Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Heavy Time (The Company Wars, #4)” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Heavy Time

(The Company Wars #4)

C.J. Cherryh (Goodreads Author)

3.79 · Rating details · 1,594 ratings · 69 reviews

Discovered alone and without his memory on his drifting ship, pilot Paul Dekker is accused of the murder of his crew members and he must rely on the help of renegade miner Morris Bird to learn the truth. Reprint.

Get A Copy

Hardcover

Published November 10th 1992 by Random House Value Publishing (first published January 1st 1991)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Heavy Time, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

best hard science fiction

332 books — 591 voters

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Speculative Fiction that Passes the Bechdel Test

692 books — 679 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.79 ·

Rating details

· 1,594 ratings · 69 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Heavy Time (The Company Wars, #4)

May 21, 2015 William rated it liked it · review of another edition

The world of asteroid belt miners and others is presented with extraordinary clarity and detail. The physics and technology are superb, minus the 1980s view of computers compared to today, much less 100s of years in the future.

However, the story often badly bogs down in seemingly endless thoughts and worries in the characters minds. A good editor should have cut out perhaps 40% of the book. Although there is a good mystery and tragedy here, much of this impetus and energy is dissipated before ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2018 Wanda rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1990s, read-in-2018, reading-project, used-books, speculative-fiction, female-authors

Does your environment as a child shape the kind of person that you become? I think most of us would answer an unequivocal ‘yes’ to that question. Cherryh explores that notion, comparing Earth-born and Asteroid-Belt raised men, working in the Company environment of space. When you have different notions of what is moral or acceptable behaviour, how do you operate a small space ship together? When you’ve only known the morality of the mining company and never been exposed to literature or ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2011 Joseph rated it really liked it

You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in dept.
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

The time: A generation or so prior to the events of Downbelow Station. The place: The asteroid belt. Ben Pollard and Morrie Bird are independents -- they take their little ship (the Trinidad) out (using charts provided by the Company, and using lightsails which are laser-boosted to speed and to deceleration using the Company's lasers), ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

May 21, 2010 Kris rated it really liked it

This is a story by C.J. Cherryh set in her Union/Alliance universe. She wrote it on the end of her run in this universe but it is actually the first book to read if you want to follow the story by the history timeline she has set up. This is not necessary in the least but it does seem the right way to go if you reread her books. The story itself is vintage Cherryh, by which I mean it is space scifi with good science and plenty of intrigue and action but she always tells her stories from the view ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2019 Samantha (AK) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2019, genre-thriller, setting-sf

“Cher. Death is. Pain’s life. And there’s, above all, sons of bitches.” - Meg Kady

Meg’s a secondary character, but she sums up the emotional arc of this book pretty darn well. It was a slow-tilted ride of backstabbing intrigue… which I enjoyed, though a bit less than the other Cherryh books I’ve read.

This is Alliance/Union ‘verse, but you really don’t need the other books to grasp this one. Taking place well in advance of Downbelow Station, it follows a ragtag group of space miners working and ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2012 David Kerschner rated it liked it · review of another edition

So, to begin with, this book is very very slow to start. We literally spend (view spoiler) However, this is a rather good read.

The feeling of claustrophobia in the beginning where (view spoiler) is palpable. As the book continued, I got the impression of the interminable slowness of space travel. Given ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2011 Captain Skyhawk rated it it was amazing

God, I can't get enough of CJ Cherryh's world that takes place about 300 years in the future. This book follows the life of a group of miners who live their lives in the "Belt" here in our own solar system. The theme of "heavy time" -- necessary time they must spend in 1g gravity aboard space stations in between mining runs (there's no artificial gravity in this world) -- is ongoing throughout the novel.

It's a story set in the time before the Company/Union wars, when life was tough for those ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2019 Anissa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of the series & books set on space stations/outposts

Shelves: 2019, science-fiction, series

I'm so glad I finally got to this one. While the characters weren't much to rave about (Dekker spends pretty much the entire book deranged, poor guy), Cherryh gets me with her setting. The main of the story takes place during the miners time on Refinery Two station between jobs (which is called "heavy time"). The description of the place and life on it were vivid and pulled me in. I was reminded of what I loved about Downbelow Station.

