Hammerfall (The Gene Wars) [Mass Market Paperback]

C. J. Cherryh (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Gene Wars | Publication Date: July 30, 2002

One of the most renowned figures in science fiction, C.J. Cherryh has been enthralling audiences for nearly thirty years with rich and complex novels. Now at the peak of her career, this three-time Hugo Award winner launches her most ambitious work in decades, Hammerfall, part of a far-ranging series, The Gene Wars, set in an entirely new universe scarred by the most vicious of future weaponry, nanotechnology. In this brilliant novel -- possibly Cherryh's masterwork -- the fate of billions has come down to a confrontation between two profoundly alien cultures on a single desert planet.

"The mad shall be searched out and given to the Ila's messengers. No man shall conceal madness in his wife, or his son, or his daughter, or his father. Every one must be delivered up." -- The Book of the Ila's Au'it

Marak has suffered the madness his entire life. He is a prince and warrior, strong and shrewd and expert in the ways of the desert covering his planet. In the service of his father, he has dedicated his life to overthrowing the Ila, the mysterious eternal dictator of his world. For years he has successfully hidden the visions that plague him -- voices pulling him eastward, calling Marak, Marak, Marak, amid mind-twisting visions of a silver tower. But when his secret is discovered, Marak is betrayed by his own father and forced to march in an endless caravan with the rest of his world's madmen to the Ila's city of Oburan.

Instead of death, Marak finds in Oburan his destiny, and the promise of life -- if he can survive what is surely a suicidal mission. The Ila wants him to discover the source of the voices and visions that afflict the mad. Despite the danger sof the hostile desert, tensions within the caravan, and his own excruciating doubts, Marak miraculously reaches his goal -- only to be given another, even more impossible mission by the strange people in the towers.

According to these beings who look like him yet act differently than anyone he has ever known, Marak has a slim chance to save his world's people from the wrath of Ila's enemies. But to do so, he must convince them all -- warring tribes, villagers, priests, young and old, as well as the Ila herself -- to follow him on an epic trek across the burning desert before the hammer of the Ila's foes falls from the heavens above.

Written with deceptive simplicity and lyricism, this riveting, fast-paced epic of war, love, and survival in a brave new world marks a major achievement from the masterful C.J. Cherryh.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this well-done novel by the prolific, award-winning author of Precursor and Fortress of Dragons, two women with superhuman powers wage psychic and genetic war for control of a civilization. The common people remember the original colonization of their desert world in purely mythological terms as the First Descent. They're unaware that their seemingly immortal ruler, the Ila, has used nanotechnology to control their lives and modify their bodies for survival on their harsh planet. Marak Trin Tain, the outcast son of a desert bandit who unsuccessfully contested the Ila's rule, suffers from a terrifying form of madness. Like many others in this world, he sees visions and feels an almost overwhelming desire to walk out into the desert, heading blindly toward the east. When the Ila captures Marak, instead of executing him, she decides to send him (and a company of other madmen and women) on a desperate mission to discover the source of the obsession that draws them across their world. Unbeknownst to him, however, his civilization, indeed all life on his planet, is on the brink of destruction. Although this book may take place in a different universe from that of Cherryh's much praised Alliance-Union novels, it features her usual blend of gorgeous, slightly knotty prose, deeply conflicted heroes, desperate action and nicely observed cultural details. The first volume in her Gene Wars series, it leaves a number of loose threads to be tied up in later volumes, but is, in and of itself, an entirely satisfying novel.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Brought before the powerful ruler known as the Ila, the madman known as Marak receives a command to seek out the silver tower of his mad dreams and return with the knowledge of what the tower holds. Marak discovers, however, that reaching his destination is only the beginning of a greater and more dangerous journey. Cherryh's latest novel introduces a new universe of fallen technologies and warring interstellar empires, divine madness and world-shattering weaponry. The author of Fortress in the Eye of Time begins a new series with a powerful story that features a hero marked by his visions to save or destroy his world. A good choice for most sf collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061057096
• ISBN-13: 978-0061057090
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Cherryh, C.J.

More About the Author

I've written sf and fantasy for publication since 1975...but I've written a lot longer than that. I have a background in Mediterranean archaeology, Latin, Greek, that sort of thing; my hobbies are travel, photography, planetary geology, physics, pond-building for koi...I run a marine tank, can plumb most anything, and I figure-skate.

