Customer Reviews

Foreigner

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found Foreigner rather slow going. In fact, when I finished it I kept wondering what all the fuss was about vis-a-vis the series as a whole. But then I kept also wondering what happened next... and found myself picking up the sequels - which were WONDERFUL. In retrospect, I wish someone had told me to skim Foreigner as background for the rest of the series. So that's my advice to those who haven't yet read it. Do persevere, though - this is one of the best SF series ever written.

Foreigner is a book about first contact -- humans and aliens, called the atevi, meeting for the first time -- and problems that occur when the two cultures meet and try to understand each other. C.J. Cherryh builds an alien culture and society that is well-formed, complete and believable; and through her excellent style, immerses the reader into this culture such that one begins to think and act like atevi, and perhaps, daydream about what it would be like living with the atevi oneself. This book is similar to Shogun, which, in effect, was a first contact book itself. The atevi culture, to me, has an essence of the Japanese culture, with a touch of India. Different "biological hard-wiring" between the humans and atevi create complicated misunderstandings of some of the most basic societal concepts. Imagine a culture that cannot fully understand the human words "like", "love", and "friend". The only time the atevi use the word, "like", is to describe a favorite food, such as salads. Now think how often we humans use the word "like" -- yes, we like food, but we also like each other, and there are different levels of like, and there are likenesses between members of a family, and we like inanimate objects, like paintings, and like, we compare things to other things, such as, he talks like a lawyer. The humorous side effects of these misunderstandings are quite fun. In one scene, the main character, Bren Cameron, tries to tell Banichi, a very manly atevi guard, that he is liked and considers him a friend. Poor Banichi is quite insulted because he thinks Bren considers him the equivalent of a salad. Further attempts to understand causes Banichi to perhaps wonder about human sexual preferences. The misunderstandings can have a most serious side effect, too. Humans cannot seem to grasp certain atevi concepts, such as "man'chi" and "associations". Atevi society is based upon a clan-like culture. There are no geographical boundaries between the different clans, but associations that are made between lords. Clan members declare man'chi to their lord, and possibly to family members, or spouse. Cherryh keeps the "nebulous-ity" of man'chi evident so that even the human reader cannot quite ever fully understand the concept. Major and minor associations can be made, causing much political complexity. Add in the concept of legal assassination, practiced and controlled by Guild Assassins, and the book takes off with high action. Human ignorance of atevi associations in the past resulted in a war in which the atevi won, and caused a complete separation of the two races on the planet. A treaty was created such that humans would gradually release their superior technology to the atevi. Only one human is allowed to interface and live among the atevi, the nand paidhi, "honored interpreter". Bren Cameron is the first paidhi in a long line of paidhiin to ever get close to understanding the atevi. He is a brilliant diplomat who takes great pains to always be politically atevi-correct. He is also a very lonely man. Enter the assassin, and the fun begins. The first sixty pages of Foreigner are on the narrative side. Cherryh has to provide the reader with the history, politics, and problems encountered by the humans on the Phoenix space ship that caused some of them to end up stranded on the atevi world. But once the name, Bren Cameron, is written, the story, and action, pick up significantly...and soon, dear reader is hooked. One hopes the nadiin enjoy it as much as Donna-ji did. Happy reading!

This book is the first in the Foreigner Universe series. It is an amazing web of political intrigue, action and a skimming of romance. Cherryh creates an amazing world, upon which live one of the most unique alien races I have encountered in the many years I have been reading science fiction. The characters are very personable, and the imagery is rich and life-like. For a truly excellent read, see this book, and the second in the series, "Invader" (I just finished it today, and I can't wait to get a copy of the third, "Inheritor.").

I happen to really "dig" C.J. Cherryh's writing. Her characters are fully realized and believable and her plots are excellent. You can never call her works predictable or ho-hum.

When I first read _Foreigner_, I couldn't get into the novel. I picked it up, read 20-30 pages and put it down again. This happened several times. Eventually I decided to lay in a chunk of reading--only to realize that the farther I got into the novel, the more drawn to it I became. The Foreigner series of books only gets better as it develops. I found the next two novels in the series to be entirely satisfying reads.

The plot and characterizations of this series are complex and fully developed--one of it's most engaging qualities. Too many novels seem have flat characters and predictable plotlines which is incredibly disappointing to a smart reader. I recently read _Poison Study_ because of it's cover review. Ack! Talk about tripe. It's great to come across books that engage the reader's intelligence and have you wondering "gee, how would I react in that situation?"

I've read all of the Foreigner series to date (8 novels) and they are truly some of my favorites. I rank them up there with Tad Williams great series like the Otherworld novels, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover stuff, and Melanie Rawn's Exile books.