The political and corporate malevolence are there and come ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2012 Wesley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: space-opera, science-fiction

Heavy Time is Cherryh's fourth book in her Company Wars series of the massive Alliance-Union book continuity. Like most of the Company Wars books, Heavy Time needn't be read in publication order though a few characters from Downbelow Station make cameos.

Heavy Time is a military-industrial thriller set against the backdrop of Earth's outer solar system. As the Earth Company and the United Defense Command gear up for war against breakaway extra-solar colonies, corporate contractors are scrambling ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 18, 2017 Benjamin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: f-sf, crime, space-opera

When industrial accidents turn out to be murder... I love that kind of crime story. Throw in an uprising and I am very happy. What I really like about Cherryh's Union-Alliance stories though is of course the spaceships and space stations and all that. Characters that have never been on a planet, don't really understand what people who talk about mountains and forests are on about... Cherryh also gets a lot of technical stuff about the weirdness of living in space without bogging the story down: ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 18, 2013 Nathan rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was one of the lousiest books I have ever read, and I've read some lousy books.

1) There's no science fiction - as in, there's no cool technology. It's just 60's-era space technology...in the asteroid belt -- and it's pretty much just a backdrop. The whole dang story could have occurred in Detroit with no significant difference. Unless you count random hair & clothing styles, bad language, or a general lack of morals as sci-fi.

2) The plot stinks: 1 person killed, 1 person injured due to ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2013 Mars rated it liked it

The first 40% book were actually really good - but then it slogged down to the point where reading it was a chore. (The exact moment this happens is when you first hear rab-speak)

It picks up again near the end, but by that time the aftertaste is so foul that it doesn't really help.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 19, 2018 Michael Battaglia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

While I am certainly glad for the most part to be born at this particular point in human history (as opposed to the point where getting killed by a saber-toothed tiger was going to be my likeliest fate) one of the suckiest aspects about being tied to a finite lifespan is not getting the chance to see if all the predictions futurists made about expanding into space and whatnot are ever going to come true.

Fortunately CJ Cherryh has a way of soothing that sting by demonstrating now in the future While I am certainly glad for the most part to be born at this particular point in human history (as opposed to the point where getting killed by a saber-toothed tiger was going to be my likeliest fate) one of the suckiest aspects about being tied to a finite lifespan is not getting the chance to see if all the predictions futurists made about expanding into space and whatnot are ever going to come true.

Fortunately CJ Cherryh has a way of soothing that sting by demonstrating now in the future giant corporations are still going to control everything and ferret out ways to legally screw people over. So it seems I won't miss all that much.

Her Alliance-Union setting is ridiculously sprawling, with lots of moving parts that often can't be seen in full until you read a whole bunch of them and get a sense of the larger sociopolitical backdrop she's putting together. As such there's no real ideal entry point other than diving in and paying attention to the background details until it all comes together in one of the cornerstone novels. In that case this one and follow up "Hellburner" (which I think I have around here somewhere) work as prequels to "Downbelow Station" which a lot of the stuff percolating here and presumably in the sequel finally explode.

This one, however, might be tough unless you've already read a bunch of them because it can take some time to get used to the setting and the style. In fact, I'd say its one of the least user friendly entries into the setting. It takes place in the asteroid belt, where one of those giant corporations that only have good intentions for everyone, ASTEX (known by the miners as "Mama") controls pretty much all operations and while miners are able to make a living its clear that the deck is pretty much stacked in Mama's favor. Two miners in partnership, Ben and Bird, are out prospecting likely claims when they come across a damaged ship that shouldn't be there. There's one survivor aboard, Paul Dekker, but he's in shock and out of his mind, screaming about a lost partner and not giving much insight into what damaged his ship in the first place. The obvious explanation is that he was struck by another ship but nothing was marked as being out there and of course Mama's records are always accurate. Or are they?

