Customer Reviews

Forty Thousand in Gehenna

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This book just gets better and better as you read it.

It starts somewhat slow, as most of Cherryh's books do. I would contend, however, that it only _seems_ slow as you begin to recognize the characters and the plot lines.

Cherryh leaves us with an incredibly complex book. The complexity of the book is not in the characters, nor in the plot itself. Rather, she has woven perhaps one of the most complex societies and man:man, man:environment conflicts I've ever read.

The continuing question throughout the book is debated by people removed from the situation (I won't go in to details for the sake of the prospective readers), and new details come to life as the story progresses.

What really makes this book a shining example of what a good author can do is Cherryh's creation, quite literally of the ground up, of a new race. A new society. And describing that race, and that society, at every step of the way. Not only does she create conflict and strong interactions between characters and groups of characters, but she creates a new morality, a new language, and indeed a new culture.

This book shows the talent of one of Science Fiction's most gifted authors. Highly, highly recommended. I buy this book for anyone who will read it.

If anything this is more ambitious than Cyteen, though that novel will remain the greater one because of its scope and depth, the latter of which this novel tends to lack at times, though Cherryh is still better than most science-fiction writers. The events of this novel are referred to in Cyteen and that planet is still a big player during the course of events, but Cyteen was also a big part of Downbelow Station and you didn't need to read Cyteen to understand that one either. What you do need to understand is that this is one strange book, the basic plot is that colonists are sent to Gehenna which has these strange lizards and then they're essentially abandoned there and when people find them again this entirely odd culture that is hard to understand has grown up to live with the lizards. Most of the book is devoted to explaining the way this strange culture arrives at what it is, and that is probably the most fascinating part. The encounters between the scientists and the Gehennans are also classic moments and the characters are all well defined even if because the novel takes place over so many years they tend to pop in and out, so don't get too attached to many of them, because they don't stick around for too long. Overall definitely one of her better novels and on par with both Cyteen and Downbelow Station, it may not have the greatness of the former or the sustained intensity of the latter but in its exploration of culture and how it can be formed, Cherryh shows that she has few peers in the science-fiction world.

"Forty Thousand In Gehenna" is the story of a newly colonized Union planet. There is a twist on the standard colonization theme: the initial population of the colony is a small group of about 450 Union officers who will get the colony set up, using about 40000 'azi'. Azi are cloned humans routinely used as workers or soldiers by Union, indoctrinated to obey authority unquestioningly (see also the brilliant novel "Cyteen"). The novel quickly changes from a colonization story to a chilling study of psychology when authority on the planet breaks down and the azi, for the first time in their lives, find themselves without any guidance. This is Cherryh at her best - gritty, down-to-earth SF, told in a very matter-of-fact, no-frills prose style, uncompromising but very rewarding. This is not the best entry point for the Union/Alliance series but one of the finest and most unique parts of it.

This isn't really one of Cherryh's better books (it's certainly the most awkwardly titled), but it's not bad and it fills in some holes in her ongoing narrative about events in the Alliance/Union universe. Planets habitable by the human species, or by any intelligent species, are exceedingly rare. Gehenna is such a world, located on the fringes of Alliance-controlled space, and Union decides to sabotage any efforts its enemies might make to colonize by rushing in its own people. Union produces "azi" -- humans who are creche-bred and "programmed" for certain types of tasks based on intelligence and psychological type (read _Cyteen_ for everything you ever wanted to know about azi) -- so they naturally pack up 40,000 azi, along with fewer than 500 citizens, and drop them on the planet. The ships are supposed to return in a very few years with medical supplies, educational tapes, and birth labs for making more azi -- but they never show up. And pretty soon, the azi and their non-programmed children and grandchildren are running things on Gehenna. That's the set-up: What might happen when wild humans have to survive on a wild planet with only the rudiments of technology (which disappear as parts and fuel sources run out), and especially when the dominant native species turns out to be intelligent in a far different style than anyone could have guessed. Cherryh is an ex-English teacher, not an anthropologist, but she's especially good at creating exceedingly alien species. The vaguely reptilian calibans -- think Komodo dragons -- have no audible language and no opposable thumbs, and they have a thought process so strange in type and scale it takes a truly weird human to understand it, but they definitely have a society. And the azi-descended have to deal with that society if they hope to survive. The story stretches over the first couple of centuries on Gehenna, actually, as humans divide into a couple of warring cultures (one male-dominated and aggressive, one female and accommodational), and as Alliance rediscovers them and establishes a monitoring post. The characterization is rather weak except for the last quarter of the book, which is almost a separate story, and the details of the timeline and so on don't always agree with what we learn about the "Gehenna scandal" from other books in Cherryh's future universe. The calibans are fascinating, however, and the book is worth reading for that reason alone.

