Explorer

As the Foreigner series has become one of my top favorite sci-fi/fantasy saga, I just have to do my part, at least to rate the series 5 stars even if my review is not as comprehensive as others. I am not much into sci-fi but I picked up this series a month back as I was impressed with Cherryh's Fortress fantasy series. I was hooked from the first book (Foreigner) and had a most enjoyable 2 weeks finishing all 6 books in this intelligent and riveting saga embellished with amazing characters. Cherryh did a brilliant job in her characterization and relationships development among three different "beings", the enigmatic atevi, the humans in space and the humans who have settled on the alien world. Her main characters Bren, Illisidi and Jase are intelligently and vividly developed and all the side atevi characters are just as appealing. Cherryh also did a great job delineating the intimate relationship between Bren and Jago. The pace may be slow in the second and fifth book but the deep characterization and thought provoking plot more than made up for it. I hope Cherryh will continue with a third trilogy.

Explorer (2002) is the sixth book in the Foreigner sequence and the concluding volume in the second trilogy. In this novel, the various factions go to Reunion station to confront the Pilots' Guild and possibly the alien ships. In the previous volume, the Phoenix has been refueled at Alpha Station and prepared for the voyage, the atevi and Mospheiran passengers have come aboard, and the ship's crew has set course for Reunion. But all is not yet settled; the various factions are still not fully reconciled, the events at Reunion remain unexplained, and Jase, the new Second Captain, is still uneasy about his competence. The year long voyage isn't likely to be peaceful for Bren Cameron. As Lord of the Province of Heaven, Bren is responsible for everything in the ship, but has only as much power over events as he can persuade others to give him. One of his tasks is to establish a working relationship with Sabin, the First Captain, and to encourage her to share more information with Jase. Just to add more complexity to his life, he also has to cope with Cajeiri, the ajii-apparent, who is practicing archery in the corridors and likewise being an active child. However, Bren does have allies in Jase, the ajii-dowager Ilisidi, the Mospheiran roboticist Ginny, and his atevi staff. When they get to Reunion, they find that the station has been attacked, but not destroyed, and the Pilots' Guild is in firm, even rigid, control. They also find an alien ship observing the station. Bren takes measures to undermine the Guild and to contact the aliens. Although this novel concludes a phase of the atevi-human story, there are many questions left unanswered, so another trilogy should be forthcoming. Right? Ah, the sweet agony of waiting for the next installment! -Arthur W. Jordin

Excellent, intelligent SF, the conclusion (sadly) to the atevi series. I will miss these people and this world.On a rescue mission to Reunion Station, the Phoenix encounters layers of political complexity, a hostile station government and a potentially hostile alien ship.This book contains more action than many of Cherryh's other recent works; it's almost as if someone told her that her protag wasn't protagging enough, because suddenly he's the action hero. But he always remains in character, and the scenes are fast-moving and believable. It's interesting to me how much tension and action Cherryh manages to convey *without* describing a lot of gore. There are also some humorous bits--involving the atevi response to what they find in the Archive of human culture, but most especially the first moment of communication with a member of a new species. It's not that common for me to laugh out loud while reading, and I did here.A few plot elements could have done with a little more elaboration. I wanted to know a bit more about why the stationers at Reunion were so disenchanted with the Guild, and I would have liked to see meetings between long-lost Phoenix and Reunion kin, since rescuing them was the original reason for the mission. Still, this is a worthy conclusion.

My favorite series continues in this book. The atevi-human association sets off on the "Phoenix" to rescue the stranded humans of Reunion Station. Bren Cameron, now named by Tabini-aiji, ruler of the Western Association, as lord of the province of the heavens, sets off with the expectation of alien contact with Tabini's grandmother and heir to complicate his mission. The book opens with the voyage to Reunion nearly complete and new revelations of ship-captains' duplicity, giving an inauspicious air to the last space-fold, which ends with worse news ... The book does continue Cherryh's formula of pacing and structure, and the [bad] outlines of the story become a bit predictable by this, the sixth book. But that is a quibble, because a formula is only to be criticized when it ceases to work. Cherryh's has not. There is the usual blend of cerebral culture-shock and taut action. Entertainment, it offers amply, as well as a long-awaited visit to familiar people and cultures. This book is easily readable for a general audience, but without reading the entire series one wastes one's time. The nuance built up over the life of the series is the background of relationships which shift and characters that change in behavior and in the perceptions of others. To those who have read none of this series I recommend "Foreigner" with frank envy at your opportunity to experience this universe fresh. By the way, one suspects more books, since six is a marginally infelicitous (infelicitous two and felicitous three) number. Nine, for example, would be much more felicitous. One can only hope.

First, I suggest don't try to read this book without having read the previous ones. While it can stand alone and Cherryh gives a good review of the back story, it is impossible, I would think, to fully appreciate the nuances of the human/atevi interface without having read the previous volumes.Cherryh's experience as a translater has clearly aided her in creating an interesting character in Bren Cameron and a fascinating society in the world of the Atevi/humans. Marooned by his dedication to the spirit of his job and his sense of justice in an alien culture, Bren manages to form attachments and create his own role in Atevi society. That the relationships he develops with his alien hosts are easier for him to understand than his relationships with his family is a great piece of irony. In this book the introduction of the second alien culture, the necessity of the association of Atevi and humans to withstand the stresses involved in contact with this new force, creates an engrossing storyline that expands on the previous themes introduced by Cherryh.This is definitely the thinking being's science fiction.