Deceiver

I love reading stories about intrigue, where the aim is to outwit your opponents, not to overpower them, where complex machinations are set into motion and then clash with each other in unexpected ways, where the antagonists dance around each other with words rather than bashing at each other with weapons, but where a well-placed word can be as deadly as a swordstroke or a bullet. And C. J. Cherryh belongs to the authors who do this best, in particular in her Science Fiction (which I tend to prefer over her Fantasy), and even among her extensive work the Foreigner series marks a high point in the way she unfolds, develops and finally wraps up political intrigues.

A large part of Deceiver (which is among the more intrigue-heavy show more installments), volume #11 in the series, is taken up by Bren Cameron and his associates (the always formidable Dowager Ilsidi is this time joined by Lord Geigi returning from the space station) thinking and talking through the implications of the conspiracy discovered in the previous volume, Conspirator, peeling back its many layers until they arrive at the truth behind it and discover who is actually pulling the strings, and then trying to find a successful counter-strategy that would avoid embroiling the whole planet in a disastrous war. Reading about people talking and thinking is probably not everyone’s cup of tea (even if most of them are aliens), but I for my part found it very exciting to follow this, to watch people use their brains plausibly in a SFF novel that blithely assumes that the reader is not completely stupid and able to follow what’s going on.

It is always a pleasure to see Bren settle into atevi mode and to see how comfortable he is among them now – he has come quite a long way from the scared, inexperienced interpreter of Foreigner, to the degree that he is starting to get worried about losing his touch with his essential humanity. This familiarity with atevi culture might have constituted a problem for the series – Bren in the early novels was markedly non-atevi, someone who never quite belonged and had to struggle to understand the finer points of atevi behaviour and language. As such, he was a representative for the readers, offering them an outside perspective on the atevi not altogether dissimilar to their own. But the more comfortably settled in the alien culture Bren became, the more estranged he grew not only from his own humanity, but also from the readers who were thus in danger of losing their bridge to understanding the atevi.

Cherryh solved this problem in an unforeseen and uttlerly brilliant manner by introducing another viewpoint character, Cajeiri. The really clever thing Cherryh does here is that she does not give us the point of view of view of another human (which would likely have only been a rehash of young Bren) and instead selects an atevi, but one that grew up amongst humans, and so is a foreigner to his own culture. I admit, I was a bit sceptical about Cajeiri at first, but the way his point of view is handled in this arc overcame all my doubts – a lesser author probably would not have pulled it off but Cherryh keeps just the right balance, making Cajeiri familiar to the reader without negating his essential alien-ness, and presents us with a perspective on ative culture that is very different from Bren’s. Cajeiri shines in particular in Deceiver; his struggles with his two new body guards and how to deal with man’chi were my favourite part of this generally excellent novel. show less

It's always a real treat to pick up these books even when I know it's gong to have some parts that are going to inevitably annoy me. Such as Barb. But despite that, I think I'm really getting into--- or perhaps diving ever deeper--- into the alien political misadventure. :)

It's almost as if I'm meant to cry in relief every single time Bren daydreams or doodles or has to convalesce after getting shot because all his other hours are just filled the sneaky suspicion that he's just landed his and his allies' staff in yet another outbreak of war. Those backward Atevi just don't appreciate the human influence! (or working indoor toilets)!

For shame!

Even so, I love the pace and the constant simmer of excitement. I'd grown to expect Tabini's son show more and his delightful PoV to get into yet another kerfuffle, but would you believe it? Not This Time! :) Of course, Tobi and Barb and a mess of other Atevi youngsters are more than enough to get people shot or kidnapped or turn the South into another outbreak of civil war, but who's counting? Well, actually, I am. I love this series. Its great characters, its DEEP worldbuilding, its amazing political and instinctual setup, everything always rises to the occasion!

The next book will conclude this mini-trilogy following Bren's rise to political power in the Atevi. I can only hope that these benighted aliens get their crap together and prep for an alien invasion! Sheesh! show less

To read more of my reviews, check out my blog at keikii Eats Books!

Quote:

Would his father do a thing like that?
It was what mani said, 'Watch out for a man whose enemies keep disappearing.'
Well, that was his father, damned sure. Most everyone knew his father that way.

Review:
Boy am totally, head-over-heels in love with this series. But... it is a bit difficult to even know what to say after 11 books. If you want to start with Deceiver: don't. If you've already made it this far: you know what to expect by now, there are no changes. Only awesomeness. Action. Politics. Danger. Tea. Great company, awesome friends and a whole lot of responsibilities. What more can you ask for? Whatever it is, you probably got it with this.

Deceiver takes up show more immediately after the events Conspirator and just... doesn't ever stop. It is action sequence after action sequence, with the requisite sitting around talking and meeting over gallons of tea in between. I just couldn't stop reading. I didn't want to stop. I needed to know absolutely everything. Hell, I still want to know more even now.

