Hammerfall (The gene wars) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Distance deceived the eye in the Lakht, that wide, red land of the First Descended, where legend said the ships had come down..." (more)
Key Phrases: mounting loop, caravan master, pack beasts, Marak Trin, Kais Tain, Tain Trin Tain (more...)

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.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Eos; 1st THUS edition (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061057096
• ISBN-13: 978-0061057090
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #246,783 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 58 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 (The gene wars) (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.

8 of 8 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Promise Kept, November 15, 2001

By	Gary P. Moreau (Anaheim, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hammerfall (The gene wars) (Hardcover)

There are science fiction writers who are good, some who are excellent, and a few who are masters. CJ Cherryh is a master. I've read the comments of other reviewers and sense a great deal of impatience. Reading a book is not a race. Hammerfall is an excellent story written with prose that is a pleasure, with phrases, descriptons and characters that can be savored. The reason this book has been reviewed by so many is that CJ Cherryh is one of the pre-eminent authors of SF/F, past or present. For those of you who are in a hurry to get through life, go to a movie with lots of noise and bombs, but little substance. For those of you who take pleasure in the elegant details of life, read Hammerfall and take pleasure in it. I do have one confession to make: I too am impatient, impatient for the next oportunity to share in the imagination and skills of a writer as gifted as CJ Cherryh. For those of you who are already fans of CJ Cherryh, just read it and enjoy it. For those of you who are new to Cherryh, read it and enjoy it. A novel by CJ Cherryh is a promise of pleasure and Hammerfall is a promise kept.