Forty Thousand in Gehenna

Last updated
Forty Thousand in Gehenna
FortyThousandInGehenna.jpg
First edition
Author C. J. Cherryh
Cover artistPhil Parks
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction
PublishedOctober 1983 (Phantasia Press)
Pages316
ISBN 0-932096-26-3
OCLC 10025923

Forty Thousand in Gehenna, alternately 40,000 in Gehenna, is a 1983 science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It is set in her Alliance-Union universe between 2354 and 2658, and is one of the few works in that universe to portray the Union side; other exceptions include Cyteen (1988) and Regenesis (2009).

Contents

The book was first published in a limited hardcover edition in 1983 by Phantasia Press, [1] followed by a mainstream paperback release in 1984 by DAW Books. [2] It was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1984. Forty Thousand in Gehenna was reprinted in 2008 along with Cherryh's novel Merchanter's Luck (1982) in an omnibus volume entitled Alliance Space.

Plot summary

A group of 42,363 Union humans and azi are dispatched to set up a base on a very rare habitable planet named Gehenna II in the Zeta Reticuli system. Unknown to the settlers, their mission is designed to fail; they are deliberately abandoned in order to create long-term problems for the rival Alliance.

The native calibans are first presented as annoying lizard-like creatures constantly moving earth to make incomprehensible patterns. The humans at first attempt to keep them outside a perimeter or to drive them away. In time, larger and larger calibans are seen, with differences in color, size, and a social structure (gray calibans are subservient to the larger brown calibans). It becomes clear that the creatures are capable of communication, at least at the level of symbology, and of developing empathic or possibly telepathic links to humans. Eventually a symbiosis develops, with some of the calibans pairing off with humans.

Over a period of several generations and cut off from resupply, the colonists lapse into a primitive lifestyle. By necessity, the azi are allowed to raise families. The non-azi humans are in the minority from the beginning and over time, intermarry with the majority. An Alliance mission first seeks to intervene, then withdraws from direct contact, content to watch as two quasi-feudal, fundamentally opposed societies develop, while a third, smaller group called the "Weirds" becomes much more closely associated with the calibans, living with them rather than the other humans and becoming less comprehensible in the process.

The novel follows several generations of descendants of one azi who establish different lines and rise to become the leaders of two rival cultures. Historical moments depict the decline of the colony, the establishment of human-caliban relations, cultural development, and the planetary environment. Finally, the two cultures, one "masculine"-aggressive, the other more "feminine"-receptive, fight for dominance. A Union delegation arrives at the end, to be given short shrift by Elai, the female ruler who has emerged victorious.

Characters

The years refer to Gehenna years since the founding of the original colony.

Union military personnel
Union civilian personnel
Non-citizen personnel
Cloudside settlement
Styxside settlement
Alliance personnel

Connection to Cyteen

The novel is set very firmly in the Alliance-Union universe, through the Union origin of the colony and the role of Alliance observers in the later stages. The failure of the colony is meant to cause headaches for the Alliance when Union cedes the region of space that includes Gehenna to its rival's sphere of influence. In Cherryh's novel Cyteen, the rediscovery of the Gehenna colony causes a major political scandal in Union; it is also revealed that specific traits were introduced into the genesets of the azi, without the knowledge of the Union military, in order to help them survive.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed Forty Thousand in Gehenna for White Dwarf #75, and stated that "You feel there's been too much background information and not enough about what's happening now. An interesting read, but little is lost by skimming the first half." [3]

Reviews

Related Research Articles

C. J. Cherryh American science fiction and fantasy author

Carolyn Janice Cherry, better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award-winning novels Downbelow Station (1981) and Cyteen (1988), both set in her Alliance–Union universe, and her Foreigner universe. She is known for worldbuilding, depicting fictional realms with great realism supported by vast research in history, language, psychology, and archeology.

Caliban is a character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

<i>The Faded Sun Trilogy</i> Science fiction novel series by C. J. Cherryh

The Faded Sun trilogy is a series of science fiction novels set in the Alliance-Union universe of American writer C. J. Cherryh. The series comprises the three novels The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978), The Faded Sun: Shon'jir (1978), and The Faded Sun: Kutath (1979), published by DAW Books. They were re-published in as an omnibus edition in the UK in 1987 and in the U.S. in 2000.

<i>Cyteen</i> 1988 novel by C. J. Cherryh

Cyteen (1988) science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh, set in her Alliance-Union universe. The murder of a major Union politician and scientist has deep, long-lasting repercussions. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1989.

<i>The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh</i> 2004 collection of short fiction by C. J. Cherryh

The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes and novella written by American author C. J. Cherryh between 1977 and 2004. It was first published by DAW Books in 2004. This collection includes the contents of two previous Cherryh collections, Sunfall (1981) and Visible Light (1986), all of the stories from Glass and Amber (1987), stories originally published in other collections and magazines, and one story written specifically for this collection ("MasKs"). Cherryh's 1978 Hugo Award winning story, "Cassandra" is also included.

<i>Downbelow Station</i> 1981 novel by C. J. Cherryh

Downbelow Station is a science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh, published in 1981 by DAW Books. It won the Hugo Award in 1982, was shortlisted for a Locus Award that same year, and was named by Locus magazine as one of the top 50 science fiction novels of all time in 1987.

