Review: Foreigner

Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel starts with a ship flying toward a new planet to colonize and claim it - and somehow, missing the planet. The eventual survivors of that ship found a colony on an already-inhabited planet, and 200 years after settling, we meet Bren: the human ambassador to the native sapient species, the atevi. Bren's role is to be the mediator between atevi and human, keeping up a treaty that allows humans to stay on the planet in exchange for their more advanced technology. He advises the atevi on potential economic, ecologic, and social impact of new technology, and makes very carefully considered suggestions (based heavily on what the humans are willing to share) as to what technology they adopt. But atevi politics are literally unfathomable to a human mind, and Bren has to deal with living and politicizing among a species whose emotional language and behavior are completely incomprehensible.

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