Convergence by C.J. Cherryh

Convergence: A Foreigner Novel by C.J. Cherryh --- 324 pages

Number 18 in Cherryh's Foreigner space opera series.  Although one might assume that the 18th novel is a series of linked trilogies could perhaps be the grand finale, Convergence feels like a transition instead.

There's a definite sense that Cherryh is moving her focus to a new generation of the atevi-human relationship. Two species forced by circumstances to share a world, have slowly evolved a partnership that allows them to work together. Now that alliance will be tested as they move out into space and meet other species, who may be more or less neighborly.

Convergence  runs two parallel story tracks: in one, Bren Cameron, the paidhi-aiji, has been sent by Tabini-aiji to explain the treaty with the kyo to the human government of Mospheira, and to negotiate the resettlement of the Reunioner refugees from the space station to Mospheira. In the other, Cajeiri, Tabini's nine-year-old son and heir, has been sent on his first solo assignment, a visit to his Great Uncle Tatisiegi, Lord of the powerful Atageini clan. Officially, Cajeiri is on a holiday. But the holiday is cover for a political mission.  Uncle Tatisiegi and Tabini are trying to repair the lingering damage from the plot that tried to overthrow Tabini and destroy the atevi alliance with humans. It's particularly delicate, because the man behind the plot was a relative of Tabini's consort and Cajeiri's mother, who is also the estranged niece of Tatiseigi.

This is probably not the novel to introduce new readers to the Foreigner series. But for faithful fans who have followed the series for 23 years, the intricacies of the universe Cherryh has created is part of its fascination.  Convergence will whet their appetite for more.

Click HERE to see the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Tor.com.

Click HERE to read the review on the blog Reconsidering.

Visitor by C.J. Cherryh

Visitor: A Foreigner Novel by C.J. Cherryh --- 376 pages

The seventeenth book in C.J. Cherryh’s amazing Foreigner series.  Nobody --- but nobody --- writes "first contact" stories more brilliantly than Cherryh. And this series is the culmination of her lifelong fascination with the interplay of the human and the Other.

And sometimes, unsettlingly, it's the Other that becomes more familiar, and the human that becomes --- well --- alien.  Which pretty much defines Bren Cameron's balancing act, rather like those angels desperately dancing on the head of a pin.

WARNING: Don't try to pick up this series with this book, or any of the previous books.  It needs to be read in order, from the beginning. Otherwise you will be utterly lost, like a shipwrecked sailor on an unknown shore. But once you get sucked in, it will be exhilarating to realize that an entire Foreigner universe awaits you.

NOW, for those who have been, like me, anxiously awaiting the next installment:

This year of restoration, with Tabini-aiji back in power, his heir Cajeiri officially recognized upon achieving his fortunate ninth birthday, the aiji-consort safely delivered of her new baby daughter, should at long last mean time to draw breath and relax, for Bren Cameron, the human paidi-aiji.

But no such luck. Cajeiri's young human associates return to the space station orbiting the earth only to find themselves pawns in the power struggles between the Mospheirans who operate the human side of the station and the 5,000 Reunion refugees rescued from kyo space. Bren and his aishid and their allies have just restored a fragile order and are working to negotiate the Reunioners resettlement on Mospheira, when an ominous visitation arrives from space.

Once again Bren must stand between species, the interpreter of intentions, the maker of agreements, the broker of peace.

Click HERE for a review from Tor.com

Click HERE for a review from the Reconsidering blog.

Tracker by C.J. Cherryl

Tracker: A Foreigner Novel by C.J. Cherryh --- 403 pages

This is volume 16 in Cherryh's Foreigner Universe series, which began some twenty years ago and is sequenced in three-volume arcs; so this is the first book of the sixth arc of the series.

Cherryh is one of the Grand Masters of science fiction/fantasy and the Foreigner series is the most sustained and perhaps the most defining work of her long career.  I will admit up front that I am one of her biggest fans, I own copies of almost every book she has published, including the complete set -- to date --- of the Foreigner series, and reread them regularly.  She writes what I call anthropolgical science fiction, and her major concern and theme is what happens in the relationship between humans and other intelligent species.

What's particularly fascinating is her ability to create alien worlds and other intelligent species so convincingly and in such detail that when humans show up they are the aliens.

