Pretender

Once again, Bren is largely passive in this installment, but his worry, anxiety, and misguided concerns provide a high level of tension. Cherryh is a master at dramatic irony. The reader clocks what is going on before Bren does, knows when Bren is misinterpreting the data, when Bren is being too human. She resists telling us about all the political subterfuge, just relates the events and Bren's attempts to understand them, realizing it may be totally off base but keeping us hopeful and frightened in the dark anyway. So much happens off the page, and the story is still interesting. How does she do it? And in the end, Bren is uniquely and embarrassingly human, and it is these final actions that puts him closer to being atevi than ever.

And show more can I just say, the aiji dowager is the best character in any book anywhere? Long before Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, there was Ilisidi, the aiji dowager and her exclamatory cane -- manipulative, aristocratic, cold-blooded and yet authentic and honorable in her own way. And with a political acumen that outpaces everyone except possibly Tabini. show less

Book eight of Cherryh's Foreigner series (aka book two of the third Foreigner trilogy).

OK, I basically enjoyed this one. There's a weird sort-of-a-car-chase in the middle that's surprisingly fun, and it ends on an appealing note. But, while I was reading most of it, I couldn't shake the feeling that it just wasn't quite satisfying. At fist I thought maybe that's because after the significant events of the previous book, the story slows down a lot for the first half of this one. But, hey, I know what I'm getting when I open a Cherryh novel. There are inevitably going to be many, many pages of people sitting around thinking about politics, and then talking about politics, and then thinking about the conversations they just had about show more politics. If I weren't pretty much okay with that, I wouldn't have made it to book eight.

But then I finally realized what the problem was. It's that our ostensible protagonist, Bren Cameron, has gone from being an active problem-solver directly involved in driving the narrative, back to being largely passive again. For most of the book, he's basically along for the ride -- literally, even, as for a good chunk of the narrative he's just a passenger on a long bus ride, followed by a long train ride. He has a couple of good moments in the very last chapter, but otherwise there's no showing off his diplomatic chops, no potentially saving the world from aliens, just a lot more being shoved away from windows by his bodyguards and obsessively worrying about losing track of his computer. (Seriously, he frets about this so often I've started mentally subtitling this series "Dude, Where's My Computer?") And I found myself thinking something that I don't believe had crossed my mind, at least not as a fully-formed thought, since the very first book in the series: that this story would have been more interesting if told from almost any other POV at all.

All of which sounds more down on it than I mean to be. It's really not a bad installment. And I'm certainly still interested in this series, for its world-building and for the grand narrative sweep of the story that leaves me curious as to how everything will play out over the years. But I could definitely do with a bit less "dude, where's my computer?" along the way.

Fortunately, there are some hints that perhaps ol' Bren will get to play a more active and influential role as the story continues, so I shall maintain an optimistic attitude as I take a short break before going on to book nine. show less

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Quote:

"We value you,” she said. “Our compass. Our true lodestone of virtue.”
“One is glad of some usefulness, aiji-ma.” He was not comforted. The old spark had entered the dowager’s eye this morning, ever since that turn of events in the camp. Ilisidi in this mode was dangerous. Lethal.
And sometimes frighteningly honest. She reached out a hand and touched his arm.
“Protect the truth, paidhi-ji. Do not swerve from that. We wondered when, not if, you would come to consult us about the future.”
His face still burned.
“And what future, aiji-ma? One regrets not to know, but one has no understanding at all.”
“Nor will you. Nor can you. Nor can we. We will know when we

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see Tatiseigi.”

Review:
After two years in space and a hell of a journey, we're finally back to the Atevi homeworld. Everyone is looking forward to being back. Only, because this is Foreigner, and this is Bren and Ilisidi and the chaos demon known as Cajeiri, nothing can ever go right. They get back to earth and drop into a civil war. Almost literally. Tabini is missing, presumed dead but hopefully alive, a new faction has asserted their dominance over the aishidi'tat, and none of our main characters want this. As soon as they get back they are flying off to see if Tabini is still alive and if they can end the civil war.

