Follow up to 2019’s Alliance Rising and only the second Alliance / Union novel published in the last fifteen years, which is far too long for my taste which is a statement I’ll make while ignoring the ten plus Alliance / Union novels I have yet to read. Alliance Unbound jumps right into the action of the previous novel with Ross Monahan having taken refuge on Finity’s End, a top of the line and incredibly powerful merchant ship following the takeover of his family’s ship, The Galway, during the conclusion of Alliance Rising.

It’s a little difficult to talk about Alliance Unbound without talking about the larger galactic politics and how this book fits into the larger series of generally connected novels because the actions with both Alliance Rising and Alliance Unbound center around the founding of the titular alliance between merchant ships to counter the encroaching power of the Earth Company as a border and buffer against the Union of other worlds and space stations. It’s both incredibly important for understanding the underlying landscape (spacescape?) of Alliance Unbound and not at all important because with very limited exceptions across some thirty novels, these books can be read and enjoyed in any order.

The core of Alliance Unbound is the founding of the Merchanter’s Alliance and my favorite bits of the novel are the ones that are dealing with the minutiae of interstellar politics and the issues merchant ships have with Earth Company (and it’s projected power of the home planet against ships and stations it views as their property even when years can pass between possible communication). The Neihart family of Finity’s End is compelling, though certainly a bit heavy handed as the rich / powerful merchant family, as they work on getting the last two family run ships signed on to the Alliance and discover a possible Earth Company

It’s not just the devil being in the details, it’s what the novel hangs on. Fans of Cherryh will find a lot to like here, especially if Cyteen was a hit though Alliance Unbound is shorter and moves around more than that novel but it has some of the same delightful awkwardness and power politics of Cyteen.

C. J. Cherryh (https://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/) and Jane S. Fancher (https://janefancher.com) coauthored this novel. Between them, they have published dozens of novels. Alliance Unbound was published last October and is the second book in their Hinder Stars series. It is the 84th book I completed reading in 2024.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to some violence and mature language, I categorize this novel as PG.

The novel is set in the far future. Earth has colonized the stars but has had to rely on sub-light ships to move supplies and people to the stars. The Cyteen are an offshoot of human colonization. Their citizens are known as the Azi. Cloned humans, who are part machine created from human biology. To their credit, the Cyteen have developed faster-than-light travel and have freely shared the technology with all.

The Earth Company (EC) had funded the original human expansion into the stars. They wielded dictatorial control using their pusher supply ships as leverage over the colonists. With the introduction of FTL drives in the colonies, Earth quickly began to lose control. The long light-speed limited connection between Earth and the colonies makes travel and simple communication a multi-year one-way trip.

Now there is growing evidence that that Earth is trying to reassert control. The flourishing FTL merchants want to retain their freedom and block the efforts of Earth. The FTL ships are each run by a different family. They began to organize and founded the Merchants' Alliance to protect themselves and the stations they serve.

When the story opens almost all of the merchant ships and stations have signed onto the Alliance. The megaship Finity’s End captained by JR Neihart has been busy gathering signatures for the Alliance. While visiting Pell Station they discover evidence of unsanctioned trading of items from Earth. The trading seems to be connected to one of the merchant ships they have been seeking.

This leads Finity and her crew to the thought to be deserted Olympus Station. What they find there is an active Earth presence and a pusher ship delivering supplies to the station. They also find the two missing merchanter ships they had been seeking. With the Cyteen ship Little Bear as a witness to any treachery, Captain Neihart attempts to talk reason to the EC personnel on Olympus.

The details of the story weave around three main characters. Captain JR Neihart and his efforts to gather signatures to the Alliance document, then later negotiate with the secret EC facility. Promoting the Alliance and interacting with the EC have put him under great stress.

Ross Monahan is a navigator in training and part of the family crewing the FTL merchant ship Galway. He earned his spot on Finity by escaping Galway as EC enforcers took it over. He brought the word of their act of piracy to the Alliance. He struggles with confidence and is one of the few who ‘hear’ the stars.

