Intruder is #13 in the Foreigner Series by CJ Cherryh and it is definitely not a series that it is easy to start in the middle (so if you are new to this world, to quote the words of the song "Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start..")I've been enthralled by the recurring theme in CJ Cherryh's books of intercultural interpreter. The human who goes out, encounters the alien, and then becomes other themselves. Bren Cameron, the human-atevi interpreter is an continued exploration of the ideas of the Faded Sun Trilogy and Forty Thousand in Gehenna. But by Book 13, he has become so integrated in the alien that his "foreignness" has become almost stereotyped rather than a source of new insight.While Intruder a nice change from the active shooting of the previous few installments in the Foreigner series, the pace is almost too slow. In some ways it feels almost like the middle of a trilogy, a book with little merit on its own that exists to develop the characters and to set up the next book. At times the book almost developed "Russian Novel" syndrome with multiple characters with easily confused hard to pronounce names moving through complicated intrigues. That complaint aside, I was glad to spend time with my old friends Bren and Cajeiri. It's always interesting to see where this series is going. Back at the capital with two narrative viewpoints now, the next machinations of jealous groups hit. There is the continuation of ongoing political fallout of the war/usurpation and the slow maturation of the heir and resolution to his relationship problems. Nice to see a pet this time. This is a sort of between major conflicts book and you can feel the next big one coming.
What do You think about Intruder (2012)?
Loved the Cajeiri plotline, but the Bren one seemed a touch too easy--nobody even shot at him.
—Hyemee
My all time favorite series. What else can I say.
—Will
