Chanur's Homecoming

Chanur #4

by C.J. Cherryh

As the races of the Compact alliance mobilize for interplanetary war, Pyanfar Chanur and her crew must take a final desperate gamble that threatens the very fabric of the galaxy

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

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

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

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very satisfying conclusion to the internal trilogy of the 5-volume Chanur saga. Pyanfar Chanur is one of the most richly drawn of Cherryh’s many wonderful characters, and it has been a pleasure spending time in her company.

This trilogy deals with culture clash, language barriers, diplomacy, societal inertia, and the ways in which political power manifests, presented in Cherryh’s typical intensely focused style. At times, some of the action, especially regarding specifics of interstellar travel and spaceship battles, can be a little difficult to parse, but it never failed to compel. As much as anything, this trilogy is an exploration of what it means to belong to something, be it family, crew, species, planet, or political system; and whether or not it’s possible to belong to a multiplicity of those things, in ways that you might not have ever imagined for yourself.

It’s very sophisticated, intricately imagined, and impressive, as Cherryh’s work has proven itself to be time and time again. And the epilogue was especially satisfying.

I’ll take a break before reading the final, standalone volume in the saga. But this has been a welcome journey to take.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy, am I gods-rotted tired of the Chanur books. I sort of liked them at the beginning. At some places, I really liked them. But not in enough places. The most enjoyable sections of the series are when the author actually slows down a bit and allows her story to breathe, permitting the reader to contemplate what's happening. But that happens so rarely, that by the time I was done this one, I had had more than enough.

If you've gotten this far in the series, you'll no doubt read this 4th book, and you'll know exactly what to expect. There is nothing new here, nothing surprising, no shocks or twists or changes of pace. It's just more of the same, and the same, and the same. In fact, although this is a continuing series, I have a hunch that a person could read these books in absolutely random order, and they wouldn't notice the difference. Yes, the plot movements are that arbitrary.

Once again, the pace is very quick. You've got crosses and double-crosses and triple-crosses, and god bless you if you have any sort of firm handle on what those double and triple crosses are. You've got characters shouting commands at each other, you've got jumps from one star system to the next, you've got Pyanfar demanding from Jik, and from Goldtooth, and from Skukkuk, and from Tully, and from whoever, "What is the gods-rotted truth? Tell me what you know!" And that person will respond very dramatically in incomprehensible pidgin English, and Pyanfar will act as if she understood, and she'll have some interior monologue about how bad things are getting, and how double and triple-crossed she feels, and then she'll call up the bridge and demand something or other, and order them to set course for somewhere or other, and off they are to the next star system, and the people on the bridge are mumbling about how bad everything has gotten and how things are so damned complicated now, and meanwhile the reader is left wondering what the hell they just missed. Then, rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. For 400 pages. The pace is quick, yes, but in a strangely static way - there's lots of action, but at the same time, nothing is happening. There are no pauses, no mountains or valleys, no moments of reflection, just a full-throttle monotonous stream of busy people doing busy things for only vaguely comprehensible reasons. It's like someone yelling at you in broken English from a stationary bike for four hours. It's just too much excitement for me.

And the unfortunate thing is that there are some really compelling themes running through here. The feminist angle is still interesting, although it gets less mileage in this book than in the previous ones. The repeated points about the dangers of small-minded provincial politics are well-taken. But mostly, this is a series of missed opportunities. The mysterious alien k'nnn, ch'i, and what-have-you? The book does nothing with them. The even more mysterious army of humans coming en masse from the other side of the galaxy? The book does nothing with them either. None of that, none of the plot, seems to be the point. Rather, for Cherryh, the point seems to be the pace itself, the non-stop action, the craziness. But with so much fast somethingness going on, and so little regard to rhythm and clarity, the whole enterprise, instead of grabbing the reader, just sort of sits there, vague and bloodless.

I'm sure I could take the book on my lap like a Rabbi with his Torah and reread every paragraph six times over until I grasp all the details and plot points and implications that Cherryh has, for some reason, deliberately kept obscure. But this isn't the Torah, and it isn't worth anyone's time to do that. There are far better space operas out there, with far more immersive worlds and characters and plots, with themes handled far more delicately and interestingly, that I would only recommend this series to anyone who is a C. J. Cherryh completist. Or, if you're just discovering Cherryh, go read Downbelow Station instead- now that's an example of a novel in which Cherryh's idiosyncratic style works, brilliantly.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 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 final book of the middle trilogy.

At the end of the previous book Pyanfur Chanur found herself part of an alliance under the kif Sikkukuk and about to strike at Meetpoint, a stsho station at the heart of Compact space in an escalation of what was previously an internal kif power-struggle. At Meetpoint Pyanfur finds a large group of other hani spacers abandoned by the machinations of Rhif Ehrran and her ill-advised politicking. Finally the machinations of the mahendo'sat and the kif factions point towards a major showdown in the heart of hani space itself.

With all the sitting at dock of the previous book we're overdue for some action, and that action comes thick and fast. First there's the move to Meetpoint which leaves Pyanfur in charge of a bunch of other hani ships and then the jump to Anuurn where the whole hani species is in peril with only Chanur and its tenuous alliances to defend the system. We also get a much wider range of viewpoints in this book which helps free up the narrative. Most of the situation comes clear in this book, with the kif situation finally under control and the human question being dealt with. There's also the sub-plots of the role of Chanur in hani society and male Chanur in space, both of which get dealt with well.

