Foreigner (Foreigner, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Feb 24, 2017 Tani rated it really liked it

Shelves: female-author, 2017-novels, scifi

Another day, another book that I've had on my shelves for somewhere in the realm of 10 years down. C.J. Cherryh is one of those writers that I loved in my teenage years that I haven't read anything by since then. Her Fortress series was one of my absolute favorites. I think I picked up a copy of Fortress in the Eye of Time from a library booksale when I was 14 or 15, and I can't tell you how many times I read and re-read it. I say this so you can know the deeply personal level that parts of this Another day, another book that I've had on my shelves for somewhere in the realm of 10 years down. C.J. Cherryh is one of those writers that I loved in my teenage years that I haven't read anything by since then. Her Fortress series was one of my absolute favorites. I think I picked up a copy of Fortress in the Eye of Time from a library booksale when I was 14 or 15, and I can't tell you how many times I read and re-read it. I say this so you can know the deeply personal level that parts of this book impacted me on, and so you can better understand my reaction to it.

Because I cannot deny, my reaction to Foreigner was deeply subjective. Cherryh's writing feels so nostalgic to me. Within the first few sentences, I was back to my first experience with reading Fortress in the Eye of Time, drawn into the confusion of the protagonist and the strange lyrical quality of the writing. Even though I've never read any of the Foreigner books before, this book felt familiar to me. The narrative voice is hugely reminiscent of the Fortress books, and the themes that are explored in Foreigner are likewise very similar.

On an objective level, I can see why many readers would be bored silly by this book. The beginning section, which details how humans came to be in this place, is interesting, but abruptly brushed aside by the timeskip to the true protagonist of the story, Bren Cameron. I'll admit, that transition gave me some mental whiplash as I tried to rearrange my expectations to fit Bren into the main space. And then, just as I gained my footing with Bren, Bren himself was thrown into chaos by the sudden and inexplicable actions being taken by the characters around him. And he stays that way for the next half of the book. It's not until about 2/3rds of the way through that we finally start to understand what has happened and why events have taken shape in the way that they have. It's definitely a hard sell, especially if you're reading the book in 2017, 13 years after it was published, in a science fiction world that has changed dramatically.

And yet, despite the slowness, Cherryh manages to touch on some of my favorite things. The aliens, called atevi, are one of those things. Although like humans in some ways, psychologically, the atevi are very different. They do not feel like human characters, and I'll admit that I love that. Even Bren, who's lived with and studied the atevi for years, struggles with understanding them. He finds himself constantly assigning them human motives and emotions, and I struggled right alongside him. How do you divorce your emotions from your analysis of the actions of other living creatures? What does it mean to be an alien? I think that if you have the patience to listen, this book has a lot of questions to ask about human psychology. Whether it answers any of those questions, however, is a completely different matter.

A deep character study is another. Although I can see how many people found Bren a hard main character to stomach, I personally enjoyed him. Yes, he is deprived of agency throughout most of the book, and his frustration at that can be hard to stomach. And yet, it rang as deeply true to me. I cannot see myself reacting any better to being placed in a similar situation, and might in fact react much more childishly. In addition, that very lack of agency made me feel like the moments where Bren did take action were that much more revealing of who he truly is. And I have to say, I liked that person.

Finally, let's talk a bit about the ending, because it's a huge factor in my commitment to read the next book in the series. Despite my nostalgia and enjoyment of the character exploration and alien civilization, I might not have decided to continue with the series if I was basing it just on the first two-thirds of the book. But that last third, once the atevi have finally revealed just what is going on, was enough to cement the deal for me. The action picks up tremendously at this point, the entire first part of the book is cast in a new light, and a thousand opportunities for the next book in the series open up. It was an ending that simultaneously satisfied me and left me wanting more. I'm not sure I will be catching up on this series anytime in the near future, but I will definitely be working toward it! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 20, 2013 Jamie Collins rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, scifi-aliens, scifi-generation-ship, scifi-colony

I didn’t dislike this, but it’s a frustrating book. For one thing, the beginning is a bait-and-switch. I was excited by the first chapter, where an interstellar spaceship becomes hopelessly lost, only to find that the second chapter jumps ahead several decades. Then I got interested in the second chapter, a first-contact scenario between the descendants of the spaceship and the lower-tech residents of the habitable planet they are exploring, only to find that the next chapter jumps ahead even fu ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2010 Bradley rated it liked it

An engaging sci-fi tale that makes you reflect what an alien species might be like. =)

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2023 Doina rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi

I would rate this around 2.5* and the half star is for the last part of the book. The beginning was confusing because of the jumping around of different points of view. Then, when the book actually started, it moved very slow with lots of first person narrative that was very repetitive. I put this book down several times, and I very rarely do that. It felt like it droned on and on and on. The world-building was interesting and the overarching plot has potential, but if the next books starts just ...more

Like · see review

Aug 24, 2010 JM rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi

I'm hoping that if I choose to read the next one, all the groundwork laid here will be worth it.

Interesting scenario with another alien civilization. ...more

Like · see review

May 12, 2009 Tom rated it liked it

Shelves: hard-copy

An acceptable alien contact book. Unfortunately, it's a bit low on the "Sci-Fi" meter, high on the "Court Drama" meter. The aliens are only aliens in their social behaviors... distant, cold, unemotional... the story could have been set with the protagonist as southern European diplomat to Swedish/Norwegian kings and remain almost completely unchanged. There's probably a good story there too, but not a story of alien first-contact.

...more

Like · see review

Oct 20, 2007 Mike rated it liked it

Shelves: scifi

I only kept going through the first third of the book because I like the author. Very tough slogging through alien psychology but in the end, was quite good.

Like · see review