sf. Good story about corporate greed causing death of spacer and how partner tries to get his life back together. Not real heavy reading.

This was an excellent read. But I would not rank it among Cherryh's best. Of course, that belongs to Downbelow Station. In addition, I think her Merchanter's Luck and Rimrunners are better-paced novels as are Finity's End and Tripoint. But I enjoyed Heavy Time more than I enjoyed The Fading Sun trilogy or the Cyteen trilogy. I like the galaxy building that Cherryh does with this series of books set in the Alliance-Union universe. She takes the time to develop the politics that results from economics and how those forces trickle down to influence the day-to-day lives of ordinary people that are just trying to make a living based on the rules set down by those pulling the strings. And sometimes that involves individuals judiciously cutting certain strings so that they are able to gain an edge in the game. Very enjoyable reading.

I like this rating system by ashleytylerjohn of LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/profile/ashleytylerjohn) that I have also adopted:
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.) ( )

Cherryh's books are never really what you expect. This one is mainly about bureaucratic indifference. A pair of independent asteroid miners are in the wrong place at the wrong time, there's an accident, and one of them dies and the other is left adrift in space. The latter miner miraculously survives, but then has to endure a government that wants more than anything to cover this up, and peers who would rather claim salvage rights on his ship than save his life. He's constantly being told that he's crazy (he does appear to have PTSD) and that his version of what happened is a hallucination. One miner actually does want to help him get back on his feet, he's consistently referred to as an "old-timer" whose values don't mesh up with the current reality. Thanks to the one unselfish guy in the entire story, as well as a fortuitous political shift on the larger scale, the victimized miner is vindicated and actually has a chance to live out a normal life. ( )

A couple of asteroid miners find a derelict, and a survivor. More would be a spoiler. It being a Cherryh, I believe it to be a good book, but I can't remember much about it. ( )

This book wasn't bad, but I wasn't overly impressed. This fits into her existing universe, but in an odd way. This book is about a familiar sci-fi subject - independent asteroid miners. Two of them discover a derelict ship, a survivor of a crash who's partner is missing. Unfortunately, the issue of missing time seems to be a very critical theme, but in the end it is mostly glossed over. I did not find this as gripping or suspenseful as the cover blurbs indicate I should. The characters seemed half formed, and the lack of action for 90% of the book really dragged it down. All of the real revelations and discoveries happen off-scene, and the resolution is disappointing. ( )