The Chanur Saga omnibus
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The Pride of Chanur
Chanur's Venture The Kif Strike Back Chanur's Homecoming Chanur's Legacy |
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Author | C. J. Cherryh |
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Cover artist | Michael Whelan |
Country | United States |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | DAW Books |
Published | 1981–1992 |
The Chanur novels is a series of five science fiction novels, forming three separate stories, written by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh and published by DAW Books between 1981 and 1992. The first novel in the series is The Pride of Chanur (1981), which was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1983.The Pride of Chanur, originally a stand-alone story, was followed by the Chanur's Venture trilogy, Chanur's Venture (1984), which was shortlisted for a Locus Award in 1985;The Kif Strike Back (1985) and Chanur's Homecoming (1986). These were followed by a later sequel, Chanur's Legacy (1992). The five novels were also published in two omnibus editions: the first three in The Chanur Saga in 2000 and the next two in Chanur's Endgame in 2007.
An abridged version of The Pride of Chanur was published in the Science Fiction Digest in 1983.
Set in Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe, but in a different region of space inhabited by numerous alien spacefaring civilizations, the Chanur novels are unusually realistic examples of space opera, with ship-to-ship shooting minimized in favor of coercion, manipulation, politics, pride contests, and clashing economic interests, driven in many cases by species-to-species miscommunication and misunderstanding.
The series is set in the same Alliance-Union universe of Downbelow Station, but in a region of space in the opposite direction from Earth as the Alliance and Union. It is occupied by a number of spacefaring civilizations bound by a set of trade treaties into a so-called Compact. The Compact is not a political organization, and has no government; it deals only with open trade, leaving the component civilizations to resolve conflicts between themselves.
Human space borders kif and knnn territory, the most aggressive and enigmatic species of the Compact respectively. First contact ensues when an ambitious kif hakkikt (prince) captures a human exploration ship. The last surviving crew member, Tully, escapes while the kif ship is docked at a station and winds up on The Pride of Chanur, a hani merchant vessel commanded by Pyanfar Chanur. This triggers the events of the first novel in the series and its three-part sequel.