Warfare and Survival: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh - Reactor

In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.

Today, we’re going to take a trip to Downbelow Station, an orbiting installation at the heart of a battle that will become a turning point in the history of humanity’s expansion into the stars. This book, named for that space station, is a dark and powerful narrative, and a classic novel that ranks among the best science fiction tales written in the late 20^th century.

This review is not a re-read, as this is the first time I read Downbelow Station. Rummaging around in my basement, I came upon a first paperback edition of the book from 1981, with a nice cover illustration from the always reliable David B. Mattingly, and realized that the book represented a promise I had made but never kept. My father, who was a dedicated science fiction fan, was a huge fan of C.J. Cherryh, and read all her books. When he attended conventions where she was a guest, he always sought her out, and attended all her panels and readings. He was stunned at one of those conventions when I admitted I had never read her work, and made me promise to give her work a try, starting with Downbelow Station. I am pretty sure either he or I picked up this used copy in the Huckster Room of that same convention, and it got tucked away and forgotten until a few weeks ago.

And I have to admit, I should have gotten to this book a lot sooner, because it was a heck of a read. It is easy to see why it won the Hugo Award, and how it became the cornerstone for an entire series set in a consistent future history. As to why I waited so long, I think it has something to do with the fact that Cherryh is primarily a novel writer, and I have always been drawn to writers based on their short stories, encountered in either magazines or anthologies. Or it might be the fact that the book begins with an expository lump that I found hard to digest. In any event, I finally got around to keeping the promise I made about four decades ago.

About the Author

C.J. Cherryh is the pen name of Carolyn Janice Cherry (born 1942), an American author and editor of science fiction and fantasy. Unlike other authors of her era, who began their writing careers with shorter works, her first professional sale was a pair of novels to Donald A. Wollheim at DAW Books. While other publishers have released her work over the years, much of it continued to be published by DAW. Cherryh’s skills were immediately apparent to the science fiction community, and she garnered not only critical praise, but won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Of the over eighty novels and anthologies she has created in her career, a significant number have been set in a single science fiction future history, the Alliance-Union universe, spanning twenty-seven novels and seven short story anthologies (edited by Cherryh, including stories by herself and others). She has also contributed work to a number of other shared world universes over the years.

Cherryh has won three Hugo Awards during her career, for the short story “Cassandra” in 1979, then for Downbelow Station, and for her 1988 novel Cyteen. She was honored by SFWA with their Grand Master Award in 2016.

The Alliance-Union Universe

While Cherryh normally avoids explaining too much, Downbelow Station begins with a chapter of pure exposition, a summary of human history from the present until the time when the novel is set. This narrative device felt a bit old-fashioned, but turned out to be essential, because the universe Cherryh created is so complicated and rich in detail, it would have been difficult for the reader to be dropped in the middle of it without some context.

Humanity began their expansion into space by building the huge Sol Station to exploit the resources of the Solar System. And while probes to nearby stars did not find habitable planets, they did find plenty of resources in those systems. So the Earth Company, established to reap those resources, launched additional stations to the other stars, and upon arrival, the stations that had served as vehicles were then used as homes and bases for their occupants. Successful stations built additional stations to be launched to even further stars. As travel was limited by the speed of light, it was difficult for the Earth Company to direct or control the far-flung network of stations. Between the people who lived on stations, and merchanters who lived on ships during years-long journeys, a culture arose that was entirely comfortable with life in the artificial environments of space rather than on existing planets.

Eventually, additional habitable (or at least marginally habitable) planets were discovered. One of them was Pell’s World, which came to be known as Downbelow to the occupants of the station that orbited it. The world is inhabited by the Hisa (also known as “Downers”), small, furry, intelligent creatures who are simple (in terms of technology), gentle, and spiritual, who get along well with the humans who treated them with respect. With the resources of an entire habitable world to draw upon, and mines among other bodies in the Pell system, Downbelow Station soon became an important transit point in human space.

Further out, the planet Cyteen became the hub for what became known as the Union, a breakaway faction that eventually challenged the Company for dominance of the network of human stations. Taxes imposed by Earth Company were seen as an unfair burden placed on the stations, and the development of faster-than-light travel allowed conflict over these policies to spread rapidly. While the Company developed a powerful Company Fleet to maintain control, the Earth grew weary of maintaining their dominion, and the Fleet began to impress crew members and demand supplies from merchant ships and stations they were supposed to be protecting.

