Status
Available
Series
Collection
Publication
DAW Hardcover (1995), Edition: First Edition, 384 pages
Description
Nearly two centuries after the starship Phoenix disappeared into the heavens, leaving an isolated colony of humans on the world of the Atevi, it unexpectedly returns to orbit overhead, threatening the stability of both Atevi and human government. This is the sequel to Foreigner.
User reviews
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Even better than Foreigner, which is very hard to imagine.
Bren, battered after the conclusion of foreigner is suddenly whisked back out of the human island where he'd hoped for a bit of r'n'r. His temporary replacement has been causing trouble, through ignorance and malice, and suddenly the whole
This is a continuingly gripping novel, containing some of the best scenes in the series - the interaction with Ilisidi, Jago and the Green Pizza are just classic.
Bren, battered after the conclusion of foreigner is suddenly whisked back out of the human island where he'd hoped for a bit of r'n'r. His temporary replacement has been causing trouble, through ignorance and malice, and suddenly the whole
Show More
of aveti government structure is in peril. This might suit some of the human politicians very well. The reappearnce of the long lost spaceship has changed everything, but increasingly isolated from the rest of humanity can Bren manage to keep misplacing human emotions onto the aveti? What if Deana was right?! This is a continuingly gripping novel, containing some of the best scenes in the series - the interaction with Ilisidi, Jago and the Green Pizza are just classic.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JusNeuce
Though the series is starting to dumb down a little, Bren is a classic character. The first three books of the series are the best.
LibraryThing member Pferdina
This sequel to Foreigner picks up almost exactly where the first volume left off. After surgery in a Mospherian hospital (for injuries received in the first book), Bren Cameron is immediately recalled to Shejidan where the return of the starship Phoenix is causing turmoil in Atevi politics. During
Meanwhile, Bren struggles unendingly with his human need to like his Atevi companions, regardless of their inability to like him back, or to even understand the concept. The Atevi emotion of man'chi is similarly opaque to Bren, though he constantly tries to grasp it and often ends up embarrassing himself or other people. On the other hand, Bren tangles himself in needing other humans as well, and then realizes he doesn't like those people even as much as he likes his Atevi staff.
In this volume, we see Bren become more attached and more comfortable with Banichi and Jago, who also seem to become more comfortable with him. The paidhi cannot remain a semi-neutral translator and negotiator much longer, as he strongly wants to preserve Atevi culture and history, even at the expense of human development. Already he has become more politically important than any previous paidhi, a fact which makes him a target for assassination.
Show More
his absence, Bren's understudy Deanna Hanks was sent to Shejidan and has stirred up undesirable elements in the opposition by mentioning restricted subjects, but now she refuses to go home. She believes that Bren is committing treason by advancing Atevi interests ahead of Mospherian ones in his communication with the ship.Meanwhile, Bren struggles unendingly with his human need to like his Atevi companions, regardless of their inability to like him back, or to even understand the concept. The Atevi emotion of man'chi is similarly opaque to Bren, though he constantly tries to grasp it and often ends up embarrassing himself or other people. On the other hand, Bren tangles himself in needing other humans as well, and then realizes he doesn't like those people even as much as he likes his Atevi staff.
In this volume, we see Bren become more attached and more comfortable with Banichi and Jago, who also seem to become more comfortable with him. The paidhi cannot remain a semi-neutral translator and negotiator much longer, as he strongly wants to preserve Atevi culture and history, even at the expense of human development. Already he has become more politically important than any previous paidhi, a fact which makes him a target for assassination.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Karlstar
The Foreigner series continues with more alien-human intrigue. It wouldn't be simple enough for the humans to have to deal with one alien faction, of course there is more than one, and the others are not as friendly to the humans. In addition, the starship dispatched to find a new homeworld for the
Show More
humans has returned, complicating things, and the atevi now have a new human ambassador, while the other was unavailable. Complicated human to human and human to atevi politics and great characters make this an excellent book. Show Less
LibraryThing member jaddington
Takes up right where the first one stops. No break in the story.And its just getting REALLY interesting.Onto the next one!
LibraryThing member jaddington
Takes up right where the first one stops. No break in the story.And its just getting REALLY interesting.Onto the next one!
LibraryThing member bragan
This is the second book in Cherryh's Foreigner series, about an alien species and a lost colony of humans sharing a planet.
