Owing to the screen size of your device, you may obtain a better viewing experience by rotating your device a quarter-turn (to get the so-called “panorama” screen view).
Search term(s):
Quick page jumps:
Standard Disclaimer:
This is a brief discussion of C. J. Cherryh and, of course, of some speculative-fiction books by Cherryh.
This discussion and list does not necessarily include every book by Cherryh: it includes only those books that I both know and like. Just as with the author list itself, omission of a particular item may mean I didn’t think highly enough of the omitted item, or it may simply mean that I have not yet sufficient familiarity with it. (In a very few cases, I have listed some books merely on the strength of my opinion of the author: all such books are clearly marked below, as throughout these lists, with a hash mark (#) before the title so you know what’s what.)
I don’t pretend that this discussion is a deep analysis. My intent is no more than to give you a rough idea of what kinds of tales Cherryh tells, how those tales are usually told, and what makes them and Cherryh worthy; in sum, to help you rank C. J. Cherryh (and the works by Cherryh listed here) on your personal literary “to do” list.
Regrettably, I have not yet had an opportunity to write an essay on this author, but the “Other Resources” section below will lead you to some information about the “Notable Books” listed farther down this page.
(Meaningless aside: why do so many people have trouble understanding that initials are separate entities?
Would those who blithely write—or type—“C.J.” also write, or type, “CarolynJanice”? Sigh.)
Cherryh has her own site, Welcome to C. J. Cherryh’s Worlds, but it hasn’t been updated since 2012; the current action is at her blog, Wave Without a Shore (though she also has a Facebook page). Another good resource is the C. J. Cherryh entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. There are a couple of dedicated fan sites: Alliance-Union (with a wiki structure), and Meetpoint Station (which seems moribund). There is a set of Cherryh discussion forums.
An interesting biography of Cherryh, The Worlds of C. J. Cherryh, by Andrew Liptak, appears on the Kirkus web site. Another take on Cherryh’s fiction is available at “The Imaginary Realms of Gilbert M. Stack”.
Other useful pages that deal with Cherryh’s work in general (as opposed to particular books) include “claustrophobic but cool” [archived copy]; “C J Cherryh: The Outcast and the Uncertain Mind”; “C. J. Cherryh’s Fiction” [archived copy]; “C. J. Cherryh, Science Fiction, and the Soft Sciences” [archived copy]; and “Military Command in Women’s Science Fiction: C. J. Cherryh’s Signy Mallory” [archived copy].
One other interesting resource is “Maps of C. J. Cherryh’s Fiction”, where “You can visually compare the position of places mentioned in C. J. Cherryh’s fiction relating to the Alliance/Union universe and consult a chronological summary of events related to each site.”
And an interesting sidelight is a succinct essay by Cherryh, “Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer’s Shortcut to Stronger Writing”, whose title is self-descriptive.
There’s lots more: Google Is Your Friend.
I could find none.
This web page is strictly compliant with the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) HyperText Markup Language (HTML5) Protocol versionless “Living Standard” and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Cascading Style Sheets (CSS3) Protocol v3 — because we care about interoperability. Click on the logos below to test us!