Must have Books - The Foreigner Series

Authors | Book Series | Science Fiction | Fantasy | Alternative History | Sign Guestbook | View Guestbook

	Foreigner: A Novel of First Contact by C. J. Cherryh A large new novel from C. J. Cherryh is always a pleasure. When it marks her return to the anthropological sf in which she has made such a name for herself (most notably the Chanur novels), it is doubly so. Foreigner proceeds from the venerable premise of the lost starship whose crew had to land the ship wherever possible. It ended up on a planet whose native race, the atevi, practice--among other interesting habits--registered assassinations. Two centuries after the landing, only one human, the paidhi, is allowed out of the human enclave--and at the opening of the book, he is the object of an unregistered assassination attempt. The subsequent tale is one of those Cherryh novels that is longer on world building, exotic aliens, and characterization than on action, although it is not short on that. Well up to Cherryh's usual high standard .
	Invader by C. J. Cherryh Be sure to pursue the predecessor Foreigner before partaking of Cherryh's sequel: it will make the transition to the politically-complex interactions between alien and human much smoother. Battles between competing political figures spill over into alien/human relationships and threaten many fragile alliances in this fast-paced story of social and political 'duels'. When his world is threatened by the arrival of a renegade starship, paidhi to the atevi court Bren Cameron is targeted by an archconservative faction and finds his only hope for survival in a daring communication with the starship.
	Inheritor by C. J. Cherryh The third volume of Cherryh's latest saga commences six months after the human ship Phoenix "discovered" a planet shared by the descendants of marooned human colonists and the nonhuman atevi. The atevi are trying to advance their space program in order to be classified as a developed race; that is, they're involved in one of the classic sf plots, which Cherryh handles as well as her admirers expect of her. While the atevi labor, the planet's humans, the crew of the Phoenix, and the atevi, too, are splitting into factions and creating so many conflicts that a sensible reader could not reasonably expect them all to be resolved this time.
	Precursor by C. J. Cherryh Addition to Cherryh's superior alien-contact series about the humanoid-alien ``atevi'' and the colony of castaway humans they've graciously permitted not only to survive but flourish on their planet. Atevi society, composed of jostling clans and factions and prone to violence, is bound together by instinctive loyalty but little else. A pro-human atevi faction, led by the powerful Tabini, sponsors Bren Cameron as human translator/technical liaison and has appointed two loyal atevi, Banichi and Jago, as Bren's bodyguards. But the starship that originally brought the colonists has returned from deep space with news of hostile aliens in the offing. So the ship's representative, Jase Graham, is working with Bren in releasing technology to the atevi and helping them build spaceships in order to enlist them as allies. Certain atevi factions, however, oppose all this. Another intriguing human/alien struggle: the tiny, intricate plot wheels hum, even if the big picture changes hardly at all.
	Defender by C. J. Cherryh One of the best long-running SF series in existence, Cherryh's Foreigner Universe books (Precursor, etc.) tell the story of a small human colony abandoned on a planet inhabited by the atevi, an alien race whose humanoid anatomy disguises radically different instincts and thought patterns. Misunderstandings have led to war in the past and make human/atevi diplomacy incredibly difficult. Bren Cameron trained for decades to be the paidhi, the only human allowed to negotiate with the atevi, overseeing the slow transfer of advanced human technology to the brilliant but less advanced natives of the planet in trade for vital raw materials. Eventually, Bren changed sides, becoming the representative of Tabini, the atevi's ruler, to humanity. Now the political situation has been complicated by the return of the Phoenix, the starship whose much hated crew abandoned the colonists some two centuries earlier, and, worse yet, by the starship's report that its crew has discovered a hostile space-faring race relatively nearby. The senior captain of the Phoenix, negotiating through Bren, agrees to help Tabini build a second starship to defend the planet, but as Bren learns after the captain's mysterious death, other plots are afoot and not all the information shared by the starship can be trusted. As usual, Cherryh provides a riveting plot that emphasizes intense human/alien interactions instead of physical violence. Perhaps undervalued because she writes in traditional forms that don't appeal to the literati, while too difficult for some fans of space opera, Cherryh remains one of the most talented writers in the field.
	Explorer by C. J. Cherryh A third intelligent species makes its appearance in this sixth superior installment in Cherryh's much praised Foreigner Universe series (Defender; Precursor; etc.). The starship Phoenix, manned by a human crew but with a significant contingent of the gigantic, nonhuman atevi aboard, has spent the last year in interstellar transit from the atevi home world to the ruins of Reunion Station, where the repressive Pilots' Guild still clings to power and a mysterious and deadly alien starship lurks on the fringes. Diplomat and translator Bren Cameron and the Phoenix's newly appointed junior captain, Jason Graham, must keep the peace between two powerful, but short-tempered women: Sabin, the ship's senior captain, and Ilisidi, the imperious atevi matriarch who has been entrusted with looking after her species' interests on the voyage. When they reach Reunion Station, the Pilots' Guild first refuses to allow the starship to refuel and then attempts to take it over by force. Sabin's ill-fated attempt to negotiate the release of the fuel leads to some suspenseful complications. As with previous volumes in this intense series, detailed character development, highly charged dialogue and an eye for subtle differences in cultural preconceptions are of central importance, although Cherryh also manages some fine action scenes. This is serious space opera at its very best by one of the leading traditional SF writers in the field today.