Helpful Score: 2
Another very interesting installment of Cherrhy's "Foreigner" series. It is the 9th book and is really about the missing heir to the governing family power. The characters include the heir (an 8 yr. old) who proves that he's learned his hard-won lessons from his great-grandmother, the human translator/mediator Bren, the dowager grandmother, and various other people at one time. There is betrayal within the family alliance and the now unhappy, bored young heir goes missing. The treason is populated by all the disaffected families including those the dowager counted as allies and the fugitive, power-grabbing upstart Murini. The difficulties of language and custom still abound and again this book is about how words and culture can be misconstrued. If you don't like reading about the use and misuse (or misunderstanding) of words and how heritage affects thought-processes, language and linguistics -you may find this book somewhat slow. All the tension and intrigue revolves around those two things. Contact and diplomacy between alien species who have to depend on each other for survival but constantly misunderstand each other is the actual basis of this series. The book's ending certainly leaves room for further writing within this world and these characters. I enjoy this series a great deal. There isn't a lot of actual action in this book's story...but the adventure is in the suspense of action and reaction between the major characters on each side of the Atevi conflict. For the most part - the human element is restricted to Bren and his position within the Atevi society and political system.
