Another okay but largely forgettable continuation in a series of frequently overly complex and okay but forgettable entries. Perhaps the biggest event in this book is how Boji's situation is handled, and when that is an achievement to be considered of sole importance, that's depressing. All entries since the original trilogy outside the overarching plots (e.g., Cajeiri's birth, getting to the station, space travel, returning, general Mospheira stuff, two big things that happened in "Visitor", and honestly I completely forgot about the rather big deal assassination attempt last book(?)), have had this problem. Maybe if I reread the entire series, but honestly I really don't want to. At least each book is rather short for how complex the events therein are.

We did get some more Bren and Jago time, which I liked. There wasn't much of it, but I think there were like two scenes? And I felt the ending wrapped up very well, at least on Bren's side. Cajeiri's portions were largely boring, outside of what looks like a hopeful ending for the Boji situation at long last. There is a funny friendly dig that I think Lucasi makes about Bren and Jago, which really makes me wonder just how privy to things the supposedly too-junior Cajeiri aishid are.

Overall, it simultaneously finished when it needed to (a much longer book would have been overly onerous), and stopped prematurely. Relatively little seems to happen in each entry; we've only just discovered I think in the last book or so - which would be 18 or 19 in a 20-book series with two short stories - the True Forces behind events that happened in BOOK ONE.

It gets two stars for Boji, Bren/Jago, and well... Ilisidi. I can't say I liked it, though, so it's not getting 3. I think I'll just reread "Cuckoo's Egg" if I want more Cherryh. ( )

this is the twentieth book in the Foreigner series, now twenty-six years in progress. and it's very retrospective in tone. i'm wondering if she is now winding the whole series down. i don't want her to, of course. i devour each book as it appears, and i always have. but considered as the gift it is, it has been generous. the world it describes has changed enormously over time. and so have the indelible characters grown into themselves. now, in a book where little happens that reflects the urgency of her usual storytelling style for this series, or the cherished breakneck pace of events, there's a buildup of exposition, summary, introspection. and an outright admission buried in the text that this Red Train caper may be something the wonderfully written aiji-dowager Ilisidi is anxious to accomplish before she dies, to serve as her legacy. meanwhile the fortunate-nine-year-old heir Cajeiri here puts away his childhood things, deliberately, to begin to claim his eventual inheritance. it's still an excellent book, and i care so much about these characters, and this world. there is at least one more book due, rounding out this trilogy. but i wonder if there will be more than that. so while i marvel at the achievement of it, and am thankful that it will end on CJ Cherryh's own terms (she's aged 78 now, after all), i'm sorta sad to think that someday soonish there will be no more in this series to look forward to more or less every year. though there sure will be a whole lot of fine reading to remember, and reread. ( )

I'm usually the one to start raving at the wonderful worldbuilding, complex politics, and absolutely fantastic detailed alien psychology and how it conflicts with human psychology in these Foreigner books. Normally, I'd be excited as hell to pick up the next book and find out if the mainland is finally getting its crap together, see if the refugee humans are settling in, whether the human island is safe at last, or ANY NUMBER of possible combinations, including more space-travel, a third alien incursion, or long-separated humans arriving to make a mess of everything that everyone else has worked SO HARD to find a balance with.

And it's a testament to a writer who can STILL make such complexities INTERESTING over such a long haul.

Hell, even this book kept my interest the entire time, with all the focus on a little naughty animal and giving him away to a shelter, endless cycles of tea, meeting with a barely-remembered mischievous lord from a conflict-ridden province, and a seemingly endless number of passages of straight exposition to remind us, readers, the lay of the political landscape.

Okay. Maybe I got a little tired of the exposition. A lot of it is necessary, to be sure, but it could have been summed up or put into the story in such a way that it didn't drag on so much.

And then there was the other problem I had with the book:

Nothing happened.

In the other recent books, there was at least the storming of the Assassin's Guild or retaking the capital or running through the countryside. This one? Some guerilla action near the end? Action that didn't progress much of any plot? It's almost like this book was supposed to be twice as long with something really JUICY happening during the second half, but the publishers chopped it in half without looking at the contents.

Plenty of build-ups. No payoffs.

And yet, I still ENJOYED the writing. It's always like coming home when I pick up this series. I know and love everyone. I just wish I didn't catch them all on their day off. ( )

Some of the books in this (s0 far) 20 volume series are indispensable. Nearly every page is an intricate part of the others. But sometimes the text has pivotal paragraphs. This one has two. One is on page 126 at the top, as Cajeiri asks his senior security if "And do you not trust me to tell you the truth?"
That's the Cajeiri plot: growing into and relying on trust.
The other pivot is Bren, of course. On pg.254 he examines himself."He might be dangerous. They might be mistaken to trust him." For some reason, Bren is wanted and needed in this act of creation.
I'd say the same for us, and that's why I read this series. I'm learning to teach trust and extend it, I'm learning that I am not trustworthy and others might be mistaken to trust me.
I'm eager to see how it turns out.
P.s. I especially enjoyed the meals - the banquet, the formal in-car dinner, the negotiating with and over food. ( )

We spend time with Bren interacting with Ilisidi, time with Cajeiri adjusting to his new aishid and a more adult household for himself. The steady idiosyncratic language of C.J. Cherryh moves us relentlessly through the landscape to a new local from which she plots for the future safety while taking risks in the present. Interesting characters from Intruder and Emergence add intrigue. ( )