March 25, 2019
Cherryh (Emergence) and Fancher (’Netwalkers), expand Cherryh’s extensive Alliance-Union universe (which is fast approaching its 40th birthday), with this taut drama set aboard the star-orbiting Alpha Station. Although faster-than-light travel is possible, no FTL route to Earth has yet been discovered, leaving Alpha Station reliant on sublight vessels from Earth and FTL cargo ships from sparsely populated worlds further away from Sol. Tensions mount when an unidentified ship fast approaching Alpha Station turns out to be Finity’s End, captained by JR Neihart. It’s one of the newest and largest faster-than-light ships in known space and the model for The Rights of Man, a not-yet-spaceworthy vessel being built at Alpha Station by the station’s owner, the Earth Company, from stolen plans. Neihart’s revelation of a planned alliance of merchanters, which would make them independent of the stations they supply, is only the first news to send shocks through Alpha’s society. In addition, stationmaster Ben Abrezio is increasingly concerned about the Rights project, as its leaders have laid claim to most of Alpha’s incoming resources. Rather than rely on pyrotechnics, Cherryh and Fancher ground this fine work in the difficult choices that their characters must make in the face of an uncertain future. The economics and sociopolitics are as riveting as space battles, enhancing this welcome addition to the Alliance-Union saga. Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.
December 15, 2018
Fans of Cherryh will be delighted to return to her Union-Alliance universe (Regenesis, 2009) with coauthor Fancher (Nights of the Blood Red Moon, 2011). Thousands of years in the future, humanity has expanded to the stars, maintaining a loose connection to their home planet, largely due to the 10-year trip?each way?between Earth and the nearest station, Alpha. Alpha is the Earth Company (EC) base on this side of the universe, devoting most of its resources to a faster-than-light stream ship named The Rights of Man, a not-quite functional monstrosity built using an early version of stolen designs. The working model built from the final design, Finity's End, arrives at Alpha for the first time, following the arrival of three other, foreign ships. The sudden influx results in panic, puzzlement, and bureaucratic infighting as Alpha's stationmaster tries to prevent diplomatic disasters, and the Alpha-based spacers consider the information and offer that Finity's crew presents. Since the Union-Alliance books stand alone as parts of a larger universe, new fans can easily start here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)