3-star book in a 5-star series | Defender (Foreigner)

Review of Foreigner Series | Defender (Foreigner) | C. J. Cherryh

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	• Defender (Foreigner) C. J. Cherryh DAW, 2002 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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A pause-for-breath volume in the series (patience, people . . .)

This is the middle volume of the second trilogy -- roughly forty percent of the way through the projected twelve volumes, and events keep piling up on top of events. Bren Cameron, the human paidhi who now dreams in the atevi language, is called back down by the aiji from the space station, where the starship PHOENIX is being refitted and fueled, to attend a sort of memorial service for the ruler's late father -- late because Tabini almost certainly had him assassinated. Which isn't an untoward turn of events in atevi society. Bren wonders why he's there, though. And almost the moment he returns to the station, Senior Captain Ramirez, not in good health since the abortive rebellion of a few years before, has a final collapse and dies -- just after imparting a deep secret to Jason Graham, very junior captain (and also a junior-level paidhi by training in an earlier volume), to the effective that the second station out at Reunion wasn't completely destroyed by the unknown alien menace but was, in fact, still being held by survivors of the presumed attack. Now, suddenly, the PHOENIX is going to break station and go and rescue them. And Ilisidi, the aiji's extremely formidable grandmother will accompany them -- and so will the aiji's young son and heir. And so, he discovers, will Bren Cameron. Yes, it all sounds almost baroquely complex, and it kind of is, but it's also a deeply involving, extremely well thought out saga of interspecies relationships and misunderstandings and the continual efforts of a diplomat/translator to keep things running as smoothly as possible. This volume, being a sort of "bridge" volume in the plot, is a bit shorter than the others -- but it's really all one enormously long novel anyway. In fact, this may be Cherryh's magnum opus.

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3-star book in a 5-star series

This is definitely a "bridge" book and doesn't have a lot of story on its own. Yes, it has the "crisis" that us Foreigner series readers have some to expect but it is much more muted in this book and not that satisfying.

With the lack of a strong story on its own, the central "difficulty in communicating with an alien race" theme begins to grate a little after 5 books.

It seems kind of extreme to say it of a 464 page book, but I think it could almost have been edited down to be the first chapter of the next book in the series. When I see this kind of thing, I always wonder if the publisher is applying pressure to squeeze out that last dollar.

Explorer, the next book in the series, is out now in hardback and my expectations are very high that Ms. Cherryh gets the series back to the level of quality we have come to expect.

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Review of Foreigner Series

I consider Cherryh to be the premier science fiction writer I have read and enjoyed, since starting as a sub-teenager, back in the 1950s. The entire Foreigner series, to date, as there appear to be some more on the way, is absolutely outstanding. When I read the last book in the sequence, I went an ordered the entier set to date. And have enjoyed each and every one as well as the first and latest! If you have not read them, start at the beginning and be prepared to buy, read and retain each and every one. I am posting this verbatum on the other two requested Foreigner series books I have been given the opportunity for which to review!

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You Know a Book is Filler When...

This is going to be an odd review, because, well, I haven't read the book (!). Nevertheless, I have something relevant I'd like to share about it.

I read the first four books of the Foreigner series with pleasure, admiring the rich complexity of the world while sometimes grumbling about the glacial pace of events. When I went to buy the fifth book (Defender), though, I accidentally picked up the sixth book (Explorer) instead. Here's the kicker: I couldn't even tell! I read the entire sixth book without even realizing I'd skipped the fifth one. The story seemed to pick up where the fourth one ended, and I didn't notice any important gaps in plot or character. Granted, it had been a while since I'd read the fourth book, but still...

So, my conclusion about Defender is this: if you can skip the entire book without even noticing the difference in the story line, then there must not be much important that happens in it. I'm not going to go back and read it, because it is clearly not crucial to the story. Happily, that is not true about the next book, Explorer.

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Addictive series

This writer gets you addicted. Had to buy the whole series. Impossible to read just one!

In this sequel to Precursor, the alien atevi enter the treacherous politics of space travel-as their one human negotiator is caught in the throes of a mutiny...

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