If you've not read any of the other books in this series, my advice is to put this one aside and go back and read Foreigner, the first in the series, first.  Then, if you are hooked, read the next fourteen, in order, before you read Tracker. These are books that absolutely need to be read in sequence, so you can immerse yourself in the world of the atevi.

In this book, the paidhi-aiji, Bren Cameron, and his associates, the aiji-dowager Illisidi and her great-grandson, the heir apparent Cajeiri, are urgently summoned to the space station in orbit above the planet when the kyo, a species they previously encountered during a mission throug space to rescue 5,000 stranded humans, make good on their promise/threat to visit the world of the atevi, now jointly inhabited by humans. So this is the first volume of a three volume arc that will focus on the kyo's visit and the attempt to negotiate a treaty with these, their nearest known neighbors in space.

Given that Bren's ability to communicate with the kyo is at this point limited to a vocabulary of 300 more-or-less defined words (he's not even sure which are nouns and which are verbs, or whether the concepts of noun and verb even apply to the kyo's language), the negotiations are going to be a challenge.

For background on the Foreigner series click HERE to read a post on the blog Far Beyond Reality, and a subsequent link to an analysis by author Ann Leckie.

For a review of Tracker and the Foreigner series from the blog Reconsidering click HERE.

Peacemaker by C.J. Cherryh

Peacemaker: A Foreigner Novel by C.J. Cherryh --- 375 pages

In the fifteenth novel in Cherryh's epic Foreigner Series the story arc covering the coup that temporarily overthrew Tabini-aiji and put at risk the stability of the entire world of atevi and humans is finally brought to a conclusion.

Cajeiri, Tabini's son, is about to celebrate his fortunate ninth birthday. The festivity includes a long-awaited reunion with the three human children he befriended during his sojourn on the starship Phoenix, and a national holiday in honor of Cajeiri's formal investiture as heir to the aishidi'tat.

But Bren Cameron, the human paidhi who serves the aiji, along with the aiji-dowager Illisidi, Cajeiri's formidable great-grandmother, and their loyal security, have discovered that an agent entrenched in the highest echelons of the Assassin's Guild has been working for decades to destabilize the alliance between the atevi, the humans on Mospheira, and the humans of the starship. Even worse, this agent is a blood relation of Cajeiri's mother Damiri, the aiji-consort, and is fomenting distrust between Cajeiri's mother and father in order to undermine the political alliances that depend on their union.

The Assassin's Guild, which functions as the judicial system, law enforcement and personal security for atevi society, is in the hands of a person who is hostile to humans and the human-friendly and technology-friendly administration of Tabini-aiji; a person who would like to eradicate human influence and humans from the atevi world. This person resides inside the Assassin's Guild headquarters in Shejidan, the most secure fortress on the planet. Now Bren and his aishid --- Banichi and Jago, Tano and Algini --- must lead a strike force into the Assassin's Guild to take down the enemy before he can attack again. The future of the world and the lives of everyone who matters to Bren all hang in the balance.

For more background on C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner Universe click HERE.

Protector by C.J. Cherryh

Protector: A Foreigner Novel by C.J. Cherryh --- 375 pages

The fourteenth novel is Cherryh's acclaimed Foreigner series about human space travelers stranded on a planet and forced to interact with its highly intelligent and dominant alien species, the atevi.

With the atevi world just emerging from a major realignment of manchi, the   instinctive sense of personal attachment that drives every aspect of atevi existence,  Ben Cameron, the paidhi-aiji --- human mediator for atevi and humans alike --- and his allies have now become the target of ruthless conspirators who may have already infiltrated every clan and government department in their bid to seize power.

Cajeiri, the soon to be nine-year-old son of Tabini-aiji, ruler of the Western Association that effectively governs the planet, has particularly requested the presence of three human children at his birthday festivity. These children, with whom he bonded during a perilous two year mission on the human space ship, have arrived on a planetary surface for the first time in their lives, accompanied by ship Captain Jason Graham, Bren's human friend and ally in space.

Can Bren keep the aiji's son and the human children alive, safe and happy, preserve his bond with Jase and the humans and atevi on the space station, and defeat the conspiracy that seeks to destroy Tabini-aiji and the Western Association? Another cliffhanger from science fiction master Cherryh.