Wonderful science fiction/fantasy of three species moving through space after a 42 year war. Their different cultures mesh and clash through the lives of the main characters. ( )

These books were written in the late 1970s. By a female author. That, in itself, would make this an excellent purchase. It is a fantastically written trilogy. The characters/races are distinct and individual and not "let's make this alien just like human" There is no overt "feminism" and yet the gender of the characters is fully irrelevant (and is actually explicitly de-centralized by the very nature of one of the alien species). There is no romance, no sob-story, no whiny "look what "we" did to that"....

I would put Cherryh up against any of the "old-school" sci-fi writers in story quality and the ability to connect to readers without a) weapon porn b) sexualizing everything c) glorifying humankind or d) trying to make up reasons to justify bad behaviors.

Books 1 and 2 were fully engaging. I will admit that book 3 had a bit of a lull around the 2/3 point, but it picked up very well for the last section. The story came to a satisfying close, and it was most enjoyable that in the last section we didn't know for sure how the ending would satisfy our urges for justice to be served.

t might take a bit at the outset to get used to the vocabulary, but it will settle in. ( )

C. J. Cherryh is very skilled at creating alien species, with their own cultures, thought processes, customs, etc. But did the last "book" in this "trilogy" need the "elee"? ( )

1.[Kesrith] Gets the full stars as no way I could stop reading. The humans have finally beaten the regul and as booty, get (among others) the planet Kesrith, also home to some of the mri warriors, in the employ of the regul. All three cultures struggle to comprehend one another, but most of the time the regul and humans understand one another (doesn't mean like one another) since both value rationality, logic, learning, etc even if in radically different ways. The mri are almost impossible to understand and are very misunderstood by both cultures. Enter SurTac Sten Duncan (essentially Special Forces, semi-autonomous etc) who ends up with the mri. Can't say more without spoiling. Wait, the mri have a somewhat symbiotic relationship with some semi-intelligent animals, the dusei (kinda like bears but way more complicated). The mri fit in the cherished Cherryh category with some traits that seem to fit the feline profile, but just barely in this case. Their culture is fascinating! *****

2. [Shon Jir] In this second of the trilogy, Duncan travels with the she-pan, Melein and Niun to Kutath, the home world of the mri. The distances are unimaginable involving scores of jumps and many years. On the way what they see chills them (can't say w/o spoiling). Also, on the way, Duncan works tirelessly with Niun, to learn the customs and language of the mri, to become, in short, a true mri. They arrive on a planet in the last phase, water is almost all evaporated, plants and animals hard-pressed. But there are still mri. And they are still in much danger from humans and regul who have followed them. And plenty of mystery as well. This was a true 'middle' book, setting the stage for the final confrontations. What is most interesting is how Melein and Niun make their way among their kindred, 80,000 years separated, (and due to the rigidity of their ways, not that different), and how Duncan is adopted into the greater population. *****
3. [Kuthath]Can't say much about this last volume without spoilage, but the question is how will the mri manage to survive with the regul absolutely hell-bent on destroying them and the human 'allies' having trouble distinguishing between self-interest and ethical behaviour. (If you do unto others what you consider a crime to have done unto you . . . what does that make you?). My only gripe is that at the last minute (and I mean that, the last 100 or so pages) a new element is introduced, hinted at earlier but maybe not quite enough?), to explain an aspect of the mri . . . to me, done a bit awkwardly. I give this final tome ****1/2 because of it -- overall the trilogy is a ***** star read, no question. Cherry's gift is for plunging a human into an alien world and then, as it were, observing what happens! This is done beautifully throughout -- including making the dus, the emotionally connected bearlike creatures integral. For the entirety *****. ( )

This one I found less engaging than those novels that take place earlier in the timeline of Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe.

I like this rating system by ashleytylerjohn of LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/profile/ashleytylerjohn) that I have also adopted:
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.) ( )