Chanur's Endgame

Every detail of this universe has logic and history. Cherryh drops you into this story just as he dropped Tully at Meetpoint. It is so well thought out that it seems highly probable we'll be meeting one of the Prides, (but hopefully not the Kif) when we finally develop "faster than light" drive. May we all live to see it.

Really anyone (smart) who loves sci-fi should really love this set but only along with the Chanur Saga. Overall, this is one of my favorite series of all time, and it still holds up, but really by todays standards two books is about the correct size. The entire Chanur story is a very cool one in which the Protagonist is a Lioness Privateer, along with her female cousins staking the families fortunes on their spacefaring business ventures. One day a hairless alien walks naked onto their loading dock bruised and bleeding, and thus begins the adventure. It makes for an interesting perspective, as the human is the alien, and thus has to have his words translated for the story. In Chanurs Endgame, we find the end of that story in Chanur's Homecoming, and the first story in the next generation of the family in Chanur's Legacy, as Hilfy, Pyanfur's willful niece gets her own ship and insist on having her own way. I hope that one day Ms. Cherryh might find it in her heart to grace us with a few more tales from Meetpoint Station. But in any case this is an excellent read!

For a very Cherryh Christmas (or Hannukah, or --?), give the SF fans on your list the five Chanur books in two omnibus volumes: The Chanur Saga, and Chanur's Endgame. I liked the Chanur saga: The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture and The Kif Strike Back, but I absolutely loved the Chanur's Endgame - the omnibus finis of the saga, with Chanur's Homecoming completing Pynafur's tale, and Chanur's Legacy moving on to the story of the mature Hilfy as captain of her own ship. I had doubts that I could enjoy Hilfy's story as much as Pyanfur's books, but it was everything I could have hoped for. I give both books in Chanur's Endgame a five star rating - and if it were possible, I'd give it a ten. Pyanfur's finale was full of political double-cross, suspenseful action, and the extremely alien aliens that Cherryh does so well. Pyanfur played for the highest possible stakes in a game of cross-species brinkmanship that would result in the destruction of her home world and her entire species if she made one false move. Hilfy's story was an amusing revelation of the shto', and has an ending I'll never forget. I love the humor and the intelligence that permeates C.J. Cherryh's writing. This Science Fiction fan says of the Chanur books: highly recommended.

Cherryh continues to be an excellent writer. I've owned the entire series in hardcover for years. I've also, reread this series several times along with her other books. very few dissappoint. The alien viewpoints are among the best written.