Foreigner #8 Pretender [Mass Market Paperback]

Pretender, the latest installment in the Foreigner series, picks up right where the previous book (Destroyer) left off. Because of this, and the the way it is written, it should only be read by those who are already up-to-date with the series; if you don't already know what happened after the rescue of Prakuyo and how Bren Cameron arrived at Tatisiegi's estate you just won't get much out of this book.

This is a fairly short book, and in a sense not much happens in it. Bren Cameron is the paidhi (human translator) assigned to the atevi (alien) ruler Tabini, who was recently driven from power. {CAUTION: the rest of this paragraph might be considered to contain some minor "spoilers"!} In this installment, Cameron travels with a rather large group from the embattled Atigeni country estate to the capital Shejidan, where Tabini recovers his position and Cameron delivers a report to the planetary legislature about the treaty he recently negotiated with the kyo (other aliens).

That's about it for plot. Along the way we mostly dwell in Cameron's head, as he continues his struggles to understand the significance of the movements of all the aliens around him, given that they are unable or unwilling to actually ever explain anything to him. I believe it is an aspect of the author's art here that we share the experience of the translator's incomprehension: much of the time the reader doesn't get it either, we are in effect also immersed in an alien culture and equally bewildered. This is indeed powerful and effective. A big problem, though, is that while Cameron has his "aha!" moments along the way, we don't necessarily share them. To paraphrase one example, he concludes something like "Oh, now I get it!" and later exchanges a meaningful glance and confirming nod with an alien associate, but just what he has concluded is never expressed, not in his thoughts or words or by the alien, and the prior evidence in the book on the particular subject at that point is not all that clear. In this Cherryh continues to appear to think we can read her mind, rather than just her words, and can leave a reader frustrated.

In Pretender, most of the "action" is small-scale and localized, there is a lot of what I call "motion", that is the positioning and posturing that is typical of a Cherryh novel. This continues to work well within the Foreigner series (even as it fails dismally in some of her other works), probably due to the deeply characterized alien culture that provides a basis for this behavior. And in Pretender there are cases where it seems the author is trying to be clearer, and there are also important developments in the relationships among some of the familiar characters. For that, and for the incremental movement of the overall series plot, it is clearly a must-read for series fans. Anyone who has not read all the earlier books would be wasting their time and money to start here, but would indeed be well-rewarded to go back to the start and read through this fascinating series of books.

I know Foreigner fans are zealous and I expect I'll pick up some spurious "not helpfuls" as an expression of displeasure with the fact that my review is not pure praise and not 5-star. Please realize that I too am a devoted, long-time fan of this series, have read each book as it came out and re-read the series several times, and am just trying to balance the picture with a bit of objectivity.

As always, this book was advance ordered so I did not have to wait to catch up on the latest happenings in the Atevi world. Pretender did *not* disappoint and was another great read in this engrossing series. The only bad thing was staying up all Friday night to finish it; now I can't have the joy of reading it new again. If you are new to the series, I recommend that you start at the beginning -- and I would envy you for the delight in finding a great series. I will not recapitulate the plot since other people have done that, but I will say that Cajeiri is growing up very well, Algini surprised me, and Banichi and Jago, well, they are the best salads ever.

Also, as of March 6 according to her blog, C J is about 2/3's finished with the next book in the series. Maybe next year by this time...

Eight books and ten years into the Foreigner Universe series, you'd think that it might be getting a little tired. However, I found this book and its predecessor in the third trilogy to be very well written and riveting reads.

I enjoyed the increased amount of Guild action in Pretender and it felt faster-paced overall relative to Destroyer, the first book in this trilogy.

Bren continues to wallow a bit in angst over whether he was to blame for the successful coup that deposed Tabini Aiji. However, events move far too quickly for an extended pity party and soon he's right back in the thick of the action with his Assassin's Guild bodyguards.

Cajeiri is moving from brat-hood to an interesting character who actually contributes to the storyline a bit more and the Dowager continues to delight yet again.

Very enjoyable!