The Kif Strike Back

Chanur #3

by C.J. Cherryh

In this third volume of Cherryh's acclaimed Chanur series, Captain Pyanfar of The Pride of Chanur must rescue two kidnapped Tully, the ship's only human, and Hilfy, Pyanfar's own niece.
When the kif seized Hilfy and Tully, hani and human crewmembers of The Pride of Chanur, they issued a challenge Pyanfar, the captain of the Pride, couldn't ignore, a challenge that would take Pyanfar and her shipmates to Mkks station and into a deadly confrontation between kif, hani, mahendo'sat, and human. And what began as a simple rescue attempt soon blossomed into a dangerous game of interstellar politics, where today's ally could become tomorrow's executioner, and where methane breathers became volatile wild cards playing for stakes no oxy breather could even begin to understand...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Aliens, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Currently resident in Spokane, Washington, C.J. Cherryh has won four Hugos and is one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed authors in the science fiction and fantasy field. She is the author of more than forty novels. Her hobbies include travel, photography, reef culture, Mariners baseball, and, a late passion, figure skating: she intends to compete in the adult USFSA track. She began with the modest ambition to learn to skate backwards and now is working on jumps. She sketches, occasionally, cooks fairly well, and hates house work; she loves the outdoors, animals wild and tame, is a hobbyist geologist, adores dinosaurs, and has academic specialties in Roman constitutional law and bronze age Greek ethnography. She has written science fiction since she was ten, spent ten years of her life teaching Latin and Ancient History on the high school level, before retiring to full time writing, and now does not have enough hours in the day to pursue all her interests. Her studies include planetary geology, weather systems, and natural and man-made catastrophes, civilizations, and cosmology…in fact, there's very little that doesn't interest her. A loom is gathering dust and needs rethreading, a wooden ship model awaits construction, and the cats demand their own time much more urgently. She works constantly, researches mostly on the internet, and has books stacked up and waiting to be written.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit I'm bouncing hard off these. I don't want to bounce, either, especially since Cherryh writes some of the smartest ongoing SF series out there. I think it's mostly the Chanur and the weird aliens in this sociopolitical mess, the discordant dialogue, the whiny hume, and the fact that the payoff doesn't quite match the amount of work it obviously requires to follow the plot... not even mentioning the names.

Wow. I must sound like I hated this.

The reality is a bit stranger. I did like some of the payoffs and twists. I did like some of the intrigues and I appreciated even if I didn't go ga-ga over the fairly deep world-and-culture building when it came to the Chanur or any of the four main races.

In fact, if it had a slightly slower pace with a different hook, I would have probably luxuriated in getting to know all the players better. I've loved exactly that kind of tack from this author.

As it is here, it feels simultaneously thin and rushed even when a lot of thought was put into so many of the smaller elements. Since this is the second time I've attempted the read and I'm having exactly the same issues as the first time, I seriously think it's a personal issue. :)

Fortunately, I still love the majority of her works, so I'm just writing off this series as an "it's me, not you" kind of thing. :)

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the afterword, Cherryh describes the process behind her dividing this tale into three parts (The Kif Strike Back is the middle of a three part trilogy embedded in the Chanur saga). Essentially, it is one tale divided into three parts, with the first two not reaching any conclusions. She said that would upset people, but also that tacking on an ending on each part would upset people as well. That stated, one of my reasons for not rounding up the last installment to four stars was at least thoughtfully addressed.

So, The Kif Strike Back constitutes the middle part of the story rather than the second in a trilogy; I will save a longer review for the series as a whole once I finish the next one (Chanur's Homecoming). The 'Compact' among at least six sentient species may be undermined with the contact with humanity. Cherryh notes that the humanity here are in the Alliance/Union universe in the prologue. The mane essentially gave the han technology to reach the stars in part to counter the kif, who are very aggressive and expansionist (and ruthless). The mane see humanity as yet another counter to the kif, while the kif see humanity as a new threat. Besides the 'oxy' breathers, the Compact also has several methane breathers, who are pretty damn inscrutable to say the least, but they also seem a bit 'riled up' about the contact with humanity.

With that as the 'meta' story, Cherryh delves deep into the politics of each species (except the methane breathers-- who knows?) and presents here a deeper understanding of the kif especially. We gradually know more about each species. The kif operate on an uberrealist framework where might makes right and loyalties among the kif are non-existent, as is friendship (shades of the foreigner universe?). The han are more clannish, with something like a mafia attitude toward rival clans, complicated by gender dynamics to say the least. The mane come across as more Machiavellian, making treaties and pacts to suit their interests, and where doublecross exists as the norm.

So, all in all, lots of political intrigue alongside the adventure. The Kif Strike Back starts with the kidnapping/rescue of two members of The Pride's crew, leading to complicated negotiations to get them back; these complicates lead to an 'alliance' between some of the han, mani and kif against another kif faction. Everything is at stake-- the future of the Compact, the various species within it-- all complicated by the potential role of humanity, who stand out as the wild card. Good stuff! 4 solid stars.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reread for me and part of the buddy read of the Chanur series with the SpecFic Buddy Reads group. The series is structured is an initial volume, a middle trilogy and a sequel set many years later. This is the middle book of the series and middle trilogy. It's also the book that definitively ties the Chanur books to the Alliance/Union books.