I believe in the future: I'm an optimist for good reason---I've studied a lot of history, in which, yes, there is climate change, and our species has been through it. We've never faced it fully armed with what we now know, and if we play our cards right, we'll use it as a technological springboard and carry on in very interesting ways.

I also believe a writer owes a reader a book that has more than general despair to spread about: I write about clever, determined people who don't put up with situations, not for long, anyway: people who find solutions inspire me.

My personal websites and blog: http://www.cherryh.com
http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore
http://www.closed-circle.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and boring, June 19, 2001

By 

Mark Snegg (Boone, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hammerfall (Gene Wars 1) (Hardcover)

CJ Cherryh reminds me of the little girl who, `when she was good, she was very, very good, and when she was bad she was horrid.' Unfortunately, this is one of the horrid books.

Although Cherryh's writing style has become ever more polished and skillful with time, the quality of her characters and stories are not always as consistent. In this case they are positively bad. Approximately 80% of this book is taken up with interminable descriptions of primitive tribesmen crossing a desert. The amount of science fiction is minimal, and there are no new or interesting ideas. The characters are flat, bland, humorless, and cloyingly politically correct. The story is boring, linear, and predictable.

There is a major hole in the plot you can drive a caravan through: A huge starship belonging to a sophisticated civilization has landed on one side of a desert. The people on the starship need to send a very urgent message a few hundred miles to the other side of the desert. Inexplicably, instead of using advanced technology, they entrust this urgent message to a caravan of primitive tribesmen, who must travel for weeks to deliver it. They practically drive the tribesmen (and the reader!) insane with continual fatuous mental messages to hurry up. Finally it's revealed that the starship had small `fliers' all along.

If a ten year old thought up a plot like this, I would laugh and gently point out the inconsistency. When a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author uses this as a central pillar of her story, I am left aghast by the magnitude of her self-indulgence and her contempt for the reader.

What happened to the believable characters and the powerful, original, fast-moving story of Downbelow Station? The layer upon layer of political intrigue of Cyteen? The unbearably poignant loneliness of Merchanter's Luck? The philosophical questions raised by Voyager in Night? The complex, delightful three-dimensional characters and zany humor of Hellburner and Tripoint? The nail-biting tension of the first Chanur book? Even the early Morgaine stories have a dynamism and humor that Hammerfall lacks.

This book is all style and no content. If you enjoy minutely detailed and repetitive accounts of tribesmen crossing deserts, you may enjoy this book. Otherwise don't bother - rather read one of the good books by this author listed above. Please, CJ, don't waste your own time writing inane and disappointing drivel like this, when you can do so much better. The hammer should have fallen on this book before it was written.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is not a bad book, March 14, 2002

By 

Mfitz... "Mfitz..." (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hammerfall (Gene Wars 1) (Hardcover)

From the reviews I'd read for this book I went in not expecting to find it very enjoyable, but I was pleasently surprized. This is not a bad book. It may not be on a level with Cherryh's best work, but it is a good read. Cherryh is know for her complex plots, and well drawn aliens, this book does not have either but it does not miss them. It is a simple straight forward story with a simple almost everyman hero. It pulls you into it's world and makes you care what happens next. It was a nice change of pace from the huge complex multi volume sagas that seem to be dominating the genera lately.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars C. J., Tell Me It Isn't So!, July 27, 2004

By 

David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hammerfall (The Gene Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)

I can't believe it. Prior to my reading this novel, I've loved most everything Cherryh has written. This is the first of her works that I haven't at least liked. It started out well: I was fully engrossed in the protagonist's trip through the desert. But then, after that, Cherryh had them travel back (with a probable trip back, again). Half way through that first return trip, I said enough was enough, nothing's happening, and put the book away. Aside from the utter lack of a meaningful plot, I just couldn't fathom WHY this was happening: one group of galactics needs to contact another, apparently fugitive, galactic and they take 30 years to do it via nanobots in the general population who then have to walk across the desert and die in droves to even find out that someone wants someone else to receive a message? Huh? Why didn't those galactics use some equivalent of a radio? At the very least they could have tried walking up to the front door and talking. How about skywriting? Dropping a message capsule on the city? Literally anything would have been more efficient than what they did. I don't know why Cherryh wrote this the way she did, but I hope it's not repeated.