possibly have gotten an extra star if I had a physical copy. Too bad I’ll never know so its...

3 stars
(less)

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May 19, 2013 Joaquin Garza rated it 4 of 5 stars

La Estación Downbelow es, en definitiva, la auténtica Space Opera. Si bien el nombre del subgénero es un juego de palabras cuya traducción sería más bien 'Telenovela Espacial', al terminar de leerla me quedé con la impresión de que se trataba de una novela fuertemente operática. Como se ha comentado antes, la acción que transcurre fuera de espacios cerrados es más bien limitada (y en el caso de las batallas en el espacio, algo ininteligible) y el gran foco terminan siendo las lealtades, las rela...more La Estación Downbelow es, en definitiva, la auténtica Space Opera. Si bien el nombre del subgénero es un juego de palabras cuya traducción sería más bien 'Telenovela Espacial', al terminar de leerla me quedé con la impresión de que se trataba de una novela fuertemente operática. Como se ha comentado antes, la acción que transcurre fuera de espacios cerrados es más bien limitada (y en el caso de las batallas en el espacio, algo ininteligible) y el gran foco terminan siendo las lealtades, las relaciones, las traiciones y los sentimientos de los protagonistas.

Casi me la imaginé adaptada como una ópera hecha y derecha: 'La stazione abbasso' con Damon, Emilio, Josh y Mazian como tenores, Signy y Elene como sopranos, Lukas, Azov, Kressich y Angelo como barítonos, Graff, Di y Porey como bajos, Alicia como mezzo-soprano y quizá Ayres como contratenor.

Son los momentos dramáticos y las situaciones que se resuelven mediante resolutivos dentro de espacios cerraos y no por la violencia endémica del género los que definen a esta novela, más bien pobre en cuanto a exposición de cómo funciona la famosa estación.

La 'leí' en audio, por lo que me perdí los diagramas que aparecen en algunas ediciones del libro, lo cual complicó un poco imaginar la estructura de Donwbelow. Y como se mencionó anteriormente, es complicado entender los pocos momentos de batalla espacial.

Mención aparte merecen los Hisa, una especie de wookies/ewoks que rezuman pacifismo y que el narrador hacía sonar como una mezcla entre Dobby y Jar-Jar Binks. Cuando uno se halla una raza alienígena con estas características, es factible que termine sermoneado sobre indigenismo y ambientalismo. Y aunque aquí parezca que Cherryh va a caer en esa tentación de un momento a otro, los Hisa aparecen y hacen su importante papel en la trama sin atisbo alguno del sermón.

En suma, ésta es una novela que bien pudo trasladarse a barcos de vela y un fuerte en medio del mar en el siglo XVIII, porque no es muy técnica como novela de ciencia ficción. Pero sí es un ameno y emocionante relato de intriga sobre pasiones humanas, donde el deber y el honor definen el destino de los personajes.(less)

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Mar 11, 2013 David(LA,CA) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My understanding of why this novel was choosen for a book club I'm a part of was for two reasons: 1) The club wanted to feature a science ficiton novel written by a female author, and 2) There was a request to read something that involved space battles.

Well, as far as I can tell, they got one out of the two.

What do I mean by that? I've listened to audio books in the past. Nothing that I would call really weighty, but I've finished a couple books that way before. And seeing as there's no way to p...more My understanding of why this novel was choosen for a book club I'm a part of was for two reasons: 1) The club wanted to feature a science ficiton novel written by a female author, and 2) There was a request to read something that involved space battles.

Well, as far as I can tell, they got one out of the two.

What do I mean by that? I've listened to audio books in the past. Nothing that I would call really weighty, but I've finished a couple books that way before. And seeing as there's no way to purchase an ebook and my book club is sponsored by an audio book service that had this novel, I figured it would be my best option.

Now I don't know of anyone that sits and does nothing except listen to an audio book. You listen to an audio book when you're doing something else. Driving to your job. Doing house work. Mowing a lawn. An audio book is something to keep your mind on when doing something that may not require all of one's mental focus. Except, for me in the case of this book, my mind was more focused on the tasks than this book. I would be doing something, I'd pick up where I had left off previously on the book, finish what I was doing, and not remember what had happened in the book. There were several occaions when I had to back track because I had missed a switch between pov characters. I don't know if this is due to the quality of the writing (which is incredibly dense) or the quality of the narration (which wavers between Ben Stein reading tax laws and "Let me reach through the speakers and choke this alien to death so I don't hear your voice for it anymore").

