Rating: 
Summary: One of my VERY favorite series in any genre
Review: I first read this as a teenager, and just re-read the trilogy last year. I enjoyed it even more this time, becuase of the author's ability to truly take you to another time and place. C.J.Cherryh can, like few other writers, make aliens feel real to the reader while preserving the striking differences between "us and them." The detail of the mri culture is unbelievably rich and fully realized, just like Cherryh's also-excellent more recent creations, the atevi of the Foreigner universe.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys scifi, or even just a really well-written story.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent. Excellent, excellent. No, really.
Review: I like this series a lot. I'd tried to read it before, book by book, and I didn't make it past the first book. It wasn't until a person whose literary opinion I respect (she's very well-read) informed me that this was quite probably the best sci-fi series ever written, and she wouldn't allow me NOT to read it, and got me this compilation for Christmas, that I actually read it through. And she was right.Cherryh is usually an excellent writer, but she's in no way an easy one to read. Her books are incredibly DENSE--you're not going to find any plot holes here, but if you want to understand what's going on, then you'll have to read the whole thing. And I do mean the WHOLE thing; you can't get away with skipping pages or paragraphs and things that happened in the first chapter of the first book will be explained only in the last chapter of the last book. I think that's one of the difficulties of this series--you expect that each book is a stand-alone, or that the first book is stand-alone, and the others are additions. This is not the case; it's all one book, really. If you have a short attention span (like I do), you'll want to get all three together. I find that it's all too easy to put down a book about 60% finished. It doesn't matter if it's 50 pages or 500 pages, if it's not interesting enough to get me over that 60% obstacle, I rarely finish it. That's what happened the first time, when I got about 60% of the way through the first book and gave up. This time, that 60% happened at a much better point and I was able to make it to the end. I suppose that all this sounds very disheartening, and it'll make poeple think that this is a dull book. What I'm really trying to do is make you read it without glossing over the single biggest feature of Cherryh's writing. She just doesn't give anything away for free and her plots are incredibly suspensful. You want a summary? It isn't possible. You want to see plot points coming in advance? Won't happen. You want to know the ending ahead of time? Reading the last chapter before the others won't do you any good (I've tried). I've got nothing to say about the plot, suffice to say that it involves a sort of first-contact situation (but not really). Read it, seriously. It's hard to trust an author through 800 pages, especially when by page 750 you still feel like you missed something crucial, and you're not sure if everything's really going to turn out for the better. I hate to read through 800 pages just to have my favorite character get hit by a bus or something stupid. Trust me, trust HER--Cherryh won't leave you hanging.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: I love complex plots, characters, and background, and I don't usually see those elements all together in one book. When I do, I'm in heaven .. and it's all right here. There is so much packed in this book! From the Big Picture (fascinating cultures and the conflicts/lack of understanding between them) right down to the individual personalities, this is a book I wanted to sink into and soak it all up. I'm pretty stingy with stars, but this is on my short 5-star list.
Rating: 
Summary: Rich and dense
Review: I prefer books that I have to ponder, where there seems to be great depth underlying the words written. Example: Robert Graves' I Claudius. I relished this book, the first I ever read by Cherryh, but certainly not the last (I am deep into the Morgaine Saga at this moment, and just bought five more Cherryh books today.) The book is crafted, written, and paced very deliberately, which might frustrate an impatient reader. But when things happen, they really have impact, and a lot does happen in the 775 pages. I found the alien regul to be especially fascinating, and the interplay between human and regul stylishly handled and amusing (although this is primarily a serious book). I agree with the reviewer who said that reading the three books spread out over a few years would reduce their joint impact. I also felt that the effort lost a little steam in the final book (Kutath) and that in general, there were too many stretches of people wondering around in a worn out daze in the desert with the dusei emanating emotions by their side, or wandering off. But these are quibbles relative to the absolute brilliance of the book and Cherryh's dense, highly creative narrative style.
Rating:
Summary: Not typos
Review: I see one of the reviewers complains about numerous typos. The Faded Sun Triology IS NOT full of typos. C.J. Cherryh is a master of language art. She designs her own alien languages. These words are sprinkled throughout the text, forms of words as intricate in their minute differences as any Romance language. Cherryh's many word forms are a marvel of story texturization and one of the reasons she has so many devout fans.
Rating:
Summary: Well Crafted but lacking in parts
Review: I was skeptical when I started into this novel. I had never ehard of either the author or the publisher. The beggining was a little slow, but it seemed like it was going to take me on a journey through a rich and creative alien culture. I was not dissapointed in that respect. The author has a patience that is impressive as a careful and unriushed pace is set through the story. However there are times when it goes too slow, and too many scene of people wandering about the desert in a haze. The politics and culture of the story arte incredible, but there is still one problem to be faulted with DAW Books. The typos are EVERYWHERE. It seriously detracts from the experience to run into a blatant typo or gramatical error the editor totaly msised. Still worht the time and effort to read it, I finished it in about a week and was glad I picked it up.
Rating:
Summary: Far future of the Union-Alliance universe
Review: In the far future of the Union-Alliance universe, thus only remotely linked to other stories. An humanoid mercenary race was employed by aliens, first in internal conflict, later in war against humans. The war with the humans is ended by capitulation of the aliens, who then try to kill the mercenaries as gesture of good faith towards humans and because of fear of the mercenaries. The protagonists are the two last survivors of the mercenary race and a single human soldier, who embark on an odyssey to find the mystical world of origin of the mercenaries. Arriving there, they have to defend it against aliens and humans. Typical Cherryh, the relationship between the humanoid mercenaries and the human soldier carries the elements of a story of initiation. The novels are in atmosphere a lot like the Foreigner series, as they set a single human into a humanoid culture which at times appears deceptively familiar, only to be revealed as totally alien in perspective and motiviation at the next moment.
Rating:
Summary: I liked the triology.
Review: It isn't my favorite Cherryh book, but it was a good story with a provocative ending.
Rating:
Summary: Must reread
Review: It's amazing, but I get more from this triology when I reread it at intervals, and I rarely reread any book; there's just too much wonderful being written, but this series definitely improves as one reflects on the story. I find myself musing on what it means for a species to suck dry a planet, even if the goal is beauty. I find myself wondering about being an alien, and to pledge a commitment to an alien culture. And most often, I remind myself that we do not gain back the time. This moment slips, and it is gone. It has to count.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling exploration of culture
Review: My first C.J. Cherryh experience. The Faded Sun Trilogy happened upon me by chance when I had some spare time. I found myself engaged and finished the 750+ page trilogy in under a week. Through the book I discovered the mri - their society and culture. Cherryh provides a detailed and convincing view of alien relations and psychology. You find yourself attracted to the mri sensibility, and in the end wonder how much of the mri there is in you. I enjoyed reading this book cover to cover, and may possibly do so again in teh near future. An instant favorite of mine, and I'm looking forward to more Cherryh in the future.
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