If you are looking for an extremely intellegent, psychologically rich series, this is it. And if you like this series, check out Ms. Cherryh's Cyteen books--also a good read.

honestly, i couldn't understand why some people don't like this book, until i loaned it to my younger sister and she got bored and never came back after the first chapter. admittedly, she doesn't like science fiction anyways... so i guess it is a bit tougher than some other science-fiction/fantasy books, and yes, it is a bit dry in some places. but what Cherryh writes about the species and the interactions more than makes up for it for readers willing to slog it through. i loved, absolutely loved, all six books in the series. i read all six of them in under half a year, often forsaking games and homework to read them i liked it that much. but, as some people pointed out, not everyone likes it. if you don't know if you think you'd like it, check it out at the library, and give it more than one chapter before you return it. although buying it may make you commit a bit more than a borrowed book, for those who finish it, and the series, it is great fun, and a thouroughly rewarding experience. i highly recommend it.

In the ten years since this book came out, I've probably read parts of it eight or nine times. Cherryh excels in alien-human interface, but she's outdone herself on the Foreigner set. I like the political maneuvering and the details of the atevi and human cultures, but what makes the book worth reading to rags are the characters. Her characters are brilliant, and brilliantly drawn--particularly Bren, Ilisidi, Banichi, and Jago. They're real. And--for the most part--she's kept the events and characters consistent through eight books. I've got mixed feelings on the prologue--it's usually the part I skip. I also wish she hadn't tried to write the last action sequence from Bren's POV. Granted, he had a good reason to be thinking in fragments, but it was annoying to read. On the whole, I'd recommend this set to anyone who likes political intrique mixed with action mixed with incredible science fiction. Cherryh's greatest strength has always been her ability to let us see ourselves as the alien and learn much about our own humanity in the process.

Cherryh is often compared to Ursula Le Guin, and with good reason; by the time I'd gotten a couple of chapters into this first volume of a lengthy epic, I was thinking of the similarities of its set-up to The Left Hand of Darkness. Mostly, it's because the protagonist is a lone, isolated human diplomat surrounded by aliens whose very near-human appearance makes it easy to forget just how deeply alien their psychology is. Five hundred years ago, a human colony ship came out of hyperdrive impossibly far from where it should be, so far the ship was completely lost. After many years, its crew and party of settlers make it to a system where there is a habitable planet -- which is already taken by an almost industrial-level species called the atevi. They build a space station and some of the settlers (or their descendants) land on the planet, trying not to mess up anything. But they can't help thinking in human terms, and after a century or two of technological uplift by the humans, the atevi attack, driving them back to the island where they had originally landed. The eventual peace treaty establishes the office of paidhi, a human interpreter who will live among the atevi and facilitate communications. Another couple of centuries pass and Bren Cameron is the current paidhi, at the court of the regional ruler. He tries hard not to make mistakes or assumptions in gradually passing on human technical knowledge -- the price of the treaty -- but his carefully constructed complacency is shattered when he's packed off to a distant mountain fortress. Not until late in the story does he find out the reasons for this inexplicable treatment, and then he knows humans on his world have as much to fear as its original inhabitants. The author does an extraordinary job of allowing the atevi to explain themselves through their actions instead of simply telling the reader what's going through their minds, as she did in both the Chanur and Kes'rith cycles. There are now nine volumes in this new cycle, and they're all lined up on my reading shelf. Beautiful stuff.

I've been browsing through the reviews of Cherryh's books and I just have to add my own thoughts. I've been reading her work for a few years. I grab all of her sci-fi and just ingest it whole. I love this writer's ability to inject incredible characterization into thoughful storylines that introduce us to sciences that usually don't get a lot of speculation in this genre. To write a sci-fi novel that focuses on political science, sociology and how it can all tie into biology... well, it's gutsy! I love reading fiction that has something to teach me and makes me look at what is happening on our own world in a different light. I've read all the Foreigner series, and I'm breathless waiting for the next one. Every time I hear that the new one is about to come out, I go back and read the others. I find some new level of understanding every time. I can't imagine what it takes to write a story with this many levels. Sure, it might be overwhelming for someone who wants their action on the surface - with the characters meeting all the challenges so the reader doesn't have to... But for those who want to be intellectually stimulated while getting a healthy dose of intrigue and action, this series is it!

This book is incredibly wordy and redundant. It had a typical "mystery" beginning where a character has an attempt made on his life, and his bodyguards and protectors keep him in the dark as much as possible throughout the rest of the novel. In most stories the character manages to piece together some information about the attempt on his own life. Not in this book, however, as nothing is revealed until 300 pages into the story. Prior to that we get a diary of an individual who is conducting a rather lengthy and boring cultural study of a wanna-be feudal Japan. Also, the ending never had a full, final explanation to what was going on. In short, this book was short on action and heavy on cultural didactic, and, as a result, it was extremely boring.

I am more into fantasy than sci-fi. I decided to give this series a try as I was impressed with the Fortress Series, a fantasy series by Cherryh. I am not disappointed. I find myself engrossed. The world in Foreigner is spellbinding with both human and alien characters vividly alive. The protagonist is appealing. His self doubts and angst as he tries to understand and befriend the Artevi is wonderfully written. However Cherryh should try to cut-back a trifle on Bren's perspectives which tend to be repetitive at times. I will definitely continue with the series and am actually please there are 5 more books to-date.