The
Faded Sun books are very good -- quite intense and full of pathos.
I went through a phase of devouring Cherryh books, which lasted for several years and I read forty-odd along the way. The Chanur/Hani books are definitely my favourites, although by no means the only excellent stuff she's written.
The Paladin, Cuckoo's Egg, Cloud's Rider, Downbelow Station, Rimrunners, Foreigner and many others are all fabulous.
A word of caution, though. First Cherryh I ever read was
Merchanter's Luck, which I took out the library on the basis if the cover blurb stating that it was 'set in the same world as the Hugo-winning
Downbelow Station'. I hated it. A really minor, inconsequential tale, with a central character I didn't warm to at all. Feeling cheated by the blurb, I resolved never to read Cherryh again -- a resolution that lasted eighteen months, until I reluctantly read the first of the Hani books and realised what I'd been missing.
So choose the first one with care.