The story isn't without faults. The way that the humans are dealt with isn't very satisfactory, and the activity with the methane-breathers doesn't make a lot of sense either regarding their actions or how the oxygen-breathers have involved them. But the outcomes with the hani and particularly in the epilogue are very satisfying given what has come before.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to start this review with a little backstory. Back in the 1980s, I took a class as an undergrad on science fiction. While that may not be unusual, the course was taught by a feminist scholar and the syllabus consisted of solely female authors. Science fiction at this time was heavily dominated by guys for sure, and most of my reading up to that point was by guys-- Niven, Pornelli, Clarke, Asimov, etc. The thing that most actively broadened my horizons (and blew my mind) from that course was the subgenre of sociological science fiction. While I cannot remember exactly all the books we read there, some authors still come to mind, such as Le Guin, Butler, and Cherryh.

Exploring alien societies with multiple genders and complicated sexual dynamics for instance was amazing! In my mind, Le Guin and Cherryh are both masters of this type of speculative fiction and the Chanur series definitely fits squarely into this category. While The Pride of Chanur introduces this universe and may be read as a stand alone, the next three in the series are essentially one story and this is where Cherryh really begins to explore the alien sociology of the han. The han were basically squabbling barbarians for lack of better words before the mane arrived and gave them tech for space ships, etc.

In 'traditional' han society, males are something like prima donnas or perhaps sultans, with many wives and sisters, etc., who basically run the estates of the various clans. While the females have the brains, the males have the brawn. One male rules each estate until successfully challenged by an upstart. Males without lands are relegated to seminaries and such. When the han became a space-faring race, only the females crewed the ships; males were simply to emotional, stupid and short tempered to be of much use in space. A new dynamic was begun. Various clans set forth trading space ships crewed by clan members. The Chanur, one of the most prestigious clans, had several ships with Pyanfar was the captain of one. While things at home never seemed to change much, the 'spacers' of the han grew/evolved by leaps and bounds after being exposed to alien lives and customs. Basically, han society had begun to split-- ground pounders versus spacers. To complicate the picture more, spacers travelling in hyperspace aged but a few days while months and months went by in real time; travel between stars is almost instantaneous subjectively for spacers but objectively much, much longer. When the spacers come home, they have only been gone subjectively a few months while years have passed on the ground.

In the 'Compact' universe where the hani reside, several alien species exist in their own realms but have a common trading center known as 'Meetpoint', which is neutral ground. Besides the han and the mane, we have the kif as fellow oxy breathers, and several inscrutable methane breathers. When humans make contact with the Compact, this new species threatens the old agreements. Further, the kif, which for long had been primarily isolated pirates, have begun to get organized under a few leaders, effectively uniting the kif and they want more and more power in the Compact. Hence, we have a complicated political scenario here, with all kinds of intrigue, double-dealing and so forth and the hani are caught right in the middle.

Cherryh's Chanur mid-trilogy tells the tale of Pyanfar and her adventures navigating the treacherous political terrain, and while these are exciting, the real punch of the story consists of the sociology of each of the various races. How each race governs themselves really stands out, as well as how Cherryh really probes the difficulties of understanding among the races. In one lengthy dialogue (expect LOTS of these here!), the idea of one word having a single meaning is deconstructed. Even if the word translates among the species, it does not mean the same thing in the overall sociologial context. What does the word friend mean after all? It is musing like this that make this series so special.

Yes, Cherryh has her own style which may rub some the wrong way. Much of the story is presented in lengthy dialogues which sometimes come off as infodumps, as do the 'dreams' Pyanfar and crew have during hyperspace transits. The breathless pacing is another thing you will either love or hate. Pranfar's crew faces one crisis after another without any breathing space for the entire series. Pyanfar's musings of potentially making a mistake, costing not only the her life and the lives of her crew, but the entire han civilization can get a bit old as well. Nonetheless, I loved Pyanfar as a character.

The first book in this series was pretty good, but this mid-trilogy was so much better. 4.5 alien stars!

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The answer was there, patently there, in the possibilities of that starmap and in the self-interests of eight separate and polylogical species.

I wouldn't want to play chess with the author of this space opera. Cherryh is playing 4-D chess on a galactic scale with eight alien species that share an economic zone known as the Compact Space, linked by FTL gates. Four oxygen breathing species [hani, stsho, mahendo’sat and kif], alongside three methane breathing species [T’ca, chi, knn] plus a wildcard new entry from human space.
This fourth book in the series is the culmination of careful moves, positioning, alliances and betrayals that leaves the spaceship Chanur’s Pride , led by hani trader captain Pyanfar Chanur in a position to determine the outcome of a full blown armed conflict for control of the Compact Space.

Most of the moves Pyanfar has taken so far have been dictated by outside forces and by secret plans from the most ambitious members of the Compact: the mahendo’sat and the kif. The initial trigger was the unexpected arrival of an exploration ship from human space and a valuable captive named Tully, who escapes from kif torture and finds refuge aboard Chanur’s Pride . I will not recap events from the previous three books, other than to remark that the hani are tribal, newly arrived in space, modelled on lion prides with females doing most of the actual work while males lord it over their territory. This translates into the spaceship’s crew being exclusively female, related by blood and most of the hani males being aggressive, unpredictable and adverse to leaving the home planet.
This creates a choke point on the chess starmap that Pyanfar Chanur must play to the tune set by her adversaries.

I got one place where there’s enough of my species to survive. Hani men don’t go into space, they’re all on Anuurn. What in a mahen hell am I supposed to do, play your side and lose my whole species?

Diplomacy doesn’t came naturally to the hot-blooded hani, but when the stakes are species survival needs must, personal health and mental sanity are pushed to the breaking point in successive FTL jumps and in treacherous alien alliances.

