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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jase: The perfect foil for Bren, April 16, 2002
This review is from: Inheritor: Foreigner 3 (Paperback)
I am a huge fan of C.J. Cherryh's science fiction works; she is my favorite author despite my not being a science fiction reader. Next to Cyteen and Finity's End, this series is my favorite of Cherryh's science fiction work. That said, the first time I picked up Inheritor, I had recently finished reading the first books in the series. As other reviewers note, Bren's point of view and overanalysis can be claustrophobic. His agonizing over small details is obsessive and the habit builds, one detail on top of the next, until it begins to seem almost humorous, and at the same time worthy of the reader's pity (for Bren, not the author). When yet another book in the series started along the same thread, I couldn't take much more. I put it down after the first two chapters, and took a break from the series. I still retained a fondness for Bren, though, and recently I read Cherryh's newest in the series, Defender. I decided to go back to Inheritor and see what I had missed (particularly after one of Cherryh's writing colleagues, Jane Fancher, encouraged me to do so), and to my surprise, when I had finished it I found it to be my favorite novel in the Bren series. First, this novel was the deepest of all the Bren novels in terms of human interaction. Jase doesn't drop from the skies, marvelously close to Bren's age, and fit right into the expected "friendly companion" role. They disagree. They miscommunicate. Bren isn't always dealing with a full set of informational cards when he tries to interpret Jase; Jase can't fathom Bren's atevi-habits, even when spoon-fed these mannerisms in plain language. It's one thing to understand something from the mind, another to understand it in the gut. Which leads to the most outstanding feature of the book... Jase's role as perfect foil for Bren. Jase brings out that which Bren worries over in himself, and shows Bren's knowledge and experience off to advantage. As another reviewer points out, we only see this world through Bren's eyes. An author at Cherryh's level would be hard put to use that tired device, "Bren looked into the mirror and noticed he had blond hair, and that his face seldom had any expression." (Having a constant poker face in this society ensures one's survival, a fact made plain in previous novels in the series.) Instead, during an argument with Bren, Jase brings subtleties like Bren's lack of facial expressions into the light for the reader to notice more closely: Jase understandably can't read Bren well without facial expressions to go on, and understandably Jase doesn't believe that a person without facial expressions really cares about him or his adjustment difficulties. A side note: One oddity which had me bemused upon reading the first book of the series, and which continued into subsequent books including Inheritor, later won me over. This oddity is the astonishing similarity, technology-wise, of this alien world to today's Earth. Imagine! So far away in the galaxy that no one on the planet knows where they are in relation to Earth, so far into the future that man is folding space as easily as a t-shirt, on a distant planet... they are using windshield wipers. These windshield wipers are on the windshields of cars just like ours, and the rain that falls is just like the rain falling outside my window now. Later, though, I began to appreciate this tendency of Cherryh's (it appears in Cyteen as well) deeply. Why? Because when one reads other science fiction novels, one spends a great deal of concentration just trying to figure out what the heck that device is in the character's hand, and in what kind of facility is the character standing? Much of one's focus is, by necessity, on decoding just the basic surroundings and tools of the era. By using technology, tools, and settings familiar to us, Cherryh puts the spotlight squarely on the characters and the subtlety of their thoughts and interactions -- what she does best, and exactly where the spotlight should be.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but a couple of flaws, December 11, 2000
This review is from: Inheritor: Foreigner 3 (Paperback)
Readers of the first two books in the series will find this one pretty familiar. The strength of the series has always been character and setting - the culture and politics of an alien race and its effect on a human protagonist caught in the middle of it all. This remains true in this book, where it's all thrown into sharp relief through the arrival of another human - this one an ambassador from space with no background in the race or culture who struggles to learn on the job as best he can. Though Bren remains the protagonist, the complex and baffling nature of atevi society is highlighted once more through the eyes of the newcomer, and the effect of Bren's immersion in atevi culture on his relationships with humans becomes increasingly apparent. All good stuff, and if you enjoyed it in the earlier books you'll enjoy it this time as well. I did feel that the book had a couple of weak points. The first is Bren's tendency to analyze everything endlessly, including himself - often several pages will be taken up simply with a conversation happening inside Bren's head. Apart from frequently slowing things down a lot, this (in my opinion) takes away some of the subtlety and depth from the writing. Any subtext won't remain sub- for long, as Bren will notice it soon enough and agonize over it. I understand that this is a stylistic thing, and that this device may be necessary to some degree to establish the level of setting and character detail that the book requires. Still, after recently reading 'The Left Hand Of Darkness' (Ursula Le Guin) in which profound details of society, culture and character emerge from the most mundane conversations and actions, it's hard not to feel a bit shortchanged by this approach. The second weakness, in my opinion, was the plot, which is becoming rather predictable and formulaic as the series progresses. The endings in particular all seem very similar and involve similar plot devices every time, to the point where they become little 'machimi plays' of their own based on established conventions. At the end of this book I kept feeling that I was re-reading one of the other two. I enjoyed the first two books, and I enjoyed this one as well. However, after finishing it I did feel somewhat less inclined to keep following the series.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
one world where HUMANS are the alien threat, February 28, 2005
This review is from: Inheritor: Foreigner 3 (Paperback)
An accelerated pace and 3 months have passed since the end of "Invader".
Jase has settled in, the emissary from the orbiting space ship "Phoenix" which, like the bird of legend, returned from the unknown & unexplored reaches of deep space.
For a little history:
Cherryh sets her world with imposing aliens(Atevi) who are united by a single ruler, the aijii, under whom lords & council govern. Humans, lost on a space colonization mission, have settled on the Atevi world and exist in an uneasy truce, co-operating & trading only through one diplomat; Bren Cameron.
As the only contact between two species, Cameron is constantly protected by an extraordinary security force but his family is not so fortunate.
In a turbulent political climate on the human governed island, Camerons' family is endangered by radical factions & Yolanda Mercheson, the ships emissary has been threatened.
Against this background he must somehow train (Jase)the new Atevi ship-human diplomat in the tangled Ragi tongue, which has no word for trust, or love or even like. Yes, human and Atevi are biologically different, and a man alone in an alien culture must constantly rethink his most basic suppositions.
Jase & Cameron have made little headway after the initial friendliness of their contact & arrangements, but luckily Cameron's Atevi security have become his family.
Against the backdrop of the stars, and one alien homeplanet where HUMANS are the alien threat, the `space opera' plays out.
Well written, fast paced & enjoyable, an increasingly involving series. .
Kotori ojadis@yahoo.com
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