Port Eternity [Hardcover]

Port Eternity (1982) is standalone SF novel set in the Alliance-Union Universe. It starts on the planet Brahman, where the rich are rejuvenated and their servants are genetically designed humans -- the azi -- grown in artificial wombs and indoctrinated by sleep learning. The azi are normally terminated when they reach forty, but some few are rejuved and live as long as their masters.

In this novel, Lady Dela Kirn is a descendent of a founder of Brahman and is very rich. She owns many azi, but only a few are allowed aboard the Maid of Astolat, her starfaring yacht. Four are the crew and the other three are her staff. All are named for characters in a drama tape about King Arthur.

The narrator of this story is Elaine, named for the original Maid of Astolat. Elaine is probably the most independent of the azi. Her household function is personal companion and she performs a variety of personal services for Lady Dela.

Lance is the steady lover of Lady Dela, available for times that she lacks other lovers. He has been with her for twenty years and is coming up on the age limit. Lance is Elaine's best friend, but he has been conditioned to only love Lady Dela.

Vivian is Lady Dela's accountant and estate manager. She is the most narrow of the azi, focused on her job and obtaining rejuv. She treats the other azi as if she was a born-man and too important to do menial work.

Gawain, Percivale, Lynette and Modred are the crew. They are closely focused on their jobs whenever the ship is activated. Modred is the most narrowly focused, operating by reason only and insensitive to his own and other's emotions. Modred is named such for his dangerous appearance; even born-men step aside when Modred approaches.

Griffin is Lady Dela's current born-man lover. He is young, having never been rejuved, and is full of energy. He and Lady Dela are in love, which is unusual for Dela. Even Lance is convinced that they will be married.

In this story, the crew takes the Maid of Astolat out of the Brahman station and start lining her up for the first jump. Before the ship reaches that point, it is subjected to wild strains and enters jumpspace. Although most everything has been secured for the jump, various fixtures and ornaments are thrown around and some are shattered.

The crew and passengers secure themselves when the alarms sound, but the forces tumbling the ship break even such restraints. None are hurt, but they are all very frightened. The environment terrifies them even more.

Their eyes are subjected to weird visions, such as seeming to see through the ship out into the strange void. The visions make them dizzy and nauseous. The azi appear to recover faster, since they have more experience with virtual reality.

The ship instruments are erratic, changing readings moment by moment. The void itself is filled with strange colors. However, they seem to be approaching another object. When they arrive, the object is moving below them and the ship is slipping around the surface.

The crew grapple to another object on the surface and halt the ship's motion. Gradually, the screens show more of the surface and they find the ship is now grappled to a strange looking ship. Another weird looking ship is on their other side.

Later there is something banging on the hull. The banging goes on for days. Everyone is terrified. Griffin starts taking control from Lady Dela and prepares means of defense against the intruders.

This story follows the actions of the crew and passengers. The azi act in accordance to their psych-sets. The born-men act in their human manner. All are afraid, but they somehow continue on.

Another complication in this story is the drama tape from which Dela got their names. Eventually all the azi experience the tape. Their minds are affected in various ways, depending on their psych-set and their named characters. They start to become more human.

Highly recommended for Cherryh fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of exotic societies, stranded travelers, and twisted love.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Port Eternity is an attempt to turn the Camelot legend into modern space opera, via the mechanism of Cherryh's lab-born 'azi' people that are part of her 'Alliance' universe, who get almost all of their knowledge and upbringing via tape. On a private ship that is the only locale of this story one of the crewmembers (all of whom are named for characters in the legend, on the whim of the ship's owner) gets hold of a tape detailing the Camelot story, and she naturally identifies with one of the characters therein. The ship is grabbed and held in jumpspace by some unknown large body, which requires all the ship members to carefully re-adjust how they 'see' the external world. During this process, the rest of the crew are exposed to the Camelot tape, and to some extent now are compelled to act like their legend's counterparts. The external threat that drives the dynamics of the character's actions comes from the large body that captured the ship, with its denizens apparently trying to break into the ship.

