What do You think about Hammerfall (2002)?
I found it interesting to go from C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine Saga (written early in her career) to the relatively recent Hammerfall. The books feel similar enough that I can tell they were written by the same author, but the writing in Hammerfall is much better. C.J. Cherryh's style is simple and evocative. It's a real pleasure to read a book written by someone so skilled with words. The story of Hammerfall is simple: our protagonist, Marak, is on a road trip. Against this background, we watch Marak struggle against the harsh environment of the desert, deal with travel companions who are not quite savvy enough to survive on their own (or who have conflicting goals), and try to uncover a mystery about the true nature of his people's existence on their planet. All this takes place against a background of constant urgency as disaster looms. This book appears to be the first in a series called "The Gene Wars", but it is simple and self-contained enough that it could safely be read on its own.
—Stephen
For those that don't read sf, they might find the first 5-10 pages of most sf novels hard to deal with because most sf authors make assumptions about the reader. And, subsequently, most sf readers know to "hang in there" because soon enough it will start to make sense. Cherryh probably takes this assumption about the reader and extends it double or triple.It really took a lot of "hang in there" to get to the point where I felt like I knew what was going on. Having finished the story, there is still a lot of vagueness in certain areas, but overall, I like the story. And while I never could say I liked "the point-of-view" -- which consisted 100% of the world as seen through the primary character, Marak -- it was put to fairly good use, albeit confusing. Most of the confusion came into play because Marak's world was so odd and different from our own. But there were many times Cherryh could have done a bit more exposition so that the reader better understood what was going on around Marak. My biggest peeve was "vermin." Only once was there a mention of what form this vermin might take -- a beetle -- but that was just for a moment, and never revisited. Only in the last few pages did she expound on details that the previous 99% of the story had you guessing. So, in that, she didn't trust her readers.There was also this pounding "Marak, Marak, Marak..." throughout the story and, well, we GOT it! It may have been Cherryh's point to make it as tedious to us as it was to Marak, but it got old... real quick.On the positive side, if we ignore the irritating issues I've discussed, the story was excellent and the characters all very well developed, as you'd expect. The world was fairly one-dimensional -- populated only by people, vermin and besha (camels) -- but that might have been part of the the point of the story. (To say more about that would spoil it.) So, overall, I did like it and could recommend it, but would temper it by saying, only for hard-core sf fans.
—Robert Laird
I read Hammerfall when it first came out in hardback. Our Hero is Marak Trin Tain, a warrior who finds himself in a mass of people being herded to “the holy city.” He is one of a group of people who have been infected by a peculiar madness that “the Ila” the immortal ruler of the holy city finds interesting. Marak Trin Tain is also someone the Ila finds interesting, and despite the fact that Marak is the son of one of her enemies she puts him in charge of an expedition to discover the source of the madness. What appears at first to be fantasy turns into science fiction when it is revealed that this particular form of madness is actually a message from a team who is trying to contact the Ila.Read this on Rena's Hub of Random.
—Rena McGee
