Hammerfall (Gene Wars)

The reviews really put me off and I held off reading the book until today; but guess what, I just finished reading the thing in one sitting (it is now 6 am and I'm debating whether I should catch an hour of sleep before work). There is a slower pace, but it seems right, and it is NOT dull or boring as some here claim; and the expected level of quality is there, I'd say easily on a par with foreigner series. The story is engrossing and internally consistent (as usual, I wish there was more of it); there are no logical inconsistency that can't be explained away if you read the story carefully enough for the explanations. Best of all, I get the feeling that this is only the beginning of the story line/series (this may in part explain the slower pace) There is a possible tie in with any of her universes (I'm hoping for Union/Alliance); I'm certainly interested in what happens next, please!!!

There are science fiction writers who are good, some who are excellent, and a few who are masters. CJ Cherryh is a master. I've read the comments of other reviewers and sense a great deal of impatience. Reading a book is not a race. Hammerfall is an excellent story written with prose that is a pleasure, with phrases, descriptons and characters that can be savored. The reason this book has been reviewed by so many is that CJ Cherryh is one of the pre-eminent authors of SF/F, past or present. For those of you who are in a hurry to get through life, go to a movie with lots of noise and bombs, but little substance. For those of you who take pleasure in the elegant details of life, read Hammerfall and take pleasure in it. I do have one confession to make: I too am impatient, impatient for the next oportunity to share in the imagination and skills of a writer as gifted as CJ Cherryh. For those of you who are already fans of CJ Cherryh, just read it and enjoy it. For those of you who are new to Cherryh, read it and enjoy it. A novel by CJ Cherryh is a promise of pleasure and Hammerfall is a promise kept.

C. J. Cherryh's novels aren't always the easiest to read, but they generally reward the effort you put into them. Certainly HAMMERFALL falls into this category.Marak is mad, haunted by voices. When the goddess of the planet learns that his madness is shared, she sends him, along with the other affected victims, in a search for the source of madness. What Marak finds is a threat to the planet itself, and everyone on it.What works in this novel is Cherryh's worldbuilding--her descriptions of the brutal desert world that Marak calls home, the storms that sweep across the desert, and the vermin who threaten anything alive. In HAMMERFALL, it is definitely the journey, not the destination, that makes the reading a pleasure.I enjoyed this novel very much.(...)

Since he was eight, Marak did his best to conceal the visions he saw and ignore the voices he heard because he knew either condition is considered a sign of madness. Those who are deemed mad are turned over to the Ila. Until he turned thirty, Marak successfully hid his delicate situation. He joined the war against the Ila, trying to break into the great city where she lived in splendid security. Marak confesses his illness and his father disowns him, giving him over to the soldiers for disposal to Ila. After traveling across the large desert, Marak meets the five-century-old Ila. Everyone who is dubbed mad hear voices telling them to go east. Ila wants Marak to do just that but report to her what he finds. After a long arduous trek, Marak reaches a tower where he meets Ian and Luz, Ila's peers, claiming that the world is coming to an end. If he is to survive he must return to this tower with Ila and as many people as will go with them. C.J. Cherryh is one of the most gifted science fiction writers of our time and with her latest novel, HAMMERFALL, she has created a new universe for the first time in thirty years. The story line reads like a modern day Noah's Ark as the audience keeps on reading to learn what happens as a world gets destroyed. Those sequences of scenes are brilliantly crafted. The protagonist is a hero as his actions and choices speak well of him as a person. Ms. Cherryh has another winner in this novel.Harriet Klausner

In a genre that frequently forgets it is not only adventure but also sociological commentary, C.J. Cherryh has shown that she is one of its authors who can be relied on for intelligent literature. Marak Trin Tain is one of his planet's mad-men, and by decree of the Ila he must be delivered given up to the Ila's men, that the taint of madness not spread. Marak's father betrays him, cuts off even what affection for his son that their harsh desert wars have let him harbor. When Marak reaches the Ila's capitol he is, seeming illogic as he is her enemy, charged by her to go east where the mad-men go, and find the root of their visions. She has had one herself, she tells him. So Marak goes, and finds love and the knowledge that he was not wholly dead nor his world ended. And across the Lahkt he finds people who take away this new hope; the Ila, they say, has done wrong and a reckoning is due, and the price will be his planet and the lives of his people unless he can bring them to the safety and oasis in the east. Marak returns to the Ila, and beyond all hope brings her from ruin on the promise of forgiveness. Ultimately, that is the theme the whole novel centers on: choice, salvation and redemption. This book will appeal to anyone who like her faded-sun cycle, and Cyteen; and to anyone looking for something new.There was some argument that the people in the east had ships which made the novel-length exodus unnecessary. But Cherryh only writes 'fliers', and there was no sense these could carry people. They seemed to be more information-gatherers. So there really were no holes in the plot. I hope you love this book as much as I did!