Heavy Time [Mass Market Paperback]

C.J. Cherryh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1992

Asteroid miners Bird and Ben encounter an adrift ship in an asteroid belt that's inhabited by a half-crazy spacer named Dekker. When they tow the ship, they find their livelihoods--and their lives--in deadly danger. "Proves that high-tech science fiction need not sacrifice literary values".--Publishers Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sure-handed Cherryh returns to the award-winning setting of Rimrunners and Cyteen , taking readers to the frontier where independent asteroid miners Morris Bird and Ben Pollard are struggling against the increasing economic domination of the bureaucratic Company. A mysterious distress signal leads them to a wrecked ship spinning out of control, with its sole remaining crew member, Dekker, crazy and near death. Bird and Ben haul him and his ship back to Base, enduring Dekker's mad ravings and debating the ethics of claiming the craft as salvage. Soon, however, the issue becomes far more complicated--Dekker's story suggests a murder and a Company cover-up, and the political crisis he sparks threatens to do more than deprive Bird and Ben of their salvage. Superbly rendered--with believable social, economic and political backdrops, complex characters, and a tense, well-paced plot--Cherryh's novel proves that high-tech science fiction need not sacrifice literary values.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A pair of independent claim-seekers in the asteroid belt answer a distress call, discover the remains of a ship and its half-crazed survivor, and tow their salvage to the nearest way station--where their trouble begins. Sf veteran Cherryh returns to the world of her Merchanter novels ( Downbelow Station , DAW, 1981; Merchanter's Luck , LJ 9/15/82) for a tightly plotted drama of human politics, double dealing, and treachery amid the stars. The author's singular ability to create a believable vision of a spacefaring future is exceeded only by her talent for populating that vision with "real" people. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446362239
• ISBN-13: 978-0446362238
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great & Heavy Read, December 15, 1999

By 

Hugh Brown - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heavy Time (Hardcover)

I am a huge fan of CJ Cherryh work and Heavy Time was one of the first books I read of hers.

Looking back, it is a slighty easier read for those who are familiar with CJ's Merchant/Union Universe. Heavy Time is the earliest book in the timeline of the series.

Having read it several times, I can thoughly recommend it. With not a lot of exposition, it is a well plotted story with complex characters that although you some times dislike them, they are flawed in ways that makes them very believable. In this book Cherryh has told a gritty a some times dark story, dealing with themes as the abuse of corporate power, personal selfishness and sacrifice, plus nobody writes beliveable politics in SF like Cherryh does.

If you like this book, read HellBurner which is a direct sequel to the events that happened in this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavytime-Merchanter Universe, July 26, 2000

By 

Stronghold (Odenton, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heavy Time (Mass Market Paperback)

C.J. Cherryh is one of my favorite authors. I have to say that her Merchanter universe is perhaps the best conceived..the most developed and the most logical future world that I have read about. Heavy Time takes the readers back to the very beginning of the Merchanter timeline..the beginning of the Earth Company Wars. I recommend reading Heavy Time and the immediate sequel Hellburner together..they go best that way. Cherryh as always has believable characters in believable situations. You find yourself certain that someday in the not so distant future this is how things are going to be....

With plenty of suspense..action..and even a touch of romance this is an excellent novel.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Collision Course: Rocks, Space-ships, and Corporations, August 13, 2002

By 

Patrick Shepherd "hyperpat" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heavy Time (Mass Market Paperback)

When is paranoia justified? How do you know if you're mentally stable? What should the limits of corporate power be? These are some of the questions that Cherryh asks in this book, and gives at least some intimation of what the answers should be.

This book represents the earliest shown time-point in the Merchanter/Alliance/Union universe, before the war has really broken out, and stays entirely within the solar asteroid belt and at sub-light speeds for its action. Here we have the ASTEX company controlling the great majority of the mining of the asteroids, with only a company limited role for independent prospectors. The main story revolves around Dekker, rescued from his damaged ship by two other independents, Pollard and Bird, and the slowly brought to light details of just how Dekker's accident occurred in the first place.

Dekker, with all his mental problems from his accident, and Bird, as the older, experienced independent prospector, are very well realized characters. Pollard is not as fully realized, but he is far more fully developed in the sequel to this book, Hellburner. The society of miners, the space station environment, and the economic structure are a little hard to get your mind around at first, as Cherryh presents bits and pieces of these items almost as side items to her action and dialogue. But by the end of the book, you begin to realize just how well she has created and defined this near self-contained world, so different from most Earth societies, but with recognizable points of similarity, of definite humanity.

The problems of this book come from this same style of presenting facts to the reader in regards to celestial navigation. Unless you are well versed in this subject, and can extrapolate from a single sentence of description to an entire scenario of vectors, g-forces, and delta-v requirements you will probably find that there are several action sequences that either don't make much sense or don't carry the high feeling of danger that they were intended to. This is minimization of expository material taken to the extreme.

Cherryh's prose style for her Merchanter books has always been very abbreviated, clipped, full of unexplained acronyms, with a large number of incomplete sentences. This style is good for providing a sense of tension and fast action, and does well in this book as she slowly reveals the details of just how the Company is trying squeeze out all the 'little' people and take total control of the Belt, but it does take some getting used to.

The action of this story drives Cherryh's thematic points, on the need for human independence and companionship, the depths of unbridled greed, the tenuous line between real and unreal within the mind, and the necessity for all people to keep on doing what is possible, regardless of odds.

A very good action story, but really needed a little more background and explanatory material to make a solid, cohesive whole. Required reading before starting Hellburner, however, where the problems of this book fade away and the full power of her envisioned world can be seen.