As far as the mystery goes its like watching a movie on Watergate, if the conspiracy oriented theory isn't the right one then what the heck are you doing here. "Oh it was a random accident" would certainly be a twist ending but not exactly thrilling. So the question isn't what exactly happened but the "why" and when everyone else is going to figure that out. Which is a fine plot to hang on the book.

The problem here, unlike a lot of her books, is that the rough around the edges characters are tough to identify with. Dekker spends most of the book either out of his mind and when he's not insane he's mostly confused as different forces seek to use him for their own ends. One of the men who rescues him, Ben Pollard, is uniformly abrasive, and while you can understand that he's trying to work the corporate angles and increase his livelihood it doesn't give him a lot in the way of narrative drive. He's not keen on solving the mystery, he just wants Dekker to go away so he can claim his ship as salvage. He and his partner spend most of their time arguing over Dekker so it seems like a chunk of the book is two men shouting at each other in an enclosed space while a man off his gourd wails in the background. And while that sometimes describes my workday more often than I'd like, its not gripping reading at times. The addition of two ladies that work with the boys and perhaps have their own agendas helps but large sections of the book are just everyone going about their hustling while all the stuff with Dekker burbles about in the background waiting to explode.

What's fascinating about this book and speaks to one of her greatest skills as a writer is how she gets what it would probably feel like to scrabble about working for these people. From the texture of the dialogue with its casual slang (but not even just the slang, but the basic cadence of it) to the systems and rituals and structures that have come into existence out of necessity, the setting here has a gritty and lived-in feeling that novels about actual present day miners doesn't don't ever quite accomplish. The sheer feel of the rhythm does nine-tenths of the work in making the story immersive, which is why its a shame that the characters can't bring it all the way home.

Maybe they exist too far on the political fringes. When things do eventually erupt its hardly due to anything that the main characters do so much as events that they're only partially paying attention to because they have their own more immediate problems suddenly get shoved into the foreground. Like real politics, Cherryh's characters often don't show their hand (or even their faces) until they absolutely have to, choosing to work through asides and intermediates. It can make the proceedings somewhat opaque if you're not totally keyed into what she's doing, or have a good working knowledge of the background. But no one encapsulates the feel of future political maneuvering quite like she does and her ability to move from everyone trying to jockey for advantage in the background while the people affected scramble for cover in the foreground is really unparalleled. The layers involved in the density of what she's doing is striking but I think she might have been too good at her game this time out, with understanding not really arriving until its explained to us. It makes this book feel like another small piece in the much larger puzzle she was assembling in the runup to "Downbelow Station" and if you care about her vision of military SF then this is a great example . . . but the meshing of the gears is what's the star here and the characters, well-meaning, over their heads or otherwise, are just caught up in those gears and if there's anything compelling about them, its whether they're slippery and flexible enough to get through or hard-headed and stubborn enough to be ground to bits. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2018 Paul rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cj-cherryh

I read the sequel to this book some years back, so this was kind of anticlimctic. Good fill-in, in the storyline.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2013 Casey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, space-opera, 1990s

Heavy Time begins with Morrie Bird and Ben Pollard, miners in the Asteroid Belt, who happen upon a wrecked vessel in space. Venturing inside, they find Dekker, who has been unconscious for days. He is barely alive and is completely disoriented, yelling for his partner Cory, who is no where to be found. The answer as to what truly happened is yet to be known. Dekker grapples between the slippery grasp on his memory, the mental trauma that has overtaken him, and the supposed reports from the ASTEX ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 03, 2011 Steve added it · review of another edition

The first Cherryh sci-fi I read and possibly her best in my opinion.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 20, 2018 Nathan Trachta rated it really liked it

CJ Cherryh has been a long term favorite of mine, going back to my college days. Recently I’ve been going back through some of her works and this time Heavy Time struck me as the perfect book to take on a road trip.

