Status
Available
Series
Collection
Publication
Grand Central Pub (1989), 327 pages
Description
"In space the line between patriot and pirate is as thin as a laser. And a lethal battle for power can be as near as your starship's next deck. Loki-mercenary spy ship and bounty hunter. It's the legal arm of the Merchanters' Alliance; but once enlisted, no crew member leaves Loki alive. Bet Yeager-a killer elite Earth Company Marine whose side lost. Now she's forced to escape aboard Loki, surrounded by enemies and hunting her old comrades. Yeager has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. A single wrong word can give her away. And the fighting skills she must use to survive may be her death warrant. The classic sci-fi series, brought to life with a full cast, sound effects and cinematic music! Performed by Karen Novack, Lise Bruneau, Ryan Reid, Rayner Gabriel, Mark Harrietha, Elias Khalil, Cody Roberts, KenYatta Rogers, Andrew Colford, Darius Johnson, Scott McCormick, Donald Guzzi, Julie Hoverson, Julie-Ann Elliott, Mort Shelby, Rose Elizabeth Supan, Eric Messner, Ryan Haugen, Tyler Hyrchuk, Christopher Graybill, Jacob Yeh, Michael John Casey, Terence Aselford, Steve Wannall, Bradley Foster Smith, Nora Achrati, and Yasmin Tuazon."… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
After telling the story of the future, Cherryh returns back in time in the immediate aftermath of the Company wars. Elizabeth (Bet) Yeager used to be a marine in the Maziani fleet (the Earth fleet) and when the Fleet pulled out of Pell, she got stranded there with no papers and no options (or
And here is where we find her - waiting for a ship to hire on so she can leave the dying Thule - and not having much luck. Meanwhile she survives the best she can, mostly starving, but still remains convinced that her day will come so taking a local job is not an option - that would kick her off from the top of the priority list for the next ship that comes along. And just when she is sure she can see her future changing, a weird ship shows up and despite her misgivings, she needs to change her plans - not only because the previous option seems to not be a real option anymore but because there are two dead bodies which she cannot really explain).
So what happens when the universe's most damaged marine meets the man who is nicknamed NG (for "not good")? Love happens, that's what. Not that either of them will admit it. Or even think of it. Except that Bet has a secret and NG is way beyond caring - until he does. In a way, the whole novel is a love story between two damaged people. But at the same time, that story just gives the background for the story of the ship and the aftermath of the war and yet another chapter in the history of the Alliance.
We rarely see the command of the ship (except when they are being nasty) and we see the story from Bet's eyes. So we learn things about the ship when she does, we think about them in the way she does. And she is just a grunt - a machinist on paper who has very little former training. She is not looking for a family or love but that is what she finds on the ship - albeit in an unusual way.
It's a story of redemption and a story about people. Because for all the space around them, the characters we get to see and love are the ones that keep the whole story together - to the final chapter where things finally get clarified, we finally get our answers... and then we need to leave Bet and NG and the rest of the guys behind. But none of them is the same person they were at the start of the novel. And we have yet another piece from the puzzle that is the Alliance.
The book can be read as a standalone - as usual Cherryh starts with the pseudo-document that gives you the basic outline of where are and then Bet supplies all other needed details. But it works better as a continuation of "Downbelow Station" and "Merchanter's Luck" - not because of the story line but because of the details - they give you background that makes it easier to understand some choices (and the treatment of the drugs during jump tie with the Chanur novels - as usual adding to the pieces from there so between the two, you get a better idea of how that works. And that is not unusual for Cherryh's writing in this series).