I enjoyed this more than the first one. It's still very slow-paced, but you expect less non-stop action and more introspection and in-depth analyses of political situations
I think I need a little bit of a break from this series now -- it really did take me a long time to get through this one -- but I am very interested to come back and see what's going to happen next.
I enjoyed this more than the first one. It's still very slow-paced, but you expect less non-stop action and more introspection and in-depth analyses of political situations
Show More
from Cherryh, anyway. And at least it does feel like that situation is truly developing now, in some complicated and interesting ways. Both the main character and the aliens he's interacting with are starting to feel a lot more fleshed out, too. Which is particularly good to see with the aliens. Their culture is interesting, but they seemed a lot less alien than Cherryh kept trying to insist they were in the first book. In many ways, they still do, but some of the additional glimpses we're getting of their civilization and thought patterns here are helping to offset that.I think I need a little bit of a break from this series now -- it really did take me a long time to get through this one -- but I am very interested to come back and see what's going to happen next.
Show Less
LibraryThing member p.d.r.lindsay
Good Science fiction needs intelligent writing and enough serious ideas to make the reader think. C. J. Cherryh writes some of the best SF fiction. This Foreigner series is marvellous. Each novel adds to the complexity of the lives of the main characters and the seeds sown into the first book -
The series is not just a darn good story, it makes the reader think about culture and what it is, about how people can do damage with the best of intentions, and how best to actually cope with differences with more than just tolerance.
In the first novel we have a small group of around 4 million humans surviving on a large island on a planet which is not theirs. They landed from a crippled space craft and whilst relations were good with the steam age native population things soon fell apart because the humans did not understand the atevi and caused tremendous political and social damage. After the dreadful war an interpreter from the human side was to live in the atevi capital as a government translator. His job was to make a dictionary, prevent misunderstanding, and slowly, carefully allow the atevi technology which did not destroy the very different social structure
With a new and young aiji (King) and a new and young interpreter, Bren, getting on well all hell breaks loose because that first spaceship which had been absent for 200 years returned. A treaty is finally made and two humans from the ship are to be sent to the planet one, to the humans and one to the atevi. However the conservative humans want to join the spaceship people and exclude the atevi and the conservative atevi want to get rid of Bren and all humans. It looks like a terrible mess despite the machinations of the aiji and Bren is forced to communicate directly with the ship on behalf of the atevi which means he is a traitor to the humans in their eyes. Fortunately the ship humans realise the atevi are worth dealing with and send down Jason and Yolanda. Despite political upheavals among the humans and among the atevi, Bren and the aiji win out.
Well written and tightly and so cleverly plotted, it is a novel to make the reader think about tolerance, being different and different cultures. Well worth reading even by non-SF fans.
Show More
Foreigner - are now growing into a more complex plot with a whole range of possibilities.The series is not just a darn good story, it makes the reader think about culture and what it is, about how people can do damage with the best of intentions, and how best to actually cope with differences with more than just tolerance.
In the first novel we have a small group of around 4 million humans surviving on a large island on a planet which is not theirs. They landed from a crippled space craft and whilst relations were good with the steam age native population things soon fell apart because the humans did not understand the atevi and caused tremendous political and social damage. After the dreadful war an interpreter from the human side was to live in the atevi capital as a government translator. His job was to make a dictionary, prevent misunderstanding, and slowly, carefully allow the atevi technology which did not destroy the very different social structure
With a new and young aiji (King) and a new and young interpreter, Bren, getting on well all hell breaks loose because that first spaceship which had been absent for 200 years returned. A treaty is finally made and two humans from the ship are to be sent to the planet one, to the humans and one to the atevi. However the conservative humans want to join the spaceship people and exclude the atevi and the conservative atevi want to get rid of Bren and all humans. It looks like a terrible mess despite the machinations of the aiji and Bren is forced to communicate directly with the ship on behalf of the atevi which means he is a traitor to the humans in their eyes. Fortunately the ship humans realise the atevi are worth dealing with and send down Jason and Yolanda. Despite political upheavals among the humans and among the atevi, Bren and the aiji win out.
Well written and tightly and so cleverly plotted, it is a novel to make the reader think about tolerance, being different and different cultures. Well worth reading even by non-SF fans.
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English