Cherryh is one of my favorite authors, so you'll need to temper my enthusiasm with that knowledge. I haven't ever read anything by her that I didn't like. And many many books (she's extremely prolific) that I absolutely loved. This is not one of her best - but it is very good. Combines science, genetics, sociology, psychology and great story telling.

The reason this isn't one of her best books is that it doesn't spend the kind of time with characters that it could. Her greatest strength is placing very real and complex characters into real and complex environments. But this book takes place over hundreds of years, and doesn't ever get deeply involved with any one or group of characters. So it doesn't shine like she typically does. But there is a greatness to this book and I recommend it to anyone who has read any Cherryh fiction. As a first exposure I'd stick to Downbelow Station, Finity's End, Merchanter's luck, or Cyteen.

For some reason, this book seemed to slide below the notice of the Hugo Award voters when it was first published in 1983. But in the years since, general opinion seems to have come to the conclusion that this one should be ranked with some of the best of her works, and at the very least should be read in conjunction with her Cyteen.

It's set in her Alliance/Union universe, but very little of that conflict appears here, mainly providing the background and the main reason why the planet Gehenna was colonized in the first place, with a colonist list of about a thousand `normal' humans, and forty thousand `azi', laboratory-bred clones who receive their instructions, education, orders, and outlook on life from programming tapes. On the planet their only real problem is how to deal with the supposed highest form of life on the planet, the Calibans, who build impressive geometrically shaped mounds but are thought to not truly be intelligent.

The book has a very slow start, as the scene is set, and we are given some brief looks at the initial shaping characters for what happens over the course of several generations. However, although slow, it has far less of the abbreviated, clipped style full of acronyms that most of her other books in this universe have, and it provides a solid foundation for what happens later in the book, without leaving the reader feeling lost in a very strange room.

About one-third in, though, we settle on single group of characters: a couple of anthropologists and a few of the descendents of the original azi. From this point on we are treated to a true tour-de-force, as Cherryh develops not just a very fascinating alien race with a very different outlook on and approach to life, one so different it truly qualifies as `alien' and not just some rehash of human traits transferred to differently shaped beings, and a culture of humans that in some ways is just as alien as the Calibans. Most of this is viewed through the lens of one of the anthropologists, and her own viewpoints, contrasted with those of the other scientists studying the culture, providing quite an illuminating (and somewhat satirical) view of the high-tech, scientific mindset.

By the end of this book, the result is remarkably impressive, and by its clear image of societies and civilizations that are not based on any standard human model, provides a viewpoint from which to view our own society and some of its foibles and quirks.

In some ways, this book is kind of prequel to Cyteen, Cherryh's truly great look at the morality and consequences of the azi clone technology, with a set of answers that are not at all the same as that book's. Both of these really should be read to see the full tapestry of the questions, problems, and effects that a cloning technology could have on the human condition.


---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

The jacket description informs us that C. J. Cherryh is "one of science fiction's most popular novelists", and it's true. She has sold millions of copies, despite having relatively low name recognition. What makes it more amazing is that her books are so different from ordinary science fiction. Not different in form: the plots and characters would sound rather plain. Rather, her books are different mood. They are melancholy, filled with an unexpressed and unexpressable sadness.

