Downbelow Station

 A great book I read this month...

This month I read a great book. It was called Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh.

Like I have had to say many times, this is not the first time I have read this book. I read it soon after it came out in 1981 and fell in love with the whole universe she had created. This is probably the third time I have read it and I think I enjoyed it more this time than either of the others.

I believe this book was the first written in this universe but there are many books in this series and I have enjoyed all of them. This novel takes place on a space station that is caught in the middle of two interstellar empires trying to control the only station that has a habitable planet beneath it.

Earth and her forces on ebbing in power and just trying to hang on to the empire they have built, including Pell Station and Cyteen is pushing back against Earth and trying to take everything and force Earth back to their own system and nothing more. And Pell is stuck in the middle of the struggle.

The people from Earth and Cyteen both have their own cultures but the stations have also developed their own culture over the centuries as well as those who inhabit the trading ships that move between the distant stations.

The author does a magnificent job of creating these separate worlds and their individual desires and the conflicts that go with them.

There is a reason that nearly all of the books on two of the shelves in my library have the name CJ Cherryh on them.

She is the best at creating worlds and stories.

If you have the chance to read it, please do it. You will enjoy it.