Destroyer was soooo gooooood. Oh my god. I didn't want to stop reading. Ever! Holy shiiiiit! I thought the previous trilogy and book were more action packed. It had nothing on Destroyer. The entire situation was incredibly precarious the entire time, plus some added action scenes as well. Sheeeesh! Why do good books have to end?

And Bren himself? Oh gods alive, I love Bren and his anxiety ridden ass. He is exhausted the entire book. The book starts off fine enough and then drops into gogogo mode. He never has enough time to sleep. He never has enough time to recover. It is perfect. It adds to the ambience.

Everything about this was just good. I loved the pace, I loved the story, I loved the characters. This is not the book you want to be starting on. Fuck, I'm lowkey obsessed with this series right now. (Future keikii here: change lowkey to absolutely 100% completely obsessed give me more I needs it.) show less

I'll just admit something to ya'll. This is my go-to series when I want to see great characters, great world-building, exciting politics and, of course, ALIENS.

The Atevi are hands down my favorite species of any series or franchise, and it's not because they're human-like black gods of such mathematical prowess as to make who university departments cower in fear, but because they're so *close* to us.

*close* But not THAT close. It's the differences that are a real killer. Just ask the Assassin's, Guild. Or the civil war or that niggling little feeling that a human can *just* about understand them at the core, but that understanding is nearly always *flawed* in such a way as to create world wars.

In this case, Bren, our wonderful show more interpreter and quickly-rising political nightmare, is caught in the middle of this world's civil war, with Tabini-aji struggling to regain control of the continent and space-footing.

It's full of great action and, dare I say it, TRAIN HIJINX. :) I really love this stuff. :) I have to say this one probably has the most action and political maneuverings out of all the other books, and I can't say it suffers any for it. Otherwise, it's pretty simple. :) And always fun. show less

Much like the other books in this series, Pretender is as slow-moving, socially complicated, and occasionally as confusing as the aliens that it portrays. However, the mind-bending psychology of the aliens mixed with the coziness of a slow burn political drama is exactly what I go to the Foreigner series for, so I enjoyed myself immensely. This series might not be for everyone by if alien political drama sounds at all appealing to you, I recommend you go back and start with book one, Foreigner. This is not a story that is easily understood if started mid-series.

[Pretender] starts off at a gallop (well, explosions, roaring of engines) and never lets up! By plane train and automobile it's a race to the capitol, Shejidan. Aiji Tabini has problems to overcome before fully reasserting himself as the head of the Western side of the continent--in two directions, one the usurper Murini and second the Assassin's Guild itself which is revealed to be in disarray. Luckily Tabini has not only his grandmother Ilisidi, and Bren the paidhi-ji, the world's foremost worrywort, but his now 8 yr. old son Cajeiri is showing signs of true precocity. Lots of fun! This is book 2 of a three part sequence (7-9 in the larger series). ****

this is likely to be a longer review because this book irks me. in a good way.

(ETA: I've posted a new and very relevant comment about this book, (*here* http://miasbooklist.blogspot.com/2007/08/guilty-as-sin-further-comment-on.html) --- the review is not complete without it. ty)

I am the kind of person who watches the Olympics, on pins and needles the whole time. not because I am eager to find out who wins; no. because I am thinking how very very hard some of those events are, and how long and hard the athletes practiced and trained for this, and how this could be the emotional and professional culmination of their lives to-date, and how very easily every hope and dream they'd ever had could be dashed. I especially like to watch the show more figure skating, and I know that I'm probably more entertaining to watch at some points than the actual event. me, leaning this way and then that on the couch; me, suddenly leaping into the air; me, dropping to my knees and clenching my hands... yep. well, Jase does that (much more moderately) while on aircraft, and Bren does that with space craft. They try to help the machines fly, bodily, through the air, and I try to help the athlete do a triple Salchow or a flawless gymnastic floor routine. (and no I am not at all as graceful!)

