Cherryh, C.J.
HEAVY TIME
C.J. Cherryh
Warner Books 1991
PB 330 pages
ISBN #
0-446-36223-9
Set in Cherryh's Union-Alliance universe, Heavy Time is the story of a young man who was in the right place at the wrong time. Asteroid mining can be quite dangerous, especially when you and your partner have just discovered the richest hunk of iron in years and a big mining company decides they want it for themselves. Heavy Time enters where two other independent miners (Ben Pollard and Morris Bird) come onto the remains of the accident. Paul Dekker, the pilot of this space-craft is near death; his partner is missing, presumed dead. Together they must solve the mystery of what happened before that mystery claims their lives.
I picked up this novel because another book I had read didn't satisfy my need for character interrelationships. Cherryh always delivers in that department. Once into the book I realized the name Ben Pollard sounded awful familiar. It was. After a deep dig into my stash of books I discovered another Cherryh book with Ben Pollard in it: Hellburner. Guess what? I found out they're connected, no thanks to the publisher who should have notified the reader of this fact on one of the first pages of each book but didn't. FYI: Hellburner follows directly after Heavy Time.
The title Heavy Time means, down time--on station. It's that time when a miner is living off his wages instead of out in the belt earning them. It's that time when he feels heavy g because there's a lot more gravity on station than their is in a space ship. Thus, the book Heavy Time is mostly on station. But don't think that will make it boring, it won't. If Cherry's intrigue doesn't get you, her characterizations and style will.
And what style! Cherryh knows language and how to use it well. Her dialogue lilts and rolls, it's humorous and engaging. Her characters are real people with real frustrations. I enjoyed Heavy Time so much, I went back and reread Hellburner afterwards.
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