At the end of the previous book one of the Kif factions has taken Pyanfar's niece Hilfy and the human Tully and told Pyanfar that she can retrieve them at Mkks Station, at the border of Kif and Mahendo'sat space. Left with little option, the Pride of Chanur follows, along with another Hani ship (a hostile one press-ganged by the Mahendo'sat) and a Mahendo'sat hunter. In a blatant power-play the Kif Sikkukuk has taken over Mkks Station and has Pyanfar and her friends approach him as supplicants and potential allies. But Kif are ever treacherous, and Mahendo'sat are twisty as well, and the situation is incredibly dangerous and political. And behind the immediate problems, there's approaching humans, hani and Stsho machinations and involvement from the methane breathers, all of which threaten disaster for the whole of interstellar society in the Compact.

This is the slow second book of the trilogy where not a lot happens, but a lot of backstory is given and things are set up for the finale in the next book. This entry gives a lot of much-needed background for the Kif, taking them from repulsive shadows to a fully fledged, dangerous and very alien race.

Moving on to the next one shortly.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cherryh continues to impress with her intensely focused, challenging style, in which she never explains too much or gives anything away cheaply. Reading this book — the second of an internal trilogy within the 5-book Chanur saga — takes a fair amount of vigilance and trust, as she wholly immerses the narrative inside the limited viewpoints of both Pyanfar Chanur, the captain of The Pride, and in a couple of brief moments, her niece Hilfy. Cherryh’s ability to create believably grounded alien species’ cultures is unmatched, and she propels her narrative forward in continually surprising ways, as always.

Onto the concluding volume of the trilogy now.

[Text Addict · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this one, mainly because it's difficult. A major part of the plot is "what are certain members of this alien race called the kif doing and planning to do?" and in Cherryh's inimitable way, the critters are so alien that they're extremely hard to understand. It doesn't help that the point-of-view character, Pyanfar Chanur, doesn't understand them either. Nor does that fact that *she's* also a nonhuman, although since she's vaguely lion-like she's a lot easier to get a grip on.

But this is thinky sociopolitical SF, in which the protagonist, Pyanfar, is wrestling directly with the goals and plans of her own species, plus the insectoid kif, the mahendo'sat, and the newly-arrived (or arriving) humans - and the goals and actions of two or three other species are also alarmingly relevant. It's all move and counter-move and counter-counter-move, with the occasional supralight jump and dockside battle, and if you lose the thread of the action you practically have to go back and re-read whole chapters to figure out what's going on.

The style is also a bit jarring, with a lot of dialogue and deliberate sentence fragments evoking the very stressful and hurried circumstances in which Pyanfar and her crew are trapped. And none of this helped by the fact that it's a middle volume and I read the earlier ones some time ago.

Still, when I'm in the right mood I really like this stuff. One generally reads C. J. Cherryh for the exploration of alien points of view, and by the end I think I had something of a grip on how kifish society works and in increased appreciation of how hanish society works (and how it's being affected by being launched into interstellar space and commerce via another race's helping hand). Pyanfar is one tough captain, and one who considers the ultimate fate of her crew, her clan, and her whole planet very seriously. Now I've got to see if I can track down the last volume so I can find out how it all worked out.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a whole lot of point in trying to review this as a separate entity -- as per the author's note in the original paperback (but not, strangely, in the eBook edition), the Chanur "trilogy" (Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, Chanur's Homecoming) was originally conceived as a single, continuous narrative that was just too big for a single paperback, at least based on publishing standards & technology of the mid-1980s (I'm pretty sure, though, that we've long since blown past that word count in single paperbacks), so DAW allowed Cherryh to write one really long story, then just kind of chonk it into three pieces without even a token attempt to make each volume a standalone narrative.

Having said which, I did enjoy it very much, filled as it was, to quote from the book, with connivance and betrayal and duel aplenty. And I'll be continuing on to the final volume forthwith.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Cherryh. Reread just now. Love the Whelan cover art!

Here's a better copy of the map of Compact Space:
https://web.archive.org/web/201608300... [replaced dead link with archived copy 5/13/22 ]

"The t'ca [ship] left them, rolled and slewed off in a maneuver that made sense to a multi-brained snake." [!!]

This is a hard read, with a lot to keep track of. As another reviewer here pointed out. Pretty much fat-free.... Strong stuff.

Cherryh commented that the first Chanur book was a standalone, but #2-4 were really just one novel, split into 3 for the publisher's conventions of the time. And indeed, The Kif SB ends on a cliffhanger. I'll have to find a copy of Chanur's Homecoming (Chanur #4)....

[Algernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

[7/10]

Strange ports, foreign trade, dice-throws and wide bets. But no voyage like this one.