Friend in a kif’s doubletoothed mouth had no overtones of loyalty or self-sacrifice at all, was in fact nearly the opposite. Ally-of-convenience, rather. Potential rival, rather. Or poor fool.

Cold in all the warm places and fever-warm in all the cold ones, gods, a hundred eighty degrees skewed. Alien. The kif are that thing in doubles and triples.

Pyanfar Chanur is pushed into a forced alliance with the most dangerous species in the whole Compact Space: the kif are pirates, predators who respect only strength and ruthlessness. Pyanfar dances on a sword’s edge to keep ahead of unfolding events and to protect the few precious allies she can bring aboard her ship. The old traditions of the planet-bound hani culture must be sacrificed in the name of survival.

Gods, what’s gotten into us on this ship? We got nobody aboard who hasn’t gone to the the wrong side of her own species’ business – Tully, Skkukuk, all of us of Chanur and Mahn: now Jik’s sliding too.
Treason’s catching, that’s what it is.

The whole series is a battle of wits, with rare but explosive action sequences followed by seemingly endless speculation and political infighting leading to the next star jump, to the next embattled space hub, to the next betrayal by a former ally. Reading Cherryh is not for the casual visitor who expects a roller coaster ride with no brain involvement [aka Peter F Hamilton]: she challenges the reader to pay attention to details and to follow clues at the same pace as the main narrator, in this book Pyanfar Chanur. She must turn rules on their head and force new angles of attack, new perspectives.
The role of humans in the Compact space is such a provocation: how will an alien species look at our civilization? The end result is not complimentary, but there is something of value in the individual choice. Tully is the voice that speaks into Pyanfar Chanur’s ear:

Don’t trust humans, Pyanfar.
On one sentence, one frightened, treasonous sentence in mangled hani, they bet everything.

Why’d he help us, even when he’s afraid of us, over his own kind? He knows loyalty. He knows friendship. He commits himself to us like kin. It doesn’t make sense. What kind of people could create him, and still make him betray them?
A people as varied as we are. A people in internal conflict.

It’s always been the role of science-fiction to ask the hard questions about our humanity, our civilization, our future.
Humanity is not central to the Compact Space conflict, right? We’re talking about the hani culture, right? Or are these aliens just a mirror held uncomfortably close to our gender, race and political conflicts?

>>><<<>>><<<

The Chanur series felt a lot like hard work for me, with too much politics and not enough action at times, but the end result is the reward for my patience with the books. It is not only spectacular but thought provoking, uplifting despite the often cynical and self-serving actions of the chess players, deeply original in its focus on semantics and the way culture influences language, intense and personal in the dynamic between the multi species crew of the Pride of Chanur where words like ‘kin’, ‘friend’ and ‘crew’ become more important than race, politics, law.
The outer space becomes the symbol for freedom of thought, for endless possibilities. The world where Pyanfar Chanur trades in danger.

I hate it. I’ve always hated it. Not the fields, not the feel of the sun. It’s the confinement. One world. One place. A horizon too small.
Minds too small to understand me.
I’d rather go anywhere than home. Rather die for anything than fat old women and empty-headed men who love their walls and their wealth and their privilege and never know what’s out there ...

That was the way of the spacers. To stay young while the worlds aged, and groundlings connived and contrived their worldly plots and made their gains in the intervals when spacers were strung out between stars, lost in dreams.

There are a couple of follow up novels published, but for me I think this episode is a very good point to stop and consider the stars and their appeal.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this conclusion to the story of Pyanfar and her shipmates. The methane breathers were really cool as well. Few writers can pull off just one book and much less five books where the protagonists are aliens and the human is the odd-man out, but Cherryh just knocks it out of the park on this series and in this conclusion to the story-arc she started in The Kif Strike Back and continued in Chanur's Homecoming. I will move on to Hilfy's one book now, but highly recommend this swashbuckling fun story of space-tag with the wonderful hani as hosts.

[Jemppu · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a carefully arranged, role playing game manner, Cherryh's universe is habited by societies drawn with strict cultural rules and characteristics, which are then used to play with those established boundaries.

This volume was for me perhaps the most captivating of the trilogy, - including glimpses of perspectives beyond the usual leading voice. Not necessarily the most profound work out of Cherryh's oeuvre, but with notably sophisticated elements for a spacefaring romp, playing around with societal notions, politics, language, and family, as reflected on to a set of alien species. My front-most fascination with Chanur remains on the concepts of the species/cultures, and what those are and/or could be used to portray, rather than on the actual narrative.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this is where it all comes to a head -- Pyanfar Chanur, captain of The Pride of Chanur, and her crew (including human castaway Tully and now the kif Skukkuk, given as a very, very dangerous gift by the kif hakkikt Sikkukkut), forced into an alliance with Sikkukkut against the (well, probably) even worse hakkikt Akktimakt, trying desperately to keep their heads above water, to deal with the plottings of the kif, the mahendo'sat and the stsho, to say nothing of the incomprehensible methane-breathing knnn, chi and t'ca, and now with humans wanting to come in and possibly shatter the delicate balance that has kept the Compact operating as a multispecies trading concern for all these years ...

All the tense negotiations, breathless escapades and space battles you could possibly want, in a truly epic conclusion to Pyanfar Chanur's tale.

[Jamie Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fourth Chanur book is my least favorite so far. The space opera setting is still great, but the execution hasn’t gotten any better. This has a ton of exposition and repetition, and I nearly abandoned it.

The only part I enjoyed was Pyanfar’s reexamination of the Hani traditions which keep their men at home, coddled and protected from responsibility, for fear of their tempers and instability.

