Cuckoo's Egg - C.J. Cherryh Book Review

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Review Summary

After intercepting a spaceship of extraordinarily high capability, crewed by creatures from a world nine light years distant, the judge warrior, Duun-atani instigates the genetic engineering of a child from the last of the spaceship's crew. Dunn calls the resulting boy - Thorn.

Duun hopes that, Thorn, after becoming integrated into their society and, through the use of archive recordings found on the spaceship, will become sufficiently well versed in both cultures' traits, that he can mediate between the two if they should meet up, again. From Duun's perspective this could be at any time: neither he nor anyone else are sure of the spaceship's real capability despite having duplicated one, and Duun's people are incapable of speaking or interpreting the information on the recordings. It is hoped that Thorn will have inherited the means by which he can grasp the meaning of the recordings. Thorn has, so Dunn instructs Thorn to send a message. After which, they wait.

Charles Smyth, Resident Scholar

Detailed literary breakdown of Cuckoo's Egg

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - stranded on alien planet, fighting aliens to survive
Romance Yes
Inner Struggle Yes
Plotlet: - search for identity/new understanding - coping with mental/magical powers
Story involving clones/duplicates? - good clones/duplicates
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Clones Yes
Cultural problems, alien culture Yes
Culture clash- - feelings of a human growing up among aliens
Human/magical couple? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scholar
Age: - a teen
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization
Age: - long-lived adults
Profession/status: - government investigator
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount

Setting
Terrain - Desert - Mountains - Forests - Domed/Underground City
Spaceship setting: - alien spaceship - a space station - futuristic human freighter/transport - one or two man fighter/scoutship
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - inhabited by friendly aliens - unfriendly aliens - big overbuilt futuristic city - very controlled society
Planet outside solar system? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a fair amount of scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Most similar books to Cuckoo's Egg
Eternity Row by S.L. Viehl
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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