The Captains Adventurous saga continues with Pyanfar Chanur and her crew aboard The Pride of Chanur once again driven away from commercial exploits and into a dangerous political power play in a hostile system that might very well result in open war between former allies. The Kif, rat-like alien cannibals that were reluctantly accepted in the Compact Space, have kidnapped two of Pyanfar’s crew, one of them the human visitor that has already caused turmoil and strife in the loosely connected commercial alliance known as Compact Space.
Among the hani and in particular for Pyanfar Chanur, loyalty to your family, crew and friends comes first, so they set course for Mkks, a waystation in the middle of kif controlled space, where a new leader is making a play for control of the warring kif factions.

“Goldtooth, gods rot you – “

The most difficult task for the captain and her all-female crew [with a couple of notable exceptions] is to decide who is a friend and who is a foe in this explosive setting. Everyone has their own agenda, starting with the secretive Mahendo’sat rogue captain who has sponsored extensive upgrades to the hani spaceship and is now using it as a disposable pawn in a high stakes game of 3D space chess.

Meetpoint’s always a good pace for intrigue.

Like the previous two episodes, the novel is heavy on politics and requires a lot of concentration and a good memory of previous events on the part of the reader. I believe the best option is to read these first three episodes as one novel split into three on publication.

C J Cherryh’s style is as compact and colourful as her imagined galactic commercial alliance. She excels as usual at creating original and well developed alien societies, including a couple of methane-breathing variants. This series has a particular focus on language and cultural exchanges that eventually will lead to actual battles between spaceships and/or aboard orbital stations, so I believe it is worth being patient with the extensive political setup of the game pieces on the game board in order to arrive at the flashy action.

“I’m too old for this – o gods – “
“Aye.” Haral panted, the two of them braced against each other, holding each other.
And the world went to fire and sound.

For such a short novel, it is also fascinating to note how well the author manages to create moral dilemmas and to explore interpersonal relations between Pyanfar and her crew members, in particular with her young niece and with her husband, a major source of tension among the traditionally all-female hani crew.
In the previous two books, I was more interested in the view of humanity as the alien creatures for the lion-like hani. In this book, he is more passive, another pawn in the power game, but I hope he will take a more central role in the next episode.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic story - riveting end to end in that typical Cherryh style! Despite the atrocious cover art (jeez, she had no luck at all in this series for the covers! I preferred the one for much better!). We are treated to a high-octane cocktail of alien conflict between Mrrrr and Tc'a and Kif and Hani and it is a real pleasure to read. Again, the idea of the human being the alien is so well done here as is all the hard sci-fi in the various mechanical aspects of the plot and the daily work for laborers in space. Awesome!

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read The Kif Strike Back because the previous book basically ended on a cliffhanger, and I wanted to finish the series.

Overall, it's a solid and enjoyable series, and I liked Cherryh's truly alien aliens. Emotionally, I failed to connect with the characters, and I never really cared for the outcome of the plot.

I will definitely pick up the Foreigner series even though Chanur ended up being not much more than a solid three star read.

[Suz · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at 70%.

I don't usually rate books that I don't finish but this is book 3 in this series and I feel like I earned rating this one given that I've slogged through 2.70 of them.

I LOVE the Foreigner series but this is some of the worst drek I've ever tried to drag myself through. I know that the long arc is supposed to be closed up in the next book but I just can't care. I don't know WTF is going on now, or in the previous books, and can't imagine being able to understand what's happening in one more book. I gave the first two books 3 stars as a gift. I wish I hadn't and may go rate them down to a 2 at best.

This series was my biggest waste of time this year. The names are too similar, the amount of incomprehensible alien languages that get used in the narrative is absurd, even reading lists in alien languages, for fuck sake.

I am assuming this is one of Cherryh's earlier works because the narrative makes no sense at all. All I know is everyone is betraying everyone else. Nobody is likeable at all. The dialog is painful to listen to.

I won't return to this. I won't waste any more time on it. HATED IT!

[Samantha (AK) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You pick the fight, I'll settle the bastards, wasn't it something like that we promised each other fifty years ago?" It was their marriage vow, less elegantly phrased.

First thing out of the way: after being so rudely surprised by the abrupt ending of Chanur's Venture, I did some digging and found out that venture/kif/homecoming are not a trilogy. They're one book, split by the whims of early 80s publishing norms.

So with that in mind, The Kif Strike Back is the part of the book where the Cherryh payoff starts to happen. After several hundred pages of alien plots, psychology, and interspecies pidgin, the world is consistent and familiar enough that the various plots and machinations start to make sense.

This book also gives us increasing insight into the Kif--those black-robed carnivorous pirates who have been the lurking "evil species," since the first book. Given the space to speak for themselves, they're still extremely disquieting. But they're not 2D "evil" so much as Very Alien. Their society revolves around Sfik, which is gained by winning battles, or possessing things of importance, or generally maintaining the upper-hand etc. It's sort of... face/status/power. A Kif with a lot of sfik will be obeyed. A kif with no sfik will be eaten (Yes, literally). Rulers who suddenly lose a lot of sfik are murdered by their underlings. The Kif don't have a concept of loyalty; just self-interest and survival. And this is what Pyanfar has to negotiate with.

