Inheritor

Finishing the first trilogy inside of the much longer series, Inheritor picks up 6 months after [Invader] finished. The human ship is now part of the normal life of everyone, the second interpreter is steadily learning the language and Bren is back to trying to do his job. Except nothing is the same really - Mospheira don't even talk to him and Deanna Hanks is up to no good again.

The relative peace does not last long and Bren (now with Jason) is thrown back in the middle of the machinations of Hanks and her supporters. Ilisidi gets to pull one of her tricks again, we get to see even more of atevi society, a love affair or three finally get to happen and the reason for the ship being back after 200 years is finally revealed (thus show more setting the stage for the next novels).

As usual with this series, it took me awhile to get into the style - Bren's constant doubt in anything that happens and his own actions can be annoying. On the other hand, he is a translator and the world literally depends on his work - one wrong word and things can crash down - just see what happened when Hanks mentioned FTL. Making a translator the main character and giving us the story from his viewpoint makes this series a bit different. And we are not talking about translations between languages and cultures only but between species - different brain wiring makes it impossible to find commonalities (or makes it very hard anyway). And looking at the society from outside while becoming part of it (in some ways) is going to always be interesting.

Cherryh specializes in writing humans as the outsiders - her Chanur and Mri series did the same. But this one is somewhat different - in both Chanur and Mri, there is only one human (and when others appear, they are there just marginally), here Bren is alone in the atevi world but the rest of humanity is still there (and getting everyone in trouble). The whole idea is as much dealing with a different culture as it is smoothing the way for the two cultures to meet. Plus he had been trained for that (unlike the Chanur and Mri cases).

I also think that with getting more familiar with the atevi helps the series - the first book was a hard read - worth it but still hard one. This books feels a lot lighter in some ways - mainly because things finally make sense. I almost want to go back and reread the first book now - but then I have a lot more left. But I can see myself returning.

Don't even try to read this novel on its own - it is very much a part of its series and even though a lot of the background is repeated, it won't work if you never read the previous 2 novels. On the other hand, if you are up for an adventure, you cannot really go wrong with this series (unless you bounce off the style anyway). show less

I'm entranced (again) by reading this series straight through. I was always a big fanboy when they first came out and it was by this book that I devoted myself, mind and soul, to the collecting of every hardcover edition.

Yeah, I still think it's that good.

The high expectations between Jase and Bren, now that Jase has made it, barely, to the mainland after his drop from space, and now he's basically regretting everything that brought him to the Atevi. Bren's not having the time of his life, either, because the Human's island had all but written him off and the extremists are badly harassing his family, and he can't do a damn thing about it.

Political tensions are high on every side. The Atevi, even though they're doing very well with the show more schedule to be the first to get into space and join up with the human starship and to retrofit the abandoned space station, is still on guard from all the factions that could still derail it. The humans are caught in their lies and their inability to pull off the miracles they'd promised to the returning starship. And between them, war is absolutely on the table.

This is exactly what Bren would prevent, and so he's working his butt off to build ever-stronger associations, a spirit of comradeship and helpfulness and the highest tide of well-wishing Atevi the world has ever known, very happy with the humans. Especially Bren. But of course, he has opened all the floodgates of technology that the humans, by the losing side of a treaty, was forced to release to the Atevi slowly so as not to disrupt their civilization. But now, that doesn't really matter any longer because the two societies are practically in parity, with the Atevi in control of vast numbers of truly brilliant workers, all the resources of the planet, and the humans grumbling and generally making asses of themselves, now a minority and a less advanced minority, to boot.

Things could always get worse.

And of course they do. Most of the book is politics, getting into the country with grandma, and dealing with tragedies in the middle of heavy political nightmares. Still, the ending was quite satisfying on a purely emotional level, and that's true not only for me, but for Bren as well. Thank goodness! show less

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Quote:

“Possibly she has other reasons, nadi, such as intentions she holds in secret, and I would suggest that you remember she is old because some of her enemies are dead.”

Review:
Bren is caught between so many rocks and hard places it isn't even funny. (It's a little funny.) Deanna, the backup paidhi who was sent to the mainland when Bren went out of contact in the first book, is trying to cause a war all the way from Mospheira. So Bren either has to become a traitor to his country or let the war break out and everything devolve into chaos. Good choices, there. Plus, Jace, who has come down from the spaceship, is doing nothing but causing problems due to ignorance at the show more world and a difficulty in adjusting to being on a planet, and Bren has to keep ahead of his dumbassery. Also, the Atevi are constantly putting pressure on him, too.

All while Bren’s personal life is going haywire. His family is suffering back on the island due to his choices in Invader. They blame him for the choices he had to make, and want him to give up what he is doing and being the paidhi. He has friends he isn't strictly supposed to have among the Atevi, Banichi and Jago, and they aren't around because they're off on a secret mission. And he has been doing everything alone for the six months between the previous book and the start of this one.

Wow, is there a lot for Bren to juggle in Inheritor.

