From tantor.com now available.
Faded Sun audiobooks…
by CJ | Jan 16, 2019 | Journal | 18 comments
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I wonder if it is due to childhood training that I tend to fall asleep while being read to?
That’s frequently what DH uses it for as well. Oft-read books tend to have a soporific effect.
Yowza! Will suggest it to DH, who is always searching for new listening material for the car.
Wow! 31 hours of recorded goodness…. ! I need to check the sofa cushions for spare change, or get a hint to readyGuy for my birthday.
Oh, cool! I will go look.
Very Off-Topic: I just got the strangest phone call I think I’ve ever received.
(Aside from the small town rancher trying to report to a neighboring rancher that a bull was loose. That one was pretty epic. I called him back and explained I was a city-boy and didn’t own any property anywhere near there, and definitely not a bull, but I did hope the amorous bull was safely corralled before anyone got hurt. I don’t know if the bull ever succeeded in his romantic intentions. I was amused but felt bad for both ranchers, if their stock or any people got hurt. It was at that point a worry for the man reporting it, not yet an argument. So hopefully things worked out. I suppose the bull was disappointed. Heheh.)
So this more odd call, I could have ignored and deleted, but something about it seemed worth a chance as maybe genuine. A woman left her name. She’d heard my voicemail when she called, so she knew my name and gave hers, and said she’d gotten a call from this number. Hmm. I called back to say, y’know, it’s my number and I did not call you. And of course I expected a sales pitch or a mere wrong number. The woman asked for another person’s name, as the person who’d called her. Nope, although that last name is common and there’s a maintenance worker here by that last name, I don’t know his first name or his number, of course, and no, I didn’t call her.
Very ordinary so far, right? That was when things took a sharp turn into most unusual call ever. If it was an attempted scam, I will at least give it points for the wildest, most creative story I’ve heard. She then said that gentleman was with the police, and sir, had she reached my city’s Vice Squad?
Huh? Er, no, really not. Personal phone line, I’ve had this number for years. (Many, many years, in fact.) Hmm. So she then explains she’s working up a seminar on a serious problem (which I won’t mention, too sensitive and too off-topic and too likely to bother the filters). The gentleman was supposed to be her contact with the police dept. from some months ago, it was getting close to time for the conference in a few weeks, and she hadn’t heard back from him, he was supposed to present, and now she was worried.
Huh. Wow. OK, yes, that is a serious problem that needs coverage, but wow, never would have expected to ever hear that cross my phone line ever. Wow. So I suggested she call the police dept. and ask for information, give the man’s name and his rank and precinct number if possible, any other info that might help track to get in touch with him or whoever else.
She apologized profusely, I apologized back, and we ended the call. If someone was trying to get information, they basically got my name and number and that it’s a personal phone, and that I know a maintenance person here, but not his name or number. If it was anything else, well, it didn’t seem like it.
And holy moley, that seminar topic is not one anyone would want to be thought connected to. I don’t see how anyone could think I could be. So I’m considering it a very big fluke and a very strange mistake. — Also, I really don’t see how anyone would hear my voicemail message and think it’s in any way official and not personal. But OK, she messed up.
I’m keeping the message for a while, so I know the name and number, in case anything more squirrely turns up.
But whoa. — You know, I think I liked the stray bull better. But this one does win for oddity.
@BCS – Currently, scammers can hijack any phone number and use it to call other people. Caller ID will note the hijacked phone number, but the scammer can say they are anyone and the call is about anything. One would suspect that the caller used your phone number and identified him/her self as a police officer investigating … (usually in an attempt to blackmail the call recipient.) Your caller probably received the non-specific call from the police and put two and two together to get five. Your suggestion to call the listed number for the police department was a very good one. These scammers are VERY good at cold reading a persons responses and getting info out of the person on the phone. This is very similar to the skills that “psychics” use to read their marks. With a little bit of research, the scammers become downright dangerous. Scams such as claiming that a relative has been arrested and needs bail money, or has been kidnapped and needs ransom money are going the rounds here.
