Quotes from book
Downbelow Station

Downbelow Station
C. J. Cherryh

Downbelow Station is a science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh, published in 1981 by DAW Books. It won the Hugo Award in 1982, was shortlisted for a Locus Award that same year, and was named by Locus magazine as one of the top 50 science fiction novels of all time in 1987.

C. J. Cherryh photo

““You’ve behaved very highhandedly, Captain Mallory. Is that the custom out here?”
“The custom is, sir, that those who know a situation handle it and those who don’t watch and learn, or get out of the way.””

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 1, Chapter 4 (p. 34)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

“What the probe had found was a star with reasonable possibilities for encouraging life; a belt of debris, including particles, planetoids, irregular chunks somewhat under planet size with interesting implications for systemic formation, and a planetary companion with its own system of debris and moons…A planet desolate, baked, forbidding. It was no Eden, no second Earth, no better than what existed in the sun’s own system, and it was a far journey to have gone to find that out. The press grappled with questions it could not easily grasp itself, sought after something to give the viewers, lost interest quickly. If anything, there were questions raised about cost, vague and desperate comparisons offered to Columbus, and the press hared off quickly onto a political crisis in the Mediterranean, much more comprehensible and far bloodier.”

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 1, Chapter 1 (pp. 7-8)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

“What happened this far remote would have little political impact on Earth. What the visual media could not carry into living rooms, the general public could not long remain exercised about. Statistically, a majority of the electorate could not or did not read complicated issues; no pictures, no news; no news, no event.”

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 2, Chapter 2 (p. 118)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

“People ask where writers get ideas.
Take my advice. Some cool, clear night, drive to a country place where city lights don’t block your view. Turn off the car lights. Get out and look up. And see our real neighborhood.”

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Author’s introduction (p. 3)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

“She was a student of history, valued the lessons of it. The worst atrocities began with half-measures, with apologies, compromising with the wrong side, shrinking from what had to be done.”

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 3, Chapter 2 (p. 192)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

““I frankly doubt that.”
“Ah. That is your privilege. But doubt doesn’t alter fact, sir.””

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 2, Chapter 2 (p. 124)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

“At this point I ceased argument with Lt. Goforth and shot him in the belly.”

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 5, Chapter 1 (p. 334)
Downbelow Station (1981)

C. J. Cherryh photo

“You’ve behaved very highhandedly, Captain Mallory. Is that the custom out here?”

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

“The custom is, sir, that those who know a situation handle it and those who don’t watch and learn, or get out of the way.”
Book 1, Chapter 4 (p. 34)
Downbelow Station (1981)

Similar authors

C. J. Cherryh photo
C. J. Cherryh 24
United States science fiction and fantasy author 1942
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author
Stephen King photo
Stephen King 733
American author
Isaac Asimov photo
Isaac Asimov 303
American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston Uni…
L. Ron Hubbard photo
L. Ron Hubbard 85
American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, …
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 78
British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy …
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury 401
American writer
Arthur C. Clarke photo
Arthur C. Clarke 207
British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, u…
Carl Sagan photo
Carl Sagan 365
American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science ed…
Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Arthur Conan Doyle 166
Scottish physician and author