[Oscar · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘El regreso de Chanur’ (Chanur’s Homecoming, 1986), de la escritora C.J. Cherryh, continúa exactamente donde se quedó el anterior volumen de la saga, además de concluir la misma. Existe un quinto libro, con Hilfy como protagonista, pero no está traducido al castellano.

La historia sigue con sus conspiraciones políticas, con alianzas político-comerciales entre las diferentes razas del Pacto. Esto es lo que menos me gustó de la anterior novela, y aquí hay más de lo mismo. Esto en sí no sería malo, pero en mi opinión es excesivo si no se adereza de subtramas interesentes, que vayan manteniendo la atención del lector. A mí ha terminado cansándome tanta conspiración. Al menos esta vez sí hay más de un punto de vista. En fin, el libro más largo de la saga, y el que menos me ha gustado. Me quedo con los dos primeros, que sí me apasionaron.

[Paraphrodite · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

The conclusion to the story arc with Pyanfar going back to protect the decimation of her home planet from the other races. Intense and lots of introspection and action-packed. It's still a fairly confusing and complex world where everyone's motives are suspect. But I did like that final face-off with all the other races and the epilogue with the young guy. In a way, I do feel tired and sad that the series with Pyanfar is coming to an end, a bit like Pyanfar herself.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just brilliant. All of it. I can't find the words to express the characters, the space stations, the ships, the space travel (it just feels like if we could really travel in space, that this is how it would be). If you are a fan of science fiction I recommend this series. All 5 books. ( I haven't read the 5th yet).

[Excel Lifestyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ending to a great trilogy. Yes, this series’ plot is over complex and is nearly packed to the gills with pidgin English but it’s still worth your time regardless. If you’ve ever read a Cherryh novel before all her flaws are still here but so are her talents. I love Pyanfar’s transition from in over her head to a major player. She should go down with all the other great fictional star captains. I admire how throughout this book and series previous events and characters take on new context that shifts perception. There are some great character moments and epic scenes in this trilogy ender. Great ending for Pyanfar and company’s story.

If you like sci fi with lots of aliens and high stakes and are ok with feeling a little lost occasionally check out the Chanur series.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10. Media de los 13 libros leídos de la autora : 8/10

Me llevo yo bien con la Cherry. Casi siempre entretenida de leer, me quedo con “Hermanos de tierra” o “Paladín”. Y de series la de Citeen (Esta de Chanur tb está bien). La chica ha ganado creo que 4 Hugos, que no es poco.
La tercera y cuarta entrega de esta saga pierden un poco de la frescura de la primera
Solo me ha defraudado suyo “La puerta de Ivrel”

[Karen Ireland-Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

The four Chanur universe books are my favorite books in the entire universe. Bar none. Cherryh slyly takes on sex, gender, culture, first contact, money, and power, among other issues, all in a rollicking good adventure story.

[Magali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parfois j’aime lire de la SFFF vintage. C’est ainsi que j’ai découvert le Cycle de Chanur de Carolyn Cherryh, cycle qui comporte 5 tomes (depuis réédités en 2 intégrales).

J’avais adoré le tome 1, qui se suffit à lui-même. J’ai poursuivi avec les tomes suivants – à noter que les tomes 2, 3 et 4 forment un tout. Le retour de Chanur est ce tome 4. Au fil de ces suites, j’avoue que mon intérêt s’est effiloché, et ce tome 4 ne fait pas exception. On part dans des imbroglios politiques que je peine à suivre, d’autant plus que, pour rendre les difficultés de communications inter-espèces, certains personnages s’expriment dans un charabia fatiguant à lire lorsqu’il s’étale sur plusieurs pages de dialogues.

Le retour de Chanur démarre par un résumé des tomes précédents, et heureusement parce que même avec ça, il m’a fallu un bon bout de temps pour comprendre les enjeux. Il y a ensuite un souci de rythme, on a beaucoup de discussions avant qu’enfin, l’action ne se mette en branle et la tension, de fait, n’arrive que tardivement. Malgré tout, il y a des aspects positifs dans ce volume : on en apprend encore davantage sur les modes de pensées des personnages (pour rappel, aucun n’est humain à l’exception de Tully, le point de vue étant celui des Hanis, race de félins humanoïdes à laquelle appartient Pyanfar Chanur). Si les tomes précédents avaient déjà permis de les creuser, ici on assiste aussi à la subtile évolution de certaines mentalités, du fait de ces différentes espèces qui se côtoient. Chanur use ainsi de sa connaissance du mode de pensée kif pour se sortir du bourbier, mais à force de frayer avec d’autres races, elle-même a ajusté sa propre attitude – le simple fait d’avoir donné à son époux une place dans son équipage, au cours des tomes précédents, en était déjà la marque, puisqu’elle évolue dans une société matriarcale, où le mâle est vu comme le sexe faible, sujet à des crises de « folie furieuse ».

La problématique des voyages spatiaux est aussi abordée. Chanur et son équipage vont devoir effectuer un voyage à une allure forcée, et rien n’est épargné de l’impact des sauts sur la santé. Il est aussi évoqué le temps qui s’écoule différemment lors des sauts, amenant à un vieillissement différent pour les spatiennes ou les rampantes (noms donnés aux Hanis qui voyagent dans l’espace et à celles qui restent sur leur planète d’origine).

Malgré ces points positifs, il m’aura fallu un mois pour lire ce poche. Je pense m’arrêter là, d’autant que le tome 5 a pour héroïne Hilfy et non pas Pyanfar, qui était jusque là le personnage principal. Malgré tout, je vous recommande vivement le tome 1 car Carolyn Cherryh propose un space opera passionnant en raison de ses personnages, tous extraterrestres, et de sa réflexion sur le sexisme à travers la société hanie (inspirée des lions), comme sur la façon dont autant de races différentes tentent de s’entendre.

