"We are the pride of Chanurrrr, glossy of eye, fang, and furrrr!"

[thistlechaser]

In a first ever for this LJ, we're going to open a book review with a video!

For the younger folks out there, filk was fan-created songs and music, based on scifi or fantasy. It was sold at cons or through snailmail, on homemade cassette tapes. It predated the Internet by a good deal.

I first heard this song sometime in my preteens, and I haven't heard it for the last couple decades, but the line in the subject line gets stuck in my head on a regular basis, so I dug it up. The song tells the plot of the first book.

Anyway! On to the book! There was only two things I hated about it:

#1: It's not available in ebook format. I found a less-than-official copy of the first book online, and after reading it last year, attempted to hunt down the rest of the series. I came up with only the second book.

Knowing how depressing it would be to read the second book and then not have the others, I put off reading it until now.

#2: It ended on a mid-scene cliffhanger with a "Continued in next book!" message. ARRGGG! That's just wrong!

So, book #10 of 2013: Chanur's Venture by C. J. Cherryh. The book continues the story of the Hani, a cat-like race who were able to access space travel before they were culturally ready. (The technology was given to them by another species.) Lots of Hani politics, an inter-species war, and a single human tossed into the mix.

This is one of those classic scifi series. Want action/adventure? There's a whole lot of it. Like things more character based/interpersonal relationships? Yep! The only thing it's short on is romance, but even that it has hints of. The aliens are all very interesting, the issues of dealing a species when you don't share a common language are really interesting, plus the plot was fast-moving and exciting.

I'm not sure how many people haven't read this series yet, but if you like scifi or fantasy and haven't, I strongly recommend it! Supposedly the official ebooks are coming out in a year or two, so they'll be even more accessible then.

Edit: Holy cow, Google is scary sometimes. I wanted to make sure I wasn't misremembering when the filk song was created, so I googled "We are the pride of Chanurrrr, glossy of eye, fang, and furrrr!" and my post came up as the first result. Minutes after I posted it.

Edit 2: Wow, Leslie Fish, the woman who wrote and sang that song, is amazing! " Fish is also well-known within the Star Trek fan community for her works of fan fiction, which include "Shelter" (1976), one of the first Kirk/Spock stories ever published, and the fan-published Star Trek novel The Weight." She's written with C. J. Cherryh, is a RPG player and LARPer. "One of Fish's more unusual personal projects is an on-going attempt to breed domestic cats for intelligence..." She's been a dominatrix and "often asserted that bisexuality is the human norm". She sounds like the most interesting woman ever! Kirk/Spock is where slash came from. She founded slash!

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

How does she trrrrillll her R's like that?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

No idea! I love singing that line, but only at home where no one can hear how badly I fail on the rrrrs! Sounds more like I'm clearing my throat when I do it.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Not sure how to describe it - you vibrate the tip of your tongue. The sound is referred to as a "Rolled R," and it is a common sound in many languages though it is especially pronounced in Spanish. The trill she's doing is just a continuation of the rolled R.

/draws weird stares from coworkers while he repeatedly rolls Rs in an attempt to describe how to do it.

Tip of tongue vibrates between roof of your mouth about half-inch back from teeth (the alveolar ridge) as you exhale. There's a certain spacing you have to find before the tip of your tongue starts flapping. Once it does, if you're not vocalizing then it is a damn good impression of purring.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to roll my Rs. :/

The way I was doing it was sort of... vibrating the sides of the back of my tongue. Pull the front of your tongue back a little so there's slack, then just kind of rrrr.

Actually, no, I don't think it's my tongue moving. (I sit in a cube! Can't test out loud!). I do pull my tongue back, but it's more like I'm loosening my throat and it's coming from there. Sort of like gargling with no liquid.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

I sit in a cube too. My coworkers are used to me cursing and cheering at my computer. Me trilling is not too different.

There are multiple types - the alveolar vs uvular being the two most common, I think. I don't think the song used the uvular though, as I think its harder to maintain, whereas the alveolar you can maintain through an entire exhale quite easily.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_consonant

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*pokes LJ* Work! Let's see if this comment will go through...

Makes sense! And woot, thanks for the link!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Welll, "founded" is a bit much, but she was definitely in on the beginning. She's also done a lot of Elfquest filk, and a bunch of other stuff. (I don't like her voice /that/ much, but she's really good in some ways anyway.)

The Chanur series is really damn fun, but yeah, it basically is 1 book broken into 3 for publishing purposes.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I probably should have said she got in on the ground floor or something like that.

Amazon has the first three books packaged as one, and the last two packaged as another. Hopefully they'll offer the ebooks as two books total, but likely they'll do it as five instead.

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

Just so's you know, filk is still a thing, just with a wider/faster distribution net now the internet has arrived. :)

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

They have filk cons!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! I don't go to many cons anymore (it's been years and years), but that would be an interesting kind to go to.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

So I read! They have a Filk Hall of Fame and all that. I haven't heard any in forever, but it's been forever since I've been to a con, so that's not surprising.

[loup_noir]

I loved these books, well at least the original trio. I tried the fourth, which was about Hilfy, and found my attention wandering.

I've met Leslie Fish waywayway back when. She was doing Trek cons a lot and so was I. I had a bunch of her Trek filk tapes. Her voice isn't for all, but then neither is Dylan's or Waits's.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's too bad to hear. Hilfy doesn't thrill me much. I don't dislike her, but I'm not really interested in her either.

And yeah, her voice isn't perfect, but she's a fan and a writer, not a singer, so I'm okay with it.

[peppygrowlithe.livejournal.com]

I like the song! It's catchy in that 70's sort of way.

And obviously I'm biased, but these dudes look SERIOUSLY COOL.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

They are cool! So very catlike. Retractable claws, their ears move lots, I love them!

And one day you'll curse my name. Twenty years from now, you'll be walking down the street singing "We are the pride of Chanurrrr, glossy of eye, fang, and furrrr!" to yourself for the 854715749047th time. :D Though I have to admit, if a song has to get stuck in your head, it's a good one.