The Faded Sun: Shonjir

Again, as with _Kesrith,_ this is not a separate work, but merely the middle third of a very long novel about the postwar relationships between three very different species: the regul, non-warlike, physically unable to lie, who for two thousand years have hired the much more humanoid mri to fight their wars for them, and who have greatly benefitted thereby; the mri, psychologically as alien from humans as the regul, though they don't look it, and who will always do everything their own way, even if it means personal death and the end of their species; and humans, who seem not to have changed much after centuries in space. At the end of the first volume, the two surviving mri had been taken into the care (and control) of the humans, newly in control of Kesrith. Now, for reasons of his own, the governor has turned them loose in a ship with a navigational tape taken from one of their holy objects, which humans believe may lead them to unknown mri bases, but which the mri know will take them home -- back to the planet of their origins, which they had left apparently 100,000 years or so before. Accompanying them is Sten Duncan, a behind-the-lines tactical specialist who has become sympathetic to the mri. More than that, he finds that on this voyage he will not merely have to "go native," he will have to become as much a mri warrior as it is possible to become. And in that he eventually finds his true self. Cherryh continues to show the reader what each of the three species looks like in the eyes of the other two, which makes this trilogy a near-masterpiece of psycho-sociological inventiveness and understanding. Be sure to have the third volume close at hand!

Surviving a graceful extinction, the two remaining Mri are kept alive in the labs of human scientists and protected from Regul - for now. The Regul have destroyed all that remains of the Mri base on Kesrith, and look to exterminate them completely. With a great weight of guilt for betraying what he knows Melein & Niun's wishes must be, Duncan is sent with the Mri and two Dusei to pilot their return to the origin of all Mri life: their ancient homeworld. Dangerously quartered with them, Duncan must come to some uneasy arrangement, and it seems that nothing will do but that he renounces his humanity and becomes absorbed by the Kel. Trailed by human warships bent on discovering the extent of the Mri threat, and by Regul ship also, it is a race against time to arrive, forewarn, and prepare. As the trail of dead planets begin to streak past, all begin to fear for what will remain in the cradle of Mri civilization: Kutath. kotori [email protected]

Shon'jir, the 2nd book in the "Faded Sun" trilogy, is much better than Kesrith (the 1st book). It's not a matter of writing styles or ability (which are the same in both books: very good). It's just that in Shon'jir something actually happens. It even ends at a reasonable point (for the 2nd book in a trilogy). In the 1st book, Cherryh basically introduces the mri and the main characters In this book, she brings us through Duncan's journey (in all senses) towards the mri. A very good, very interesting book.