Jen Neihart, JR’s niece, works ship security. She has also become romantically involved with Ross. She is dealing with the EC threat and with the pending breakup when Ross returns to his extended family on the Galway.

I enjoyed the 19 hours I spent reading this 607-page science fiction novel. There is a bit of action, but this is a slow-paced political thriller set in space. While it is the second novel in the series, it does read well on its own. I have had the opportunity to read two other good novels by Ms.Cherryh. Those are Visitor and Resurgence. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 3.8 (rounded to 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Alliance Unbound continues the space opera narrative from Alliance Uprising. Finity, the FTL merchanter family ship, has discovered that Earth may be reasserting control in the quadrant by using non FTL merchanter ships from the Hinder Stars to smuggle goods from earth and elsewhere into the star station Pell and other locations. Finity sets out to find the station platform that Earth is using and the erring merchanters. Mayhem results after diplomatic efforts.. Great read !!!

About fifty years ago C. J. Cherryh created a future universe of giant stations and a mercantile association that provides trade. Recently, along with Jane S. Fancher, she is looking at a time when FTL travel has just been invented, and jump points to Earth deliberately not provided because of the Autocratic EC behavior (think China of today).Earth can still reach human space with giant pusher ships that require decades to make the trip. Alliance Unbound (hard from DAW) follows the further adventures of the large FTL ship Finity. The Finity ran into trouble with the EC in a previous book that I haven't read. The Finity finds possible proof that Earth is working from an abandoned station and heads out searching for clues. Of course it finds danger. This is a universe with unarmed family crewed ships so nobody shoots missiles. I really enjoyed returning to this universe and this feels like the C. J. Cherryh when her award winning series first appeared.

Starships and space station politics— absorbing!

Tense unforgiving times for Finity’s End starship’s crew as they endeavour to bring the last two merchant family ships into an Alliance as a third power to counter the Earth Company’s enforcer’s actions in space. The two ships leave as Infinity comes into Pell, and before Senior Captain Neihart can speak with the.
An innocent look by Jen Neihart, the Senior Captain’s niece, her partner Ross Monahan and some of his cousins at Pell Station’s Gardens and trees have the Finity Starship Captains realising that illegal Sol items are showing up at Pell. How? Such items are sanctioned. Jen is a security officer for Finity. Ross, a Navigator from the Galaxy family ship, along with his cousins are currently attached to Finity.
From there it’s a small thought for Finity’s End to go to two mothballed space stations to investigate.
Ross is a talented navigator who feels the stars as living entities. It’s his abilities that in the end deduce something others doubt.
When Finity’s End breaks out into space station Olympus’s orbit they are unpleasantly surprised. There’s a pusher ship from Sol attached to the station, the two family ships they’ve been looking for and a third ship that looks very different.
What began as an economic endeavour has the potential to become something else
Cherryh and Fancher build the story in abbreviated actions and talk that alarmingly keeps the tension focused.
I’m happily exhausted! Grand Space Opera at its very best!

A DAW ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Political Space Adventure…that’s the best way to explain this book. It begins right around when the first book left off and continues to follow Capt Newhart and Ross.

The world building and characters were very well done in this story. On the whole I enjoyed it. Now I want to pick up the other series in the same universe.

Thanks to NetGalley, DAW, CJ Cherryh, and Jane S. Fancher for access to an e-arc.

Alliance Unbound is book 2 in the Hinder Stars series which is set earlier than the existing Alliance-Union series. This is the formation of the Alliance. I think. We are defintely seeing setup into the Company Wars. You don't need to have ready any Alliance-Union novels for this series to make sense. It may be better if you haven't so you don't keep checking on exactly where these events fit into the timeline and decide that you need to re-read all the Alliance-Union books only to find your library no longer has them and your collection only has 5 or 6. If you haven't read them, it means you could read Downbelow Station and Cyteen (my favourite) for the first time.

Like every Cherryh I have read, you are dumped into the story and the details are coming at you and no one is quite clear what is going on. There are POV characters that were POV characters in book 1 but the setting has moved from Alpha station to Finity's End as she travels from station to station. It starts slow as the political information builds and the characters discover more. The last third is very quick moving and I dealy hope there will be at least one more book in this series. I think that Fancher/Cherryh collaborations have (slightly) less convoluted prose than Cherryh's solo work. I love her style, but I know it isn't for everyone.

