I am extremely fond of the
Foreigner books; I might even go so far as to say they're my favourite ongoing series, though that might depend on whether Bujold's Vorkosigan series still counts as ongoing. There are times when I look up and realize I've just read several pages of Bren's thinking about atevi politics, and wonder what the attraction is, but the premise is intriguing and the world has always seemed very real to me, vividly realized in its sights and scents and textures, its castles and palaces and sweeping landscapes. Cherryh's prose is idiosyncratic, but I've never found that detrimental; it just forces me to read a little more slowly, and savour the experience. The second trilogy, which takes place almost entirely in space, I found ever so slightly disappointing, mostly because the space station and starship settings seemed cramped and sterile compared with the planet. I wanted mecheiti, and nervous breakfasts on windy balconies.
In
Destroyer, the first of a new trilogy, Bren and his associates return to the planet, and find that things are not quite as they left them. There's angst both human and atevi-related for Bren to deal with, and plenty of mecheiti. And breakfast on a balcony. And lots of atevi politics-noodling. I was not at all disappointed.
If it wasn't for the Backlog and the Plan, no doubt I'd be doing what I've done after every one of these books so far, and falling headlong into a back-to-back reread of the whole series. Cherryh has
recently reported finishing another book in the series,
Pretender -- at this point, I'm a teensy bit confused as to whether that's the next book, or the the one after -- and starting on a
Fortress book.
Fortress of Ice, in fact; I wonder if there'll be skating.
