Downbelow station ebook

It took me a long time to get to grips with Cyteen , but by the end I was a fan. Cherryh's style is dry very, very dry There's very little leeway given in Downbelow Station to ease you in - no exposition, no prevaricating, no tricks to smooth the ride. She presents her cast in difficult situations, and then lets you watch them as they try their best to deal with them.

End of. The benefit of Cherryh's approach is an absorbing, convincing world, full of little details and nuances which bind it into a strongly cohesive experience. The politics of the factions and their tactics and consequences all hang-together in a well designed siege set-piece. It's intricate and marvellous - but it's cold.

Every single character in Downbelow Station is a straight arrow. There's not one moment of humour to lighten the mood - and that was kind of unforgivable to me. Humour is a classic coping mechanism for dealing with stress and I find it hard to believe that trait will be lost in this future world!

I find it hard to believe that a spaceship can be crewed by loyal automatons, without banter and wind-ups - have you ever spent time around lads in the forces? Yes, there's love and affection, but no joy. At all. No love of life - no sparkleponies, damnit! For me and this is just my opinion, everyone's different when you're talking about war stories, part of the success lies in the dramatic tension, not just of how the situation will be resolved, who lives and who dies, but which side's principles and way of life will prevail.

I don't think Cherryh does enough to embody what the opposing philosophies represent. Life on Pell Station before the war seems During the war it's There's not enough colour or flavour to make me believe their way of life is really worth saving.

Having said that, there's not enough shown of the Union way of life to really guess if that would be better or worse. It's all just shades of grey and question marks. I said earlier that this is classic space-opera territory - but one of the hallmarks of space-opera is melodrama; big, bold, sweeping, romance, action - a universe overflowing with life and drama!

No, no, no - not here. I got a little annoyed with another review I wont name and shame which suggested this type of dry, almost technical sci-fi can only be appreciated properly by sufficiently intelligent readers. I call elitist bullsh! Downbelow Station is a good book - it's not a million miles away from being a great book - but Cherryh deliberately shuns many of the storytelling conventions which would have tugged at the heartstrings as effectively as it interests the head.

As such, for me at least, it's found lacking. After this I read: Hominids View all 9 comments. This remains one of my favorite books. Cherryh works on a large canvas here, combining interstellar war and political intrigue and complex, sympathetic or not so sympathetic characters, all in a future that feels "lived in" -- I almost feel like I've walked Pell Station's echoing docks, heard the crash of seals as merchanters came in to berth, been slammed against my seat as Norway pulls a high-G course shift.

Fortunes rise and fall, alliances shift, loyalties are tested, and the end comes at This remains one of my favorite books. Fortunes rise and fall, alliances shift, loyalties are tested, and the end comes at a pace that seems breathless without being rushed.

Highly, highly recommended. Apr 24, Stuart rated it really liked it Shelves: future-war , galaxy-spanning , favorites , military-sf , humanistic-sf. Several reviews of Downbelow Station complain that it is too dense and complex, the characters too unsympathetic, and the buildup too slow.

Some readers just gave up midway, but I think they missed out. Indeed, the book opens with some exposition to describe the complex political, economic and migratory history of humanity in the 24th century, to give the reader a modicum of grounding before throwing them into the action immediately afterwards.

In fact, Downbelow Station sets the stage for later events in that world, which are promising for readers who enjoy this book. Having never read one of her books, but having seen so many of them in SF stacks for decades, I knew I would eventually want to try one. Since won the Hugo Award, I thought this was the best place to start, and if I liked it I would then tackle her imposing Hugo Award winner Cyteen. The cast of characters is so large and the plot so complicated that I struggle to describe it, and also, revealing too much spoils some of the story.

Suffice to say that the overarching story is the struggle for power between an increasingly isolationist Earth, the Company that initially prospered by setting up mining and trade operations as humanity spread out to nearby star systems, the independent Merchanters that ply the star ways, the stations themselves, and finally the growing power of the Union, an alliance of outer world colonies that see no need to be shackled to outdated Earth policies.

As jump technology is developed, this complex web of economic and political ties is thrown into disarray, and all the parties are forced to vie for independence or supremacy amid shifting loyalties and stratagems. One of my favorite reviewers, Algernon, uses the analogy of a chess match, as all the pieces are laid on the board and make complex moves that affect all the players, from the most powerful pieces down to the pawns themselves. This may be why some readers found the opening chapters slow, but I appreciated the careful introduction of all the elements in this dance of intrigue.