As with many of Ms. Cherryh’s works characters are a premium in Heavy Time; this comes from her writing style and in this case giving us multiple characters to follow (Dekker, Bird, Ben, Meg, and Sal). Each is unique and brings their own observations/experience into the game. For CJ Cherryh has been a long term favorite of mine, going back to my college days. Recently I’ve been going back through some of her works and this time Heavy Time struck me as the perfect book to take on a road trip.

As with many of Ms. Cherryh’s works characters are a premium in Heavy Time; this comes from her writing style and in this case giving us multiple characters to follow (Dekker, Bird, Ben, Meg, and Sal). Each is unique and brings their own observations/experience into the game. For Heavy Time the primary characters are Dekker, Bird and Ben for most of the book with Dekker being the focus (note: many of Ms. Cherryh’s books have a character that is different from others and the book deals with the blending between them and the other characters). There is some change to Ben becoming the focus as Ms. Cherryh describes Ben’s actions on R2 (a space station where miners from the R2 Sector go) and his forcing of issues. Something that I really noticed in this reading was the similarity of Ms. Cherryh’s Belters and the Belters in the Expanse series making me wonder how much Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (aka James S.A. Corey) were influenced by Ms. Cherryh.

Rating wise this one is tougher than many of Ms. Cherryh’s books. I enjoyed it and there was much that needed to transpire in the story line but there’s also much that feels as either wasted time or more needed. An example of wasted time/more needed includes the time from rescuing Dekker to getting him to R2. It’s drawn out and made so Dekker kind of wears on us but I was also fishing for Bird and Ben providing us more working to heal/recover Dekker. Instead we get Dekker effectively the same throughout the return trip, Bird and Ben disagreeing on things which I have a little bit of a problem with given they’re a team and work together (yes, teams can disagree but this one seemed a little extreme making Ben and Bird seem more of a recent team rather than a team who’d been together for a few years. I also had minor problems with Meg and Sal because we don’t have enough info on their background, something I think should have been present when Meg and Sal had private talks. All of this makes me lean toward a 3 star rating (really 3.5) but I’ll bump it up to 4 stars because of the ending. Bird comes through with flying colors! Actually the entire team steps up a notch as the situation and description becomes more confusing. What I particularly loved was Ms. Cherryh does come out showing corporate greed (another similarity between this book and Leviathan Wakes and the rest of the Expanse series Mr’s Abraham and Franck) and the eventual heavy hand of parts of the Earth Company. If anything the ending does a great job setting up the entire Alliance-Union universe as we see tertiary characters who are important in other Alliance-Union books.
...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 27, 2017 prcardi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera, space, pg-13, series

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

Every time I read Cherryh I think, "This is the last one!" But then I go ahead and read another. She's frustrating enough to want to avoid but also good enough to lure you back.

The bad that seems to be in every Company Wars book: Repetition. Tiny - minuscule, even - plots. Repetition. Cryptic, staccato vernacular and sentence construction. Repetition. Too much overlap with themes, descriptions, and dramas in other books. Repetition. Storyline: 3/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 3/5

Every time I read Cherryh I think, "This is the last one!" But then I go ahead and read another. She's frustrating enough to want to avoid but also good enough to lure you back.

The bad that seems to be in every Company Wars book: Repetition. Tiny - minuscule, even - plots. Repetition. Cryptic, staccato vernacular and sentence construction. Repetition. Too much overlap with themes, descriptions, and dramas in other books. Repetition. Melodrama. And have I mentioned the extensive repetition?

The good that seems to be in every Company Wars book: Real characters with real problems. A sobering vision of space life - drudgery and tedium. Psychological drama and interpersonal tension.

What Heavy Time introduces to the series is a confrontation with bureaucracy. Yeah..., bureaucracy. And, no, she does not make it exciting or glamorous - this is not a thriller procedural. This is a gloomy tale where our characters are not only ground down by the claustrophobic life on space craft but also by the internal machinations of big business. This is a story of the common working (wo)man in space just trying to get by and yet getting trodden on by the system. It is a story to instill angst over injustice. This is far from a happy tale, far from spectacle.