It's a fascinating, mind-bending ride, filled with coercion and betrayal. But also with growth. Pyanfar is pinned between her spacer understanding of the compact and her species' ill-advised treaties. Khym, who was still so unsure of his place as a man in space in Venture has discovered that self-restraint is not something inherently female. He's a steady, competent presence, not immune to fear and stress, but adapting admirably. And that's not mentioning the transitions undertaken by various other crewmembers in response to the stresses of their adventures.

Make no mistake. Action-adventure plot aside, much of the focus is mental. In true Cherryh-fashion, her characters think, and plot, and talk, and think some more, and plot some more, and talk some more. And then talk more.

So. Much. Talking.

If that's not your thing... then I'm not sure why you're reading C.J. Cherryh. The claustrophobia is back, folks. Excessively tight third-person narrative. It's great.

[Pablo Raak · Rating 5 out of 5]

We're back.

Los que me conocen saben que doy mucho la murga con esta saga desde que la leí por primera vez, tras descubrirla de forma fortuita. Pero, pese a la murga que doy, no había leído la tercera entrega de la saga todavía, debido a lo difícil que es conseguirla (son todo libros descatalogados). Pero eso se ha acabado, este año he vuelto a Chanur. Y vaya si he vuelto.

We're so fucking back.

Hay tres cosas que me sorprenden enormemente de esta novela. La primera es lo gorda que es, en comparación con sus dos hermanas anteriores. Es mucho más larga y más densa que Orgullo y que Aventura.

La segunda es que, por extraño que parezca, esta novela es técnicamente "peor" que sus dos hermanas anteriores: su prosa es más ligera, como hecha con más prisa, algunas escenas son muy repetitivas y tiene infodumpings monstruosos, cosa que estaba casi ausente en las dos entregas anteriores (por todos los dioses, hay uno que es una exposición de 12 páginas de longitud, no estoy exagerando). Las otras dos novelas parecían más cuidadas, como hechas con mayor preocupación por el estilo que en esta.

La tercera es que los puntos primero y segundo dan exactamente igual porque es la novela que más rápida se lee de las 3 que he leído y la que más se disfruta de las 3 que he leído. Es increíble.

Esta novela es todo lo que eran Orgullo y Aventura, pero multiplicado por 3. Más cultura y politiqueo hani, más Pyanfar Chanur hasta los ovarios de todo, más Hilfy madurando, más Tully dando problemas, más mahendo'sat número uno, más kif, más naves, más explosiones, más tiros, más mafia, más intrigas, más idiomas, más respiradores de metano, más TODO, MUCHO MÁS.

El politiqueo del Pacto ya era complicado en las novelas anteriores, pero aquí es casi vertiginoso. Sobre las culturas, en esta novela tienes charlas completas en otros idiomas y un estudio detallado de los kif, que hasta ese momento siempre andaban en segundo plano (¡hay hasta un kif en la nave! ¡Adoro el tropo de enemigos teniendo que colaborar!). Si te gusta lo alienígena ahora tienes mucho más sobre los respiradores de metano. Y sobre los personajes... En las anteriores novelas Pyanfar era la única que destacaba en la tripulación de la Orgullo. Era un buen personaje, demasiado bueno en comparación con el resto, que parecían poco más que peones. Pero ya no más: ahora sabrás quiénes son Hilfy, las hermanas Chur y Geran y las aguerridas Haral y Tirun, sabrás diferenciarlas por sus formas y sabrás qué quieren y buscan. Sabrás también más de Tully, más de Khym, más de Dientes-De-Oro y más de Jik, los dos capitanes mahendo'sat. Y aprenderás también, como Pyanfar, a apreciar a Skkukuk, el inesperado tripulante kif de la Orgullo.

Si leíste Orgullo de Chanur, que era una obra autoconclusiva, y decidiste quedarte ahí para no caer en el terrible proceso de tener que adquirirse una saga de fantasía y ciencia ficción completa, bien. Hiciste bien, hiciste lo correcto. Aventura de Chanur no es autoconclusiva (acababa en un cliffhanger horrible) y tampoco lo es Venganza de Chanur, que también acaba en un "continuará" muy gordo.

Pero si te leíste Orgullo de Chanur y te gustó TANTO como a mí, DEBES leer esta novela. Como dicho antes: es todo lo bueno de Orgullo multiplicado por 3. Se lee volando, se pasa volando y lo mejor de todo es que, pese a lo complicado que es el politiqueo de los alienígenas del Pacto, no necesitas tomar apuntes porque todo está mucho mejor explicado. En Aventura de Chanur leía con un cuaderno al lado mientras cogía apuntes para no perderme detalles. Aquí el cuaderno ni lo toqué, ni lo necesité, ni mucho menos podía despegarme de la lectura para coger apuntes.

