Pretender

Starred Review. In volume eight of Cherryh's masterful Foreigner sequence (_Destroyer_, etc.), Tabini, the deposed ruler of the atevi home world, represents humanity's best hope of survival on this alien planet and the atevi's own best chance of maintaining independence in a galaxy grown suddenly crowded with potential enemies. In order to retake control of his government, Tabini draws together various allies, allowing himself to serve as a possible target for assassination. Tabini must delicately balance the sensibilities of deeply conservative factions against the absolute need to push forward with the technological innovations that human beings have introduced to the atevi world. Human diplomat Bren Cameron, meanwhile, must simply stay alive, if only to prove to the skeptical atevi that other alien races do indeed exist and are headed their way. As usual, Cherryh alternates long stretches of brilliant, often oblique dialogue and complex political maneuvering with shorter interludes of violent, well-executed action. A science fictional equivalent of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire sequence, this series represents contemporary SF at its finest. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The eighth book in the Foreigner saga finds Bren Cameron needing to exert all his diplomatic skills and call on all his allies among the atavi just to stay alive. Two candidates for the rulership of that formidable race are squaring off for a deadly and total confrontation, and the influence of foreigner Cameron is considered at least partly responsible for the situation. Meanwhile, Bren and some of the atavi are aware that another, deadlier alien race is emerging from the starlanes to disrupt the political and military calculations of all factions to date. Cherryh makes no pretense of keeping her sagas simple enough for readers to begin them this far into the sequence, but on the other hand, her world building, aliens, and suspense rank among the strongest in the whole sf field. May those strengths be sustained indefinitely, or at least until the end of Foreigner. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved