Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
DAW Books (New York, 1982). 1st edition, 1st printing. 208 pages. $2.95.
Description
The classic sci-fi series, brought to life with a full cast, sound effects and cinematic music! The fateful meeting between the owner of a tramp star-freighter that flies the Union planets under false papers and fake names and a proud but junior member of a powerful starship-owning family leads to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station - and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts. Performed by Karen Novack, Shravan Amin, Elena Anderson, Ryan Reid, Keval Shah, Lucy Symons, Holly Adams, Christopher Williams, Nazia Chaudhry, Robb Moreira, Christopher Walker, David Cui Cui, Julie Hoverson, Peter Holdway, Eric Messner, Colleen Delany, Niusha Nawab, Nora Achrati, Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, and Yasmin Tuazon.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member FicusFan
Another wonderful SF story from Cherryh. The next book in the series after Downbelow Station. Takes place after the Pell becomes its own entity and the Merchanter's Alliance has become a power. It is the story of the damage and impact of the past and a destroyed childhood. It is also about families
More exciting action on ships and stations, wonderful characters, and settings. Simple story that lets the emotions and the characters shine through. The only bad thing is that it was too short.
Show More
both by blood and created, and the need to trust, to stop running at some point and face your demons - if not for yourself then for those who love you and need you.More exciting action on ships and stations, wonderful characters, and settings. Simple story that lets the emotions and the characters shine through. The only bad thing is that it was too short.
Show Less
LibraryThing member clong
Another strong entry set in Cherryh’s Union-Alliance universe, this one set shortly after the events of Downbelow Station, and focusing on people who live on the edge of the Merchanter society. If you are looking for believable characters (warts and all), and economic necessity driving people to
Sandor Kreyja is the last survivor of a space-going merchant family that lost almost everthing to a Mazianni pirate attack. Allison Reilly is a very junior member of a very rich space-going family, living a life of relative comfort but little purpose. A dockside fling brings them together on a mission that promises romance and adventure, but quickly spirals out of control.
This is about as far from the golden age “adolescent fantasy in space” story as you can get. I liked it.
Show More
do things they’d rather not, all set in a universe in which life is at times dirty, at times boring, and at times very scary, give these books a try.Sandor Kreyja is the last survivor of a space-going merchant family that lost almost everthing to a Mazianni pirate attack. Allison Reilly is a very junior member of a very rich space-going family, living a life of relative comfort but little purpose. A dockside fling brings them together on a mission that promises romance and adventure, but quickly spirals out of control.
This is about as far from the golden age “adolescent fantasy in space” story as you can get. I liked it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member KimBooSan
Cherryh is a master storyteller, and this book showcases her amazing talents at characterization and plotting. It is not one of her stronger books, I'll admit that, and I personally think it should have been titled "Ghost Ship" to represent the nature of the lead character's (Sandor's) character
What Cherryh excels at is the measured pace of experience as it happens; while she can write a cracking-good, heart-stopping adventure scene, her writing is first and foremost about what people are thinking and feeling as events happen around them. Pages and pages are spent getting a ship out of dock, or a character across the width of a space station, but the wealth of information we get as events unfold is mind-boggling. Nothing is scrap is Cherryh's prose, because every word means something or hints at circumstances.
Show More
development in regards to his past. In fact, the story really is more about the relationship between Sandor and his spaceship (named Lucy) than even about Sandor's infatuation with the wealthy and beautiful space merchanter Allison. The romance between Sandor and Allison is a plot point, and mostly reflects youthful folly and blind luck, while the story of Sandor and Lucy is profound, deeply moving, and far more important that any other relationship in the book.What Cherryh excels at is the measured pace of experience as it happens; while she can write a cracking-good, heart-stopping adventure scene, her writing is first and foremost about what people are thinking and feeling as events happen around them. Pages and pages are spent getting a ship out of dock, or a character across the width of a space station, but the wealth of information we get as events unfold is mind-boggling. Nothing is scrap is Cherryh's prose, because every word means something or hints at circumstances.
Show Less
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
This wonderful little book is a great reminder of just how good C. J. Cherryh can be and really makes me wonder why in the world I'm not reading more of her oeuvre. Fantastic high-tech space opera with really compelling characters.
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 follows shortly after the events of Downbelow Station.
A little less action than the latter, a little more romance...still
A little less action than the latter, a little more romance...still
Show More
a really good read. Show Less
LibraryThing member meersan
Down and out smuggler captain reluctantly teams with wealthy spacer girl to travel the stars and exchange blows with space pirates.