Si te gustan los aliens, los furros, las conlangs, las naves espaciales que son plausibles científicamente hablando, las historias de mafias, los piratas espaciales y/o simplemente, si te gustó Orgullo de Chanur, esta novela es un IMPRESCINDIBLE. Como diría un mahen: ciencia ficción primera clase, lo prometo.

Deseando llegar a el Regreso de Chanur para ver como acaba esto. ¡Que vuestras naves sean las más veloces y leáis a muchas señoras del cifi!

[Paraphrodite · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars.

Lots of action. But gosh, the universe is just so complex and confusing with all the double-crossing, triple-crossing all over the place. But I guess I'm invested now to see how it all turns out.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

They say that you should choose the lesser of two evils and that better the devil you know. One would think that to be a perfect guideline when struggle for power between two great hakkikts unleashed a civil war among the kif species. After all, the rest of Compact space would have to deal with the winner, so it’s logical to try and put ‘your’ kif in power. However, for Pyanfar Chanur it’s not even a matter of choice: hakkikt Sikkukkut decided he would benefit from having Chanur and mahe allies at his side, so it’s either accepting his terms or almost sure death sentence. Pyanfar is walking across the thin ice now, trapped between Sikkukkut, his opponent Akkhtimakt and a hani official Rhif Ehrran, who would be happy to see Chanur downfall.

Various political intrigues reach their peak in this book; the grand shoot-out at the docks of Kefk station is a type of climax that keeps you on the edge of your seat. But although it’s the only battle in the whole book, it doesn’t suffer from a lack of tension. When you’re dealing with kif, negotiations can be even more dangerous than a shoot-out. Especially if your interlocutor doesn’t trust you and his hallway is decorated with the heads of his enemies. And the flow of events puts a lot of pressure on the heroes: return of Dur Tahar and her crew creates lots of disputes about their fate, Pyanfar doesn’t know whether she could trust her allies, and badly wounded Chur is unlikely to cope with the stress of interstellar jump.

Kif culture and kif mentality is still difficult to comprehend, both for Pyanfar and for the readers. However, they become even more interesting due to introduction of a new character, Skkukuk, a ‘gift’ to Pyanfar from Sikkukkut. He is a completely wild card, since no one knows whether he is Sikkukkut’s spy or a valuable ally. At the end, Skkukuk grows to be a very interesting character and one of my favourites.

Sadly, but Tully, a significant character in ‘The Pride of Chanur’, is more of a background character in this one. However, other characters step forward. In the first two books, Pyanfar and Hilfy were the ones with the most fleshed out personalities, Khym joining them at the end of the first book. Now Chur and Geran go through a great character development, and Haral and Tirun show more of their personalities. Moreover, while Khym continues to break down gender stereotypes of ‘unstable males not proper for spacing’ and learns crew work, he also shows another side of him: being a backroom lawyer of Mahn clan, he’s not profane in politics and subtle intrigues. And after everything they went through, Hilfy and Pyanfar are not the ones they used to be: Hilfy becomes a much harsher person, her heart somewhat hardened by her suffering, while Pyanfar, surprisingly, becomes wiser and more acceptable of those not like her.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia de ‘La venganza de Chanur’ (The Kif Strike Back, 1985) continúa exactamente donde se quedó el anterior libro, ‘La aventura de Chanur’, con Hilfy y Tully en manos de los kif. La capitana Pyanfar Chanur y su tripulación no lo tendrán nada fácil para intentar liberar a sus amigos, y para lidiar con los tejemanejes políticos al más alto nivel. Y es que se está jugando el futuro del Pacto. Mahendo’sat, Stsho, Kif y Hani están implicados. Unos ven una oportunidad de ampliar el comercio con la nueva raza, los humanos, y otros ven un peligro en ellos. Además, están los respiradores de metano, cuyos intereses nadie entiende, pero que pueden suponer un grave peligro.

Tras el último volumen, la trama prometía mucho. Teníamos a los protagonistas divididos en dos frentes, y parecía que la acción iba a transcurrir por unos derroteros que al final no han cumplido mis expectativas. Me gustaba lo de llevar la voz narrativa a dos bandas, no solo con Pyanfar, mostrarnos otros puntos de vista. Pero al final no ha sido así, para mi decepción. En mi opinión, la historia avanza con excesiva lentitud. Cherryh dedica demasiadas páginas a la aproximación y atraque de las naves, intentando crear una tensión que no funciona. Le falta momentos épicos por los cuatro costados. La historia no se pone realmente emocionante hasta la últimas páginas. Casi toda la novela es un toma y daca político. El personaje de Pyanfar sigue tiendo fuerza, así como algunas de sus tripulantes. Pero Tully está totalmente desdibujado. Esperemos que en el último volumen suba un poco el nivel, ya que este me ha parecido un tanto flojo.

[Excel Lifestyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

First: I hate the cover. Too gory for the series in my opinion.

I’ve been enjoying this series so far but this is where it really grabbed me. The reader learns so much about the different species and gets more insight into what political schemes set this trilogy in motion. We especially see more of the Kif and see that maybe they aren’t the only species with dubious morals/loyalties. Plus many of the side characters such as Goldtooth and the Kif characters with 7 or more ks in their name get much more time in the spotlight.

