7.4 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Alan Atkinson Language English ISBN 0-88677-290-7 OCLC 29659729 | 3.7/5 Goodreads Country United States Publication date October 1, 1976 Originally published 1 October 1976 Publisher DAW Books | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Genres Novel, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction Nominations Locus Award for Best Novel Similar C J Cherryh books, Union-Alliance books, Science Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brothers of Earth is a 1976 science fiction novel by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It was the second of Cherryh's novels to be published, appearing after Gate of Ivrel, although she had completed and submitted Brothers of Earth first. Donald A. Wollheim, the editor of DAW Books, decided that publishing Gate of Ivrel first would be more commercially desirable, so Brothers of Earth was delayed until after Gate of Ivrel's release.
The book was first published as a hardcover Science Fiction Book Club edition in June, 1976 and followed by the first DAW paperback edition in October of that year. In 2003, DAW re-released the book in an omnibus edition along with Cherryh's 1977 novel Hunter of Worlds. The omnibus edition was entitled At the Edge of Space.
The novel is set in Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe. Although it was the first book set in that universe to be released, it takes place in the far future of her Alliance-Union timeline. The work was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Plot
The protagonist of the book is Kurt Morgan, a crewman on the Alliance ship Endymion, which was destroyed in a space battle with Hanan forces. Morgan evacuates the ship and lands on an alien planet, home of the Nemet race. Morgan is rescued by one faction of the Nemet and becomes embroiled in their political and military struggles. Morgan is not the first human stranded on the planet, however. His encounters with a previous female human castaway endanger the entire Nemet race when she reacts badly and threatens to unleash weapons of mass destruction on the planet.