message 0159

• C.J. Cherryh's shorter stories

>Date: Wed, 2 Jun 93 09:36:25 -0500
>From: bjgaed@ccmail.monsanto.com
>Subject: cherryhlist contribution

Over the weekend I read a rather old CJC "short novel" (about 75 pages) from 

1985.  It appeared in a collection of three such works in book form:  

_Alien Stars_ edited by Elizabeth Mitchell (Baen, 1985).  This also included 

works by Joe Haldeman and Timothy Zahn.



The story is called "The Scapegoat".  It is set in the Union/Alliance universe 

well after the events of _Downbelow_.  Union and Alliance and Earth have banded 

together to make war on a race of aliens who have attacked human ships and one 

planet.  Humans are winning the war through superior technology, but they know 

very little of their enemy.  The aliens just keep throwing more and more troops 

at the humans with staggering losses.  Humans cannot understand why the aliens 

keep fighting when they have so obviously lost the war.



Most of the story centers on the interaction between the first alien to actually 

make contact with the humans with the goal of attempting to make peace.  The 

story is not particularly exciting or well-written, and you will miss the depth 

of character development that occurs in CJC's later works.  But the story does 

develop very well the theme of communication between alien species and CJC's 

oft-quoted statement from the Chanur series about not making war on someone you 

can't talk to.  



If you are interested in this theme in CJC's works you might try to hunt this up 

in the used bookstore.  I have no idea if it is still in print, but I doubt it.



Bruce Gaede