The novel “Chanur’s Homecoming” by C.J. Cherryh was published for the first time in 1986. It’s the fourth novel of the Chanur series and follows “The Kif Strike Back“.
Pyanfar Chanur must juggle a number of more or less serious threats that come from various sources. The whole Compact has been shaken by clashes between various species and between factions within some of them, and the Meetpoint Station is at the center of some of the toughes conflicts. Among the hani there are also contrasts with the Ehrran clan opposing the Chanur clan.
More than ever, understanding who are the allies and who are the enemies makes the difference but there are many unknowns, beginning with the news about the humans’ actions as their role is still far from clear even if Pyanfar Chanur has their representative Tully aboard her spaceship. The right choices will make the difference for her, for her planet and for the whole Compact.
The Chanur series belongs to the fictional universe created by C.J. Cherryh called the Universe of the Alliance-Union universe in which many stories written by the author are set. It’s set in an area of space far from the planets protagonists of other stories so it can be read completely autonomously.
“Chanur’s Homecoming” represents the final book of a trilogy which in turn is the direct sequel to the first novel of the Chanur series so to have a complete understanding of the characters and events you must have already read the previous books. Ideally you should read them in a short period of time because C.J. Cherryh develops a sophisticated series in which there are various species and complex relationships among them and within the hani society, the one the protagonist Pyanfar Chanur belongs to.
Book after book, the situation has become increasingly complex because the series is a space opera but from the beginning the intrigue element has been important and in “Chanur’s Homecoming” becomes even dominant. That’s because the encounter with human beings triggered a chain reaction destabilizing the balance within the Compact. Pyanfar Chanur found herself in the middle of all this, a captain expert in trade forced more and more to face political problems and in some cases even military problems since the risks of space battles between different factions increased.
The consequence of all this is that the amount of action is lower than in previous books, even if there’s no lack of really intense moments. A good part of “Chanur’s Homecoming” is about Pyanfar Chanur’s attempts to extricate herself from the various factions’ machinations to save not only herself and her crew but also her planet as it’s now involved in the clashes too.
The problems related to the various species’ mental processes and to the consequent difficulties in communication are part of the Chanur series but generally have been functional to the plot becoming central only in isolated cases, in particular when C.J. Cherryh told the attempts to establish real communications with Tully. In “Chanur’s Homecoming” they’re important because Pyanfar Chanur must try to understand the motivations and the way of thinking of characters of various species to hope to get out of trouble.
For this reason, the novel consists of dialogues even more than the previous one and the pace is kept high on many occasions by the excitement with the tension given by a very dangerous situation for Pyanfar Chanur and her crew. The plot becomes really intricate also due to various characters’ machinations, even too much for the readers who prefer a more classic space opera based on adventure and action rather than exposition.
The protagonists were developed in the previous books but C.J. Cherryh still offers some insight about Pyanfar Chanur and her husband Khym in a moment of near-peace when they have a chance to talk about their past. This also offers more information on the hani society and how the hani who chose to basically live in space returning only occasionally to Anuurn, their home planet, are now different from the ones who stayed on the planet.
Honestly sometimes the plot becomes convoluted, making it difficult to follow all the possible ramifications given by the various species’ different mental processes, but overall “Chanur’s Homecoming” seemed to me a satisfactory conclusion of the trilogy formed together with the two previous books of the series. If for you that kind of complexity is not a problem I recommend you read this series.
Permalink
Permalink
I think a valid comparison can be made between Hani and Humans in re: the whole planet-bound vs. spacer mentality, as Earth’s first sublighter crews quickly developed a mindset and culture peculiar to themselves which soon put them at odds with “Blue Sky” humanity.
The big difference is that while Humanity bootstrapped itself into space, first with sublighters to the Hinder Stars and beyond, and then with FTL after the Bok Equation was formulated on Cyteen, the largely Medieval-sounding Hani were given spacer and FTL technology by the Mahendo’Sat. Humanity has had, it seems, a longer time as a space-faring species for these divergent attitudes and cultures to develop, and for the different factions to adapt to each other.
It’s definitely interesting that so much about Humanity isn’t really discovered by the Compact — the whole Alliance-Union-Earth nightmare is but the tip of the iceberg. Pyanfar often muses on the jumble of Mahendo’Sat languages yet knows nothing of Humanity’s mind-boggling number of cultures and languages, nor the extent to which English — which presumably is the language Tully tries to program into that translator — is made up of words lifted wholesale from other languages, with handfuls of synonyms for even simple concepts.
It seems the three big trading players in the Compact (excluding the xenophobe Stsho) — Kif, Hani, Mahendo’Sat — all make the mistake, at least initially, of looking at Humanity as either this pack of Johnny-come-lately rubes just waiting to be fleeced, or as hapless, fumbling, weak (humans have to trank down to travel through Jump, after all) clueless neophytes. It’s funny to think that Humanity may have been in space as long, if not longer, than several of them.
The idea of the rapacious Mazianni fleet dropping into Compact space, complete with riders tearing about, and Carriers toting troops in the thousands — the Compact really has no clue what’s come knocking at the door.
(One does have to wonder where this secret Mazianni planet we’re told about in “Tripoint” is located, as it sounds like it may be off towards Compact space. One also has to wonder if — though we’re never actually told — the Knnn were the ones responsible for the Marie Celeste-ing of old, haunted Beta Station).
Permalink
Thank you for your insight, your comparison among the various spacefaring players is really interesting.