message 0058

• "Why I like C.J. Cherryh's books"
• Comparing C.J. Cherryh's Fantasy with her SF

>Date: 14 Dec 1992 07:18:34 +1100
>From: DAVIS@licr.dn.mu.oz.au
>Subject: Re: C. J. Cherryh List

>From: nancy ott <ott@ansoft.com>
>Subject: cherryhlist - more cherryh books
 >Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 11:08:48 EST

[list of other Cherryh works deleted]

Cherryh also contributes regularly to the Thieves' World series, and is 
arguably the best in that shared author series.

On another note, I would be interested in people's opinions comparing 
Cherryh's science fiction and fantasy works.  I have always felt that her 
strength was in her science fiction, where she writes good, gritty, 
believable and engrossing work.  I also enjoy her fantasy, but in my 
opinion her science fiction is certainly her strength.  Interestingly, 
though, I once heard Stephen Donaldson say that Cherryh was his favourite 
author and a strong influence on him.  That was in fact the first time I 
heard her name.

She has also managed to avoid the problem so many science fiction writers 
fall into: she has created a future history which is believable and 
internally consistent, in which different societies have evolved logically 
according to economic and sociological pressures.  Other authors with 
future histories seem to find themselves struggling, particularly as they 
grow older.  Witness Asimov, whose initial books in the Foundation series 
were fascinating and portrayed an Empire which was believable.  When he 
fell into the trap of trying to tie *all* of his stories into the one 
future history, the whole thing fell into a heap.  Heinlein was one of 
the earlier authors to write in an internally consistent future history; 
his had the problem of being very difficult to believe, however much one 
may or may not have enjoyed his stories (which is *not* the subject of 
this post!)


Ian Davis                             DAVIS@licr.dn.mu.oz.au