I can't help it. if something goes wrong for that athlete, I feel it. I feel so embarassed or ashamed or completely overwhelmed it's like it happened to me personally. it's just how I am... about certain things.

for instance: when Bren Cameron says or does something that seems to me to be clueless (and/or possibly having dramatic social consequences). I feel it. several times (too many to count, really, if I can say that about a Foreigner book and not be a heretic) I found myself closing Pretender, tossing it to the other side of the table/couch/etc, and then covering my face---as if that could stop anything from happening. I haven't tended to do that with the other books in this series, so it really bothered me this time around. in Foreigner (meaning #1), one has ample ocassion to think Bren, you fool!, but he's an honest fool; it's all ignorance. how is he supposed to know? by Pretender, you think he's probably supposed to know.

and it's like something Gary Larson (The Far Side) once said... in a cartoon, the mouse can drop an anvil on the cat's head and pull out all his whiskers, and then the cat can tie the mouse to the tracks of the model train set, aiming the engine at him, but they instantly recover and you can see they're all right. in a comic, you can put the paper down and then three hours later pick it back up, and, yep, those dogs are still playing tethercat. does it never end?

so I pick up Pretender, and, yes, Bren-ji is still stuck in that same awkward place I left him. there's nothing for it but just be brave and read. the hard part is... he doesn't seem to think he's in an awkward place. I feel like he's making a monumental fool of himself in some instances, or just that he's not with the program, and he apparently doesn't pick up on this at all. it about kills me. it seems especially bad for this to happen in Pretender, because by now he really should know better... right?

when I first read Pretender (this is my second read), I was so thrown off by Bren's apparent continuing mistakes and/or misinterpretations that I couldn't enjoy the book at all. I was mad as hell, really, because I didn't enjoy the book one iota. I spent the whole time thinking (and ocassionaly saying aloud): Bren Cameron, you fool, you fool! What are you thinking? Get it together! and I couldn't focus on the plot or anything else going on in the book because of this.

I know he's a human and he always will be the outsider and he will never understand it all, but it seems he slips and forgets things he already knew... ok, he's been out of the loop, out saving the galaxy, for two years, and he's been preoccupied with surving several battles and attempts on his life more recently, and he's terminally short on sleep. so there is plausible excuse. I have to give him (&Cherryh) that. still, it is acutely painful for me to see Bren's mistakes when I know how good he can be, when I have previously known him to get it right. this is what Pretender was for me: Bren, from cover to cover, seriously off his stride, still reeling from the guilt he assigns himself for the upset at home, and therefore not being able to follow the plot. yes, you read that right; and how familiar it sounds: Bren takes the circumstances very personally and it throws him off quite profoundly. see, I can fugue just almost as badly as he can lol. I knew there was a point in there somewhere--- it took me until just now to see it clearly: I'm so much like Bren that, on the first read, I did *exactly* what Bren did. I was thrown off so much by Bren's mistakes (albeit different ones than what threw him off) that I couldn't follow anything else that was going on.

(except for Algini... I can always follow Algini ;) ).

well, enough for that irony. back to the specifics:

at the beginning of Destroyer (#7), the ship captains et al wonder at the thinking behind the aiji-dowager, the aiji-meni, AND the paidhi-aiji all getting on a space shuttle and making themselves a very tempting target, much less all of them heading straight for the heart of the fray. Bren explains to them, in a matter-of-fact way, that the aiji-dowagers follwers would never respect her (or follow her) if she sat up on the station, safe and protected. atevi only follow leaders who actually, physicaly, at the place and in the moment, lead.

so why is it that he keeps thinking, once they're on the planet, that the best course of action is to lay low and hide? especially all his internal postulations involving hiding the heir out of harm's way until everything has been taken care of and decided? Bren does seem to have problems (still) thinking in atevi terms---unless he's explaining the atevi culture to someone else. then, he has little problem. when he is just thinking to himself, however, he doesn't seem to engage that regulatory check, that but-they're-not-human catch, as often as he should. Cajeiri is not a human child, not even a "regular" atevi child. Cajeiri is aijiin, and as such, especially since he is coming into his majority in a tangible way, and can no longer completely hide behind his nonage, he must be present and seen.