So I found the payoff to be more than enough to justify the time invested. Ripley Sigourney Weaver in Alien. She is a match for any of the tough guy captains of this ruthless struggle. The one discordant note in the story, which probably led me to give it 4 stars rather than 5 stars, is the gentle, cuddly, and hairy alien race known as the Hisa, or informally as Downers.

Overall, I was quite impressed with Downbelow Station and highly recommend it. While there are some fairly dated parts, especially the constant mention of identification papers, documents and signatures, and hypnotic tapes that betray its origins as if we developed interstellar space flight but never developed electronic data storage , it is a good start to the COMPANY WARS series, and the larger Alliance-Union universe.

View all 4 comments. Jan 23, Rob rated it really liked it Shelves: read , science-fiction , own , sword-and-laser , author-female. Executive Summary: If you like politics and war in a sci-fi setting where the focus is on the people and not the battles, this book is worth checking out. If you're looking for a lot of space battles however, you may be disappointed. It's still early in the month but so far most of the discussion seems to be in the Is anyone else having a hard time getting started?

I must say I don't really understand this. Sure this book Executive Summary: If you like politics and war in a sci-fi setting where the focus is on the people and not the battles, this book is worth checking out. Sure this book is dense at times. The book also starts with a lot of world building.

It gives you several character perspectives as well. But it's well written, and the plot is compelling. It centers around a neutral space station over the planet Pell caught in the middle of a war between "The Company" and "The Union". To a lesser degree Battlestar Galactica. Mostly because the latter had a lot more space battles.

Cherryh doesn't spend pages detailing epic battles here. Sometimes you see the aftermath, or get the report of a distant battle when news reaches Pell station. There aren't completely missing however. I like a good space battle as much as the next sci-fi geek, but it's not a requirement for me. What this books does have is political-driven agendas, greed, ambition, and a surprising amount of compassion at least from some of the characters.

Unlike those books however, there aren't as many shades of grey. Or weren't for me. I knew pretty early on mostly whose good and whose bad, and I'm not suddenly surprised at the end. There are some exceptions however that seem to reside in a shade of grey, but not many. Overall a very enjoyable book. I'm a little disappointed to find out there is no true sequel to this book as there are a lot things I'm interested in reading more about in the aftermath. The conclusion is satisfying however, and I hope to check out more books in this universe at some point down the road, but I won't be rushing out to get the next book just yet.

View all 3 comments. The world of the novel Downbelow Station is realpolitik - a science fiction novel, with a plot which resembles the high-level decision-making historically made on Earth. I'm afraid sound-bite intellectualism is not enough to read this book with 'down below' depth.

If, gentle reader, you naturally mine news stories for the true story behind the publicly announced decision, then this book is exciting. Set in , various businesses which desire money and political interests which desire power The world of the novel Downbelow Station is realpolitik - a science fiction novel, with a plot which resembles the high-level decision-making historically made on Earth.

Set in , various businesses which desire money and political interests which desire power are smelling blood in the water. Earth people have set a course of isolating themselves from the other space-based communities. Earth is deeply disturbed by the finding of life on Pell's world, the furry sentient race called the Hisa ironically they are as genuinely culturally moral as the human race pretends to be.

Earth has decided space doesn't matter except for necessary mining activities, which Earth people do only on space objects as close to Earth as possible.

The Company is in flux, barely grasping the understanding its days as a powerful player in space are ending.

The Fleet, a police force, starved of funds and attention from Earth and The Company, is more pirate now than police. The Union, forced to the use of cloning birth-labs, an organization slowly developing from a few rebels resistant to The Company's taxes and control into a Communistic political power, has become reliant on its own resources and technology.

Far more people are being born on space stations, starships and planets other than Earth. Everyone is beginning to realize that Earth and The Company are no longer relevant, but despite the growing new centers of political power, people are reluctant to throw off centuries of belief, custom and authority from Earth.

Predatory behavior by the Fleet and The Company are weakening bonds and historical links from the star-stations and the merchant starships for Earth. Tensions are rising while the interdependent organizations are deciding with whom to ally themselves. Star-stations and merchants are finding themselves caught between the interests of The Company, The Fleet and The Union, despite declaring their neutrality.

The Union has declared itself as the sole authority of the Beyond and is attacking star stations and planetary business installations. The Beyonder Rebellion has been gaining momentum for decades and now refugees are flooding Pell. Pell Station can be described as literally in the middle politically.