The Fleet soon began calling themselves Mazian’s fleet, identifying with their commander rather than the Company. The Cyteen-based Union developed a fleet of their own, using cloned humans to crew the ships. Caught between these factions were the merchants who carried trade between star systems, and the stations they called upon. By the time the novel Downbelow Station begins, the clash between the Company and Union has become open warfare. By the end of the novel, the seeds of a new Alliance have been planted among those who suffer as a result of the Company/Union conflict.

Downbelow Station

When I first started the book, I wondered if I might have attempted to read it at some point, only to bounce off the exposition that begins the story. This time, however, I didn’t let it stop me, and was glad I didn’t. Once that initial information is out of the way, Cherryh gets right down to business, writing in an economical fashion that leaves out extraneous explanations. The book is a war story, but not one that explores combat, tactics, and strategy, focusing instead on suffering and survival.

The Company Fleet ship Norway arrives at Pell Station, commanded by the charismatic and tough Signy Mallory, leading a convoy of refugees from stations that have fallen to the Union. Angelo Konstantin, the station’s leader, protests, but begins clearing a section of the station for the refugees. His son, Damon Konstantin, is sent to the docks to coordinate the operation, with Damon’s wife, Elene Quen, a former merchanter, assisting. One of the ships, Hansford, fell to rioting, and unloads more bodies than live refugees. Elene finds the ship she lived on was destroyed; she is the last surviving member of her family.

Segust Ayres, a Company official, is seeking passage to negotiate with the Union; he demands passage from Mallory, but she refuses—a sign of how little sway the Company has over its domain. Joshua Talley, an enigmatic and partially mind-wiped Union prisoner who had been sleeping with Mallory on their inbound voyage, is turned over to Pell Station. On the planet Downbelow, we meet Jon Lukas, member of a family that hopes to wrest control of the station from the Konstantins. We are also introduced to the Downers, whose casual approach to work infuriates Lukas. On the station, the refugees are confined to a locked area, dubbed “Q” for quarantine, and the area becomes a nest of crime and corruption. There is an effort to impose order, and straighten out everyone’s identity papers, but many have been stolen or forged.

The Lukas family hires Hansford to transport Company representative Ayers to negotiate, and secretly sends a family member to contact the Union; they are willing to betray the Company and station as long as they get to run things. Josh Talley, plagued with guilt he doesn’t understand, volunteers to have his memory wiped in return for his freedom, and Damon Konstantin, feeling sorry for the man, befriends him. On Downbelow, another Konstantin, Emilio, takes over operations, and fires the guards that Lukas had used to coerce Downers into working harder. Soon, they are forced to move people from Q down to the planet to relieve pressure on the station’s life support systems. We learn more about the Downers, some of whom are also employed on the station, and move through a dedicated network of passages filled with atmosphere they can breathe, a fact that many do not appreciate. The Downers may be simple, but they have good instincts for what is right and wrong.

The Company Fleet attempts to meet the Union forces at another station, but a tentative truce agreed to by Ayers throws their efforts into disarray. They retreat to Downbelow Station, and seize control in order to use it as a base. The crew of Mallory’s Norway clash with the less disciplined crews of other Fleet vessels during the occupation efforts. Union agents arrive and begin to lay the groundwork for mayhem. The restive population of Q is ready to revolt. The Konstantins do their best to hold things together on the station, while on Downbelow Emilio pulls the people and supplies into the wilderness to prevent them from being exploited by the Fleet. In the meantime, the Union fleet grows ever closer, hoping to destroy the Company Fleet once and for all.

This sets the stage for a conflict that tests everyone involved to their limits and beyond. There are battles, riots, betrayal, heroism, reversals of fortune, alliances, murder, and throughout it all, acts of compassion and courage. The fate of everyone, and indeed, the survival of Downbelow Station itself, hangs in the balance until the final pages of the book. While it took a while for me to get a feel for the setting and the characters, by the end I was fully engaged and hanging on every word. Cherryh doesn’t shy away from darkness, so by the time all was said and done, the victories the characters manage to eke out from the chaos feel well-earned and satisfying.

Final Thoughts

While there were a few moments early on where I had my doubts, in the end Downbelow Station turned out to be a very satisfying book. I can see why it attracted so much attention when it was first published, and why it won the Hugo Award. It took me forty years to finally keep that promise to my dad, but I ended up being very glad I did.

Now I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Downbelow Station, or any of C.J. Cherryh’s other works. Which of her books would you suggest I read next? And which are your own favorites?