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Alternate Realities (Port Eternity; Wave without a Shore; Voyager in Night)

Cherryh C. J. (EN)

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

PORT ETERNITY

III

VII

VIII

XII

XIII

XIV

XVI

XVII

VOYAGER IN NIGHT

III

VII

VIII

WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE

III

VII

VIII

XII

XIII

XIV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

XXVII

XXVIII

XXIX

XXX

XXXI

PORT ETERNITY

“A thoughtful work by an intelligent writer.”

—The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review

VOYAGER IN NIGHT

“Well-written, intelligent space adventure ... an intriguing

psychological novel ... thoughtful and original

characterizations of both humans and aliens,

excellent world building.”

—The Chicago Sun-Times

“Fascinating ... testifies to Cherryh’s boldness and

flexibility as a novelist.” —Locus

WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE

“This is a thoughtful, engrossing novel.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Proof that you can be prolific and good ... a gem.”

—The Los Angeles Times

DAW TITLES BY C.J. CHERRYH

THE ALLIANCE-UNION UNIVERSE

The Company Wars

DOWNBELOW STATION

The Chanur Novels

THE PRIDE OF CHANUR

CHANUR’S VENTURE

THE KIF STRIKE BACK

CHANUR’S HOMECOMING

CHANUR’S LEGACY

Merovingen Nights

ANGEL WITH THE SWORD

The Hanan Rebellion

BROTHERS OF EARTH

HUNTER OF WORLDS

The Era of Rapprochement

SERPENT’S REACH

FORTY THOUSAND IN GEHENNA

MERCHANTER’S LUCK

The Mri Wars

THE FADED SUN TRILOGY OMNIBUS

The Age of Exploration

CUCKOO’S EGG

VOYAGER IN NIGHT

PORT ETERNITY

THE MORGAINE CYCLE

THE MORGAINE SAGA

EXILE’S GATE

EALDWOOD

THE DREAMING TREE

THE FOREIGNER UNIVERSE

FOREIGNER

INVADER

INHERITOR

PRECURSOR

DEFENDER 1

EXPLORER 1

PORT ETERNITY

VOYAGER IN NIGHT

WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE

ALTERNATE REALITIES

DAW Book Collectors No. 1171.

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any

resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

First Paperback Printing, December 2000

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED

U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

—MARCA REGISTRADA.

HECHO EN USA

S.A.

eISBN : 978-1-101-49561-2

http://us.penguingroup.com

A fast forward from the author. ...

These books are special ... and thanks to Betsy Wollheim for carrying on the tradition of a kind of science fiction publishing that’s not a spinoff, not a copy of a TV show—in fact, not “just like” much else you’ll meet. In her decision to put these books out in a modern format she’s guaranteed they’re findable. Trust me: colored lights and sfx aren’t the “real stuff ” of science fiction, that branch of writing we fondly called “the literature of ideas” long before NASA flew. No, the “real stuff ” is extrapolation—that twelve-letter word for taking a concept and ru

It’s very certain you don’t get rich writing or publishing what Betsy Wollheim and I call the “magic cookie books,” but there’s the special reward of putting these hard-to-place books out where the right readers can find them.

PORT ETERNITY

I was lucky in my first publisher and lucky in the era in which I wrote my earliest books; Donald Wollheim of DAW Books, owning his own publishing house, gave me free rein to experiment, and to write the outrageous, and to exercise a set of muscles a writer ideally needs. Ever seen a butterfly come out of the chrysalis? The wings are small and shriveled. But the wings begin to beat, and to expand, and they stretch out and show their patterns as life flows into them. The relationship of a writer to someone who gives them the chance to do that imagination-stretch is precious.

My original title for this was Involutions, because it spirals in upon itself. Reality starts down a whirlpool ride into dream and into fiction, and the fictional world becomes more real than surrounding space, at least for a time ...

Or isn’t it, after all, that all fiction is the backyard of the house we live in, our release from the four-walled constraint of daily chores we do just to eat and have a place to sleep? And while we’re there ... it’s real.

Stories are what we all work to have. Oh, how destitute are those who don’t have access to stories at all, or who don’t realize that stories are the prize in the box, and that daily life without them is so much less!

Stories aren’t escape. They’re the living of an active mind. Making money and acquiring things can scratch a few itches, too, but give me a man who loves the companionship of human beings and animals, who appreciates good stories and good food at his fireside, and who’ll bestir himself considerably to get them around him.