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Parts of this message can be found in the following threads:
>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant>
>Subject: cherryhlist
>Date: Wed, 9 Dec 92 10:14:23 GMT

> >From: seth@cie.uoregon.edu (Seth Scott)
> A question, to whoever wants to field it:  having read only the _Chanur_ books
> and being of a mind to read the rest of Cherryh's work, where 'should' I start?
> Is there a particular chronological order that I might find helpful, or a 
> particular order that I should avoid...?

	The Union/Alliance books in chronological order are:
Heavy Time   ---Fleet
Hellburners  ---Fleet
Downbelow Station ---Fleet/Alliance
Rimrunners  ---Fleet
Merchanter's Luck ---Alliance 
Voyager in Night ---Alliance
40 000 in Gehenna ---Union
Cyteen ---Union
Serpent's Reach ---Union

I'd read them in the order: Downbelow station, Merchanter's Luck, Rimrunners,
40 000, Cyteen, Heavy Time, Hellburners (these two get a lot of impact from
knowing their 'future'), Voyager, Serpent's Reach.

> >From: Jo Jaquinta <jaymin>
> >Subject: CherryhList: AZI Ubermaunch

> 	*Would they be "human"?* Biologically they are just as human as
> you and I. We are all "cultrualy programmed" to a certain extent as well.
> We learn what we are taught and (generally) stay within the norms encouraged
> by society. Such an AZI culture seems to me to be so very artificial. How
> do they advance? Can you build in creative adaption without introducing
> instability? One might assume so. If not then you end up with a rigid,
> monolithic society that would be devastated by any general change.  So lets
> say you have this dynamic, stable, humane culture. Are they human or
> are they machines? If they are human then do they not have a superior
> culture? Which brings us to:

	Azi can learn, it's just that they already have 'all' the knowledge
they need to do their jobs. Obviously, azi in the military will need to be
able to apply further experience to what they already know, and so on. What
Emory introduced was a desire to teach what they knew and what they had learned
on to their children. _40 000_ shows azi adapting and being creative where
others failed.

> 	*Is it all ethical?* 

	No. For all the moral posturing of the researchers in Resuene, I
think the basic humanity of the azi has been lost sight of. Emory said
she didn't want to create a slave caste, yet hundreds of years later azi
are still slaves, now with a 40-year lifespan -- built in redundancy. It's
disgusting.

> (1) Talking with some friends about their travels in Sweden they remarked
> how most of the women there were extremely attractive ("Statuesque"). Yet
> they ooohed, and ahhhed over one of them who was shortish with mousey
> brown hair. "She is so exotic!" One wonders what perceptions of beauty
> an AZI culture of Resune-perceived-beauty would have.

	None, I would think, overall. Azi rate people by how well they do
their job, not by their looks. Granted, Jin in 40 000 was vain, but this
had as much to do with his abiliities as an alpha as his looks. Azi are
just not interested in what they look like.

				Lesley