A lot of the phone scammers have automatic dialers that log which numbers get answered, so the scammers know which numbers are working telephones. Those are the ones they call again and try to scam. I wonder if you answered the phone and played the little recorded message about it not being a working telephone, if that would fool the automatic dialer into marking your number off the list.
I’m so tired of getting calls about the credit card I don’t actually have.
I find that if I answer the phone with ‘hello’ I get a spiel, and if I answer ‘Umpteefratz residence, Tommie Mumbleblurb speaking’ I get hung up on. I like the second better, because I don’t have to be rude myself. It is still annoying though.
Just occurred to me that, with a little language play, our Gracious Hostess lives in the Strawberry/Cherry residence. That should take callers aback!
I usually give them several seconds of silence, and if I don’t get someone saying anything, I may say “hello??” to see if there’s anyone there. (I can hear the telemarketers’ phone systems kerchunking the connection, and generally hang up then, or if there’s continued silence. That’s usually someone trying to get into the building and trying the first number they see.)
Got AR Friday. Devoured it like a pint of Hagen Dazs. Struck me that the situation had very many parallels to America right before the start of the American Revolution, with the EC as GB. Loved how the momentum built. Moar, please.
I thought of the parallel to the American Revolution the first time I read the introduction to Downbelow Station. But there are major differences between the two situations.
So, as usual whenever there is a major mention of a CJ Cherryh work, I reread it. In this case, while I have the Faded Sun books, I have was not able to get into them – so they have languished for more than 20 years unread.
So I have now read them on my iPad.
Early Cherryh. You can see from her later books the development of world building and alien peoples. I am not sure why this is part of the vast Company War universe.
Still, like most of her books, you have to read them. No skimming allowed. But they are worth reading and enjoying.
One thing that I have always like about our host’s ovre is that it is a meaty read. I never get the whole thing on the first past. I always pick up stuff I missed on the rereads, the re-rereads, and the re-re-rereads. I have to be really careful that I have enough “runway” when I start one of her books, because “I’ll just read a chapter or two before I go to bed” invariably ends up with me turning pages and turning pages and the next thing I know, I’m turning the last page and it’s 5 a.m. . . . sigh.
I follow Tor.com website, and I notice they’re bringing out a lot of novellas — ostensibly because it is a length that can be read during a commute, or a plane trip . . . Idunno. There are times when I seriously wonder if the iphone generation has the attention span (and the education!) for her work. She addresses some serious and deep themes and touches on some pretty esoteric stuff, and there are layers upon layers. Like I said. Meaty. Gives you something to chew on and mull over.
I just reread the Chanur novels (I’m about half an inch into the dead tree edition of “Chanur’s Legacy” at the moment) and I’m going, ‘dang. Ok. That’s where that goes, and that’s how that fits in.’ and ‘Wow, wait a minute. Missed that entirely.”
And her referring to the prey animals the Kif ate as “The Dinner” always cracks me right up.
The thing that always leaves me standing in awe is how she takes a particular animal species from a particular ecological niche and setting and extrapolates it to “sentience” and gives it a culture that makes perfect sense in that species context, even the sexism of the hani and the logic of the Kif.
I was struck again by the beautiful aptness of the double entendre in “Pride of Chanur.”
If our species ever gets into a “first contact situation,” (God(s) help us!) she ought to be required reading for whoever we send out.
I’ve sent the first couple Chanur books to my 1st cousin removedx2, who’s going on 14 and is sharp as the proverbial tack. Hopefully, she’ll get enough out of them to realize she can come back to them again when she’s older, because there’s more there she hasn’t discovered yet.
hurray! I’ve missed this place.
Real Life had an interruption in reading Alliance Rising, but I’m about 2/3 in and expect to finish it this weekend. I haven’t reread the Faded Sun books in quite a while, and I’m sure I’d love seeing them again. I’ll try the new audiobook for that. 🙂
I’ve realized something about CJ’s writing of science fiction versus the real world. In CJ’s fiction, typically (though not always) people act with reasons and thought and rationally. They think ahead. They may change their minds and take a different course of action. But some characters may be motivated by beliefs or emotions (such as how the Earth Company representatives act in Alliance Rising, out of a limited world-view).
