Hammerfall (C. J. Cherryh) Chapters 8-14

I used to avoid reading the classics partly because many of them seemed so excruciatingly LONG.  “Moby Dick” in particular had the reputation of being a long, tedious book to slog through.  When I read it, though, I was pleasantly surprised at the brisk pace throughout most of it, in spite of the chapters mixed in that described, in some detail, the maritime equipment and practices of the era.  Even “War and Peace” was very readable and held my interest, despite there being so much of it.  So it takes me by surprise when a modern-day book – such as “Hammerfall” – becomes a tedious chore to read.  Don’t misunderstand; the story itself is quite captivating in my opinion, and the characters are relatable.  But the chapters-long descriptions of the desert treks do get pretty tedious.  If anyone gives up on this book by the one-quarter or one-third point I really can’t blame them.  I felt the same way about “Lord of the Rings,” as wonderful as it is in every other aspect.

Every time the protagonists and company reach a destination, we find that they are compelled to take to the sandy reaches yet again.  And each leg of the journey does throw different life-threatening situations at them.  It’s just too much of the same kind of thing.  On this latest leg, at least, we finally know what is causing the voices in their heads; and there has been some cursory explanation of how the voices are the result of microscopic robots in the bloodstream – nanoceles, to use the author’s terminology.  The explanations are all kept a little too short and too vague, presumably to keep the story from bogging down (ironic) at this point.  One hopes we’ll get a more convincing picture of how all this came about at some future point in the story.

The beshti.  Easily overlooked here, partly because Cherryh manages to make them so realistic, are the amazing beasts used to transport our heroes on their caravans across the desert.  These animals, beautifully evolved for desert life, are not depicted here as simply variants on horses, camels, llamas or elephants.  We get a clear impression of how very different they are from any creatures we’re familiar with, and how their animal personalities affect their functions as pack animals, desert survivors and more.  Cherryh never misses a chance to show how these animals naturally respond to the various situations they are placed into by the humans.  They are barely controllable when they sense there is abundant water nearby, and their human handlers must have a deep understanding of them and be able to respond accordingly.

The Ila is an interesting psychological study as well.  We don’t have the full story yet as to what her motivations are, but her reactions to Marak and his information denote a very singular personality.  As I usually do, I have cast some of my favorite actors and actresses in these roles; my choice for the Ila is unusual, but works in a very interesting way!  (As always, my “casting choices” are only available on request!)

Still waiting for this story to phase into a completely different – rather overdue – kind of narrative.  Will we get a glimpse of the folks behind the scenes that are apparently intending to reshape this planet?  Will there be scenes on a space station, or some kind of spacecraft?  Will Marak be there?  All this would be very “Cherryh-esque” in my opinion, but whatever the answers are, I suspect they are going to be quite unpredictable!

 

 

 

Next week: (Chapters 15-20)