Brothers of Earth

I first met Carolyn Cherry (as she was in real life) a few months after the publication of this first novel. She was my age, still an Oklahoma City public school teacher back then, and had journeyed down to Texas A & M at a friend's suggestion for AggieCon, one of the livelier regional science fiction conventions. She wasn't a "fan" in the con-attending, filksinging, masquerading sense (even though her brother was well-known sf artist David Cherry) and seemed a bit bewildered at being lightly mobbed by those who had read her book and recognized her nametag. The story starts with the crashlanding on a backwater world (galactically speaking) by Kurt Morgan, only survivor of a warship destroyed by the Hanan, an enemy (also human) with whom Morgan's people have been at war for two thousand years. This world turns out to be inhabited not only by a not-quite-industrial native culture but by a degenerated group of humans as well. The city of Nephane is run by the only other civilized human around -- who happens to be a Hanan sole survivor. Morgan is adopted into a local, very powerful family and finds himself walking a tightrope between his new friends (with whom he develops great empathy) and the boss lady -- who has no reason to trust him, but she's lonely. The plot involves the contending ethnic cultures of Nephane and the city's rivalry with the metropolis across the sea from which its original colonists came. (Think Greek vs. Persian and Doric vs. Ionic, which is reasonable because Cherryh has a strong background in the classics.) But the real theme is the nature of society, civil vs. religious culture, and recognizing The Other -- or even just accepting its existence. This is anthropological science fiction of high quality, remindful of Ursula LeGuin, and I think it's still one of her best works.

Brothers of Earth (1976), is the first novel of the Hanan Rebellion subseries in the Alliance-Union universe. Kurt Morgan was a crewman on the Endymion, an Alliance ship, which had followed a Hanen ship away from the destruction of Aeolus. Both ships are now dispersed atoms, with Kurt the only survivor. His life capsule brought him down on an alien planet. In this novel, the nemet find him sleeping on the seashore by a large bonfire. They think that he is signaling for help, but he is merely careless of any possible natives. Since he is on Tamurlin land, Kurt might have met death at the hand of fellow humans; three centuries ago, the planet was ruled by the Hanen, but then the nemet rose up and drove the invaders into the wilderness. Now Kurt is bound for the nemet port of Nephane. On the way, he begins to know Kta, the ship captain; they discuss many things and learn to get along with each other. All is well until they enter the port and it finally becomes clear to both human and nemet that the ruler of Nephane is Kurt's enemy. Kurt goes over the side and tries to drown himself, but Kta and his crew save the human and talk him into staying alive. He is taken to Djan-methi, the Hanen ruler of Nephane. She knows who he is from his ID disk and he quickly learns that she is alone in Nephane. Aeolus had finally sent another party to the planet and she is the only survivor; in fact, she herself had killed a few of the other Hanen. Djan has a Sufaki lover and seems to favor the conquered natives; she takes Kurt as a temporary lover and then releases him to Kta and the House of Elas. Kurt becomes house-friend of Elas, meets Mim (a clani of the house), and later marries her. He tries to ignore various provocations by the Sufaki who follow T'Tefur, Djan's former lover, but later he is kidnapped and beaten and then Mim is taken and abused. When he goes to Djan after escaping, she refuses to believe his story. Kurt leaves the city. Then Djan ejects Kta's father from the Upei -- the ruling council -- for daring to confront her and Nym commits suicide in protest. Now Kta is outlawed, an exile from Nephane. Both Kurt and Kta are being hunted by the Sufaki activists. This novel is a story of civil conflict, both within Nephane and between Nephane and Indresul, the Indra mother country. A millennium after the conquest, the Sufaki are beginning to resist their assimilation by the conquering Indras. At the same time, Indresul across the sea is preparing to regain their lost province. These conflicts invoke within Kurt painful memories of the millenium-long war between the Alliance and the Hanen. This novel is very characteristic of many later works by this author. The storyline is much like the Chanur stories: a lone human is stranded anong aliens with strange customs and has to learn new ways. The ultimate story with this theme is probably Cuckoo's Egg, where the human is brought into the alien environment as an infant. Highly