So was there a space battle to be had? I don't know! I can recall a section where we were leading up to one but didn't actually happen. In fact, that was a time I went back to figure out if my mind had wandered off. It hadn't. From the description of events, a retreat was called less than a minute into the fight. And except for that, anything else may have been lost to the entertainment value of washing a car. Even in the climax, not a shot is fired between ships. They do more damage leaving station unexpectedly.

This is like an early season episode of Deep Space Nine of Babylon 5, back before those shows wised up, gave the crews their own ships, and and got them away from boring station life.(less)

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Mar 16, 2013 Carolina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally posted at: A Girl that Likes Books

What's the book about?

Is the year 2352 and humanity has conquered the stars. Exploring the wide space we have come to build stations farther and farther, but we have also discovered a couple of planets that are habitable. Amongst this there is Pell, a planet already populated by the gentle Hisa. Pell has become a neutral point between the Earth Company (the original explorers) and the Union, two entities at war. A dense political, economical and moral...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Lindsay Stares rated it 5 of 5 stars

Premise: When humanity spread to the stars, they were contained to ships and stations, and tethered to Earth by commerce. That was until Pell, the first new living world, was found. From there, humans spread to the stars, and grew apart. Now the struggle over who will rule out there is coming to a head, between the Earth-Based Company, the space-based Fleet which ostensibly works for the Company, and the cloning-friendly spacers who make up the Union which has claimed the Beyond. The citizens of...more Premise: When humanity spread to the stars, they were contained to ships and stations, and tethered to Earth by commerce. That was until Pell, the first new living world, was found. From there, humans spread to the stars, and grew apart. Now the struggle over who will rule out there is coming to a head, between the Earth-Based Company, the space-based Fleet which ostensibly works for the Company, and the cloning-friendly spacers who make up the Union which has claimed the Beyond. The citizens of Pell Station don't want war to come to them, but the obvious line of battle is drawn at Pell and its world, also called simply DownBelow.

It took me a few chapters to get into this book, similar to some other Cherryh I've read, but it was definitely worth it. It's both a sweeping story of the movement of peoples and governments, about the ways ideologies and morals shift when humans are separated by great distances, and a series of very personal stories of the people on Pell Station.

C. J. Cherryh is good at stealth characters, in a way that I like. I mean, I start spending time with a character, like the early spotlight on Signy Mallory, commander of the warship Norway. Mallory is a no-nonsense fighter, a strong leader who cares about her people, stuck fighting a losing war, and when we first meet her, she's in the unenviable position of forcing Pell Station to take on a good number of refugees, many desperate, many unknown, who are fleeing a station taken by the Union. And just when I was getting to like her, I realize that she has been alone in command too long, has seen too much, and has some very immoral (though slightly vague) ways of releasing tension. Most of the characters are layered like that.

The main focus of the story revolves around the Konstantin Family who run the station, their friends and loved ones, and their relationship with the station, the citizens, the refugees, and Downbelow. On the world below is another race, the hisa, also called Downers, who are not technologically advanced, though they are not unintelligent. Many Downers work with humans on the surface, to mine and farm to support the station, and some travel up to the station itself, to work as simple mechanics and laborers.

As usual, Cherryh creates a fascinating species. She has a talent for making aliens definitely not-human, while keeping them both comprehensible and interesting in themselves. The hisa are more relatable than some other species I've read by Cherryh; they have emotions closer to human children, although they are definitely alien.

There are a lot of different viewpoint characters in this book, especially in the first half, and it took me a bit to get a handle on the plot. Recently, I've disliked books that give me so many characters to follow, but here I felt that it gave me a better grasp of the larger politics of the region, which gave me a better context for the emotional stories that emerged as the book went on.