The Alliance–Union universe is a fictional universe created by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It is the setting for a future history series extending from the 21st century into the far future.

<i>Merovingen Nights</i>

Merovingen Nights is a series of shared universe science fiction books set in writer C. J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe. There are eight books in the series, a novel by Cherryh, Angel with the Sword, and seven short fiction anthologies which Cherryh edited. The books were published by DAW Books between 1985 and 1991.

C. J. Cherryh bibliography Wikipedia bibliography

American writer C. J. Cherryh's career began with publication of her first books in 1976, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth. She has been a prolific science fiction and fantasy author since then, publishing over 80 novels, short-story compilations, with continuing production as her blog attests. Ms. Cherryh has received the Hugo and Locus Awards for some of her novels.

<i>The Cherryh Odyssey</i> 2004 collection of essays about C. J. Cherryh, edited by Edward Carmien

The Cherryh Odyssey is a 2004 collection of essays by various academics, critics and authors about American Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, C. J. Cherryh. It was edited by author and academic, Edward Carmien, and was published by Borgo Press, an imprint of Wildside Press as part of its Author Study series. Locus Magazine put the book on its "2004 Recommended Reading List", and Carmien received a nomination for the 2005 Locus Award for Best Non-fiction book for The Cherryh Odyssey.

<i>Alternate Realities</i> (Cherryh) 2000 omnibus of three novels by C. J. Cherryh

Alternate Realities is a 2000 omnibus collection of three short science fiction novels by American writer author C. J. Cherryh: Wave Without a Shore (1981), Port Eternity (1982), and Voyager in Night (1984). All three novels are set in Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe and share a common theme of people encountering and coping with a reality different from their own.

Azi are a fictional type of human clones invented by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. They appear in various books in her Alliance-Union universe. "Azi" is an acronym for "artificial zygote insemination". The subject is treated at length in Cherryh's 1989 novel Cyteen and its 2009 sequel, Regenesis.

<i>Serpents Reach</i> 1980 novel by C. J. Cherryh

Serpent's Reach is a 1980 science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. The book, nominated for the Locus Award for Best Novel in 1981, is set in the author's Alliance-Union universe. Specific placement of the novel within the Alliance-Union timeline is difficult because two of Cherryh's works provide contradictory dates. Most likely, the events in the novel begin in the year 3141.

The Merchanter novels are several loosely connected novels by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh set in her Alliance-Union universe. These science fiction novels explore her merchanter subculture: the extended families that own and operate the ships that supply goods, transportation, news and trade to the various worlds and space stations in the human Earth, Alliance and Union space. The novels are related by a common setting and theme – a misfit who finds his or her proper home – rather than plot and character; none of the books is a direct sequel of another in the conventional sense.

Phantasia Press Defunct American small publisher

Phantasia Press Inc. was an American small publisher formed by Sidney Altus and Alex Berman publishing short-run, hardcover limited editions of science fiction and fantasy books. It was active from 1978 to 1989. The company was based in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The publisher specialized in limited quality first hardcover editions of authors prominent in the field, particularly Philip José Farmer, C. J. Cherryh, L. Sprague de Camp and Alan Dean Foster. Some of its offerings were true first editions; others, the first hardcover editions of works previously published in paperback. In a few instances there had been previous hardcover editions.

<i>Merchanters Luck</i> 1982 novel by C. J. Cherryh

Merchanter's Luck is a science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It is set in the author's Alliance-Union universe, in which humanity has split into three major power blocs: Union, the Merchanter's Alliance and Earth. In the context of the Alliance-Union universe, the book is one of Cherryh's Merchanter novels.

<i>Cuckoos Egg</i> (book) 1985 novel by C. J. Cherryh

Cuckoo's Egg is a science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh, which introduces a fictional race raising a human boy. It was published by DAW Books in 1985, and there was also a limited hardcover printing by Phantasia Press in the same year. The book was nominated for the Hugo Award and longlisted the Locus Award for Best Novel. It was later reprinted along with Cherryh's novel Serpent's Reach in the 2005 omnibus volume The Deep Beyond.

<i>Brothers of Earth</i> 1976 novel by C. J. Cherryh

Brothers of Earth is a 1976 science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It was the second of Cherryh's novels to be published, appearing after Gate of Ivrel, although she had completed and submitted Brothers of Earth first. Donald A. Wollheim, the editor of DAW Books, decided that publishing Gate of Ivrel first would be more commercially desirable, so Brothers of Earth was delayed until the former was released.

Several themes recur throughout the works of American science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh.

<i>Regenesis</i> (novel) 2009 science fiction novel by C. J. Cherryh

Regenesis (2009) is a science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh, set in her Alliance-Union universe. It is a sequel to Cherryh's Cyteen, and was published in hardcover by DAW Books in January 2009. The teenage clone of a top scientist and political leader unravels the decades-old murder of her "genemother", while also dealing with threats to her own welfare.

References

  1. ↑ Cherryh, C. J. Forty Thousand in Gehenna, Phantasia Press, 1983.
  2. ↑ Cherryh, C. J. Forty Thousand in Gehenna, DAW Books, 1984.
  3. ↑ Langford, Dave (March 1986). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf . No. 75. Games Workshop. p. 6.
  4. ↑ http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1906
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.