Pour terminer, parlons un peu de la couverture… parce que là, on a vraiment l’impression que l’illustration a été choisie au pif. La couverture VO est bien plus fidèle au contenu !

[Mary Soon Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in the abidingly excellent Chanur science-fiction series, a series presented entirely from the viewpoint of aliens. Mild spoilers ahead. While not the final book in the series, it rounds off the sequence of events begun in book one, and does so brilliantly. The characters, likable from the very beginning of the series, are at their worn and desperate best. The maneuvering between and within the different species, the battles and the threat of battle, the exhaustion of a harried spaceship crew are all handled superbly.

Most of all I love these characters: Pyanfar, a role model of magnificence for any aging female, no matter her species; Tully, the lone human who learns the word for 'friend' early and well; Khym breaking down stereotypes by his presence; hani and mahendo'sat and even the kif Skkukuk. There were a couple of times near the end when the book moved me to tears, not through tragedy, but because of the moments of grace, of understanding and recognition between the characters. Very highly recommended, though, unsurprisingly, it's best to read the series in order.

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).

[Matt Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shakespeare has Macbeth say that life "is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Chanur's Homecoming indeed has lots of sound and fury but ultimately comes to only a bit more than naught.

I really wanted to enjoy the Chanur saga; I did. Disappointed. The first half of this novel is a punitive read, just directionless, and the action-packed latter half occurs in a jumble of words that just don't consistently make sense. There is far too much mucking about and patois-laced recursive second-guessing, too much to allow the story to just unfold. The constant reliance on sentence fragments (arg!) to imply quick thought is cheap and unwarranted: very pulp-rag. This is a novella stretched out to 350 pages so the publisher could kick up the price by $1.75.

I get that space-opera has come a long way since the mid-1980s, but this is tepid even compared to contemporary works like Cherryh's own Downbelow Station or Card's "Ender" novels.

[Marianne Boutet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect it to end the way it did. Wow.

[Matt on Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tense and exciting conclusion! 😀👌🏻

[prcardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

Wearisome. How can someone make an action-adventure, space opera so wearying to read?

After the original Pride of Chanur came a trilogy sequel, of which this is the last. This trilogy was so trying, in part, because it is a repeat of the first book yet spread out over three installments. It's the same problem! The same bad guys! The same good guys! The same unknowns! The same crew! The same ship! The same stations! The same allies! The few characters that do change are interchangeable with those they replaced!

The writing.....oh my the writing..... Cherryh is simply difficult to read. Sentences are seldom complete or coherent, the vocabulary is foreign, and we have pigdin dialogue thrown in at the key moments where big changes are supposedly being explained. You can't write this obscurely by accident. Why do it purposefully?

The pacing.....oh my the pacing..... Cherryh has a gift for making the commonplace dramatic. Message coming in over communications? Find way to make every crew member apprehensive and ponder how dire the message could be. Someone coming to the ship entranceway? Make it a footrace for crewmember to sprint through gangways, reach a weapons locker, get in position, and query visitor as to their intentions. Plotting course? Describe the number of ways one could input a wrong heading, do structural damage to the ship, or get caught in the gravity well of a station/planet/moon/sun. Opening a packet of food? Stress over how inconveniently placed it is for quick consumption. Describe how tough the packaging is, how your stomach can't really handle the food anyway, and how unsavory it is (or will be) going down . Now, do each of those 20 times. Seriously, 20 times, each. If you've haven't read this yet, you think I'm kidding. If you have read this then you know I'm not. It is really a skill to be able to turn such ordinary events into tense moments. But the entire book was tense-filled, commonplace scene after scene. The pacing wasn't any different for the real adventure scenes, and there was no such thing as a dull moment in the book (just wearying more-of-the-same stress).

There are a few things I do still like about the series:

Cherryh has created a really different system of space travel, and it serves important roles in her story. It was only with this fourth book that it really started coming together for me. That's because Cherryh never slows down to explain it. Over the course of four books you either pick up the context clues or you don't; she knew what she was talking about, and she must have decided that we'd pick it up along the way.

A spaceship is really valuable. Not necessarily in the monetary sense (though it is in that way as well), but it really dawned on me in this book just how dangerous any large mass would be if it was capable of changing directions and obtaining near light speed. You don't even need weapons. Cherryh gave spaceships and their pilots a gravitas that would be due in real life, I think, and surely is missing from most space operas.

Alien interactions don't go smoothly. Cultural miscommunications between different nations are a fun topic in literature. Cherryh, with science fiction, gets to take that to a whole different level with alien miscues and misunderstandings.

One final note that I didn't like about this particular book: It was neat to see how leaving their homeworld had changed the spacers. It was great to see the Pride's crew come back and find difficulty communicating with their own kind. People back home just never know what you went through if they stay isolated and ignorant. What disappointed me, though, was that Pyanfar eventually rejects everything about her home and culture. She's loyal, but she rejects the present matriarchal structure, the domestic politics, their form of commerce, the routes to succession and promotion, norms on neutrality and honors. By the end of the book, she has given up on everything that made her hani. I'm sure that Cherryh was going for the rugged-spacers-learned-the-ways-of-the-world ending, and we're supposed to look at them dreamy-eyed and aspire to be as bold and independent minded as they. But there was something truly sad in seeing the eponymous hero give up on her entire culture. Worse, I don't think Cherryh thought about it that way at all.

Apparently there's one more book in the Chanur line. I'm grateful that it isn't part of the present storyline, because then I would feel like I had to read it to get to the ending. I'm so very tired and worn out by this series, that I have no interest in reading anything else by her on this universe. I wont' say that I'll never read it, but I've got years of books lined up that just got bumped ahead of Chanur's Legacy (#5).