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history she cared to share - in the aftermath of the wars, the Fleet is regarded as pirates and worse and even hinting at an association with them is a bad idea). A captain gives her a job for a while but then has to leave her on Thule Station - one of the Hinder stars which ended up on the path of oblivion in the aftermath of the new discoveries and the Union/Alliance split. But at least this gives her papers - not an uncommon case after the massive destruction - there were people left with nothing from all sides of the conflict.And here is where we find her - waiting for a ship to hire on so she can leave the dying Thule - and not having much luck. Meanwhile she survives the best she can, mostly starving, but still remains convinced that her day will come so taking a local job is not an option - that would kick her off from the top of the priority list for the next ship that comes along. And just when she is sure she can see her future changing, a weird ship shows up and despite her misgivings, she needs to change her plans - not only because the previous option seems to not be a real option anymore but because there are two dead bodies which she cannot really explain).
So what happens when the universe's most damaged marine meets the man who is nicknamed NG (for "not good")? Love happens, that's what. Not that either of them will admit it. Or even think of it. Except that Bet has a secret and NG is way beyond caring - until he does. In a way, the whole novel is a love story between two damaged people. But at the same time, that story just gives the background for the story of the ship and the aftermath of the war and yet another chapter in the history of the Alliance.
We rarely see the command of the ship (except when they are being nasty) and we see the story from Bet's eyes. So we learn things about the ship when she does, we think about them in the way she does. And she is just a grunt - a machinist on paper who has very little former training. She is not looking for a family or love but that is what she finds on the ship - albeit in an unusual way.
It's a story of redemption and a story about people. Because for all the space around them, the characters we get to see and love are the ones that keep the whole story together - to the final chapter where things finally get clarified, we finally get our answers... and then we need to leave Bet and NG and the rest of the guys behind. But none of them is the same person they were at the start of the novel. And we have yet another piece from the puzzle that is the Alliance.
The book can be read as a standalone - as usual Cherryh starts with the pseudo-document that gives you the basic outline of where are and then Bet supplies all other needed details. But it works better as a continuation of "Downbelow Station" and "Merchanter's Luck" - not because of the story line but because of the details - they give you background that makes it easier to understand some choices (and the treatment of the drugs during jump tie with the Chanur novels - as usual adding to the pieces from there so between the two, you get a better idea of how that works. And that is not unusual for Cherryh's writing in this series).
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LibraryThing member FicusFan
The book after Merchanter's Luck in the Alliance-Union series.
Not bad, though not the best. The story of a spacer off one of the fleet ships who was on station when her carrier unexpectedly pulled out. She works as hire-on crew to get from one place to another, so she can find and rejoin her
The story is of how she ends up beached on an out of the way station which is slowly being shut down. Very few ships call in, and she can't get a berth and won't take charity or station work. She is also off Africa one of the ships on the losing side, so without papers and ID, and an explanation for her 20 years of space-faring she is reduced to joining a spook ship. A Alliance spy that finds info about carrier movements and passes it on to Mallory on Norway. She needs to find a home and settle in with a new crew and command, while keeping her past secret, all the while trying to avoid helping to kill her former ship and crew.
Not a bad story, main character is ok eventually. The problem is that running throughout the series is the obvious fondness Cherryh has for waifish, lost, thin, soulful young men. This time the POV falls for one and decides to throw over past loyalties and crew for him. This is in direct conflict with her actions at the start of the book, when she would rather starve than compromise her honor.
Also at some point it seems to become a bit romancey with the POV calculating everything around if her love-object is happy, sane, understanding her, and willing to accept her advances. Add to that the tendency of the POV to act like a whore with anything in pants and you have a less than optimal read.
There is the usual conflict with what appears to be a sadistic senior officer out to get the POV's love object, and the abuse of power and crew conflict that goes with it. The book seems to end with everything wrapped up nice and neat, and no explanation for the Senior's behavior, or whether it has really changed. He was the person who decided if they would live or die, and yet without resolution the problem just fades away.
Not bad, though not the best. The story of a spacer off one of the fleet ships who was on station when her carrier unexpectedly pulled out. She works as hire-on crew to get from one place to another, so she can find and rejoin her
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ship.The story is of how she ends up beached on an out of the way station which is slowly being shut down. Very few ships call in, and she can't get a berth and won't take charity or station work. She is also off Africa one of the ships on the losing side, so without papers and ID, and an explanation for her 20 years of space-faring she is reduced to joining a spook ship. A Alliance spy that finds info about carrier movements and passes it on to Mallory on Norway. She needs to find a home and settle in with a new crew and command, while keeping her past secret, all the while trying to avoid helping to kill her former ship and crew.