I was very surprised to see a whole lot of elements that had been picked up by a different, contemporary science fiction series(view spoiler) I don't fault newer authors from building off older works, but I do value creativity, so I like knowing what an author has carried over from others and what is new. And some of these identities and tensions simply might naturally follow from near future space speculation. Cherry has certainly built on Heinlein's contribution to our space future - namely his recognition that you are going to need every-day Joes doing the grunt work. Kudos to Cherryh for her realistic vision of the future. I just wish she didn't make it so unpleasant to read. ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 16, 2019 Kathi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

7/10
This book felt disjointed-I had trouble following the story. Well, not the up close story of Dekker, Bird, Ben, Meg, and Sal, but the larger story of miners, Shepards, ‘drivers, “Mama” ASTEX, EcoCorp/EarthCorp. Still, Cherryh has written intriguing characters and only reveals them layer by layer, as she unwinds the plot.
And yet, as I reflect, I find that I really like these SF books of the Company Wars and the way each books shines a spotlight on a particular corner or aspect (station, ship, ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 05, 2017 Dan Hyer rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

I really enjoyed Downbelow Station. This book set in the same universe not so much. It's told entirely from the first person narrative which I sometimes found hard to follow. Being in the first person and told without much backstory or information about the universe I found myself stumbling over some of the details. Okay, what did that acronym stand for, what's the relationship between these organizations, etc.

This is the prequel to Hellburner which is written in the same style, but which I ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 19, 2019 David Merrill rated it liked it · review of another edition

Probably more like 3.5 stars. I have to admit, the action at the end of the book was hard to follow. There’s a main character death, I won’t say who to avoid spoilers, I felt was breezed over much too quickly, to the point where I wasn’t sure they died. And Cherryh didn’t show much Of a reaction from the other characters. The end of the book seemed very rushed. Usually I find books today could be cut by 100 pages. This one could have used another 50 to give more explanation and make the ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 17, 2018 Brandon rated it it was amazing

I've loved this book since the first time I heard James Delotel reading it when I was no older than 15. Every time I've reread it since then, I find more to love, and learn more about the Alliance Union universe.

flag Like · see review

May 28, 2019 Leliel Mitsukai rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Heavy on the politics, world building and character reveals. Light on action and explosions.
The dialogue style, with all the characters' vernacular, is great for painting the portrait of their society but a little disjointed to read.

flag Like · see review

Oct 06, 2018 Elar rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

This book is more on the point and very well paced thrilling till the end. Again it reminded me of Expanse series and this is a good thing.

flag Like · see review

Feb 03, 2019 Kent Pettus rated it liked it

Ending is good.

flag Like · see review

Aug 19, 2019 Sheryl Hill rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi, bard, narrator-don-t-like, did-not-finish, ptsd

I like the main character, but the narrator grated on my nerves until I decided to quit.

So far The Company Wars series has been a bit dark for me.

flag Like · see review

Feb 12, 2017 B. Lee rated it really liked it

Heaven, I just love reading C. J. Cherryh. Its like being there.

flag Like · see review

Jul 15, 2019 Elise Rogers rated it really liked it

This book is more on the point and very well paced thrilling till the end. Again it reminded me of Expanse series and this is a good thing.

flag Like · see review

Feb 11, 2017 Greg Bidwell rated it really liked it

Cherryh creates characters with believable flaws and limitations. I enjoyed reading the book.

flag Like · see review

Apr 09, 2018 Andrew McIntosh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Heavy Time refers to the time asteroid miners spend on station with gravity between runs, and that's where 80% of the book takes place. If you're looking for a rapid, action-packed romp around the solar system, then take a pass on this one. That being said I really enjoyed this book. It has well-written characters that you get a great feel for, as well as the details of how they live their lives. You really feel for them throughout and (view spoiler) ...more

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Science Fiction

147 users

Fiction

32 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

16 users

See top shelves…

About C.J. Cherryh

C.J. Cherryh

2,470 followers

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 ...more