Highly recommended. Should start with book 1.

**Alliance Unbound** is the second installment in a series exploring the origins of the Merchanter Alliance within the Alliance-Union universe, picking up directly after the events of **Alliance Rising**. The story unfolds aboard the ship *Finity's End* and is primarily told from the perspectives of two characters: Ross Monahan, a young Navigator from the Family ship *Galway*, and Senior Captain JR Neihart. Additionally, Security Officer Jen Neihart, Ross's lover, contributes to the narrative from a lesser viewpoint. As the story begins, *Finity's End* is en route to Pell Station for much-needed shore leave. During their stay, the Monahans—guests on *Finity*—notice Earth-based goods on the station that, as traders from that region of space, they know shouldn't be there. This discovery prompts the Neiharts of *Finity* to investigate the link between the black-market items and two merchanter Family ships that they have been unable to locate in their efforts to recruit them into the Alliance. What they uncover leads to shocking revelations about Earth's plans to assert control over all human-inhabited space.

Although many details from the first book are recapped in **Alliance Unbound**, the narratives are closely connected, making it essential to read **Alliance Rising** first. At times, the recaps can slow the pace, as characters repeatedly recount events from the previous book. True to C.J. Cherryh's style, this book is rich with the politics, culture, and science of her universe, interwoven with intrigue and action. However, due to its heavy exposition, **Alliance Unbound** may be better suited for longtime fans of Cherryh's work rather than newcomers.

Review: Alliance Unbound by C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher

I'm going to preface this by saying that I have loved most of what I read by Cherryh. And overall, I liked this book. However, and this is a big however, I felt like I must have missed the previous book in this series.* I felt a bit lost through much of this book. It was also poorly edited with some information repeated multiple times and other information given once, and never again. Like Downbelow Station, this book has a complex political setting, but there was way too much rumination by Ross Monahan.

The book opens with Ross trying to find his place with a new crew and a new ship. Most ships are crewed by literal families who take on the various roles within the crew from navigator to captain to kitchen staff. Ross and some of his Monahan cousins are displaced from their family's ship for a political situation that occurred in the first book. This situation is described several times.

At 535 pages, this book is bloated. There is just too much of the wrong information repeated to for it to work as well as it could have. That said, I finished it and mostly enjoyed it. I'll probably go back and read Alliance Rising and pick up the next volume when it's available.


*I totally did. The previous book, Alliance Rising, was published in 2019.

This second book in the Hinder Stars ('Alliance-Union Universe Prequel') series picks up almost from where we left off after book one. Ross Monahan has been on the ship Finity's End with some other Gallaway crew after the events of the last book. On their mission to sign up more family ships to the fledgling alliance they've arrived at Pell to find the last few ships they've not talked to yet. They soon discover that the station is not as dormant as expected and that the Earth Company has an unexpected presence in the region.

Like with most of Cherryh's books, this one is a slow burn with a lot of politics and maneuvering. The universe we are in - it has enough 'realism' to make everything feel grounded and the few magic technologies (i.e., FTL) are suitably limited to feel appropriate. And this is the lynchpin for the whole story and premise - the long time it takes to travel in space, regardless of the method, and what such long distances mean for humans: their sense of belonging and governmental/commercial control.

I have read all the Alliance-Union books way back in the day and loved the universe back then and I still do so today. Cherryh has a unique talent for making space feel BIG, and even though the story is told from multiple POVs, none of them are from the 'other' side which leaves it up to the reader to try to figure out what the antagonist goals are. I love the premise, the characters and the mystery - when something new is discovered, it never feels like just a plot device.

On the negative side, there's a lot of unnecessary repetition. We get a lot of inner dialogue from characters and each event is gone over multiple times with the current situation analyzed over and over again. In some aspect, the book expects quite a bit from the reader - in others, it feels like there is way too much exposition for implications that the reader already knows. I have to admit at parts I started skimming forward with thoughts of 'Yes I know already' going through my head and wondering if the editor was doing their job.