This book still has the problem of being a tad over complex, but there are some explanatory segments that really clear things up. So if you’re not sure if you want to continue because the plot is too nebulous, I’d say keep going and it will get more comprehensible.

Pyanfar and crew are really in a pickle here. Trapped in a desperate spot not knowing where to turn or who to trust. Classic space thriller stuff I tell you what.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tensions and stakes are higher as Pyanfar, Jik and Rhif end up at Mkks. Once there, Sikkukut surrenders Hilfy to Py and puts the three captains up to an even greater act of piracy.
Py, being a canny trader and a long-time spacer, and a hani with a great deal of sense and brains and little time to suffer fools, continues her prickly dealings with Sikkukut, Rhif, and Hilfy. While also combatting her own misgivings and prejudices regarding males. I love this woman, in all her quick-to-anger prickliness and at times harshness. She's capable, intelligent, and not young, bringing a lot of experience to her dealings with her own and other species; such a nice change over most sff protagonists. Next stop, lots of political wrangling and more confrontations in book 4.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

A slower book after two very action-packed ones. A lot of politics and scheming that sometimes went a bit over my head but overall a great time.

[Magali · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’ignore qui a écrit cette quatrième de couverture, mais clairement, on n’a pas lu le même livre ! « Belle hani » ? Pyanfar aurait grogné à pareil adjectif ! « Pour l’amour de Tully » ? Alors là, elle l’aurait carrément refroidi ! Pyanfar tolère tout juste Tully comme un ami, et la seule affection amoureuse qu’elle pourrait porter, c’est de façon bourrue pour son époux, qu’elle traite avec condescendance puisque, dans l’univers imaginé par C. J. Cherryh, le sexe fort chez les Hanis, ce sont les femmes. Ainsi, tout est inversé et les mâles, traités régulièrement d’hystériques par leurs comparses féminines (un renversement qui fait du bien, quand on est une lectrice !)

La couverture ne rattrape en rien ce résumé pas très juste puisqu’elle est, elle, carrément à côté de la plaque. Venons-en donc au principal : le texte ! Suite directe de L’épopée de Chanur, l’intrigue peine à démarrer. Pyanfar doit libérer sa nièce Hilfy et l’humain Tully des griffes des Kifs. Mais les kifs, une espèce connue pour son comportement belligérant, ont une psychologie retorse, aussi difficile que dangereuse à appréhender. Et quand s’y mêlent d’autres hanis, ainsi que des Mahendo’sat, censés être alliés mais aux motivations curieuses, l’affaire se complique.

Il est toujours plaisant de découvrir plus avant les différentes races extraterrestres de cet univers. Ici, nous explorons davantage la société kif. L’impact de l’arrivée des humains, espèce jusqu’alors inconnue, sur cette Communauté d’extraterrestres est aussi exploré. Une Communauté qui, déjà, rassemble des espèces disparates, parfois tellement différentes qu’elles peinent à se comprendre. Ainsi les Knnn, mystères ambulants. Et même au travers des négociations de Pyanfar avec Sikkukkut, on nous montre que leurs fonctionnements sociétaux respectifs ne sont pas maîtrisés finement – ainsi, les Hanis ne comprennent pas d’emblée le principe de sfik, et les Kifs ne saisissent pas non plus les motivations des Hanis.

Les voyages spatiaux, s’ils ne sont pas détaillés, sont cependant décrits comme épuisants, concernant les sauts, et les avaries techniques ne sont pas ignorées par l’intrigue. Celle-ci souligne aussi, d’ailleurs, les difficultés parfois posées lorsque des vaisseaux pilotés par des espèces fort différentes croisent dans un même secteur – entre oxyrespirants et méthaniens, le fossé de l’incompréhension est grand, tant leur façon de penser diffère !

Malgré ces qualités, le démarrage poussif de l’histoire, les dialogues qui fourrent parfois trop d’informations en même temps dans une géopolitique déjà complexe, le tout dans des langages parfois peu fluides lorsque le personnage qui s’exprime n’est pas Hani, font que plus j’avance dans la série, moins je retrouve le régal éprouvé lors de ma lecture du premier volume – qui se suffisait à lui-même, d’ailleurs.

Par ailleurs, je trouve que ça commence à tourner en rond, Tully ayant déjà été aux mains des Kifs dans le premier tome et Pyanfar qui avait maille à partir avec les mêmes espèces.

Une lecture en demi-teinte, donc, même si elle reste intéressante par la conception des espèces, très fine, et par la société Hani, qui renverse les rapports hommes-femmes pour mieux souligner toute l’aberration et la violence du sexisme ordinaire.

À noter que l’intégralité de la série a été rééditée en deux tomes en 2019, dans une traduction révisée.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Wonderfully stressful and exciting, I finished the last third tonight when I only meant to read a chapter, because I literally could not put it down. So much arguing and intense life or death negotiation.Much less cliffhanger than last volume, but still very glad the next volume will arrive in the mail tomorrow.

[Kathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10
The double-dealing and plots within plots are a bit mind-boggling, and the various species of Compact space are truly alien, but this middle book in the Chanur series is a high tension page-turner.

[Matt Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly inconclusive, as a middle book must be, but The Kif Strike Back is pretty much the best-composed of the Chanur books so far: it goes somewhere and does something without losing the reader along the way. This is still mostly conniving-shooting-running by frustrated and frustrating characters, but there is more development at hand for major characters and clearer motivations for the various (and more numerous) sides involved.

[Matt on Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a very enjoyable 1st book, and a somewhat slow second book, the Chanur series up the tension & stakes dramatically in this 3rd book. A wild and enjoyable ride! 😀

[prcardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 1/5
World: 3/5

This is the book that should have followed the first. The second, Chanur's Venture, should have been cut down to about a fifth of the size and merged with this one. This one as it is was a satisfactory continuation of the series.

It seemed eventful in comparison to the last. Still, a large portion of the book is taken up by descriptions of communications coming in over the headsets and the spacer's duties reading displays. It is only with this installment that I realized that Cherryh is writing hard science fiction. The hard science fiction is the attention to the quotidian aboard a spaceship. I didn't notice before because it isn't particularly instructional and is annoyingly monotonous. A lot of the more interesting, technical descriptions are more subtle - the worries about dumping velocity and matching spin. I'm not convinced this was an effective way to write.

Otherwise my impressions of the first book are relevant here. Cherryh does swap out the world-building of the first for political intrigue - an unfortunate trade for the reader. The series remains, however, a clunky, slang-infested, difficult-to-follow, slow-moving, action-packed, alien, space opera. And, somehow, I'm alright with that.

[Clyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pyanfar Chanur and her crew strive to survive while caught up in a Kif civil war. This is good space opera. There is plenty of action which includes dockside fighting and desperate voyages between stars. The various species of the "Compact" work from limited knowledge and come into conflict as they pursue their own interests. The reasons for their actions aren't always clear. There is plenty of dirty dealing and derring-do and sometimes old enemies must team up to pull through tough times.
Fair warning: this book neither begins nor ends the story, but rather is the second part of a trilogy. You need to read all three books (Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, and Chanur's Homecoming) to get the full story. It is a good story indeed.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the previous book in this series, Chanur's Venture, ended rather abruptly on a major cliff-hanger, I thought it seemed a little odd. Author C.J. Cherryh apparently heard similar sentiments when the book was published, so she put an author's note at the end of this book explaining that Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, and the next volume, Chanur's Homecoming, are all essentially one continuous saga which she had to break up into three books for the purposes of publishing. Knowing that, it makes sense that this book also stops at a very critical moment, and it's a well-chosen moment.

As the story resumes (and this is a book review, not a synopsis), human Tully and hani Hilfy have fallen into the hands of the menacing kif, and Pyanfar Chanur, captain of the merchant vessel Pride of Chanur, pulls off an amazingly bold combination of diplomacy, action, and bluff to get them back. But in so doing, she commits herself and her crew and ship to an unholy alliance that sees her giving material aid to someone she would normally consider a deadly enemy. Watching this course of action unfold is pure reading pleasure: watching three spacefaring races-- each with its own factions and politics--perform a ballet of dealing, compromising, and double-crossing, is engrossing and fun. It's impossible to predict the twists and turns that Cherryh has built into the plot here (and a little difficult to follow the revelations and conversations sometimes, which is the only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars), so you just hold on and keep turning pages.

One thing I really like is the way Cherryh gives you feeling of a camera zooming slowly out as you progress through these books. In The Pride of Chanur the "scope" of the story was largely just Pyanfar and her shipmates, dealing with this human alien that had fallen into their laps. In Chanur's Venture we get a look at the wider geopolitics of that area of space where several polities intersect at the space station called Meetpoint; we are given the impression of one small ship and crew caught up in the tides of events far beyond their own interests. Now, in The Kif Strike Back the leadership of whole empires is in play, as well as for the fortunes of the house of Chanur back on the hani homeworld.

Two things that I find particularly interesting about the way this story is shaping up: One, this is the third book now where the coming of humans into Compact space is heralded but hasn't happened yet. All the races of the Compact are treating this as the approach of a plague of locusts, sure that humanity will bring disaster, and that's what's driving the chaos that's roiling the Compact--particularly within the kif and their factions.

Second--and I won't give any spoilers so this is a little vague--the composition of Pyanfar's crew by the end of this book is both utterly unique in the annals of Compact space, but also one of the best I've read about in all science fiction, particularly since we've seen that it was never intentional by any of the characters, but evolved out of necessity and circumstance. It's a delight to follow this aspect of the wider story.

And one last comment on the brilliance of Cherryh's vision: it lends such a realism to the whole milieu to know that every oxygen-breathing race in her universe has factions and internal strifes which are partly driving the plot of this overall saga. (Possible exception for the stsho, but they have had a small role so far so we don't much about their society. As for the methane-breathing knnn, t'ca, and chi...who knows? They are inscrutable and unknowable.)