While this is an intriguing setup, the particulars of this story don't gel. The parallels with the Arthurian legend are certainly present, but the angst and tragedy of the original are not translated to this book. Perhaps this is because the characters, other than Elaine, the main viewpoint character, are not described in enough depth to make them emotionally engaging. This is especially a pity in the case of Lance, who remains a cipher throughout this book, and yet is one of the most conflicted and interesting characters of the legend.

The book does somewhat better thematically, as the question of whether the azi clones really have souls and can truly take independent action beyond their tape programming is explored in some depth. This is a theme that Cherryh detailed in much greater depth in Cyteen, but the main lines of her thoughts in this area are competently presented here, and provide some definite food for thought.

One of her 'odder' books, not totally successful, but it is readable, and provides another view of the moral dilemma that made Cyteen so great.

Arthurian clones in space--it sounds like a third-rate SF movie, but instead is a very moving and intriguing SF story by C.J. Cherryh. Though hardly perfect, this is a solid story for Arthuriana and SF fans alike.

An extremely wealthy woman named Dela owns a luxurious spacecraft called the "Maid of Astolat," which is decorated with swords, spears, medieval banners, and other trappings reminiscent of Arthurian legend. As if that weren't enough, she has specially programmed clones ("made people") whom she has fashioned and named after characters in Arthurian legend: Sweet, meek Elaine; handsome, sad Lancelot (Lance); dark, brooding Modred; handsome lithe Gawain (Wayne); sharp, efficient Viviane, and lesser characters Percival and Lynette. Elaine narrates, a rather flat character who apparently gets her "dreams" by using special tapes that Dela owns.

These clones help to keep the ship running, except for Lance who is something of a slave boy-toy for Dela. She often brings her lovers to the "Maid", and after she tires of them she falls back to Lance. But one day she brings in a new lover, Griffin--young, handsome, kindly, and she may actually marry him. This worries the clones, who fear that they will be put down or reprogrammed.

But their worries become irrelevent when the ship is yanked into a sort of space-wasteland, and clamped onto an alien ship. The clones begin to freak out (or "blank out," as they do when they're upset), Dela decides that they are all dead, and Griffin tries to help the clones free the ship. But something strange is drawing nearer to the "Maid," and will draw them into a situation that no one can truly understand--and the question of what being a person is.

This novella initially seems like a simple Star Trekkian adventure, but also introduces some intriguing moral questions. Do programmable clones have souls? What does it imply about the morals of a person who uses clones like wind-up toys? If they have stunted abilities to feel, and are "programmed" to obey a person, does that make them any less human than a "born man"? These questions are raised and answered without preachiness, but through effective demonstration.

Anyway, the characters were excellently made. The selfish, hedonistic Dela is forced to see the clones as people, and to act as a better person, and Griffin is definitely a "nice guy," though a little less so at the beginning. Lance is broody, Modred is sinister (yet, somehow, I like him!), Viviane is effective as the ice-queen with a head for figures. Percival is a sweetie some of the time. Gawain and Lynette don't register as much, but perhaps the biggest cast flaw is Elaine. She seems too passive as a narrator, doing too much telling and not enough doing, in a crisis situation. But her stunted love for Lancelot is very effectively shown.

Though there is minimal profanity, hardly any violence and just a little gross imagery (the attack on Modred), there is a fair amount of sex-related info in this. Dela brings man after man for trysts on her ship (we're told, but not shown), Lance is her boytoy, and there are a couple scenes where Lance goes to bed with Elaine. None of this is graphic; in fact, it's rather how you would expect the observations and experiences of an android to be. Perhaps the contrast between the love lives of the people involves and the growing soul love is deliberate. Additionally, one can also see traces of traditional Arthuriana, with Dela as Guinevere, Griffin as Arthur, Lancelot and Elaine in their ancient counterparts' places.

And thankfully Cherryh did not fall into the trap of "bad alien captures heroes, heroes defeat alien and escape." Rather, she introduces a situation as ambiguous as several characters are, and allows us to see a vision of the future that is truly intriguing, and which fits perfectly into the thoughts and desires of the characters.

Overall, an excellent read for Arthurian and SF fans.

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