Faded Sun trilogy - CJ Cherryh

[J-Sun]

It's been a long time since I read either, but especially Dune and I have no notes on Dune (I only have notes on Kesrith from the Faded Sun - presumably got too swept up in the story to maintain them). I would say that the the mri are actually much better realized, complicated, and nuanced than the fremen (not saying that fremen are sketchy or anything) and I wouldn't say the mri are a warrior class. The kel within the mri are the warrior class (and there's quite a lot of sub-classification amongst them) while they also have the scholar/priest/other castes. And one of the strengths (and weaknesses) of the series is that the regul are no less lovingly detailed and the dusei are thrown in and we have 2,202 years of history[1] between them and more. I say weakness because I noted complainingly that I had "to learn a new language to read this" due to the huge number of details that are given alien words but was willing to do so and ultimately glad I did. For some folks, there is a high learning curve (usually sociological) to much of Cherryh and especially to this but I agree with clovis-man that, ultimately, it's one (or three) of her best and well worth it. The Chanur books feature even more of this in that she juggles twice as many races or so but I also agree with Teresa in a sense - she's talking subplots but it applies to focus generally and matches the stoic, taciturn style that clovis-man mentioned: by focusing on two main races with a human as the fulcrum, it's wonderfully complex but doesn't wander off or get fuzzy.

I think one of the things I like most about it is its balance and/or interwoven complexity and/or opposition of forces. However you say it, it's not "mri are warriors, regul are merchants, humans are dorks; mri are cool, regul evil, humans ordinary". It's not quite that any one rules the other - in one part of of my notes I say I'm confused because some people are acting arrogant or deferential in ways that seem inappropriate but, later, I figure out that some mri and some regul are "above" or "below" certain others of the other species - it's not a pure "master race" kind of nonsense. And similarly with the desires and virtues and everything else - they conflict and counterbalance but don't end up in some simple "yea or nay" valuation. I mean, sure, most readers probably have their clear preferences and sympathies but Cherryh doesn't really sledgehammer a cartoon black-and-white depiction to enforce those preferences.

And speaking of the style, there's actually something kind of Brackett-like about it. As I said, the characters are very terse and strong silent types like Eric John Stark and pals but the overall depiction, even if limited to a desert palette, is really vibrant and colorful.

Anyway - I have six billion things to read, I've recently bought a couple/three more, and I want to re-read about twelve billion things, including these. They're great.

[1] I love that Cherryh can indulge in SF's love of huge precise numbers in a perfectly natural way by making the regul eidetic.

 

[clovis-man]

Well, J-Sun, as I said earlier, I tend to over-simplify. Thanks for your much more nuanced thoughts. Well considered.

 

[J-Sun]

Sorry, I somehow neglected to reply - thanks for the nice words. If anything's nuanced, it's just nuanced notes. My first-hand memory, so to speak, was very vague. Like I say, this thread is great but also very frustrating as it makes me want to re-read very much when that's not on the menu.