27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A long over due re-issue of 2 books, August 20, 2005
This review is from: The Deep Beyond: Cuckoo's Egg / Serpent's Reach (Mass Market Paperback)
The Deep Beyond title reflects that old adage of map makers of yore: Here there be Dragons. And the implied warning that Dragons rule their worlds.
Serpent's Reach was printed in August 1980 by DAW and Cuckoo's Egg was printed in October 1985 by DAW. Both, according to C.J. Cherryh's website, take place in The Alliance-Union Universe, but much further down the time line from her classic Cyteen. (Cyteen is a MUST read for any person interested in Science Fiction.) While I rate both books at 4 stars, I am suprised that Cuckoo's Egg from the Era of Exploration was paired with Serpent's Reach from the Era of Rapprochement. A more natural pairing would have been Forty Thousand in Gehenna with Serpent's Reach as both are from the Era of Rapprochment with a focus of humans merging into the Alien's societies. (I suspect as those two novels together would have about 700 pages, this may have forced the publisher's choice.) Cuckoo's Egg has a tricker focus hinted so strongly by the title Cuckoo's Egg.
All of Cherryh's work should be required reading in Science Fiction and The Deep Beyond brings out-of-print works back for fans old enough to have read the first printings and for new Science Fiction fans born since 1985. Oh, the cover of The Deep Beyond is the same as the 1985 1st Edition of Cuckoo's Egg.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reissue of two great C.J. Cherryh Stories, October 4, 2005
This review is from: The Deep Beyond: Cuckoo's Egg / Serpent's Reach (Mass Market Paperback)
The Deep Beyond contains two of C. J. Cherryh's great early works.
Serpents reach is a masterpiece of world building as it gives a totally plausible, totally believable world where Ants are the intelligent and evolved race. It explores how virtual immortality could affect wealth power and family relations. This is a great story about betrayal and revenge and acceptance.
The Cuccoo' s Egg is another great story that might be compared to the part (the part that you don't get to read., about when Valentine Smith is still on Mars.) of "Stranger in a Strange Land" As it is the story of a human boy raised on an alien planet by aliens, in an attempt to understand humans and to make up for killing humans. Hard to explain but a great read.
If you don't already have these two great stories... This is a great book to buy.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Growing Up Among Aliens, September 17, 2006
This review is from: The Deep Beyond: Cuckoo's Egg / Serpent's Reach (Mass Market Paperback)
The Deep Beyond (2005) is an omnibus edition including Serpent's Reach and Cuckoo's Egg. These early SF novels take place on alien planets rather than human space. Both are about young people who are raised among aliens.
Serpent's Reach (1980) is an SF novel in the Alliance-Union Universe. In 2223, the interstellar probe Celia discovered the majat, a sapient alien species, on Alpha Hydri III -- Cerdin -- in the Serpent's Reach. The majat body structure and organization was much like social insects such as ants. At the time of discovery, there were four different hives, each ruled by a collective intelligence with memories spanning millions of years.
There were no survivors from the Celia, but the hives did decide that each human was an individual intelligence. In 2229, the crew of the Delia probe was kept alive and, in 2235, under terms of the Hydri Treaty, one shipload of colonists was allowed to settle on the planet. These became the Kontrin Company. The colonists, however, brought a shipload of embryos, from which were grown the Betas. These Betas, in turn, grew clones of themselves, the azi, with biological timers that limited lifespan to forty years.
In this novel, Raen a Sul hant Meth-maren is Kontrin. She is the direct lineal descendent of The Meth-maren, destined to lead the family some day. For the past fifteen years, she has been learning the things that she should know to govern. Since all Kontrin have been made potentially immortal by the majat, she has many years of learning before she is old enough to have fun.
One day, the family estate at Kethiuy is visited by the Houses of Thon and Yalt, but these welcome guests bring others from the House of Hald and, worse yet, members of the Ruil-sept of the Meth-marens. Neither Hald or Ruil would have dared to set foot on the estate without Thon and Yalt. The Ruil cadet-sept has come to suggest a change in the relationships with the majat, but the talks are only a cover for an attack on the Sul-sept.
Only Raen survived the vicious attack by the Ruil-sept, Red and Gold majats and majat-azi. She manages to escape to the nearby Hive of the Blue majats and to convince the Hive Mother to help her wrest Kethiuy from the Ruil-sept and others who have assisted in the attack. She succeeds in destroying the Ruil-sept, but the Blue Hive is also destroyed and she is captured.
She is brought before the Council and Eron Thel, the head of the conspiracy, is almost allowed to relinquish Raen to her enemies. Yet Moth, second oldest of all Kontrin, protests that there has been no vote and Lian, the Eldest, agrees with Moth. Lian makes a speech, at the conclusion of which Moth kills all the known conspirators. Raen is banished from Cerdin.
Cuckoo's Egg (1985) is the third SF novel of the Age of Exploration Series, but is essentially a standalone work. Dana Duun Shtoni no Loghn is a Hatani, a judge without appeal. He has been called Sey -- general -- and Mingi -- lord -- but now he is just Dunn. He is unique, for none have been asked to judge so important a question.
Duun accepts the bundled infant from the meds and starts to care for him. He soon stinks of urine and excrement, but he does not clean himself off, for the infant is more comfortable with the stench. Duun does ask his friend Ellud to prepare Sheon, the estate where he grew up, to provide a simpler environment for the infant's development.
When Sheon has been cleared of the people who had claimed the property, Duun takes the infant there and raises him to be hatani. Since the infant differs from ordinary shonunin, Dunn has to adjust his lessons. Most things, like the five fingers instead of four, are insignificant, but the child grows up to be scent-blind and lacking much fur.
Duun calls the infant Haras, with Thorn as his use name. He teaches Thorn to never say "can't" unless he is physically, mentally or emotionally unable to do something and Thorn finds that Duun never asks him to do anything that he cannot do. Duun also teaches Thorn to deny many of his needs, for these are really only desires.
Duun also teaches Thorn hand-to-hand combat, escape and evasion, and other martial skills. Duun is better than Thorn at close combat, despite the severe injuries that had scarred his face and torso, but the damage to his knee made him less agile than Thorn while climbing. Besides, Thorn's feet gave him a better grip on rocks than Dunn's claws.
One day Thorn is running from Duun as usual, but heads down the mountain instead of up, for he knows that Dunn would expect him to use his greater climbing ability. He runs all the way down to the nearby settlement where he can expect food and water. As he nears the first house, he sees and hears two children playing in the yard. Thorn notices that they are not like him, but look much like Duun.
These stories are unrelated to any other works by the author. Serpent's Reach ends at a suitable point and fits neatly into the Alliance-Union universe. Yet Cuckoo's Egg ends with many dangling plot threads. Indeed, it is difficult to place this work in any of the author's known universes, although it is arbitrarily placed in the Age of Exploration Series. There is some question about whether Thorn is truly human.
Highly recommended to Cherryh fans or to anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures and cross-cultural relationships.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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