"Forty Thousand in Gehenna" demonstrates the point perfectly. A cursory plot description would make it sound like formula science fiction. Three massive spaceships are dispatched to colonize an alien world, bring a few hundred colonists and forty thousand slave-like clones. The planet is inhabited by several species of lizard-like creatures, the Calibans and Ariels, that build massive mounds for no discernible purpose.

Colonization gets underway, but almost immediately things go wrong. Technology breaks down, freak accidents occur, supplies don't arrive, the colony's leader commits suicide, newborn children are untamable, and the social order disintegrates. Within a generation the hope of colonization is dead. The descendants of the azi clones are left to build a new society in conjunction with the Calibans.

Personally I did not find this particular novel to be very gripping. I couldn't get attached to any character, and the rapid jumps over centuries of time harmed the narrative. I recognize what Cherryh is trying to do here: to tell a story from a perspective of humans so changed that they are basically alien. It would not be easy for anybody.

Forty Thousand in Gehenna (1983) is an SF novel in the Alliance-Union Universe. After the Company Wars, the Union settled colonies around Alliance space. These colonies were not intended to succeed as such, but only to keep the Alliance too busy to think about aggression. One of these colonies was on Gehenna II.

Three Union ships -- Venture, Capable, Swift -- carried 42,363 colonists to the Gehenna system from Cyteen Station. Of those colonists, 452 were citizens and 41911 were noncitizen clones.

In this novel, Colonel James A. Conn was formerly of special operations and is now governor general of the colony. Captain Ada Beaumont was also spec ops and is now the lieutenant governor. Major Peter T. Gallin was never spec ops and is now in charge of personnel.

Jin 458-9998 is an azi, a lab-born clone trained via memory induction tapes. His contract was bought by the government for the Gehenna colony. All his hair is removed and he is feeling erased. But he is told that he is doing well and is given some special tapes to make him feel better.

Pia 86-687 is also azi. She is chosen as Jin's mate. They are given special tapes to teach them how to produce born-man children.

All the colonists are offloaded onto Gehenna II and the ships leave. Additional personnel, equipment and supplies are scheduled to arrive in three years. These backup resources never arrive.

The colony soon has casualties. First Ada Beaumont, then Colonel Conn and then others. After the backup ships fail to arrive, the colonists become depressed and some commit suicide.

In this story, the native animals called "ariels" infiltrate the camp, going everywhere. Ruffles becomes a permanent resident in the main dome. She sits on her stack of boxes and watches the colonists.

Other native animals called "calibans" stay on the other side of the river at first, but eventually cross over and build their mounds on the nearside banks. These larger gray reptilian-like warm-bloodied animals continually build involved structures of mud and rock.

The exobiologists believe that neither the ariels nor calibans are sapient. Their behavior is too strange and repetitive to suggest intelligence. Then the brown calibans appear.

The Gehenna colonists begin to develop into something other than human. Some colonists -- the Weirds -- become silent and wander away to live in the caliban mounds. They seem able to readily communicate with the native animals.

Many colonists adopt a language of stone placement to communicate with the ariels and calibans. This language develops into a sign language based on the stones, although many carry a few stones to supplement the signs.

This tale recounts the conversion of the human population into alien thinkers. As they live among the calibans, the colonists begin to think in different patterns. When their presence on Gehenna becomes known to the other worlds, they become the subjects of scholarly research.

This work is typical of the author's alien relationship stories. When humans live in close association with aliens, they tend to adopt alien traits and thoughts. Such stories still continues in the Foreigner series. Enjoy!

Recommended for Cherryh fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of strange planets, strange sapients, and human survivors.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This is a very interesting account of what happens (or what can happen) if a large group of humans is left somewhere with no means of getting basic resources apart from what their environment can give them. On top of that they have to get along with the local species, of whom they understand very little. Well written and great food for thought.

Having read Cyteen and Regenesis, I picked this up to add to the backstory. I liked it but it felt somewhat disconnected from the story line of Cyteen and Regenesis.