Cherryh, C.J. - Angel with the Sword

[oyceter]

(possibly shelved under Merovingen Nights: Angel with the Sword?)

Altair Jones is a canaler in the under-city of Merovingen ("Merovingen lived, which was its own misfortune, just well enough not to die"). One day, a rich young man falls out of the sky from a bridge, and against her better judgment and all her instincts, she rescues him. She's soon drawn into some city-wide intrigue involving Mondragon, the aforementioned man.

I actually found the beginning of this book extremely accessible, which is unusual for me with Cherryh, largely because it's told in Altair's voice. She's not snarky exactly, but she's tough and a canal rat and a bit young in some ways, and I like her a lot. I was afraid that the book would end up moving to the high-class circles of Merovingen, in which Mondragon would have all the advantages of knowing the turf and Altair would be a fish out of water and stop being as proactive, but thankfully, this is not the case. While we do get to see a fair amount of Mondragon, he's very clearly The Boy and the damsel in the distress, which I love.

Does anyone know if Altair is POC or not? The book describes her as having a "dusky tanned face," and I can't figure out if the dusky is part of the tan or not.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how the book ends, possibly because I read the latter half when I was severely sleep-deprived, uncaffeinated, and allergic to everything. (Speaking of which, Bay Area ppl, have the past few days been particularly bad for allergies, or is it just me?) So take it with a grain of salt when I say that it felt very fast and not entirely resolved. Also, I would have liked a bit more incluing about the world, though I suspect Cherryh didn't and left everything in a giant appendix because it was planned as a shared world (? is this standard practice for shared worlds?).

Comments

[estara.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is standard practice, but the shared world actually exists, although I've always found that this is the best novel. The rest are anthology stories, by authors like Lynn Abbey, Mercedes Lackey, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mozilla-20&index=blended&link%5Fcode=qs&field-keywords=Merovingen
I do remember (although I did sell the anthologies after a while and only kept this novel) that the story occasionally gets picked up again in the following books.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I think I had two of the follow-up anthologies at one point, but I always liked the first one best. I do think Altair is a POC; in fact, it seemed that the locals generally were. It seemed that Tom and others from other cities were less likely to be, although it also seemed like the original ethnic groups had mixed quite a bit by the time humans ended up on this particular world.

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

I LOVE this book! I found a copy of it at a library sale in the '90s, and it's been prove that Cherryh can write books I can make it all the way through.

The shared world was more or less abandoned, but I do know Cherryh herself wrote several sequels.


So take it with a grain of salt when I say that it felt very fast and not entirely resolved.

But in a nice way, I felt -- this wasn't a world that allowed for a truly happy and resolved ending, but I liked the way it came together.

[oyceter]

Hee, I could probably judge more about the ending being good or not if only I remembered enough to figure out what happened! Instead, it was mostly: "Complex negotiations, huh. *SNEEZE* Signalling! *SNEEZE* Wait, it's over?"

[ellarien]

Ooh, a Cherryh I haven't read! I think I hadn't looked for it too hard because I'm wary of shared-world things, but that sounds interesting.

Rushed endings are a bit of a Cherryh signature, I think.

(I'm bracing myself to reread Cyteen, which I finished the first time under less than ideal circumstances, in preparation for the forthcoming sequel.)

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

The stories by other people work better than is the case with most shared worlds. I recommend reading them.

[fresne.livejournal.com]

Karen has a cold, so I can't say how bad the allergies are this year.

However, Merovingen Nights. I still have the entire set of books. They did a decent job with the shared world concept by really playing with architectural space.

As to Altair as POC, I'd have to reread. Mostly it seemed like the pale blonds lived up river and were trying to take over the city as part of their tech revolution.

As I recall, one of the underlying focuses of the series was class / access to resources, with POV characters from every walk of life: lower class, middle class, upper class (old and new), revolutionaries, reactionaries, foreign spies, etc. Often characters were actively oppositional to the interests of other POV characters over the series.

A couple of the POV do have specific ethnicity called out, and not to give anything away, but there is a character (don't recall if she gets POV) who seems to think that she lives in a romance novel, with all the other POV going, um... no we don't. Cut it out.

Been years since I've read it though. Perhaps its time to dust it off.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

My allergies in Seattle have kinda sucked for the past few days. No idea whether they are relevant, though of course we have some weather in common.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

This is an awesome book, one of Cherryh's that I reread a couple of times. I can't remember if Altair's race was ever stated--I can't even remember any of her physical description. There's class issues, if nothing else.

I read at least one of the shared world anthos and remember liking several of the stories.

[seajules]

I've got this one and all the follow-up shared world anthologies, though it's been years since I read them. I do remember that Altair's ethnicity is never made explicit, but there are other characters who are explicitly POC (the two protagonists of Mercedes Lackey's stories in the anthologies, for example, though said stories are a bit on the incoherent side, as her work is). The quality of the stories in the anthologies is wildly uneven, but I really love the world, and Altair and Mondragon both show up in the anthologies a few times, with Altair's toughness never being compromised.

I'm not sure how easy the anthologies would be to find these days. They were pretty rare even when they were still in print.

[oyceter]

Hrm, maybe I will keep an eye out on some of the anthologies if Altair shows up... I'm always a little leery of them because I tend to bounce off short stories in general and because of the quality thing you mention ;).

[seajules]

I would offer to loan them to you, but they are some of the shoddiest books I've ever had to contend with. We're talking pages that were unattached when I bought them, and if they'd been more widely available, I would have looked for sturdier versions. I don't know that they'd survive mailing anywhere.