[Thea Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This rating is for the entire Chanur sequence, as they're basically one long story.

Cherryh throws lot of weird jumbled stuff from human cultures, arguably racist stereotypes, animal characteristics, and the general science fiction/fantasy trope of other cultures being obsessed with silly abstract concepts into the Compact sapient species, but 1) they're very entertaining to read about, and 2) she does a pretty good job of coming up with basic cognitive differences, following these differences to intricate logical conclusions, and showing how these beings that think and experience the world in fundamentally different ways have just as much depth and pathos as beings with more familiar human-like thoughts and emotions.

Pyanfar is clever and entertaining. Her profanity is repetitious and fades into the background quickly, but given how these books are (among other things) a meditation on enduring extreme exhaustion and disorientation over long periods of time, it kind of makes sense that she usually can't be bothered to come up with anything more original than "gods rot".

_So much_ cool space stuff. I can't even.

[Storm Bookwyrm · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is ONE more Chanur book, but with this, 'Homecoming', the epic trilogy-that-is-actually-really-just-one-book concludes, wrapping up one of the best space operas I've ever read!
And a space opera it is, because it has it all. It's got a wealth of characters, treacherous allies (ooooh, that darn Rif Errahn! *shakes fist!*), treacherous villains (Ooooh, that scheming sikkukut! *shakes fist!), allies you HOPE you can rely on (Goldtooth! Jik! Oooooh *shakes fist!*) and romance (*waggles eyebrows at Hilfy and Tully*), though the romance is subdued and alien. People race across the galaxy to save lives and the tenuous compact that keeps everyone together peaceably, and people think on the fly on their feet (paws?) and switch sides and loyalties (seemingly) to survive.

The word 'epic' leaves me with a bit of hesitation, but what can this be but epic? WORLDS hinge upon the actions of the characters, entire species at stake! If I hesitate it's perhaps because things seem to happen at such a breakneck pace and in such a matter-of-fact way. Cherryh's style here is so matter-of-fact, setting the camera down and pointing it at what's happening as it happens, leaving almost nothing out. This means that the pace of a pitched battle is the same as the crew of Chanur going through all the steps to disengage from a space station and put the ship out to hyper-speed jump. Things seem to happen, and Cherryh lends you no assistance from the pose in knowing that what just happened was of the utmost significance; you as the reader have to figure that out for yourself, realizing "Wait, hang on a second, what the heck did I just read?!" The narrative is further distorted by the different passages of time - where for spacers they enter 'stasis' when they hyper-jump, for the rest of the galaxy it takes them weeks or months to travel somewhere. So it is that a conflict that can be read out basically minute-for-minute across three books takes what seems, in narrative time, to only be perhaps a couple of days or weeks, in actuality might have threatened the galaxy for a year or two, with stations and planets looking on horrified as they hear the reports of vast fleets shifting across the universe in potential acts of war.
And yet the tone and pacing of the story is evidently deliberate, because Pyanfar Chanur, captain of 'The Pride', herself lives through everything as it happens. She spends most of the saga in a state of confusion, desperately hoping that what she's doing is the right thing, assuming that what she's assumed might well be wrong, and only later, in the finale of Homecoming, does she finally seem to piece everything together, and realize the truth of all the movements that have happened between all the players in this intergalactic chess-game.

Dry as it sometimes can be, confusing and plodding in its methodical step-by-step-of-spaceship-procedure, I've never been more excited by a book to see everything come together, or for moments of high drama and action. My imagination latched onto every character and wondered about them, what their motivations were, what they were going to do next, and what they might do if they weren't bound by the courses they were on. I loved them all for their contribution to the story, and the twists and turns they introduced.

Another reason I think I love captain Pyanfar is because she's tired, she's confused, and she's doing her best by god. She's not a Captain Kirk, who people say "OoooOooh, you messed with PYANFAR? You're gonna be sorry! NO ONE messes with Pyanfar and gets away with it!" and then she pulls off some unbelievable thing that has everyone dancing to her puppet strings. No, she's a merchant captain, a GOOD captain, a GREAT captain who can think fast, and whom people rely on either to try and manipulate or trust, and because of fate and chance and her own willingness to try and keep the compact together she get stuck in the middle of it all, and becomes the very person upon whom everything hinges. It all feels very REAL, like an ordinary person (well, as ordinary as a space cat can be) was thrust by a series of twists of fate, and then kept there by their unwillingness to be a coward, into the linchpin position of things, where all it took was just a BIT more initiative to take control of the situation and steer it where she wanted.

Another great advantage to Cherryh's style, if you have the strength as a reader to keep at it, is that you feel like you yourself are learning with everyone else. As Pyanfar Chanur slowly gains a grasp on Kif-ish politics and ways of thinking, you the reader begin to understand it as well. You get a feel for how the mahendosat talk and politic, and you know what to call a stsho, how to read a transcript from a t'ca, and more and more. You discover how cat-like the hani can be, how all their nuances and habits are evolved versions of cat behavior, from what the twitch of an ear means to how they're so ready and afraid for anyone to start throwing fists when put in a stressful situation, because that's what THEIR instincts and primale habits are! The world doesn't have a tutorial level where it takes your hand and sets things up; it throws you in just like Tully, and like Tully you learn, through the repetition of things, how to

So, there it is, my unfocused, rambling recommendation of the Chanur Saga, one of the best pieces of Science Fiction drama and action I've ever read. Read it!

[Wolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Chanur-Zyklus wird von Band zu Band besser.
In die Heimkehr der Chanur breitet sich ein Meta-Thema aus,
dass in den vorläufigen Roman schon hier und da eine rolle spielte.
Dieser Roman ist nämlich auch ein wunderschönes Plädoyer gegen Xenophobie.
Lesen lohnt!

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book in this series, besides The Pride of Chanur. A consistent theme in this book is that interspecies communication is difficult, but possible.

[Julieta Steyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pareciera que con tantas líneas argumentales Cherryh se enredó y algunas (quizá nadie se percató de eso porque no eran fundamentales) quedaron sin explicar en este tomo que cerraba los libros de Chanur 2, 3 y 4, aun cuando hay uno extra.
Los problemas se disparan en todas direcciones: en el tomo anterior, las hani de Chanur entienden perfectamente que el kiff Sikkukkut está amenazando su propio planeta natal, Anuurn. Los kif y la lucha por la supremacía entre los dos bandos de príncipes (o hakkikt, en kif), el de Sikkukkut y el de Akkhtimakt continúa y cierra en este tomo. Los mahendo'sat también tienen dos implicados en la política espacial, Jik y Dientes de Oro, y el problema radica en que ambos toman partido según cómo evalúan la situación que se despliega entre los kif, metiendo a las demás razas en medio, pero lo que más preocupa es cómo reaccionarán los respiradores de metano (t'cha, chi y sobre todo, los impredecibles knn) puesto que las razas de oxígeno no los comprenden. Entonces están los humanos, los que movieron el avispero y crearon este embrollo al entrar en el espacio ya concebido en el pacto entre esas especies que se conocían.
Ahora Pyanfar Chanur medianamente conoce a los kif y cree entender lo básico de cómo actúan. Desde el momento en el que Sikkukkut la utiliza para sus fines, y ella se deja utilizar para salvar la vida de su amigo mahendo'sat, Jik, la política hani se vuelve en su contra; ella sabe que esto irá a parar a oídos del han (el gobierno de su planeta) y probablemente, deje al clan Chanur en la ruina, le preocupa su clan pero nada puede hacer por ayudarlos desde tan lejos. Pero además ella tiene ese regalo, ese kif que le dio Sikkukkut llamado Skkukuk, un ser al que no comprende demasiado y del cuál desconfía. Lo gracioso es que Skkukuk vive diciendo: "Te daré el corazón de tus enemigos" en momentos que a uno le hacen saltar el cerebro en medio de la tensión, Cherryh tiene un humor negro terriblemente encantador.
Una y otra vez, Pyanfar se meterá en la la cueva del lobo para rescatar a sus amigos, tanteando en un abismo peligroso de una política que no es su área. Y sin quererlo, se convierte en "princesa" del hakkikt Sikkukkut... todo eso llegará indudablemente a oídos del han en ese momento.
Enredos y más enredos, traiciones y más traiciones. Eso es lo bueno de Cherryh.

SPOILERS DEL FINAL

Lo malo es que olvidó por completo a Tahar y su grupo una vez que cierra el libro, siendo que ellas seguían a su nave, la Orgullo de Chanur, como incógnita. ¿Qué pasó con Tahar? ¿Qué pasó con los bichos esos, la Cena de su kif cuando él ya no puede cazarlas, royendo todo en la nave? ¿Cómo fue posible que Chur, con las reglas del juego explicadas, saliera en medio de un salto a salvarles el pellejo? Técnicamente, es imposible lo que hizo Chur desde la perspectiva que lo planteó, no porque razonase, sino porque se levantó en medio de un salto, momento en el que todas las mentes hani se extravían un poco. Y el cierre de títulos que le da su kif, Skkukuk, en medio de la batalla: "mekt-hakkikt", o "príncipe supremo", entonces le da el poder a ese mismo kif pero parece, según cuenta el epílogo, que continúa con su título (?), cuando esa especie se caracteriza por tomar el poder apenas puede (?). Eso no me cierra.

Más allá de lo que he dicho, el final creo que no lo repasaron demasiado en cuanto a edición y la propia autora por lo que ya he enumerado. Se le escaparon un par de cosas. Por lo demás, se entiende y el epílogo está ahí, no sé, un poco desconectado de todo lo demás, demasiado adelante en el tiempo supongo. Eso no desmerece una trama enorme, un trabajo terrible, el enredo y desenredo de resultados y consecuencias (que NO significan lo mismo), que hacen de quien disfrute de las intrigas más el sci-fi, un clásico bien merecido.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final installment in a series of books that is actually one long continuous story: The Pride of Chanur, which is sort of a standalone introduction; then Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, and then this volume. These three make up essentially one very long book, but which had to be broken up into separate volumes for publication purposes, as C.J. Cherryh explains at the end of The Kif Strike Back, so you would definitely want to read all these titles, and in order.

This book sees the climax and resolution of the building chaos and threat of war that is rising in the volume of space known as the Compact, occupied by several star-faring races (including some inscrutable but potentially dangerous methane-breathing ones, with whom there can be no meaningful dialog so that they play no active role in the story per se but are always present in the background as a potential menace). The smallest and weakest of these races are the leonine hani, who occupy only their homeworld, but who have a small network of clan-based trading ships plying the space lanes. In the first volumes in this series we followed the events that swept up one of these traders, the Pride of Chanur, in the struggle between the sinister and aggressive kif, who want to prey on the rest of the compact members, and the inquisitive but amoral mahendo'sat, who would prefer to keep the status quo...at least until they can find a way to peacefully become dominant.