Developed and managed by the Konstantin family, circling the planet known as Pell's World inhabited by the absolutely darling Hisa characters, they provide supplies and resident housing to transients and minors, politicians, businessmen and military travelers. But nothing has prepared them for these political struggles. As the last free star-station between Earth and The Beyond, the war has reached them. The refugees, brought by the Mazian Fleet vessel Norway , which is commanded by year-old Signy Mallory, cannot be refused landing.

The Fleet is armed, the station is not. The refugees are filthy, traumatized and desperate. It's possible Union spies are among them, but the chaos of transporting thousands has made checking identities almost impossible. However, one refugee is clearly Union, possessing the unearthly beauty of lab-grown humans -Joshua Talley, a prisoner-of-war. But he is claiming asylum on the neutral Pell Station, asking for 'the Adjustment'. Damon Konstantin finds Adjustment morally reprehensible, but as the son of Angelo Konstantin who is in charge of Pell, he must assess and decide.

Damon's wife, Elene, a former Merchanter, is processing the refugees down in the dock areas, and has received news all of her family has died aboard her famlly-based merchant freighter starship. Damon's brother, Emilio, is at Downbelow, located on Pell's Planet. Emilio is taking over from Jon Lucas. There has been disturbing reports of abuse of the Hisa which has necessitated recalling Lucas to Pell Station.

Lucas hates the Konstantins more than he hates the Hisas. Adding to the stress, Company men, led by Segust Ayres of the Security Council, is looking for transport to jump him to the new border between The Union and Earth, but Mallory is refusing his authority, a sign of the growing independence of The Fleet from its former employers.

Ayres wants to negotiate a truce with The Union. The refugees have selected a man, Vassily Kressich, to represent them in the Pell Council. The Pell Council is trying to decide how to handle the new influx of refugees who they have temporarily placed in Q, or quarantine. Unfortunately, the refugees are organizing criminal gangs in Q, and are short on law, resources and space station territory.

Kressich is unfortunately a coward and not a leader, and the gangs keep him hiding in his room. Opportunities for betrayal and grabs for political power grow, conspiracies for murder are planned, alliances are reassessed and reform, secrets are being revealed and exciting battles for survival ensue.

Then the Union warships arrive. No one is paying attention to the Hisa, the simple, sweet, non-violent Hisa, who are seen as hairy primitives only capable of housework and little else, who are all over the star-station and Pell's Planet. I think this is a brilliant book written by someone with a genius intellect. It required mastery of realpolitik political science and a deep awareness of human nature and perhaps someone who has met Machiavellin-style politicians and military leaders.

Or, even more likely, an author who has such a mind herself! We are in an era where simple vocabulary and simple lessons are the rules for being published and being popular among many readers, for example, a book describing the moralistic quanderies of sparkling vampires is promoted as amazing new teen 'literature' preparing 21st century youth for the travails of being adults. How frightening is that? No matter how simple and plain-speaking, or dumb-downed, we seem to want the education of the general population to be religious and politically-correct 10th-grade knowledge being the recognized successful attainment level for graduation from secondary school , this in no way prevents political manipulation or moral depravity occurring in government or business.

I prefer books that explain how the real world works in order to understand how society actually functions. Whether you approve of books which show what is behind the curtain of respectability and conformity or not, the fact is that unpleasant realities exist and having a clever educated mind is better preparation for adult life. Ok, opinionated lecture over. I highly recommend this book!

The innocent, 'love you! Boy, do they have a surprise for everyone. View all 12 comments. Jun 05, Wanda rated it really liked it Shelves: female-authors , aliens , reading-project , speculative-fiction , read-in I pictured their bodies as rather large baboon-like primates, with the faces of surprised baby orangutans. They definitely had their own thought processes and ways of communication, very foreign from those of human beings.

There are two schools of thought among the human population—treat the Hisa harshly and force them to do things the human way or recognize them as beings in their own right and get things done through co-operation. The peopling of space also reminded me very much of the days of European exploration of our world, when sailing ships went out into uncharted waters and returned with experiences that no European had ever dreamed of before.

Once out on the ocean, these explorers were on their own and would be making their own decisions within the framework specified by the powers that had sponsored their expeditions.

Just as in Downbelow Station , it was commerce which inspired the vast majority of these adventures, but the outcomes were not necessarily what was originally anticipated. The war scenes, with shifting alliances and priorities, can be compared to virtually any modern war and probably many ancient ones as well.

The where and when of war changes, but the basic events stay repetitively the same. No one had even considered the internet or mobile phones at that point. I think it was rather prophetic of Cherryh, back in , to see the role that big corporations were going to play in future human politics.