but Bren thinks himself to death about how to get Cajeiri out of there, etc. and later he has even convinced himself they should all go back to the station (173)! what the heck, Bren? eh anyway.

and on 52, Bren even says to himself that Tabini has everything in hand and knows what he's doing, and yet Bren goes on for still most of the book about trying to get the report to Tabini, knowing that is not in Tabini's plans... ? sheesh Bren! and Bren has always been forward, and almost without shame, but temerity indeed on 54. I had to take a break at that point. he really talks himself into it, and out of sense, on 90. Jago has to spell it out for him on 145. Bren is always outmaneuvered by Tabini, and yet he never seems to be able to fathom that Tabini-aiji is the absolute paradigm of a quick-thinking, quick-moving leader of absolute action and absolute power.

(mia stops to sigh over Tabini-aiji. esp Tabini-aiji on 307. sigh. sigh.)

Bren has never quite looked ahead to what Tabini-aiji would, predictably, ask him to do. Bren doesn't seem to have that knack. not that anyone can get one up on Tabini, hah, I laugh at such a foolish thought, but Bren should be able to at least keep up on what Tabini would ask the paidhi-aiji to do... and know that Tabini would not leave his followers and go kiting off in an airplane.

ok I'll move on.

problems within the Assassin's Guild itself... very troubling. this idea is especially alarming. great idea for a story and well carried-out. ;)

Murdi. very important theme, almost as much so if not moreso than man'chi. explored more here, and given to Bren at the end. this hopefully is good, since it is *within* man'chi, but it still seems a bit ominous, because man'chi can sometimes change. gratitude and favors are discussed much, as on 167.

in Explorer we had a fight on a space station. in Pretender we have a fight in a train station.

in Foreigner, innocent Bren was schooled in the mortal realities of assassins and military engagements (get away from the window, Bren). In Pretender, innocent Cajeiri is schooled in the mortal realities of assassins and military engagements (get away from the window, Cajeiri).

extraordinary quotes:

"I shall try to deserve you..." (29)

(which reminds me of the Sound of Music/Foreigner dream I had: "I might have had a wicked childhood..." ;) )

Algini nodded. "A point of certainty. You are stability in these matters. More than the dowager herself, you represent a sure, simple number in all calculations. This reassures even your enemies, nandi." (115)

indeed ;D

"One is very tired, Banichi-ji. One is ever so tired, and Bren-ji is an ever so much warmer blanket."

"Is it?" Banichi was amused. An eyebrow moved.

"Than nandi, yes, it is." He managed a smile. "One appreciates a warm blanket, now and again, Nichi-ji."(266)

(and might I add, if Bren-ji is a warm blanket, then Lord of the Heavens is a bucket of cold water. I positively cringe any time I read that title. one can never tell if it is a matter of high regard or just a bad joke on Tabini-aiji's part. cringe, I say.)

not just man'chi, but specificially aijiin, pg. 82.

Algini, 111-116. 123. 177. ah, I have always loved Algini, and now you start to see why. tall, dark, handsome, unreachable, unknowable. and he's an assassin (or should I say, the assassin?) to boot. 221. 259.

one of the best parts of the Foreigner series occurs when Bren knocks Tabini to the floor because of an attempted assassination--- and Cenedi just *stands* in front of Ilisidi, and stares down the entire joint session. I don't talk about Cenedi overmuch, but he's such an amazing character.

and we finally do have more Banichi (and not just Jago, whom I also venerate). 29 and 267 especially. ah. Bren has a staff of Genies. and I mean that rather magically, but in the English sense of the word, which is not derived from djinn but actually from the word Genius. they are all such wonderful characters.

Cajeiri & Tristen (Lord of Ynafel etc)... one sees abundant similarities. show less