Reading Wednesday: Resurgence (Foreigner #20) - C.J. Cherryh

[chomiji]

Holy crap. Foreigner is up to volume 20.

This series is not my favorite C.J. Cherryh reading: it comes after Alliance/Union, Cyteen, and the Chanur series. The endless perils of human ambassador/interpretor Bren Cameron as he attempts to keep human and Atevi factions (plus, in recent books, a completely different non-human species) talking and not shooting is becoming much of a muchness. I confess to skipping over multiple paragraphs of the political situation every time I read one of these.

And yet, and yet … there's such a level of comfort of slipping into Cherryh's distinctive prose once again. I'm also more than a little fond of the scenes from the viewpoint of young Cajeiri, the atevi prince who has known Bren almost since babyhood and so is becoming (it seems) the real key to understanding between the species. I really want more of Cajeiri and his young human associates (Atevi don't have friends, we are told again and again), but the three kids from space are almost entirely offstage for this volume.

In a nutshell, Bren and his aishad (inner household, consisting mainly of intrepid bodyguards who are members in good standing of the Assassins Guild) and the redoubtable and cranky atevi Dowager Ilisidi are pursuing peace/accord with some atevi factions outside of the usual core ethnic group that has been sponsoring Bren for most of the series. Most of the action takes place aboard the Red Train, the specially reinforced and secured rail conveyance of the aiji of Shejidan, the Paris/London/Washington of the atevi world. There is skullduggery, fighting, and dirty politics. And things come to a resting point rather than an end, because the series is structured in trilogies, and this is the middle of one.

Meanwhile, back in Shejidan, Cajeiri starts to understand the nature of the restrictions on his life and grows up a little, including taking a step unthinkable several volumes ago. It's a little sad, but sweet.

So: if this is your cuppa, it's more of what you would like. If you haven't liked previous volumes, you won't like this one. And if you haven't been reading along, obviously, volume 20 is no place to start a series.

Comments

[yhlee]

I feel the same way about this series--I made it like three or four books in, realized it wasn't wrapping up anytime soon, and gave up, probably not helped because I find Bren Cameron really annoying. The thought of having to wade through 20 volumes of Bren Cameron to see what's the current state of affairs is a hard no. But OTOH, it must be making money for her if the series is still going???

[chomiji]

From what I can tell, Foreigner keeps the lights on and puts food on the table at the Cherryh/Fancher household, my friend. Looks like it's a guaranteed sale, every volume. Theoretically it provides her with time and money to write whatever else she likes ... assuming she has the energy. She's going on 78.

I do find it very easy to slip into the formal speech that represents Ragi, the language of the Atevi. I nearly addressed you as "nadi" at the end of the first sentence, but then I got bogged down in "What's the real difference between 'nadi' and 'nandi'?"

I think the series speaks very strongly to the imposter syndrome and feelings of being an outsider that so many fen have. Bren is always going to be the foreigner, no matter how much he becomes integrated into atevi society. He's so much almost one of the cool kids, and yet his value is the bridge he forms between them and the mundanes, who live their dreary lives up in the space station or their less dreary but still constrained, very ordinary lives on the human island nation Mospheira.

Note that CJC is still sharp as a tack. Following her on Book of Faces allows fans to see what interests her and what she finds intriguing or problematic about those topics.