Forge of Heaven (Gene Wars Series) Book

Where I found Hammerfall fairly difficult to get into, this is Cherryh on form, moving between the planet below and the station above, the tech and the politics that affect each, and the fragile alliances that people (and aliens!) build in uncertain situations.

If you're not a fan of Cherryh's highly political books, you won't like this one. I love the way she writes complex machinations, so I was thrilled! It does have her standard "character who gets into water way too deep for him and then has to figure it out," this time in the persona of one of Marak's watchers, who started out a little annoying and got considerably less so as the plot heated up.

I guess the best way to sum this up is that it in no way is an *unusual* book for her. If you've read a lot of her station-based sf, then you will have an idea of the sorts of maneuverings that go on, enlivened by a bunch of biotech. That's an observation, not a criticism -- most of Cherryh's *bad* work stands head and shoulders above the rest of the genre. It's an enjoyable, well-paced, thoughtful political thriller in the vein of some of her others.