Customer Reviews

Hellburner (Questar Book)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hellburner is one of my favorite Cherryh books, and a rare example of a sequel which is better than the original. If you like subtle humor, great characterization, and a complex plot, you'll enjoy this book If you enjoy anything to do with flying, test pilots, fighter aircraft, and the 'right stuff' you'll love it. But if you're looking for a book with good guys, bad guys and lots of shooting, try something else.

The humor is the best in any of Cherryh's books. I don't often find myself laughing out loud while reading, but I found myself doing so again and again with Hellburner, even on a rereading. Particularly the first few chapters are very, very funny indeed. It's delicate, out-of-your-face humor, though, and I imagine that there are a substantial number of readers who wouldn't find it funny at all.

The plot concerns the development of the rider ships which operate from larger warships in Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe. It's set in the early years of the war, and younger versions of several characters from Downbelow Station appear. Four of the five main characters from Heavy Time are back, and end up as test pilots. Most of the book takes place at a military research establishment on a space station in Earth's solar system. There are vast, complex intrigues and sinister plots, as different factions of the military, the politicians, and the large corporations working on the project try to influence the design of the powerful new ships. There is also a dire mystery to be solved, but as is often the case with Cherryh, the solution is not satisfying. However, the development of the characters, especially that of Ben Pollard, the humor, the powerful verbal clashes, and the satisfyingly consistent complexity make it well worth reading. If you enjoyed Downbelow Station, Tripoint, and Finity's End, try Hellburner.

There are very few sequels that measure up to the quality of the first item, let alone exceed it, but this is one of them. As a direct continuation of the story begun in Heavy Time, we meet Pollard, Dekker, Sal, and Meg again, now involved in the prototype testing of the first of the rider ships that figure prominently in later stories about the Alliance/Union war.

But, like most Cherryh novels, very little happens in a simple, straightforward way. Instead of proper, objective testing, with each test run's results carefully and scientifically analyzed and appropriate changes made, we find ourselves in the middle of a horrendously complicated multi-corner battle between the designing corporations, Senatorial committees, two competing military factions, and near social war between Earth-born test pilots and those raised in the asteroid belt, each of whom is driving their own point of view of how the equipment should be configured and the pilots trained. And just to throw in a further complication, we start the book with Dekker back in the hospital after a disastrous simulator accident which may be no accident at all, but rather attempted murder. But Dekker can't remember how or who put him in the simulator. The problems of the 'Hellburner' itself, of how you handle an attack ship moving at significant fractions of the speed of light, where your targets must be described in terms of probability arcs, of vector changes and millisecond decisions even with major computer help, are fascinating in their own right, an excellent setting around which to weave her plot.

How Cherry resolves all the plot complications is exemplary, and along the way she makes some striking points about bureaucracies, military organizations, graft, political 'influence', leadership qualities and styles, and the beginnings of the ethical morass of the 'azi' clones that she covered so well in Cyteen. Her ending is not telegraphed, and ties up all the loose ends while setting up the situation and people of her later books of this universe. About the only real disappointment was her solution to Dekker's 'accident', as it did not tie directly to any of the major players or points of the novel.

Characterization is very strong. Pollard, only partially developed in Heavy Time, here becomes a real, believable person that is easy to identify with. Lt. Graff (an important player in later stories) is easily recognizable to anyone who has ever served in the military, and even Dekker emerges from amnesiac cipher-hood to become the embodiment of the pilot with the 'right stuff'.

Once again, though, readers unfamiliar with Cherryh's style may have a very rough time getting into this book, with her clipped, abbreviated, and incomplete sentences riddled with abbreviations and alphabet-soup acronyms. For this reason I'd highly recommend reading Heavy Time directly prior to this novel, though it is not absolutely required, as then the reader will start this book with both the background to this story and familiarity with this style.

One of her better books, on par with Downbelow Station, though not quite up to the brilliance of Cyteen, and an excellent introduction to her entire Alliance/Union universe.

The magic of this book--as with just about all of Cherryh's novels is the development of the characters.

It isn't a book about good vs evil--but rather about what happens when everyday people are caught up in hopeless, dangerous and ludicrous situations.

The reader will almost be able to see the characters in the flesh because they are so believable.

For sf hardware fanatics--they will not be disappointed. Cherry does an excellent job in portrayting believable and realistic weapons and spacecraft.

This is a must read for fans of the Alliance-Union universe. It gives the reader a look at the beginning of the Mazianni. Cherry takes the 'pirates' of "Rimmrunners", "Tripoint", and "Merchanter's Luck"...and puts a human face on them.

Cherryh is unique amongst SF authors.

"Hellburner" is a direct sequel to "Heavy Time," and I strongly recommend you read "Heavy Time" before starting on "Hellburner"-- the book probably won't make much sense if you don't.

As in "Heavy Time," there are two major questions: Who killed Paul Dekker's friend(s) in an "accident"? Is Dekker himself sane? The accident itself, as in "Heavy Time," occurred off-stage, before the book begins. I have to admit, when I opened the book and found Dekker once again nutty, I thought, "Oh, oh, here we go again..." Luckily, Cherryh dispenses with this faster than she did in the first book, although not perhaps fast enough.

Ben Pollard, whom I found to be remarkably unsympathetic in the first book, is rounded-out in this one, and a lot easier to tolerate. Dekker remains-- annoyingly-- a cipher. The way in which some of the major characters from "Hard Time" were later introduced into the book seemed contrived. Plot-wise, "Hellburner" ends up being pretty unsatisfying. Everything seems to happen in the last few pages, and the final resolution is more of a tease than a resolution. Still, I have read worse.

Speed is of the essence.


A new technology to defeat enemy ships has a small problem, it requires a pilot with the fastest reflexes to operate. There is such a man, but his longevity isn't good, it seems there just might be some political plotting going on whose aim is to get rid of him.

After something suspicious happens his friends come to investigate and see if they can protect him.

Skullduggery, conspiracy, and space military abounds.


3.5 out of 5

Cherryh has written some magnificent space epics, but this wasn't one of them. I had my hopes up; with a title like "Hellburner," and set in the Pell universe, how could it go wrong? Alas, there was no action, just a great deal of talking among characters I didn't like about bureaucratic turf wars (and I can get as much of that as I want just by going to work in the morning). Perhaps I would have enjoyed it had I read "Heavy Time" first, but if I'd been keeping a running journal of my reactions, it might have read thus (paraphrasing an old Matt Groenig cartoon):

Page 1: Oh boy - something's going to happen!
Page 50: When is something going to happen?
Page 100: Nothing's happening.
Page 150: Nothing's still happening.
Page 200: Maybe something will happen in a different book.

So I cut my losses and gave up at the halfway point.

This is the most boring book I have ever read. For well over one hundred pages I have read nothing but endless military jargon and page filling conversations that go nowehere. There is no action and probably won't be for some time judging by the snail's pace this book has taken so far. I doubt if I'll bother completing this book. Maybe I'll give the author a second chance and read one of the other books such as Cyteen or Downbelow Station, but this book is definitely dry. Maybe I'll keep the book for when I have insomnia.