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Chanur Novels: Difference between revisions
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The Chanur novels are a set of five books by [[C. J. Cherryh]]. They all revolve around the titular Chanur clan, led by political master Pyanfar Chanur, spacefaring members of a species called ''Hani'': [[Catfolk|anthropomorphic lions]] to the rest of us. A collection of other bizarre aliens (barely) coexist with them in a loose coalition known as the Compact, and the series consists mostly of political manipulations, conspiracies, and sociopolitical analysis after a single human named Tully escapes from his captors and stows away on the clan's ship at dock. Things get very complicated.
* ''The Pride of Chanur'' is the initial standalone book, telling the story of Tully's arrival on the ship and its aftermath.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Actually, I Am Him|Actually, I Am Her]]: The epilogue to ''Chanur's Legacy'' has a young Hani male, beginning his spacecrew training, encounter a grizzled space veteran who isn't as reverent as he is regarding Pyanfar, also referred to as "The Personage." He figures she's an old-fashioned sort who dislikes Pyanfar for helping males become spacers. Then several of her crew show up, along with Tully, and escorted by a few of {{spoiler|their kif allies}}....
* [[Alien Arts Are Appreciated]]: A good portion of trade artifacts seem to be artworks or cultural items.
* [[
* [[Amazon Brigade]]: The hani all believe that their males are weak, foolish, and prone to violent rages, and accordingly keep them on the ground. It doesn't last forever.
** ''Emotionally'' weak, that is; the males are prized for how useful their physical strength can be in a fight between clans. But you don't want somebody that strong who can't control his anger as part of your crew.
* [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]]: Hilfy Chanur is the protagonist of the fifth book. Pyanfar doesn't even make an appearance.
* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: Averted. The female crew is often described as sweaty, matted, and losing fur after long stretches of travel. A shower is never far from Pyanfar's mind.
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** Book five mentions full-body suits used when working cold storage. Early books in the series indicate that hani are skittish about constriction of any sort on their hands and feet because it triggers their claws.
* [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue]]: Tully, hopefully. Almost all the languages are translated to English for the reader's benefit, but Tully's native speech is never shown, and he can barely string two words together in hani speech.
** This is also said to be common to pretty much '''all''' mahendo'sat.
* [[Enemy Civil War]]: The kif trilogy has one of these running between two kif factions.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: The kif trilogy consists of Pyanfar maneuvering with one kif warlord in hopes of staving off another who's even more genocidal.
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* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Averted, ''hard'', with {{spoiler|Hilfy and Tully. Everyone in the crew seems terrified of it and Hilfy gets married off to avoid the subject.}} Lampshaded twice in the fifth book, with a desperately grateful mahendo'sat ready to offer a marriage proposal, and awesomely so with Hilfy and two stsho:
{{quote|If gtsto proposed a threesome she was going to run for it.}}
** Not quite. In the fifth book,
** Also,
** This troper seems to recall a mahendo'sat officer hitting on Pyanfar in the first book.
*** Not to mention the one who hits on Hilfy in the last book.
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* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: {{spoiler|By the end of the series, Pyanfar is a political heavyweight in her own race, a Personage of the mahendo'sat, and the supreme commander of all kif.}}
* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: The entire leadership of the hani, apparently. {{spoiler|Almost leads to them [[Dying Like Animals]], ostriches in this case, as they keep on bickering about Chanur's lawbreaking as a kif fleet races towards them.}}
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: In the first four books, Pyanfar's all-female-hani crew takes on
* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: The stsho are absolutely incapable of a straight answer and use the royal we at all times.
* [[Starfish Aliens]]: The feline hani, apelike mahendo'sat, and doglike kif are the only anthropomorphic species. The insectoid stsho have three genders and [[Shapeshifting Squick|switch between them when stressed]]. Two (three?) others breathe methane instead of oxygen: the serpentine tc'a, who [[Cthulhu Mythos|think with six brain lobes at once]] and ''reproduce'' when stressed and have symbiotic little bundles of sticks living on them, and the technologically superior knnn, black balls of hair that not even the tc'a can understand.
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