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A review by essinink
Cuckoo's Egg by C.J. Cherryh
2.0
C.J. Cherryh's work is always a gamble; it tends to be slow-building and heavy on the details, but it usually pays off. Keyword: Usually.
The human boy Haras (called Thorn) is an infant when he's given into old Duun's keeping. Duun is Hataani, a kind of warrior-monk-judge in the alien Shonun society. His ways are harsh and uncompromising, but he raises and teaches Thorn as he would any other Shonun infant. Of course, as Thorn grows, he can't help but notice that no one in the world looks like him. And so the questions grow: Who is he? What is he? Where did he come from? What is his purpose? Duun gives few answers, and meanwhile others watch to see what this boy becomes.
It's an interesting idea, to raise a human in an alien society and see what comes of it, but while it's notable for its human-as-other perspective and twists on alien contact, I found the execution tepid. Usually Cherryh borders on overwhelming facts and claustrophobic psychological insights. Not so here. If anything, I wish the prose had been been more detailed. Between Thorn's sheltered understanding and Duun's taciturn narrative, Shonun society remains frustratingly opaque, with key caste elements only announced in the run-up to the finale. While I understood the gist of the factors at play, it was a bit of a muddle.
Not bad, but far from Cherryh's best. 2/5 stars.
The human boy Haras (called Thorn) is an infant when he's given into old Duun's keeping. Duun is Hataani, a kind of warrior-monk-judge in the alien Shonun society. His ways are harsh and uncompromising, but he raises and teaches Thorn as he would any other Shonun infant. Of course, as Thorn grows, he can't help but notice that no one in the world looks like him. And so the questions grow: Who is he? What is he? Where did he come from? What is his purpose? Duun gives few answers, and meanwhile others watch to see what this boy becomes.
It's an interesting idea, to raise a human in an alien society and see what comes of it, but while it's notable for its human-as-other perspective and twists on alien contact, I found the execution tepid. Usually Cherryh borders on overwhelming facts and claustrophobic psychological insights. Not so here. If anything, I wish the prose had been been more detailed. Between Thorn's sheltered understanding and Duun's taciturn narrative, Shonun society remains frustratingly opaque, with key caste elements only announced in the run-up to the finale. While I understood the gist of the factors at play, it was a bit of a muddle.
Not bad, but far from Cherryh's best. 2/5 stars.