This is the kind of novel that would never get published today. A small mining vessel jumps to it's base, but a passing, alien ship accidentally sweeps them up in its wake. This begins a wonderful deconstruction of the crew, their humanity and the meaning of consciousness as they wander the bizarre, seemingly empty halls of the vessel, slowly discovering the horrific truth about the extent of their exile and the nature of their current hosts. I very much enjoy when an author like C.J. Cherryh is given the opportunity to wander into the more dreamlike, philosophical aspects of speculative fiction. Cherryh is an archaeologist and teacher, well suited to picking a less than usual narrative and spiralling off into whatever tangents she wishes. It's not an easy read, but is ultimately rewarding for those looking for science fiction that ponders the larger questions without the need for lots of lasers and explosions. ( )

At first, the story did catch my attention especially when the small miner craft, the Lindy, collided with the massive alien vessel, and the three main characters wake up inside of the craft. However, I should have realized the warning signs that I was not going to like this book. First, there was no atmosphere at all due to almost no descriptions of anything. Second, and this was okay at first as it occurred in a limited fashion, was the use of symbols for the names of the alien intelligence and its "passengers". That got ridiculous later on, it really kicked me out of the story. I would include a quote from the text here but GoodReads keeps trying to interpret the symbols as formatting.
The three lead characters are really bland and barely distinguishable from one another. It only gets worse when they start getting "Cloned", right when I almost started to care the story gave me several and quickly multiplying reasons not to. Another peeve is that the story is mostly dialogue between these characters, their copies, and the alien minds. It got old quick.
I did like an idea that was revealed pretty much upfront after the inciting incident of the crash. The idea that the alien ship could store any mind as a "template" (i.e. file) and thus could make endless copies and backups and allow them to roam the ship as holograms. Although, I feel that this premise was lost in the story which mostly consisted of the bland leads panicking as they met their holographic clones. There were a few scenes in there that I liked but they felt as if they were in the wrong place or just came too late. The ending was a kind of "gotcha" ending which just threw the rest of the story into doubt because of its bad execution.
I did not like this book and do not recommend it to anyone. It had a few good ideas in there but overall it was a thin story with very little plot and thin uninteresting characters. In addition, using keyboard symbols for names was not a good idea here either.

( )

Not her usual Alliance/Union universe story, this is a first-contact novel with elements of horror. A small 3-person ore-prospecting ship is swept up almost casually by a passing ancient alien vessel, who's Minds study them down to the sub-atomic detail and replicate them as simulacra so meticulously that they think, feel and react as the humans they once were. It's quite a confusing book to get through because of the mutiplicity of replicas and the names of the alien minds formatted as symbols, but it is very worthwhile. ( )

One of Cherryh's dream state novels. I know I've re-read it before, but I can't remember details beyond the specific - the space suit fastened to Lindy's exterior as an EVA pod. Sometimes Cherryh's writing re-tunes my consciousness in such a way that I can't remember what happened in what I read, even though it seems like familiar territory while I'm reading. Not a fun read, more an exploration of identity and self knowledge. ( )

A small ship in a great big world gets caught up by an intelligence so vast with a ship so powerful that escape and evasion simply is not possible. The crew of three humans is captured and unwillingly and unwittingly serve to foment a mutiny and to quash it. At the end, the crew have left their corporeal forms and elect to travel through the universe with their captor/executioner/friend.

A very short book - quick read. The hardest part was dealing with the names of the aliens - and and > and with they are used as names don't make for easy reading. The psychological analyses done on the crew and the manipulations that the aliens put the crew through are concerning. The end result reminded me quite a bit of a Moorcock-style Eternal Champion final battle with three or four becoming one in order to combat the combined champion of evil. ( )