Overall, a really great read.(less)

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Mar 28, 2013 Wesley Edmunds rated it 2 of 5 stars

Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh was an interesting book, but not of the caliber that I have come to expect from Cherryh. Pell Station, the first human station to be established around another living world, is caught between the expat Union, which occupies the stars beyond Pell, and the Earth, which still thinks it's the center of humanity. A bitter war of attrition has been fought between the Union and Earth for years, but Earth's arrogance has allowed the Union to far surpass it in strength a...more Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh was an interesting book, but not of the caliber that I have come to expect from Cherryh. Pell Station, the first human station to be established around another living world, is caught between the expat Union, which occupies the stars beyond Pell, and the Earth, which still thinks it's the center of humanity. A bitter war of attrition has been fought between the Union and Earth for years, but Earth's arrogance has allowed the Union to far surpass it in strength and ideology. In what is to be be the final play in Earth's retreating fight against the Union, Pell Station will play a pivotal role in the shift of power among a galactic human hegemony.

Now, I realize that this book was written back in 1981, earlier in Cherryh's carrier, but even for that era of her writing, it seemed to be missing something; for example, I loved The Chanur Saga (Compact Space, #1-3) which has many themes reminiscent of Downbellow Station, but possesses way more heart.

Downbellow Station brings forward many interesting topics around the social and economic impacts of humanity spreading through the stars as well as how they interact with alien Hisa on Pell. However, none of these topics go to a depth that made me really sit up and take interest.

A deluge of characters in the first part watered down any building story or action making it a bit of a slog. Once I entered into book two, I got the pulse of the novel and the various motives and plots within plots started to tie together, but I just found myself not really connecting with any of the characters. Honestly, the 'character' that I ended up caring most about was Pell station itself into which the author breathed a vibrant life through the humans and aliens running around inside of it.

Does this book touch on some fantastic topics and get me thinking about how humanity would adapt to being spread across multiple star systems? Absolutely -- there are many ideas it brings forward that I will geek about with my fellow sci-fi buffs. But beyond those mental exercises, it forgets to make me really care about the characters in the story. While I think this book is worth reading for the hard science fiction lover, just be prepared for a bit of a boring time.

2.5*/5* (ye olde round down)(less)

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Mar 21, 2013 Cliff rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this book. I did...eventually. My two biggest complaints were about pacing and pretty much completely unlikable protagonists.

Strangely, I loved the very first chapter which was just worldbuilding straight and simple. The establishment of the factions and how they came to be was far more interesting than the characters whom we are introduced to immediately thereafter. From there, I really had to push myself to read this book. And it's in the...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, sci-fi-or-futuristic

Why I Read It: For Shara's (from Calico Reaction) Theme Park book club.

If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it would be this: unfriendly. Why? Two big reasons:

1. This book is confusing as hell. Even though there's a prologue of sorts at the very beginning of the book that explains the whole intergalactic war situation to the reader, the book STILL manages to be confusing. It's throwing all kinds of names and places at you that aren't described in the prologue and it's all very "sink...more
Why I Read It: For Shara's (from Calico Reaction) Theme Park book club.

If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it would be this: unfriendly. Why? Two big reasons:

1. This book is confusing as hell. Even though there's a prologue of sorts at the very beginning of the book that explains the whole intergalactic war situation to the reader, the book STILL manages to be confusing. It's throwing all kinds of names and places at you that aren't described in the prologue and it's all very "sink or swim". It doesn't help that the "action" of this book is mostly political intrigue, so it's all very slow-moving and tedious stuff to be sinking in.

2. The writing. I feel bad saying that I think this is poorly written because Cherryh is a huge figure it science fiction writing and she's very well respected in the science fiction community. But... it was poorly written. There's weird sentence structure (to the point where I'm re-reading sentences over and over again because they just don't make sense), weird punctuation, and my edition of this book had a ton of typos to boot. I was kind of appalled at how many typos my edition had actually, considering it was supposed to be a 20th anniversary edition. This book had been in print for TWENTY YEARS, and it's still being printed with this many mistakes? Yeesh.

There are other problems too, like there being WAY too many point-of-view characters. It's at least a dozen, and this is only a 530+ pages to a book. Because of this, it made it hard to become attached to any of the characters, or for me to really care about any of them. Almost anything I felt for anybody was purely surface-level. It's not a very good sign when major characters die and I find myself not caring even a little bit.

I was also kind of uncomfortable with how the hisa were portrayed. They're so in love with humans (most humans anyway) and are essentially their slaves but are HAPPY to do so in exchange for small gifts. This makes them very lovable and easy to like, but this idealistic depiction of colonialism made me uneasy.

