This series benefits greatly from being read in order, so, soon-to-become-standard warning: We won't give spoilers for the specific book in its review, but we do assume you're up to date on the series to that point.Bren's actions in Malguri have made him a hero by atevi standards, as well as a fool, but it does him little good. The book opens with him fresh out of surgery on Mospheira, headed back to Shejidan and pumped full of pain medications. His body will be fine but his life is, as he's about to find out, in shambles.His long-term girlfriend married someone else without even a forewarning, and Jago is taking his upset at this unusually seriously. His successor was sent to the capitol during the week he was in communications blackout and she's worse than incompetent, consorting with opposition forces she doesn't understand and not even maintaining minimal fluency in Ragi while she does so. Maintaining the peace, and the Treaty that keeps humans on the planet safe, requires what will inevitably be seen as treason by his fellow humans.And that's before he even gets into the question of whether Tabini-aiji's lover, a member of a historically opposed clan, is likely to betray him...while Bren himself, loaded down with more security, is expected to stay as a guest in the lady's family's historic apartments.Bren's reflections on being torn away from the human community he knew are alternately insightful and indicative of the deep dysfunction in his human relationships. Facing the possibility of a human from the ship, Phoenix, as a companion, his compartmentalization between human feeling and professional realism becomes a challenging thing to maintain, and that challenge an interesting thing to watch.At the same time, it dawns on him in this book that Jago's presence is a temptation; /this/ is alternately sweet and fumbling, then profound in ways one might miss if one views her simply as Other: His inability to truly know her, no matter his decision in the end, is not so different from the inability of one human to truly know another. During this particular read-through, we were particularly struck by the dialogue after he wakes, the cast finally off his arm thanks to her help, and finds she's been sleeping propped against the side of his mattress, waiting in case he needs her again when he wakes.There's a great deal to reflect upon, in terms of the conflict between the pull of emotion and the essential Otherness of any other person, woven alongside the intrigue that drives all the books in this series. And, of course, more biting wit from Tabini, Ilisidi, and Banichi. None of the books would be complete without a bit of that.
Invader is just as good as the first book in this trilogy (which I loved), and possibly even better, because it didn't have to spend a lot of time establishing the setting via characters we'll never see again while running rapidly through the necessary history. Now it's all Bren all the time, and I really do love being in that poor man's head. And in this book he gets to be much more active, for better and worse. Especially when he does active things that everyone yells at him about and he thinks he's fucked up, but it turns out he was right in that instance... There is a peculiar delight to seeing him try to navigate a society and mindset that he can't fully understand, despite having spent his entire life and professional career training to do exactly that. No one does aliens quite like Cherryh, and I find myself following Bren's thought patterns exactly: wanting to ascribe human emotions to these very human-seeming people, and then being abruptly reminded that they really aren't human at all.It ends on a bit more of a cliffhanger than the first book, but I was warned of that, so I have the third book right here and hand. (And it's not a terrible cliffhanger, either; the really urgent primary plot thread is addressed, but it stops right there with you knowing that all the cascading, complicated political mess that's been ramping up will need to be dealt with next.) And I give the book bonus points for including a moment where the antagonists did something so clever that I was outright delighted, despite it being wretched and dangerous for the protagonists. I don't get to see that very often!
What do You think about Invader (1996)?
Overall, I liked the book, but it was a painful struggle to get through all the passages where you are lost in the character's head. His thoughts are fascinating but redundant, and several times I found myself thinking "I must have read this before" or simply "get on with it". When I finally found my way back to plot, it was strong and based on unusual enough concepts that I stuck it out through the many long dry spells. The setting is well-drawn, the action sequences (when they finally arrive) are exciting and unexpected, and the characters are vivid (a real accomplishment for members of an alien race who all look much the same). I will probably continue reading the series, but space it out with speedier reads.
—Becky Stieb
This is a really good "savour" book. The author brings attention to issues such as cultural/biological differences, attitudes, diplomacy, and loneliness. The plot moves at a comfortable pace, not fast, not too slow in most places. The characters are intriguing, especially the protagonist, who is an intelligent man in a complicated and sometimes desperate situation. The second in the series, this book covers the narrator's post as translator/negotiator/intermediary between two biologically incompatible species, as a human starship returns to the planet they colonized and left 200 years previously. Tensions between the two species escalate as positions of power are negotiated around the growing probability of space travel. The reason I couldn't finish it: Not for any fault of the book's, but my own - the loneliness and estrangement felt by the narrator as the only human on a continent of this other species got to be too much. This is part of what makes the book so compelling and interesting, but it's also heartbreaking at times. I may pick it back up again at another time, to finish it. Final word: I highly recommend this series for some serious, thought-provoking science fiction. Although I have not reviewed the first, Foreigner, the series should be read in order.
—Stacey
CJ Cherryh is one of my all-time favorite authors and this nonet is probably her best effort. It's got everything -- politics (lots of it), really great aliens, culture clashes of monumental proportions, great charaters... I can't say enough about it.The story is absorbing -- a lone human diplomat becomes embroiled in the political life of an alien culture that's just similar enough to his own to be comfortable and just different enough for that comfort to be extremely hazardous. In the course of the series his role changes from tolerated outsider to family retainer as he navigates the complexities of political upheaval within the alien culture and acts as a bridge between his own technologically advanced culture and the technology-wary aliens.In the Foreigner series, Cherryh gives us a complex tale of adventure and social change that is gripping from start to finish. I LOVED it!!
—Emilie