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third of Cherryh’s novels featuring Pyanfar Chanur, a hani from the planet Anuurn, itself a member of the interstellar trading system known as the Compact.
Pyanfar’s first task in this book is to gain the release of both her niece Hilfy and the human Tully from their captivity by the kif, Sikkukkut. For this she has travelled to the station of Mkks, which is under Sikkukkut’s control. The exchange involves her agreeing to an arrangement with Sikkukut to aid him in his contest with another kif, Akhtimakt, for supremacy among their kind. Part of this is a gift to her of Skukkuk, a kif whose presence on Payanfar’s ship The Pride of Chanur causes grave misgivings among her crew. An alliance such as this is also thought by other hani undesirable, even treasonous, and may have repercussions for Payanfar’s family back on Anuurn.
The agreement requires Pyanfar to journey deep inside kif territory to Kefk station, where most of the action takes place. The nature of kif beliefs and behaviour is emphasised by the entrance to Sikkukkut’s headquarters being flanked by his enemy’s heads on poles. So far, so mediæval. Pyanfar manages to bargain for the release of another hani ship’s crew from Sikkukkut’s custody but on the way back to the Pride they get caught up in the struggle between kif factions which provides the book’s only ‘battle’ scenes.
I note here that the kif language is heavy with (often doubled) percussive consonants and seems to lack the vowels a and e. Apart from Pyanfar’s hani, the only other language represented on the page in this volume is that of the tc’a, who communicate in cryptic seven by three matrices.
Though bearing in mind that hani are essentially lion-like (certainly in appearance, apart from what I assume - there being no indication to the contrary - is their bipedalism) Cherryh may have been making a comment on human affairs when in the context of hani social arrangements she tells us “Hilfy had known all her life that men were precious things; and their sanity precarious; and their tempers vast as their vanity.”
While all the action and intrigue Pyanfar witnesses and takes part in is going on a lot of stuff has been occurring in the background. Pyanfar’s mohendo’sat friend Goldtooth has, without Pyanfar’s knowledge, been manœuvring to leverage the impact of human accession to the Compact. Tully has less of a central role in this book than he had previously but he does let slip that human culture is more factional and complicated than the species of the Compact had perhaps assumed.
I suppose these books are technically space opera but their emphasis is less on spaceships battling each other than on political matters in the Compact, inside kifdom and amongst the hani. There is, too, frequent reference to domestic life on board the Pride. In this regard the procedures on board make the hani seem more human than leonine.
Pyanfar, Hilfy and even Sikkukut have become more rounded the more the story develops and we also learn more of the other members of the crew than before.
Since there are five books in the overall Chanur story arc it is a little odd that this omnibus has cobbled together Books 2 and 3 with Book 1, which was more of a stand alone. Indeed Cherryh’s tale is by no means resolved by The Kif Strike Back’s end, which in a three book volume I would have thought the reader has a right to expect.
However, I found Pyanfar’s company (both that on her ship and in my head as I read) very congenial. I will look out for the next in the sequence.

[Gene Parish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently listened to The Kif Strike Back written by C. J. Cherryh and narrated by Dina Pearlman.

This is the second book in the Chanur's Venture trilogy. It's nearly impossible to review a book in series like this without having a few spoilers. With that in mind, if you want to avoid spoilers stop reading now.

Things aren't going well for Pyanfar. You would think being a Hani captain (A humanoid cat like race) would matter for something. It's bad enough she has to put up with, the gods be damned, Vigilance, but the other unwelcome bedfellow is the Mehendo'sat.

One does what one must when it comes to clan and crew though. She's on a mission to rescue Hilfy, Pyanfar's niece, and the human Tully from the Kif (dangerous double jawed humanoid aliens) Sikkukuk. He offered them to her if she would but follow him to the station Mkks. Gods rot it, one does what they have to for family, even walk to traps, or so they say.

Dina Pearlman does an amazing job with the narration. Some of the names are hard to pronounce or extremely similar sounding, however, she delivers each well. Her stellar diction combined with her emotional delivery make this an amazing bit of narration.

Conclusion: The second book in the series, while still bursting with action, is primarily a book of political intrigue. It becomes very multidimensional when you have to think cross-culturally in the context of multiple cultures. For those who enjoy Sci-Fi with political intrigue, I think this book is a fitting Kifish challenge.

[Mary Soon Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third volume in a five-book science-fiction series from the 1980s that I am re-reading. The story picks up immediately from the end of book two, proceeds via action and inter-species politicking for some three hundred entertaining pages, then stops, with much unresolved, to pass the baton onward to book four. I won't discuss plot details beyond that.

I will say that I continue to like the central characters, most notably Pyanfar, an alien spaceship captain: a female no longer young, who is grumpy, resourceful, courageous. (I would be happy if such characters were more common in science fiction.) I like how Cherryh shows the characters pushed close to their limits, how she lets the reader feel their tiredness, their grime, their worth. These books have held up well. Highly recommended, but begin with book one, "The Pride of Chanur."

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).