Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
PORT ETERNITY
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XVII
VOYAGER IN NIGHT
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II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE
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VIII
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XXXI
PORT ETERNITY
“A thoughtful work by an intelligent writer.”
—The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review
VOYAGER IN NIGHT
“Well-written, intelligent space adventure ... an intriguing
psychological novel ... thoughtful and original
characterizations of both humans and aliens,
excellent world building.”
—The Chicago Sun-Times
“Fascinating ... testifies to Cherryh’s boldness and
flexibility as a novelist.” —Locus
WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE
“This is a thoughtful, engrossing novel.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Proof that you can be prolific and good ... a gem.”
—The Los Angeles Times
DAW TITLES BY C.J. CHERRYH
THE ALLIANCE-UNION UNIVERSE
The Company Wars
DOWNBELOW STATION
The Chanur Novels
THE PRIDE OF CHANUR
CHANUR’S VENTURE
THE KIF STRIKE BACK
CHANUR’S HOMECOMING
CHANUR’S LEGACY
Merovingen Nights
ANGEL WITH THE SWORD
The Hanan Rebellion
BROTHERS OF EARTH
HUNTER OF WORLDS
The Era of Rapprochement
SERPENT’S REACH
FORTY THOUSAND IN GEHENNA
MERCHANTER’S LUCK
The Mri Wars
THE FADED SUN TRILOGY OMNIBUS
The Age of Exploration
CUCKOO’S EGG
VOYAGER IN NIGHT
PORT ETERNITY
THE MORGAINE CYCLE
THE MORGAINE SAGA
EXILE’S GATE
EALDWOOD
THE DREAMING TREE
THE FOREIGNER UNIVERSE
FOREIGNER
INVADER
INHERITOR
PRECURSOR
DEFENDER 1
EXPLORER 1
PORT ETERNITY
Copyright © 1982 by C.J. Cherryh
VOYAGER IN NIGHT
Copyright © 1984 by C.J. Cherryh
WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE
Copyright © 1981 by C.J. Cherryh
ALTERNATE REALITIES
Copyright © 2000 by C.J. Cherryh
All Rights Reserved.
DAW Book Collectors No. 1171.
DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any
resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
First Paperback Printing, December 2000
DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
—MARCA REGISTRADA.
HECHO EN USA
S.A.
eISBN : 978-1-101-49561-2
http://us.penguingroup.com
A fast forward from the author. ...
These books are special ... and thanks to Betsy Wollheim for carrying on the tradition of a kind of science fiction publishing that’s not a spinoff, not a copy of a TV show—in fact, not “just like” much else you’ll meet. In her decision to put these books out in a modern format she’s guaranteed they’re findable. Trust me: colored lights and sfx aren’t the “real stuff ” of science fiction, that branch of writing we fondly called “the literature of ideas” long before NASA flew. No, the “real stuff ” is extrapolation—that twelve-letter word for taking a concept and running with it as far and as fast as a lively mind can follow, be it into whimsy or down a scary slip on thin ice. Extrapolative tales require a rarer kind of reader, a mind that enjoys hopping from ice floe to ice floe to get to ... well, you just can’t predict, and that’s the point, isn’t it?
It’s very certain you don’t get rich writing or publishing what Betsy Wollheim and I call the “magic cookie books,” but there’s the special reward of putting these hard-to-place books out where the right readers can find them.
PORT ETERNITY
I was lucky in my first publisher and lucky in the era in which I wrote my earliest books; Donald Wollheim of DAW Books, owning his own publishing house, gave me free rein to experiment, and to write the outrageous, and to exercise a set of muscles a writer ideally needs. Ever seen a butterfly come out of the chrysalis? The wings are small and shriveled. But the wings begin to beat, and to expand, and they stretch out and show their patterns as life flows into them. The relationship of a writer to someone who gives them the chance to do that imagination-stretch is precious.
My original title for this was Involutions, because it spirals in upon itself. Reality starts down a whirlpool ride into dream and into fiction, and the fictional world becomes more real than surrounding space, at least for a time ...
Or isn’t it, after all, that all fiction is the backyard of the house we live in, our release from the four-walled constraint of daily chores we do just to eat and have a place to sleep? And while we’re there ... it’s real.
Stories are what we all work to have. Oh, how destitute are those who don’t have access to stories at all, or who don’t realize that stories are the prize in the box, and that daily life without them is so much less!
Stories aren’t escape. They’re the living of an active mind. Making money and acquiring things can scratch a few itches, too, but give me a man who loves the companionship of human beings and animals, who appreciates good stories and good food at his fireside, and who’ll bestir himself considerably to get them around him.