Emergence by C.J. Cherryh

Emergence: A Foreigner Novel by C.J. Cherryh --- 320 pages

One of the titans of contemporary science fiction, C.J. Cherryh has won the Locus Award and three Hugo Awards and was named a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Cherryh was born in St. Louis MO in 1942, and grew up Oklahoma. She began writing stories at the age of ten.  She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1964, with a BA in Latin (Phi Beta Kappa), taking classes in archaeology, mythology, and the history of engineering. She received her MA in classics in 1965 from Johns Hopkins University where she was a Woodrow Wilson fellow. 

She then taught high school back in Oklahoma and began writing science fiction novels in her spare time. In 1976 she published her first two novels, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth, and won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1977.  In 1979 she won her first Hugo Award for Best Short Story and quit teaching to write full time. She has written over seventy books, and at the age of seventy-six is still going strong! She lives with her wife, science fiction/fantasy author and artist Jane Fancher, near Spokane WA.

Her best seller Foreigner series began in 1994. It follows the descendants of a lost starship and their differing encounters with two alien species. Emergence is the nineteenth book in this long-running space opera, and opens up a new story line.

Tabini-aiji, the powerful ruler of the atevi Western Association, has sent his human mediator, Bren Cameron, to negotiate the resettlement of the Reunion Station refugees with the human Presidenta on the island of Mospheira. The refugees and the humans on Mospheira are descendants of opposing political factions that broke apart two centuries ago, and there are those on Mospheira who bitterly oppose the resettlement.  Book 20, Resurgence, is scheduled for publication in 2019. 

I've read probably 85% of everything she's written over the past 42 years and own copies of every book of hers that I could get my hands on, including a complete set of the Foreigner series.  She is a world-building wonder, and I've re-read the books so often that many of them are held together with rubber bands.

Click HERE to read an interview with C.J. Cherryh from Zendipietro.com.

Click HERE to read a review from tor.com.

Click HERE to read a review from thespeedofwrite.com blog.

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.

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.