Title: Forty Thousand in Gehenna

Author: C.J. Cherryh

Series: The Alliance-Union Universe

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: When forty thousand human colonists are abandoned on a planet called Gehenna for political reasons, and re-supply ships fail to arrive, collapse seems imminent. Yet over the next two centuries, the descendants of the original colonists survive despite all odds by entering a partnership with the planet’s native intelligence, the lizardlike burrowing calibans. –Goodreads

Dave’s Review:

Forty Thousand in Gehenna starts with a fascinating premise that hooked me. A group of humans is sent to establish a colony on an alien planet, only to find themselves increasingly isolated and forced to adapt to an environment that is very different from what they expected. Cherryh does a particularly good job of making the early portion of the story feel uncertain and compelling. There is a real sense of discovery as the colonists struggle to survive and understand their new home. There are many colonists who are named, but the few important characters to the narrative in the early chapters are simple enough to follow.

Unfortunately, my interest began to wane as the novel progressed. The story moves through multiple generations, and while I understand what Cherryh is trying to accomplish, the constant shifts in time and characters made it increasingly difficult to stay invested. The genealogy trees included with the book eventually become almost essential for keeping track of who is related to whom, but needing to consult them also highlights the problem. There are simply so many characters that it becomes difficult to form much of an attachment to any individual. Just as I began to become familiar with someone, the story would move on to another generation. As the story moves further away from the original colonists, that initial sense of discovery and interest begins to fade.

There is a lot to admire here, particularly the ambitious worldbuilding and the ideas about cultural evolution and adaptation. I have found Cherryh’s strengths to lie in creating vast worlds and universes with complex politics, sometimes at the expense of characters and narrative. Here I found the novel more interesting as a concept than as a story. The strong opening ultimately gave way to a book that I admired but left me just a little bit disappointed.