First of series. SF. pretty good

There is a great book in here somewhere but honestly I thought the book could have been half as long. The narrator was a little repetitive. I found myself wishing e story would move forward. I loved the ending and wished the whole book had been paced that way. Might give the second book a shot but I haven't decided. ( )

A personal favourite. The authour manages to make aliens different enough to feel alien, but similar enough to hang a Shogun like plot around them. Sounds lame, but it works for me. ( )

Cherryh, C. J. Foreigner. Foreigner No. 1. Daw, 1994.
Rereading the first novel in C. J. Cherryh’s long-running Foreigner series, I was impressed by how many clues we get to themes and plot elements that are developed much later in the series. First, Cherryh is careful to establish that human scientific superiority does not mean that they can implement all they know. Their existence on land and in space is marginal and fraught with political division. When their undermanned starship abandons the station built in orbit around the only habitable planet within reach, the station cannot maintain its population. Their goal is to plant a colony on the planet and use the Atevi, its native humanoid species, to create the technological base they need. But the Atevi confine the colonists to one island and negotiate with them for the technology they want, which is not always the technology the humans want to give them. When the starship returns two-hundred years later, the fragile détente is endangered. This background story, told in the first fifteen percent of the novel, grounds the political drama developed in the next several trilogies in the series.
Most of Foreigner follows protagonist Bren Cameron and his relationship with the Atevi family, with whom humans have established political relations. Bren is primarily a linguist charged with learning to communicate efficiently with the Atevi. He finds that he cannot learn the language without partially assimilating into Atevi culture. His efforts to balance his duty and connection with his human family and colleagues as he begins to think almost like an Atevi are the core of the series.
The Atevi are a conservative, xenophobic society that is just beginning to industrialize. They look to numerology to evaluate every new idea and have no concept of emotions like love and friendship. Atevi society is a patchwork of loose associations with conflicting clan loyalties. Justice is dispensed by a guild of assassins that act has bodyguards for the rich and powerful. Tabini, who would be the head of state if the Atevi had such things as states, is interested in using his connection with the human colony to increase Atevi power and secure his position against his Atevi rivals. His powerful and dangerous grandmother does more than anyone to educate Bren into the Atevi rituals and values. Bren’s two assassin bodyguards are his closest companions. Even in this first novel, there is already sexual tension between Bren and one of the bodyguards. Cherryh’s adroit limited third-person narration let us follow Bren’s conflicted emotions and calculations as he works to understand what it will take to survive. Foreigner is character-driven science fiction at its best. 5 stars. ( )

I found it tedious and repetitive. We gave up about half way through. ( )