Downbelow Station (8/19): Roll call and first impressions (no spoilers)!

[Shel, Moderator]

Post here if you are reading or planning on reading Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh! No spoilers please!

[Jim]

Read this one years ago. Will comment as appropriate in the spoiler discussion.

[Random]

I was just looking for a new SF book to read and had forgotten this one was coming up. Starting it today.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Finished this last week.

[Oleksandr]

Started it and so far (10% in) I like it. I previously read Cyteen, set in the same universe and found it interesting if a little too long. This one seems shorter

[Anthony]

I will get to it this month but have a couple other group reads I’m also getting to, so not sure when...

[Gabi]

Oleksandr wrote: "Started it and so far (10% in) I like it. I previously read Cyteen, set in the same universe and found it interesting if a little too long. This one seems shorter"

Same here! Cyteen was a bit arduous, but well done. Great to hear that this is the same universe.

I have it on audio and will start once Way of Kings is finished.

[Jemppu]

Another one here with the intention of joining in, once couple others have been cleared away from current reads.

[Oleksandr]

Gabi wrote: "I have it on audio and will start once Way of Kings is finished. "

So in a week or two :) for that magnus opus is quite a big book

[Gabi]

Oleksandr wrote: "Gabi wrote: "I have it on audio and will start once Way of Kings is finished. "

So in a week or two :) for that magnus opus is quite a big book"

I'm already half through ;) (and the first time I read all three books within a month)

[Fred]

Read it when it first came out, and several times subsequently. About a year after it came out (maybe longer, memory is hazy), Mayfair Games did a boardgame of it and C.J. Cherryh went to the Origins game convention (back when it was a traveling convention) and was wandering the vendor hall (where I was working) as Writer GOH (maybe the first time Origins did that?). I recognized her, I don't think many others did.

DB Station is one of my favorites, along with Merchanter's Luck and the other Alliance-Union books and the Chanur books. Love the settings.

[Jo]

Loved it when it first came out and read it several times. This time I don't like it as much. Times and tastes change.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Jo (Mixed Book Bag) wrote: "Loved it when it first came out and read it several times. This time I don't like it as much. Times and tastes change."

I’d be interested to know if you have ideas on why your opinion has changed about this book. Maybe stop in the Spoilers thread and share, if you’d like.

[Oleksandr]

I'm about 2/3 done and I still like it for unique approach (no spoilers, but in SF we usually see war from another perspective). One thing, which I guess could be done better are natives, "naive children" maybe takes it too far

[DivaDiane]

I have this on my bedside and started it a few weeks ago, but then I had to take a short hand luggage only trip and decided to take a smaller book along! I’ll get back to Downbelow Station when I finish Sabriel.

[Gabi]

I'm 20 % in and I'm having the hell of a time concentrating on the narration. I had the same problem with "Cyteen", but got into the story at that point.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I loved this book.

[Keith]

Late to the party. This will be a reread that might well get me through the whole Merchanter series swiftly followed the the Channurs.

[Anthony]

I was finally able to start this today and just finished part 1 and I’m very much pulled in. The universe Cherryh created feels complex, authentic, and frighteningly brutal, and I am very compelled by the many and various lives of the characters she has introduced so far.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

Anthony wrote: "I was finally able to start this today and just finished part 1 and I’m very much pulled in. The universe Cherryh created feels complex, authentic, and frighteningly brutal, and I am very compelled..."

Agree!