Not a bad story, main character is ok eventually. The problem is that running throughout the series is the obvious fondness Cherryh has for waifish, lost, thin, soulful young men. This time the POV falls for one and decides to throw over past loyalties and crew for him. This is in direct conflict with her actions at the start of the book, when she would rather starve than compromise her honor.
Also at some point it seems to become a bit romancey with the POV calculating everything around if her love-object is happy, sane, understanding her, and willing to accept her advances. Add to that the tendency of the POV to act like a whore with anything in pants and you have a less than optimal read.
There is the usual conflict with what appears to be a sadistic senior officer out to get the POV's love object, and the abuse of power and crew conflict that goes with it. The book seems to end with everything wrapped up nice and neat, and no explanation for the Senior's behavior, or whether it has really changed. He was the person who decided if they would live or die, and yet without resolution the problem just fades away.
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LibraryThing member daniel.links
I read the other books about the Cherryh's spacers a long time ago. She has certainly created an interesting fictional universe, and one where, while you can travel fast over interstellar distances, it is far from fun. I'm not sure this is the novel to start with, btu from memory I'm not sure which
My main criticism of this universe is that I'd like to know more about it - who is Mazzian?, what was the war about?, why did they fight it? - which perhaps speaks for how much you get pulled into these stories.
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other one is.My main criticism of this universe is that I'd like to know more about it - who is Mazzian?, what was the war about?, why did they fight it? - which perhaps speaks for how much you get pulled into these stories.
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LibraryThing member TadAD
The Alliance-Union novels can be read in any order, since very few of them are actually tied together. If you want to read the stories in the order in which they occur, this one is sometime after Downbelow Station.
A definite recommendation.
A definite recommendation.
LibraryThing member Karlstar
I remember this as a good, but not extremely memorable book. A spacer is without a ship and without resources, desperate on the fringes of settled space, and ends up joining a crew nearly as desperate. Like all of Cherryh's sci-fi, this is good, though perhaps not her best.
LibraryThing member FKarr
part of Merchanter/Alliance Universe; focused more on individuals (Bet & Ramey and the particular ship they're on) than the wider universe
LibraryThing member Phrim
Rimrunners begins as a story of a soldier caught behind enemy lines, who masks her background and earns a spot on the crew of a quasi-military starship for the other side. As a reader, I'm completely expecting a story about how she attempts to sabotage the operation and defect back to her side, but
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Cherryh doesn't go that direction at all. Instead, we're given a highly psychological story about what amounts to institutionalized bullying on this new ship, and the ex-soldier's attempts to fit in despite her background and her unlikely friendship with the black sheep of the crew. I have to admit, I didn't really get why those two were so attached. The ending was a crisis that's supposed to bring everyone together, but it didn't really work for me. Nonetheless, it was definitely an entertaining read, with page-turner suspense, as the reader tries to figure out what the heck is going on. Show Less
LibraryThing member clong
The Alliance-Union stories feature gritty settings and complicated characters who face difficult choices, often compelled to take on dangerous and ugly challenges. This one offers a decent enough story, I suppose, but I really didn't find much to like about the protagonist (or any of the characters
My least favorite Alliance-Union novel to date.
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for that matter), or particularly understand why they interacted with each other in the ways that they did. My least favorite Alliance-Union novel to date.
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LibraryThing member fuzzi
Bet Yeager has been marooned on a dying space station, looking for any berth out of there, but when she signs on with an unknown spaceship, the Loki, not only is she targeted for persecution, but her secret past is threatened with exposure.
I love Bet, and love the author's ability to create a
I love Bet, and love the author's ability to create a
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tough-as-nails yet vulnerable female protagonist. Recommended. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English