Talk:Alliance–Union universe

Future history

I've changed the start of the future history in the opening paragraph from the 20th to the 21st century. Ms. Cherryh's Alliance-Union Chronology [1] starts in 2005. It's always interesting when time catches up with future histories and what was predicted hasn't materialised. Cherryh's entry for 2005 is "First star probe launched from Sol". (Remember Arthur C. Clarke's predictions in his 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.) --Bruce1ee 12:18, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Arguments for including Mri trilogy in A-U universe?

I have seen this claim, but haven't seen the logic behind it.

What timeline or Cherryh statement shows the Mri (Faded Sun trilogy) linked to the A-U timeline? --Alvestrand 22:11, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the question, Alvestrand. Over the years, numerous U.S. paperback releases of Cherryh's novels from DAW Books have identified the Faded Sun series as part of the A-U universe. My 1991 re-issue of the Faded Sun trilogy identifies them as such, for example. Also, Cherryh's timeline in Angel With the Sword places the Mri wars in the A-U universe (pp. 259-260). Hope that's helpful for you! Fairsing 00:47, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

There's also the official universes page on C J Cherryh's own website which includes the Mri under Alliance-Union, but gives Chanur its own section, and lists various stand-alones under "Miscellaneous" (Port Eternity, Voyager In Night, Wave Without A Shore, etc) http://www.cherryh.com/www/univer.htm Rmsgrey (talk) 00:19, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Foreigner series: relationship to the A-U universe?

Is there a definitive statement somewhere that the Foreigner series is not part of the A-U universe? It seems to be very similar in terms of technology. Senix (talk) 04:10, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Ms Cherryh has stated that they are not part of the same universe because they are published by different publishers (see for example here). The technology is similar, but there are subtle differences. See also these discussions, here and here. --Bruce1ee^talk 06:46, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Heavytime and Hellburner Set After Start of Company Wars?

The passage in the future history makes this statement, but don't believe this can be true. Both books are set in the Solar System dominated by interplanetary exploitation companies with independent space operators often cheated and exploited by corporate influence of official governmental bodies/law enforcement. The key point about the books being set before the outbreak of the company wars is the fact that the space carriers used in that war are still under construction and subject to on going issues to fully develop the technology while the craft are being built. In the latter book, the main characters are the ones who actually first pilot the ridership at full, near lightspeeds in the solar system, and in the process creating mind transfer training tape that will be used to tape train the rest of the ridership pilot corps. Clearly there are already tensions with Cyteen. The mind training tape technology is from Cyteen used to train the clones/azi. Its use to train Earth pilots is a case of adopting the Earth side actually using a taboo technology which is one of the rationales for the war in the first place. But, to the point, the Company Wars could not yet have broken out if the military ships used to pursue the war have not yet been fully developed and fielded. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.66.12.207 (talk) 15:36, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Passages in both novels make it very clear the war has all ready started, with both sides using weaponised freighters. Also, the lead-in to "Downbelow Station" notes that the war was initially fought using the exploration ships (which were always armed) and hastily armed freighters, with the carriers coming along after. The carriers are only just being built in "Hellburner" because, prior to the start of the war, there was no need for dedicated warships. 199.213.200.6 (talk) 15:02, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

August 2021 PROD

@Piotrus: I have added a "Sources" section to the Alliance–Union universe article with five reliable, in-depth, third-party sources that discuss the subject of the article. I'm sure that with some digging, other such sources will be found. I believe this satisfies the General notability guideline's five requirements, and I have removed the PROD tag. The article needs to be rewritten with inline citations, but for now, the subject's notability has been established. —Bruce1ee^talk 12:36, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

@Bruce1ee Thank you, that's a good start. Do note that to establish notability we need to show there's WP:SIGCOV in those sources - sometimes it's obvious based on the source's name, but I don't think it is that self-evident here. Some of them are obviously about Cherryh andher works, but it's hardly apparently any of them discuss this universe in depth. Any chance you can expand on this? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 04:32, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

@Piotrus: I've expanded on four of the sources below, which I hope satisfies significant coverage.

• Booker, M. Keith (2015). Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 61. ISBN 9780810878839.

