In the sequel to Pride of Chanur, Tully returns, and brings with him a priceless trade contract with human space – a contract that could mean vast power, riches, and a mess of trouble for Pyanfar Chanur.

Reading this now, when the research lab on the ISS (International Space Station) is twenty years old, it’s hard to summon up just how innovative C. J. Cherryh’s imagining of space stations was. ‘Chanur’e Venture’ (1984) was published in the same month that President Reagan directed NASA to build the ISS. I started reading Cherryh in the 1980s with the publication of her Nebula Award-winning novel ‘Downbelow Station’ (1981). The universe she described colonised my imagination. It was vivid, detailed and complex but never boring. The science and technology were there but it never dominated. It was the ofcourse-we-have-that taken for granted background to adventures filled with intrigue and threat.Her books weren’t easy to get hold of then, more than a decade before Amazon was founded of the first Web page was built. I had to import them from the US and my local bookshop couldn’t understand why I’d want to put in the effort.

I re-read the first book, ‘The Pride Of Chanur‘ (1982) last year and enjoyed it enough that I decided to re-read the rest of the series. The second book, ‘Chanur’s Venture’ (1984) is a fast-paced, conflict-filled, action-packed Space Opera that continues following Pyanfar Chanur and the crew of her ship, who once again find themselves blindsided at the centre of a complex struggle between competing alien races.  Cherryh doesn’t believe in the ‘Previously, in the Chanur series…’ approach to fiction. If you haven’t read ‘The Pride Of Chanur‘ she’s not going to waste time explaining it to you. Either go back and read it or do your best to keep up.

The intrigue and the action start from the first page. It’s complicated, involves multiple races, has detailed links to the backstory and moves at a fast pace. In other words, it was Space Opera as it should be – fun and fascinating. 

This time around, my favourite part was watching Pyanfar, who comes from a big cat species where the females are dominant, trying to convince her husband that, contrary to societal norms on their home planet, males don’t have to be emotionally unstable and are not biologically incapable of being functioning members a ship’s crew. 

It quickly becomes clear that Pyanfar and her crew have been set up as part of a covert war between competing races. She is isolated and alienated from her own people and at risk from everyone else. She either finds a way through the challenges or there will be no more House Chanur. I admire Cherryh’s ability to make the point of view of this big-cat race my new normal so that I understand what’s at stake for her and humans become just another alien race she has to factor into her strategy.

I was a little disappointed, first time around, that the book has a semi-cliffhanger ending. It’s basically Episode Two in a five-episode series. This time, I knew it was coming and, unlike last time. I don’t have to wait a little over a year before I can import the next book, ‘The Kif Strike Back’ (1985) is already in my audiobook library. 

The other big change between now and 1984 is that I can now listen to the audiobook. Audible is twenty years old and taken for granted now but it was still almost a science fiction concept when this series was first published. I love Dina Pearlman’s narration. It’s dramatic and tense and it copes with all the very strange names that CherryH gave to alien species. If you want to follow Pyanfar’s adventures, then I recommend you let Dina Pearlman bring the stories alive for you.