Matters at Najida have gotten very heated. And Bren, being the Lord of Najida, and Cajeiri are right in the middle of it. And now Ilisidi is here to help. This is all part of a massive plot against Bren, Tabini, and the aishidi'tat as a whole, both the past kerfuffle we just wrapped up and the new one that was started which was a continuation on the previous. And wrapped up in this is Geigi, who is home from his time on the space station because his nephew fucked up bad. Geigi is fun to have around, I missed him.

The past two books have almost felt like they were just one book that got split up when it got big enough (a trend that will continue from this point forward). The biggest change between this book and the previous was how much I have started to like Cajeiri. Only eight years old, he is a child by any standards. He thinks and acts and exists like a child, so it has always been a bit perplexing why Cherryh made him a perspective character. Yet I have warmed up to him so much. I liked him before, but this book was the time for Cajeiri to shine. I'm so, so, so proud of this little shithead.

Sidenote: Oh my god look at that cover! It's the best one yet! show less

This book goes deeper into Atevi politics, and really presents Tabini and Ilisidi as foils, with Tabini representing an official state power that can be severely limited by political concerns, while Ilisidi is more of a freewheeling power that can actually get things done. It's funny that Tabini and Ilisidi may have the same goals, and may even support the same means, but need to disagree in public for appearance's sake. The ending isn't satisfying, being the middle book of a trilogy, but we do get a first glimpse of Machigi, a character that I'm looking forward to getting to know better in the next book.

Another entry in the ongoing series - and since the author is averaging about a book a week (character time) or so now, I figure we're looking about two or three trilogies before Cajeiri gets to go fishing, a couple hundred before the kyo show up.

This book is exactly what you'd expect going in, with bonus points for the extra action, and tighter 'when we last saw Bren' section at the start.

Barb's character is more interesting than in earlier books, it's debatable whether she's smartening up, or Bren is just being a little more honest with himself. Cajeiri's internal monologue wanders back and forth between child and adult thoughts, with some genuinely alien/atevi-like stuff in there.

On the other hand, it almost doesn't even pretend to show more end. I was looking for the afterword "tune in next week when you'll hear Barb say 'Why doesn't anybody like us here?'" To demonstrate the effect, show less

Deceiver continues where Conspirator (Foreigner #10) left off, with Bren and his aishid, Cajeiri, Ilisidi and Bren's brother still at Najida, recuperating from the events that transpired only days ago while making preparations for assaults to come.

In this eleventh book the story is ever more tightly written, with a breathless pace and Cherryh's trademark humour and delight in surprising the protagonists. One of these surprises is Cajeiri starting to behave in a responsible way, which certainly throw a few people and ultimately gets not so nice consequences.

Something that's NOT surprising is the dowager playing a tight hand, something that affects Bren and his aishid in an unpleasant but no real choice situation. As the book ends this show more situation is still not concluded.

When the the last page is turned I can only agonise that the concluding book in this fourth story arch while already written, and named Betrayer, has a year to go before it hits the bookshops.

And the contenders for being Betrayer? Numerous!

This series is only getting better with each book. show less

Review from Badelynge
Writing a review for the 11th book of a beloved series, nearly two decades in the reading is probably not the most useful thing I could be doing with my time. If you've got to book 10 I doubt you are going to need much prodding from me to pick this one up. But I love this series too much not to want to just tuck the book away and move on without getting a few words about it out of my system. The politics is thick in this one. There's always quite a bit but this one seemed to have more than usual. I'm not much of a political animal so I'm glad Bren, our trusty paidhi, is on hand to keep track of the situation. Like the previous book, instead of the single Bren point of view we also get to see the world from the show more perspective of the precocious Atevi lordling Cajeiri. He's having a spot of bother with his new bodyguards who are showing no signs of forming manchi with him, that unquantifiable (at least on human terms) Atevi instinct that causes members of their race to form attachments. To their cost humans have confused manchi with the Human understanding of love or friendship, neither of which have any Atevi equivalent. Inter-species linguistic confusions caused the Atevi-Human war not long after the Humans first arrived. Peaceful co-existence was deemed too unstable and prone to further misunderstanding and the human survivors were ceded an island kingdom and a permanent separation from Atevi interaction. With one exception. Bren Cameron. He is the paidhi. A diplomat charged with interpreting all Human-Atevi contact. Things have moved on quite a lot since those early days and Bren is now paidhi-aiji. He's basically gone native, and become so valued by the Atevi high-muck-a-muck's he's been granted his own lordship, land and the loyalty of his own Atevi aishid (currently four Atevi bodyguards). Great characters, thorough world building, Cherryh's brilliant style of prose and restricted point of views make for fascinating and beguiling sci-fi. If you haven't tried a Foreigner book yet, do yourself a favour and go hunt out book one. show less