The entry for Cherryh in this book states that

• Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe is "a far-reaching future history that includes numerous stories of interstellar exploration and combat and more than two dozen novels in its elaboration of humanity’s colonization of the galaxy"
• this universe's genre is mostly "space opera", but also includes "planetary romance"
• "The Alliance-Union sequence is so far-reaching that its overall outlines remain unclear and continue to develop"

• Clute, John (April 10, 2021). Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Cherryh C J". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved August 15, 2021.

This source is available online and mentions the following points:

• Cherryh's Alliance-Union is a "Future History, which embraces most of the home Galaxy through the third and fourth millennia"
• the Alliance is "structured around the Merchanter cultures which operate the huge interstellar freighters necessary for trade", and the Union comprises "ruthless expansionist[s]"
• Earth is a "third force" in Alliance-Union conflict
• the themes of the books in this series are examined in detail
• Cherryh's books set in this universe "generates a continuing sense that there is always more untold in an Alliance-Union novel than that novel could possibly reveal"
• "the Alliance-Union structure, though rough at the edges, serves primarily to hold and sort background material – a necessary aid for an author whose better work almost invariably offers too much material, too many Alien races intersecting too complexly for easy comprehension"
• "the lineaments of the Alliance-Union series remain unclear, but it seems increasingly the case that the novels incorporated within this loose mosaic – running from effective singletons to close argued subsequences – are Cherryh's central achievement"

• Monk, Patricia (1990). "The shared universe: an experiment in speculative fiction". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 2 (4). International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts: 7–46. JSTOR 43308064.

This source is available from JSTOR and explains

• what Cherryh's Alliance-Union comprises
• how the different books in this universe are linked in a way to create a "collage novel"
• the role Cherryh's universe plays in the "evolution of the shared-universe or cooperative work"

• Stinson, J. G. (2004). "The Human as Other in the Science Fiction Novels of C.J. Cherryh". In Carmien, Edward (ed.). The Cherryh Odyssey. Borgo Press. pp. 133–148. ISBN 0-8095-1071-5.

Most of this chapter is visible in this Google Book preview, and explains

• the history of the Alliance-Union and the emergence of three economic powers: Earth Company, the Alliance and the Union
• how the Union developed technology to clone humans called azi
• the Union's strategy to "seed potential Alliance space with as many of its own colonies as possible"

Thanks, —Bruce1ee^talk 12:16, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

@Bruce1ee Impressive, this may indeed be notable. Will you find time in the coming days to edit this into the article's body? Than we could remove the template as well. It would be great to see this turn from a fan plot ORish essay into a proper encyclopedic article! --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 12:47, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

@Piotrus: Sure, I'll have a look at it later this week. —Bruce1ee^talk 14:34, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

@Piotrus: I've added this material into two new sections, "Description" and "Critical reception". I've also used some of these sources to reference parts of three other sections, namely, "Genre", "Major characters" and "Sentient alien species". There still is a lot of unreferenced text in the article, but for now, notability has been established. —Bruce1ee^talk 11:28, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Alliance / Union Timeline

Did it occur to anyone that the timeline given at http://www.cherryh.com/www/chrona1.htm to http://www.cherryh.com/www/chrona7.htm is quite a mess? I tried to transpose the text into an Excel sheet (sortable table) and found that not only, but especially info for ECS2 Valiant and ECS3 Argo are seriously inconsistent, Argo partly being sent between Sol and Beta, but overlappingly between Bryant's and Venture, too - same for Valiant, so these two ships have partly been confounded. You can find also several lines like »ECS5 Atlantis arrives at Alpha Station [SS1: Barnard's Star] from Glory Station [SS4: Ross 154]; sent to Alpha Station [SS1: Barnard's Star].«, thus »sending« a ship to its actual location. Also the Beagle/Challenger two-stage pusher first launches Olympus to Groombridge 34 (in 2080), but then establishes Eldorado at UV Ceti in 2089 an later Pell in an inaccurate timeline. Am I the first one to notice this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ijuedt (talk • contribs) 20:26, 9 October 2021 (UTC)