Invader (Foreigner #2) by C.J. Cherryh

  

 My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Mild language

 

The second novel in Cherryh’s  Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences… Nearly two centuries after the starship Phoenix disappeared into the heavens, leaving an isolated colony of humans on the world of the atevi , it unexpectedly returns to orbit overhead, threatening the stability of both atevi and human governments.

With the situation fast becoming critical, Bren Cameron, the brilliant, young paidhi  to the court of the atevi  is recalled from Mospheira where he has just undergone surgery. But his sudden and premature return to the mainland is cause for more than mere physical discomfort. For during his brief absence, his government has sent his paidhi -successor, Deana Hanks—representative of a dangerous archconservative faction on Mospheira who hate the atevi . And though she should depart when Bren is once again able to fill his post, no recall order comes.

Cut off from his government and haunted by the continuing threat of assassination, Bren realizes his only hope may be to communicate directly with the Phoenix  as the spokesman of the atevi— an action which may cut him off for good from his own species. Yet if he doesn't take this desperate and illegal action, he may be forced to helplessly bear witness to the final destruction of the already precarious balance of world power. 

C.J. Cherryh's writing gets me every time. At first I struggled with this second book. I enjoyed the first book even if I didn't love it. As I said in my review of that book, I got pulled into the story, despite the slow pace and politics. This one was the same. In the beginning I began to get annoyed with the political rants that were going on in Bren's head. He was frustrated, I get it, but I wanted the book to move onto something else. Eventually it did and as I read my enjoyment of this book grew and grew. That's not to say that there weren't lots of political machinations going on. There were, but the story slowly became more and more interesting and the political situation ended up lending to the story instead of just being a rant-like info dump. 

I enjoy the way this series is exploring relationships. Bren is very isolated from other humans because of his position and surrounded by the Atevi, who are very alien to most humans, but he is building bonds and trust with them. At times he seems a bit naive about them with his trust, but his personal growth and change in the face of all this is interesting. There were moments of real tension in this book, stemming from relationship issues, humans being stupid, or different Atevi factions attacking each other. Overall, I liked this book more than the first one. I'm definitely sticking with this series.