But as we’re seeing too often in current events, here and elsewhere — In the real world, sometimes individuals or groups, and sometimes large groups, may act without much thought or rational purpose or planning, and they may be motivated by emotions or beliefs more than facts or reasons, whether that’s religion or politics or race or sex/gender issues, or whatever else it might be. Some people act singly or en masse based on whatever is driving them, sometimes little more than prejudice or fears or desires. They may or may not have good intentions, and they may be ignorant or act against their own or other people’s welfare.
I don’t know what to make of the realization that CJ most often has people react rationally, in reasoned, planned fashion, when right now, so very many people are not acting that way. It isn’t a flaw in writing to create characters and plots that have purpose and sense and forethought. It would be hard to believe a character who doesn’t have reasons behind their actions. Hmm, and I suppose that’s not putting it well: People acting now do have “reasons” for why they are acting how they are, it’s just that their reasons are based on emotional things and not always on sense. It’s harder to make characters believable when they may not act rationally or with better sense. CJ always handles things in a believable way, and her characters do things for their own reasons, based on whatever their world-view may be. Her villains aren’t cardboard cutouts, they’re dimensional, they do have reasons, and they are not typically “just villains,” they have multiple things going on, and they’d say they were the good guys no matter what side of a thing they’re on (because real people are like that). So I can’t claim it’s a flaw in CJ’s writing. I just noticed how her writing usually does not have characters or groups who act so wildly. (She does have groups and characters, like the EC reps or the Heritage Party or the Mazianni) who have their own motives, though, for why they do what they do. So…I’m just noting the difference. (And I wish it worked out more often how it does in CJ’s fiction, than the mess we s often have in current events.)I’m frustrated at what I see happening so often and in so many places these days. I’d much prefer it how it usually works in CJ’s writing, in the long run. Hmm, and on the other hand, we get things like the Thai Cave Rescue last year, in which people from across the world managed to set aside all their differences (mostly) to help a bunch of kids and a coach, and against all odds, managed to save them. Something that spectacularly improbable also rarely happens in fiction, but oh, is it good to see it happen in the real world. So — CJ, I guess I’m just. venting my frustration at recent current events (various places and people) rather than at your writing. — I’m loving how nuanced and complex and believable, and yes, realistic, Alliance Rising is. I am so glad we get another book (this one) and an upcoming book (the second volume).
(I got part-way into a listen of an audiobook version of Citizen of the Galaxy, when it downloaded and started auto-playing. I expect I’ll want to compare it to “For Love of Mother Not” by Alan Dean Foster, due to the broadly similar intros of Thorby and Flinx. I first read Citizen when I was in junior high and the Flinx books a bit later. I’d read ADF’s Star Trek Animated novelizations and I think another two or more books of his back then.)
I just watched the Orville’s 2.05 episode; enjoyed it a lot and already hoping for a 3rd season. Thank goodness, something positive where people have brains and a sense of humor and compromise. Refreshing lately. — I am about to have a (store-bought frozen) pizza to celebrate, er, having made it through the week, almost through the month, another good episode and books by CJ and Jane and others, and…just because I needed a treat. Heh. (I have a tactical problem: I’m nearly out of chocolate and forgot to order when I bought groceries. There will be an order via Amazon or my local grocery store. I could get cranky-(-er) without chocolate, haha.)
And I watched a Project Blue Book (new series on the History Channel) episode last night, the 3rd episode. Interesting stuff; not sure what I think but it’s worth watching. (It’s a fictional dramatization of incidents of UFO sightings.) I remember a 1970’s series, Project UFO, but gosh, I was a young kid then; not sure exactly when it aired. This show might scratch an itch for mild thriller science fiction. Your mileage may vary. I’ll be watching the full season.
Great that this trilogy is out on audio. It’s a bummer, though, that I can’t have a listen to it through Audible or Tantor themselves. Seems I live in the wrong part of the world. Oh well… I wonder if Alliance Rising will be recorded by Audible like the Foreigner books have. Then I would be able to read that book.
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