Shon'Jir (The Faded Sun, Book 2) [Paperback]

C. J. Cherryh (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alliance-Union Universe

Sten Duncan had saved the lives of the last warrior and the last priestess-queen of mankind's enemies, the mri. He had come to understand their ways and to value their code of honor. When they planned their escape and he was ordered to trap them, Sten fled into space with them instead. Far across the cosmos was their forgotten homeworld. He could help them find it--and maybe there find the secret that had eluded the military masters of Terra.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cherryh, a prolific writer with a background in anthropology, creates alien races and cultures of unusual detail." -Publishers Weekly "This is a powerful story, bitter and yet somehow inspiring in its determination and feeling of strange loyalties and stranger courage. It sticks in the mind, long after the last page is finished." -Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: DAW (April 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886774489
• ISBN-13: 978-0886774486
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,976,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arrive, forewarn, and prepare..., April 23, 2005

By 

Kotori (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Faded Sun: Shonjir (Alliance-Union Universe) (Paperback)

Surviving a graceful extinction, the two remaining Mri are kept alive in the labs of human scientists and protected from Regul - for now.

The Regul have destroyed all that remains of the Mri base on Kesrith, and look to exterminate them completely.

With a great weight of guilt for betraying what he knows Melein & Niun's wishes must be, Duncan is sent with the Mri and two Dusei to pilot their return to the origin of all Mri life: their ancient homeworld.

Dangerously quartered with them, Duncan must come to some uneasy arrangement, and it seems that nothing will do but that he renounces his humanity and becomes absorbed by the Kel.

Trailed by human warships bent on discovering the extent of the Mri threat, and by Regul ship also, it is a race against time to arrive, forewarn, and prepare.

As the trail of dead planets begin to streak past, all begin to fear for what will remain in the cradle of Mri civilization: Kutath.

kotori [e-mail]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's hard to takes sides in this war, June 14, 2007

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Faded Sun: Shon'jir (Hardcover)

Again, as with _Kesrith,_ this is not a separate work, but merely the middle third of a very long novel about the postwar relationships between three very different species: the regul, non-warlike, physically unable to lie, who for two thousand years have hired the much more humanoid mri to fight their wars for them, and who have greatly benefitted thereby; the mri, psychologically as alien from humans as the regul, though they don't look it, and who will always do everything their own way, even if it means personal death and the end of their species; and humans, who seem not to have changed much after centuries in space. At the end of the first volume, the two surviving mri had been taken into the care (and control) of the humans, newly in control of Kesrith. Now, for reasons of his own, the governor has turned them loose in a ship with a navigational tape taken from one of their holy objects, which humans believe may lead them to unknown mri bases, but which the mri know will take them home -- back to the planet of their origins, which they had left apparently 100,000 years or so before. Accompanying them is Sten Duncan, a behind-the-lines tactical specialist who has become sympathetic to the mri. More than that, he finds that on this voyage he will not merely have to "go native," he will have to become as much a mri warrior as it is possible to become. And in that he eventually finds his true self. Cherryh continues to show the reader what each of the three species looks like in the eyes of the other two, which makes this trilogy a near-masterpiece of psycho-sociological inventiveness and understanding. Be sure to have the third volume close at hand!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Better Than Book One (Kesrith), February 28, 2004

By 

David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Faded Sun: Shon'jir (Hardcover)

Shon'jir, the 2nd book in the "Faded Sun" trilogy, is much better than Kesrith (the 1st book). It's not a matter of writing styles or ability (which are the same in both books: very good). It's just that in Shon'jir something actually happens. It even ends at a reasonable point (for the 2nd book in a trilogy). In the 1st book, Cherryh basically introduces the mri and the main characters In this book, she brings us through Duncan's journey (in all senses) towards the mri. A very good, very interesting book.