LibraryThing member fuzzi
I recently read this for the first time, and enjoyed it as I do most of CJ's books. I liked it a lot better than Tripoint.
LibraryThing member rivkat
The good: down-on-his-luck tiny-spaceship captain and high-status but junior officer on major vessel hook up and have apparently awesome sex, and he falls for her but their chemistry (which I have to take on faith) is not the most important thing in their lives, which also involve plenty of space
Show More
politics, leading to situations in which the captain thinks, for example, that his now partner Allison Reilly is about to kill him, and it’s not a wacky misunderstanding. The bad: it’s all allusions, to politics and to feelings both, so I felt constantly buffeted by undercurrents but was less clear on why I should care. It struck me as written in a particular kind of 70s style, if that makes any sense (though the publication date is 1982). Show Less
LibraryThing member anissaannalise
Man meets woman. Woman is way above man's station. Man falls head over heels & risks the only thing he actually has to see woman again. Trouble for man ensues. Timeless kind of story & made even more fun that this takes us back to Pell. This is a terrifically short book but a very good installment
The action was well paced & of course, everything came together in quite a nice end. The thread of having no family & having one that played out between Sandor & Allison (& the other Reillys) was excellent. Sandor's yearning for that sense of community balanced so well with Allison's yearning to break free of hers in order for a true chance to let her ambition soar. While I didn't love this as much as Downbelow Station, it's a very solid installment & I liked all the characters. As this was one of the only installments in the series that I lacked, I can now get on to the rest of the series in earnest.
Show More
in the Alliance Space series. I loved the first Downbelow Station & have some sort of obsession with life aboard a spacestation apparently. Sandor & Allison were well done characters but that's not surprising to me given that it's Cherryh. I really felt for Sandor being all alone with only his ship & trying to make his way along. I understood why he was tired of it all at the age of twenty-seven. He really was put through the ringer on station & that made me sad for him all the more. Tally & Mallory are enough to undo the most relaxed sorts, so Sandor didn't stand a chance. Allison, took a little longer to grow on me but I understood that her hyper-vigilance was not just necessary given the situation but also, sound. Space is a dangerous place & people on both sides of the line can be prickly. I was most excited to read what was going on on Pell & the peek in at the Konstantins. The action was well paced & of course, everything came together in quite a nice end. The thread of having no family & having one that played out between Sandor & Allison (& the other Reillys) was excellent. Sandor's yearning for that sense of community balanced so well with Allison's yearning to break free of hers in order for a true chance to let her ambition soar. While I didn't love this as much as Downbelow Station, it's a very solid installment & I liked all the characters. As this was one of the only installments in the series that I lacked, I can now get on to the rest of the series in earnest.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Phrim
Merchanter's Luck is a short, but enjoyable, read. I have to admit, though, I don't really get the premise. Allison meets some down-on-his-luck smuggler in a bar, and she turns around and decides to invest millions of her family's money, and put her life and those of four of her family members in
Show More
his hands, without so much as asking him about his past? Despite this, I enjoyed reading about the various character interactions, and the story's political setting (introduced in Downbelow Station) is very engaging, even if the characters here aren't the movers and shakers. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kardaen
One of my all-time favorites! The Company War is all but over, and things in Union and Alliance space are changing to accommodate the new realities. In the midst of all this a young ship's captain, the only survivor of a horrible pirate boarding, runs into a Union merchanter princess that makes him
Show More
throw all caution to the wind and bet his health and all he has to win her over. A unique sf romance with lots of action and very satisfying ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member wunder
Subtle plotting, keeping everyone off balance. The first sentence puts two characters together, so I knew that a few pages later, Allison would end up filling the empty crew slot on Sandor's freighter. But instead, she heads off, as scheduled, on her family's ship. And it keeps going like that. We
And still, it is a great story, an easy read, but with so much more than that first sentence suggests. It is a bit like the first time you have Thai food -- how is this sweet and tart and crunchy and soft, all in one dish?
Show More
know how space opera romance is supposed to work, and this one has a realistic streak that spurns that at every juncture while sticking tight to the genre. And still, it is a great story, an easy read, but with so much more than that first sentence suggests. It is a bit like the first time you have Thai food -- how is this sweet and tart and crunchy and soft, all in one dish?
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1982-07
Physical description
208 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0879977450 / 9780879977450
Local notes
"PROPERTY OF (over) JANET GOWER" stamped on first page.