Where Cherryh excels is world-building. Even though I found this story slooww, and didn't care very much for the characters (I didn't dislike them, but mostly felt apathetic towards them), this giant sprawling universe that Cherryh has created is very vast in scope (as can be seen by the amount of books she's written in this universe alone) and I love all the thought that went into it. For that reason alone I would potentially try out another of Cherryh's later books.

Final Verdict: This is not an easy read. This book is very confusing and hard to get into; it's a good thing that I've read other sci-fi books before reading this, especially Elizabeth Bear whose stories are very "sink or swim". However, Bear's writing was much easier to read, as Cherryh's writing is just... not good. Poor structured sentences and horrible punctuation made the prose needlessly difficult to read at times. Too many POVs also made it difficult to connect and truly care about any of the characters. I did like the world-building though, which is obviously very well thought-out and expansive.(less)

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Mar 17, 2013 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-personal-library, science-fiction, gr-book-club-picks

Um, wtf? What did I just read again?

Oh, a high space science fiction story.

Not every planet had the ability to support life. But humans created a chain of space stations in orbit around several planets, a system like a line of stepping stones across a river. It enabled humans to go farther into the Beyond of space than they would have otherwise. But humans are a species that evolves, and those that had never known Earth, those that lived in the Beyond had outgrown any need of trade with Earth....more Um, wtf? What did I just read again?

Oh, a high space science fiction story.

Not every planet had the ability to support life. But humans created a chain of space stations in orbit around several planets, a system like a line of stepping stones across a river. It enabled humans to go farther into the Beyond of space than they would have otherwise. But humans are a species that evolves, and those that had never known Earth, those that lived in the Beyond had outgrown any need of trade with Earth. This then builds into what is a 50 year war between the Union (those that represent the interests of the farthest space stations, and the Company or perhaps the Mazianni, those that represent the capitalist interests of Earth.

The Downbelow Station takes place towards the end of this war, centered around one of the last 'free' stations, a buffer state between the Union and the Company. It is told in multiple points of view, ranging from the stationmaster, his sons, a captain of the Mazianni fleet, and even the hisa, an alien race of the station's planet, Pell, who are like ewoks, or Care Bears, or Teletubbies. (Love you they say and generously hug those that they might have only just met.)

So I am trying to like science fiction. I was excited to read a 'real' science fiction story, a space opera perhaps. I was originally disheartened by the occurrence of made up words. I'm not scientifically minded. I have a hard time understanding a lot of things that may be perfect to someone else. However, my confusion was not just on elements that might be common place within the genre. The sentence structure is confusing. It took some getting used to but I still found it a problem with actually understanding what was going on. Any of the action scenes, when they actually happened in the last parts of the book, I had to basically pretend I knew what was going on. Even rereading paragraphs didn't help.

It kept me interested though, and I found myself intrigued by the issues the book brought up: the charity of helping others vs. the well-being of the original population; the will of the people vs. the will of the powerful; conservation vs. the need for natural resources. I understand why others would like it, and I'm a little curious to learn more about the other stories in this universe. But perhaps it's just not my cup of tea.(less)

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Jan 03, 2011 Lorena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

While none of the characters in this book are particularly sympathetic, they were very well-written and layered (which I have come to expect from Cherryh). Since many people before me have already written reviews of this book, I'll just mention two of my impressions -

- I didn't get a sense of sympathy from the Stationers for the influx of refugees, which was actually kind of refreshing and honest. Most people don't like it when hungry, needy people show up at the doorstep; it was realistic that...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The Sword and Laser: S&L Video- #33- 'Downbelow Station' Wrap-Up & Your Feedback	36	242	Apr 04, 2013 05:48pm
The Sword and Laser: Book Five Discussion (Spoilers for entire book)	56	254	Apr 04, 2013 05:16pm
The Sword and Laser: S&L Podcast - #123 - Power Couples	18	220	Mar 28, 2013 05:58pm
The Sword and Laser: Sad to say, but I'm giving up on Downbelow	3	139	Mar 26, 2013 12:52pm
The Sword and Laser: Book Four Discussion (Spoilers for Books 1-4)	8	128	Mar 24, 2013 01:09pm
The Sword and Laser: Book One Discussion (Spoilers for Book 1)	29	246	Mar 23, 2013 08:16pm
The Sword and Laser: March 2013 Club Pick Announced: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh	87	524	Mar 23, 2013 10:47am

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Downbelow Station (Company Wars #1)

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