Still if you've enjoyed the Alliance-Union universe in the past, this new series is highly recommended, as is for any fans of hard sci fi. Start with the first volume though, not this one. If you did read the first one, you'll likely enjoy this one just as well. I will definitely be picking up the next book when it is released. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

A long awaited return to Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe and well worth the wait. Cherryh and Fancher jump right back into the story soon after the events of Alliance Rising. It has plenty
of recap detail for new readers and lots of Easter Eggs for experienced Cherryh readers. As the second book of, at least, a trilogy it ended with
me wanting more. But I always want more Cherryh.

Thanks to CJ Cherryh, Jane S. Fancher, DAW, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is the second of The Hinder Stars series which take place before The Company Wars series. Although not the first in the series, it can be read independently of the first book.

If you’re a fan of science fiction and you haven’t read CJ Cherryh, you are missing out on multiple series of well written stories by an absolute Master of her craft. This book deals with conflicts that arise in a trading universe where one group, the EC, wants to assert themselves to displace the existing merchants. As is typical of a CJ Cherryh book, the world building is excellent, the characters are well drawn, and the story progresses well. Recommended.

Very wordy as things move at a slow pace. Good to see returning characters. Some new in the series as well. Most of action is in the end as true colors are revealed. Best if you read book one. Lookin forward to next book as this ends in a cliffhanger

One thing this book could use is where it fits in the Alliance-Union universe timeline. After this many books it is a little hard to pigeon hole when the names are familiar because they are family names of importance in the merchanter family. I finally figured it out. These predate the events in Downbelow. The first book I had some difficulty with as it was slow moving and more intrigue than action. This book is more balanced between the two. Which made it a much easier and more enjoyable read at least in my book. After the events in the last book, the Galway has been attacked, it's family is split between the Finity's Edge and Alpha station. Finity is pulling into Pell station to complete the last major section of the Alliance, warn Pell about the possible FTL root to Sol and the attack on Galway by the EC. Ross is shadowing the Nav station on Finity and doing a great job. JR and Fletcher are working on the Alliance and trying to track down the last two merchanter ships that need to sign. Then those suspicious two ships seem to be involved in even more mysterious and possibly hazardous to the Alliance behavior. This sends Finity out from Pell at great cost to try to find out the truth and prevent disaster. Well written old school Cherryh writing, somewhat dense at times but overall a very good book. Thank you Netgally for the privilege of reading this book for this review.

A mixed bag. I have no memories of book one. But based on my previous review, this book seemed similar.

I have read all of the Alliance-Union-Merchanter-Cyteen books, but most of these were before I was on Goodreads. I have re-read Downbelow Station and Merchanter's Luck relatively recently.

This book felt like a Merchanter book. But this had no recap. So trying to figure out the story at the beginning was tough. And the book was torturously slow. We were in several character's heads and they kept on recapping and reconsidering events and trying to figure out what would happen next. It made the book a lot longer than it needed to be.

There was a bit too much time at the Tree Museum on Pell. But it was a cool spot and understanding why it was cool was important to the plot.

There was a bit too much time spent on any of the formal communications - between ship and ship, between ship and station, between captain and captain, between captain and crew.

And then like in the first book, there was a bang up ending that left me wanting more. And wanting to re-read the whole series.

The whole point of colonies would seem to be that at some point they break free and are independent entities. And the parent of those colonies may not be ready to let go on the same timeline.

Still worth reading but not a good starting place. 3.5 of 5.

Cherryh's still got it - fans of cerebral, plotty, dialogue-focused sci-fi will continue to enjoy her work. I'm one of them, so I loved it - impatiently waiting for the next Foreigner book but I will certainly take another look at what's up before the Company Wars!

Sequel to Alliance Rising. At Pell, with the Alliance lacking only two ships to be complete, the Monahans aboard Finity's End make a discovery that upends everything. Tense politicking and great danger lead to a rollicking good read. Highly recommended.

Note: there is at least one more book in the series still to come. And now I need to reread the rest of the Alliance/Union universe books.