The variable that wrecks what had been a fragile equilibrium in the Compact is the discovery of a new race: humanity. Humans, at the time of contact, are divided into three main political entities, all at war with one another. Together, their space dwarfs the volume of stars occupied by all the races of the Compact, so everyone is understandably concerned about what happens when humans start coming into Compact space and making their influence felt. The mahendo'sat want to act as the channel through which humans conduct business, monopolizing their trade and becoming the biggest fish in what will now be a small pond. The kif, only just now becoming unified under one leader, what to seize control of the other races so they can be the only ones with whom the humans deal. And the poor hani—specifically Pyanfar Chanur and her crew aboard the Pride of Chanur—are along for a very rough ride. Pyanfar has had to pledge her temporary allegiance to one of the two kif strongmen vying for control of compact space, in order to redeem hostages he had taken from among her crew.

Since I don't want to give spoilers, I'll just say that nothing works out like anyone expects, and the final resolution is one of the most amazing in all the sci-fi I've ever read.

[C.C. Yager · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Compact space is very much in a galaxy far, far away from Earth and its solar system, but humans have definitely found it in this 4th installment of the Chanur saga. It's no longer only Tully and the human ship he was on but an entire fleet of over a hundred ships on their way to Compact space. What is their purpose? Who wants to deal with them? The Hani? The Kif? Or the Mahendo'sat?

Meanwhile, Pyanfar Chanur and her crew on The Pride of Chanur are caught between a rock and a hard place. Pyanfar is forced to negotiate with the Kif, and she learns that the Kif she encounters at Kfekt has his own problems as he works to consolidate his power. He's willing to use her and the Hani to achieve his ends, and in the process, suggests that the Hani homeworld will come under Kif control if she does not succeed. Thus begins Pyanfar's nightmare, trying to figure out what's really going on (along with the reader), and what to do to respond to it to ensure that the Hani homeworld is protected and her species continues. The stakes couldn't be higher.

So I was terribly surprised at how slow-paced this novel was. There was so much godsawful repetition without resolution that I almost put the book down forever several times. What entranced me about the first three novels was missing completely from this one. Although the epilogue brought some of that back. What kept me reading? I wanted to know who the villain was in this mess. I wanted to know if Pyanfar and her allies would prevail. But the action sequences were not precisely written which obscured a lot of the outcomes. Such frustration!

Another quibble: the Hani dialogue (and interior monologues) could have been edited down to cut at least 60% of the godsawful, gods and thunders, and gods rot yous, etc. The alien languages in this novel (and series) were extremely difficult to read, and especially the way the Mahendo'sat characters spoke in the "pidgin" was extremely difficult to understand. A writer should want her writing to be clear so that readers won't get frustrated and they can understand what characters are saying to each other.

So, only 3 stars for this one. I probably won't be reading the last book in the Chanur Saga series, either, unless it has more clarity and the aliens' languages aren't so difficult to understand. I'd recommend this novel only to sci fi readers who want to find out if the Chanur make it home after their adventures of the first 3 novels in the series.

[Herne's Own · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an old grey beard. 57 years old. Been reading sci-fi and fantasy since the early '70s. Mostly fantasy, mind you, but the occasional sci-fi as well. I remember hearing about the Chanur books way-back-when, but I was mostly into fantasy back then, and C. J. Cherryh was new to me, so I never got around to trying her books.

Fast-forward to now. Last year (2021), after a long dry non-reading spell, the Chanur series was recommended to me. And - miracle of miracles - I decided to give it a try. And - GODS - I am SO glad I did!!!

As you may have figured out from the above, I am mostly into fantasy. I LOVE reading fantasy - the magic, the fantasy races, the swords, the sorcery, ALL of it. I don't often read sci-fi, but when I do, I want LOTS of alien races, mysterious futuristic technology, interesting alien worlds. The more alien, the better. And Chanur provides this in spades!!!

These books are written through the eyes of the Hani - an alien catlike race. Humans are the aliens here. And a completely unknown factor in the politics of the alien races who comprise the Compact - an alliance of several alien species who have come together for the purpose of trade and peace.

I won't go into details here. I hate spoilers, and I won't spoil anything here. What I WILL say is that if you love sci-fi books with lots of alien species, politics, dealing and double-crossing, enemies who become friends, friends who become enemies, and action that will keep you on the edge of the seat, then this series is an absolute MUST!!!

I am off now to start Chanur's Legacy - the fifth and final book of the Chanur series, and - frankly - I can't wait! Five stars is not enough to give this series! Give it a try! If you're anything at all like me, I promise - you will not regret it!

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

C. J. Cherryh concludes her four volume saga of the Han with an exciting novel that ties up all the loose ends of the previous three books nicely. Happily there is a brief summary of ‘The Story So Far’ at the start to get your memory up to speed, as Pyanfar, the han merchant and her ship The Pride Of Chanur escape the space station Meetpoint, where skullduggery by an assortment of races abounds. Pyanfar has on board a Kif given to her as spoils but who has both a hidden agenda and invaluable information and can serve as a translator (if he can be trusted). They also have a Mahendo’sat they rescued from the Kif but he also has his own agendas, and the human Tully, who has just discovered and revealed that the Human ships incoming may be fighting amongst themselves as well as encroaching on other species’ territories. A rogue Kif leader, Akkhtimakt, has designs on breaking the trader hold of the Han and may be plotting to destroy the Han homeworld of Anuurn. Devious hani groundbound politians have made a secret agreement with the sthso which may put Anuurn at risk. The Chanur family have been set up as scapegoats, despite trying to stop the attacks. Secret deals, double-crosses and family troubles all make this a wonderfully alien view of relationships. With too much going on to possibly do it justice, let’s just say that things work out sorta okay and you should read all four books!