Chanur's Legacy

Chanur's Legacy: A Novel of Compact Space (Chanur) C.J. Cherryh Date: 08 May, 2001   —   $6.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Science Fiction

Hilfy Chanur is sick of being related to her famous aunt. For one thing, everyone expects her to be deep in her aunt's councils, when in truth she has barely seen her aunt since gaining a ship of her own. For another, everyone examines her motives deeply, when all she wants to do is to be a trader. When a stsho offers her a great deal of money to transport an object, she is suspicious, but ends up taking the contract.

A very long and detailed contract, with addenda she didn't quite foresee. Addenda such as the stsho transporter she has to accomodate, or the fact that if the personage the object is for isn't there, she has to track gtst down, at her own expense, or determine what happened if the personage's personality fragmented into a new stsho personality. And she has to deal with a hani male who was abandoned at the station by his own ship, a male who is earnest and who wants to be helpful, but who has a little problem of exceeding bad luck— as well as the popular perception that hani males are prone to violence.

And then there's the kif, there's always the kif, but the one she's dealing with this time is a little strange (and, occasionally, bizarrely accomodating.) Hilfy, expert though she is in alien communication, is treading very deep water.

This is a fine novel, though I think it is more interesting if you have read the other Chanur novels (so as to have something to compare this newly stabilized Compact to.)