As we watch large multinationals stick-handle around various national laws, taxes, and other constraints, we see some of the Downbelow Station world coming of age before we have even left the planet.

Downbelow Station provides a great prologue for further adventures in the Union-Alliance universe. This is title of my science fiction and fantasy reading project. Aug 11, Stephen rated it really liked it Shelves: multiple-award-nominee , award-nominee-hugo , award-nominee-locus , political-fiction , award-winner-hugo , , dark-and-gritty , easton-press , humans-rule-the-galaxy , science-fiction.

Superb world-building, fantastic character development and excellent writing are the highlight of this Hugo award winning novel. Nobody does complex geopolitical plots like Cherryh and this is a great example. Classic space opera by a master writer. Oct 14, Andreas rated it really liked it Shelves: , science-fiction , award-hugo , reviewed , awards , award-nebula. Great world-building regarding political, social and cultural relations and history.

Astonishingly, this space opera is a bit weak w. On the other hand, there are obsolete technologies like lots of paper printouts, central computers or magnetic cards to open doors.

But it works very good as a Hard-SF and I think I've never read a better example of live on a space station. It is a quite Great world-building regarding political, social and cultural relations and history. It is a quite complex novel with multiple interleaving plots involving lots of characters playing political games. The story starts very dry, which made me think of reading a newspaper article.

I didn't know which character or plot line I'd like to follow. I found nearly no emotions at all beside the atmosphere of tenseness. Later on, there were some emotional peaks - e. But you won't find romance, melodrama or even much action which I usually associate with space opera. And in the last pages it ends in a fire-work of tense action and turnarounds contrasting the slow first half of the book.

There is this important Sigourney Weaver style spaceship captain Signy Mallory who is a real hard mom to her crew but has no problems at all shooting outsiders for nearly no reason. I can't think of a harder contrast to Bujold's light hearted Vorkosigan saga - maybe with the exception of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars. I recommend it to lovers of Hard SF who don't need ish technology forecasts to enjoy a story.

Shelves: speculative-fiction. I became a fan of C. Cherryh early in my life and, despite some stumbles in her latest stuff, remain so.

For me, Downbelow Station is a nearly flawless novel. If so inclined, the reader can skip it. Elene Quen: Merchanter families are close-knit clans. But Elene and Damon are experimenting. In the riots that erupt when the Company moves in on the station, she winds up fleeing with the merchanters and becomes instrumental in changing the balance of power between Union, Pell and Earth.

Emilio Konstantin: Emilio is the oldest son of the family, and in charge of Downbelow when the station falls — first to an internal coup and then to the Mazianni. Josh Talley: Josh is an armscomper captured by Mallory. Segust Ayres: Ayres is the Earth Company representative who has come out to negotiate a peace with Union whether Mazian wants one or not.

Admittedly, Cherryh gets better at creating truly alien species cf. Both characters — Mallory and Ellen Ripley — are remarkably similar. My orders come from him. It was ours. We believed in you. The stations — all of us — believed in you, if not in the Company. What happened? Quite possibly , she thought.

She leaned back in the chair and found nothing to say. Here was the refuge, one secure place the war had never yet reached, but it was the lapping of the tide.

The worlds of the far Beyond were winning, and certainties were changing, on both sides of the line. She had a way of moving that made no noise, no swagger, no, but it was, perhaps, the unconscious assumption that anyone in her way would move.

They did. Any tech who had to get up did so only when Mallory was patrolling some other aisle. She had never made a threat — spoke seldom, mostly to the troopers, about what, only she and they knew. She was even, occasionally and before the hours wore on, pleasant. But there was no question the threat was there. Most residents on-station had never seen close up the kind of gear that surrounded Mallory and her troops; had never touched a gun with their own hands, would be hard put to describe what they saw.

He noted three different models in this small selection alone, light pistol; long-barreled ones; heavy rifles, all black plastics and ominous symmetries; armor, to diffuse the burn of such weapons … that gave the troopers the same deadly machined look as the rest of the gear, no longer human.

It was impossible to relax with such among them. Why was he not advised before this raid? I knew where they were. And there are no Norway personnel involved in the market. We do not guarantee that these techniques will work for you.

Some of the techniques listed in Downbelow Station may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them.

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Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to science fiction, fiction lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:.

Cherryh Free Download pages Author C. Release 02 December Subjects Fiction Science Fiction. Search for a digital library with this title Search by city, ZIP code, or library name Learn more about precise location detection. View more libraries The Hugo Award-winning classic sci-fi novel about interstellar war. The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth.

The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.