C. J. Cherryh

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 40. Chapters: Alliance-Union universe, Works by C. J. Cherryh, The Chanur novels, C. J. Cherryh bibliography, Downbelow Station, Themes of C. J. Cherryh's works, Cyteen, The Cherryh Odyssey, Serpent's Reach, Jump, Finity's End, Tripoint, Faded Sun Trilogy, Cuckoo's Egg, Heroes in Hell, Merchanter's Luck, Mri, Forty Thousand in Gehenna, Alternate Realities, Rimrunners, Mazianni, Regenesis, The Scapegoat, Merovingen Nights, 77185 Cherryh, The Sword of Knowledge, Brothers of Earth, The Merchanter novels, Devil to the Belt, Hunter of Worlds. Excerpt: The Alliance-Union universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is the setting for an epic future history series extending from the 21st century out into the far future. To date, the corpus of the Alliance-Union universe consists of 27 science fiction novels along with a series of seven short story anthologies edited by Cherryh and a few other miscellaneous works. It encompasses both books for which Cherryh won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, Downbelow Station and Cyteen, and also incorporates various other series books such as the Faded Sun trilogy, the Chanur novels, the four Morgaine books, and the Merovingen Nights shared world series. As humanity reaches out to the stars, space stations are financed by the private Sol Corporation, eventually known as the Earth Company. Each new station is built by the previous one and is located ever farther away from Earth. In the days before faster-than-light travel (FTL), nine stations are laboriously constructed around nine stars, all lacking habitable planets. The stationers and the merchanters who man the ships that supply them both develop distinct cultural identities, but remain psychologically and to some degree materially dependent on Earth. Still, directives from Earth, bound by the speed of light, arrive hopelessly out-of-date and are routinely ignored, making the Earth Company's attempts to maintain control increasingly futile. When Pell's World is discovered in the Tau Ceti system, the fragile economic and political equilibrium is disrupted. Not only is this new planet's biosphere reasonably hospitable to humans - requiring only gas masks and air tanks for survival - but it also supports intelligent alien life, the gentle, technologically primitive Hisa, called "Downers" by humans. Importantly, human crops can be grown on Pell's World, dangerously weakening Earth's economic dominance. After the construction of Pell Station above the planet, colonists expand outwar