I don't particularly care for Jace right now. All he does is whine and complain and get in the way. And he irritates me far more than he should. One can only hope that he gets better with time. And calms the fuck down. And stops getting in the damn way.

A large part of Inheritor is Bren meeting with a bunch of politicians followed by a nice, long hike. A hike with guns. And nothing ever goes to plan. Shocker. Which really is basically the format of all the books so far. Bren does politics, Bren gets to go for a nice trip somewhere else to go do something else and gets into danger, or goes somewhere to get out of danger. Nothing goes to plan. It's a great formula. Works very well.

I’m not a major fan of the end or any of the numerous bombshells that were dropped, but I’m curious to see where this going. However I do enjoy reading this, no matter what is happening. This series makes the weirdest leaps of logic I’ve ever seen. I’m constantly wondering where something came from. The story leaps in odd fits and starts, too. Overall odd but fantastic. show less

This book has all same complaints I had for the first two books: it's incredibly slow-paced; the sentences are long and awkward; whole chapters are spent on Bren thinking and yet the main conflicts are rushed and not really explained.

But I actually did enjoy it, even though it took me forever to finish. I'm just captivated by the atevi and love the whole concept that species differences aren't easily overcome, that you could spend a lifetime trying to understand aliens and still find you didn't really get them. And it's very atmospheric. I put it down (after about a month working on it) feeling inspired. And that made it worth the effort of getting through it.

I waited too long to review this, and now my memories are a bit fuzzy, but I'll do the best I can.

In Inheritor, Bren is once again trying to make do with incomplete information. The book takes place 6 months after the previous one. Bren has been separated from Jase for a bit, and that separation makes their already strained relationship worse. Jase doesn't seem to be handling the culture shock of living among the atevi, living on a planet, and speaking mostly Ragi very well. Bren has his own frustrations and worries – after the events of the previous book, he doesn't dare go back to Mospheira for fear that he'll be arrested or otherwise prevented from leaving. Mospheira's conservative element has become more powerful, and the rift show more between Bren and his family (and all other humans) continues to grow.

I know that a lot more happened but, again, it's been a while and I'm fuzzy on the details. What it comes down to is that, although I didn't dislike this book, I didn't love it either. This was a bit disappointing, since I'd enjoyed the previous book so much.

I enjoyed getting to see Banichi, Jago, and Ilisidi again, and there were several nice moments that made me smile or laugh. I liked the glimpses of Jase's difficulties adjusting to his new position – not just the work involved in trying to learn a new language, culture, and social expectations, but also adjusting to living on a planet rather than on a station.

That said, I was frustrated with several things. One of them was kind of my fault: I started reading this book too soon after finishing the previous one. I thought it'd be like Invader and start right where the previous book left off. Instead it was 6 months later, and readers were treated to lots and lots of recapping that I didn't particularly want or need.

I was also frustrated with Bren, who expected more from Jase than I thought was fair. In Bren's mind, Jase wasn't just the ship paidhi-in-training, he was also a potential friend (yes, Bren's quest for friendship continues). However, Jase wasn't as open and friendly in person as he'd been in their communications in the previous book, and Bren was disappointed. That disappointment kind of irked me, because Jase didn't owe him friendship. I know, I know, emotions just are, but it was like in Foreigner, when Bren was desperately trying to explain to Banichi how he felt about him and the conversation kept going wrong. This wasn't just one conversation, however, but rather several hundred pages of Bren trying and failing to connect with Jase.

A revelation late in the book added an element to the story that would probably make this a better reread than first read, at least for me, so I'm looking forward to eventually listening to the audiobook version I bought. That one bit of information put a new spin on so many moments and scenes. I loved that, but I also disliked that it took so long for that information to be given. It made the book feel like a very long setup for the next story arc, rather than something meant to be enjoyed on its own.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

3.5-ish.

I'm glad that some of my complaints during the book were addressed (namely Bren being pretty hypocritical with Jase, and Jase's weird mood swings), but I've detected a pattern in the books that I'm not sure I want to continue with. The trips through forests with Ilsidi are fine and all, but...surely there's a different way to resolve each book. Things came to a head too quickly, I really wanted to explore those repercussions more.

Also, and always: needs more Tabini.

The party scene was pretty much the best in the book. More of the political intrigue stuff where people talk to each other, and Bren isn't just wandering in his own head!

Book three in Cherryh's Foreigner series. I found this a much faster read than the first two, which was nice. I confess, I had some trouble following all the alien politics, but it held my attention well, anyway, and there were some surprising and interesting plot developments. The ending kind of tied a lot of things up rather too abruptly, but it also leaves some promising directions for future volumes to go in, so I'll be looking forward to those.

Rating: 4/5. I'm not, I admit, entirely sure whether that rating is based more on how much I actually liked it, or how much I decided I was darned well going to like it, having already invested this much time in a very long series that I already own most of. But, hey, it worked for me either way.