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Invader (Foreigner #2)
Jun. 28th, 2021 11:26 pmBy CJ Cherryh. Starting my reread here, because the first book, Foreigner, is pretty much the setup, and all the rest of the series is the fallout. And it's the fallout that has me excited.
Not sure how much I can say without spoiling the first book, but basically a lost human starship finds refuge on a world with an existing alien civilisation. They live side by side until slowly growing misunderstandings ignite a war, after which they appoint a single human translator - the paidhi - as the sole point of contact between them, to prevent this from ever happening again. Two hundred years later, peace and prosperity and progress are coming along nicely. And then Something Happens to shake up that status quo and alter the path of the future.
I said once that I thought Explorer might be my fave, but Invader might actually overtake it. It has all the things I love best about this series - basically Bren doing his thing: navigating between different cultures, constructing brilliant speeches, and translating high stakes conversations on the fly. And his role is not just translating - it's also explaining and negotiating and advocating. Being Bren, he is also suffering the aftermath of injuries, his personal life is imploding, he risks being considered a traitor by both sides - and meanwhile the world stands at the edge of a precipice.
( Spoilery musings )
There's probably more I've overlooked, but this book is dense. I feel like if you read just one Foreigner book, this is the one that encapsulates so much of what made the series so beloved.
Not sure how much I can say without spoiling the first book, but basically a lost human starship finds refuge on a world with an existing alien civilisation. They live side by side until slowly growing misunderstandings ignite a war, after which they appoint a single human translator - the paidhi - as the sole point of contact between them, to prevent this from ever happening again. Two hundred years later, peace and prosperity and progress are coming along nicely. And then Something Happens to shake up that status quo and alter the path of the future.
I said once that I thought Explorer might be my fave, but Invader might actually overtake it. It has all the things I love best about this series - basically Bren doing his thing: navigating between different cultures, constructing brilliant speeches, and translating high stakes conversations on the fly. And his role is not just translating - it's also explaining and negotiating and advocating. Being Bren, he is also suffering the aftermath of injuries, his personal life is imploding, he risks being considered a traitor by both sides - and meanwhile the world stands at the edge of a precipice.
( Spoilery musings )
There's probably more I've overlooked, but this book is dense. I feel like if you read just one Foreigner book, this is the one that encapsulates so much of what made the series so beloved.
