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4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
155 global ratings
5 star
67%
4 star
24%
3 star
6%
2 star
2%
1 star
1%
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Mary Soon LeeTop Contributor: Fantasy Books
4.0 out of 5 stars I read this in under two days and am somewhere between eager and desperate to start book three.
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2021
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This is the second book in a long-running science fiction series and resumes the action soon after the end of book one (Foreigner). Both books center on Bren Cameron, a human translator/mediator amid a fascinating alien civilization. As with the first book, I found Bren hugely likable and his detailed viewpoint highly immersive. Having looked at some other readers' reviews, I see that opinion is split over whether the level of detail makes the text engaging or glacial. For me, it was a thorough page-turning pleasure. I mean to proceed to book three in short order. Highly recommended. 4.5 out of 5 hook-line-and-sinker stars.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
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Barry Melius
4.0 out of 5 stars Continues the solid writing of book one
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2017
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Invader written 21 years ago is the second in the soon to be 19 book Foreigner series. Cherryh's education and teaching in the classics and ancient history gives her a solid foundation for world building and it shows. Book one details a migration ship stranded in uncharted space by a mysterious malfunction. The stress of survival splits the ship into two factions. One wishes to continue in space despite the reduced capabilities of the ship and leaves the second group stranded on the nearest planet and sails into the ether. The land bound settlers soon make contact with the natives and seemingly good relations erupt in a bloody war ruinous to both sides forcing an uneasy peace. Two hundred years pass. This is all an an intro to the book's lead protagonist,Bren Cameron, a mild mannered academic who is one of only a handful who is fluent in the speech of the native population. This earns him the pivotal position as the human representative to the hostile locals and he manages to connect to the head of government who's hold on power is tenacious at best. Caught between humanity and a growing sense of attachment to the locals Bren is a target of multiple assassination attempts as he scrambles to survive a potential revolution in the making. So ends book one with the events of Invader covering the next two weeks as Bren's world erupts as enemy action heats up and the long gone human space ship returns upsetting the delicate peace between humans and natives. Old friends and enemies continue and new one are introduced as the plot slowly builds with impressive detail leaving few stones unturned. Intelligently written with superior world building as Cherryh's writing skill is showcased. Engaging rather than exciting is the best way to describe the pacing. Sci fi for grownups is the way I see it.
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Infinity's End
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2015
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This entire series is incredible. The pace can be very slow at times and I'll confess I tend to skip over some of the main characters musings as they seem to go on and on. These books, so far up to number 7, are mostly inside the main characters head. It's not written in first person but third limited. So we only know what the main character knows and we discover things as he does. So the tendency is for the main character to wonder about this and ponder about that. Based on what he knows, based on his ability to surmise and come to logical conclusions, he will think and figure things out in his head.

So with that said there tends to be less action than other SCi-Fi books and in this world of fast paced adventure movies, I'm sure not every reader will enjoy this book or the series. But, each book builds on the last and gets better and better and better and if you have patience and can understand from the beginning that this is more of a cerebral type of book then it is my opinion that these books are apart of the best written Sci-Fi extant.

The author has the ability to, through the main character's musings and interaction with the other main characters, compare the differences between vastly different races and actually shed light on how we in our society could learn to interact with and live along side others who are different from ourselves. And as the series continues she continues to delve into the differences and similarities between races.

She sheds light on the inner workings of the human psyche in times of extreme pressure. Interactions between one human culture and another; between humans and aliens who though vastly different from humans, are, at the same time, similar.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Science Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018
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If you like science fiction and you like Cherryh this is a good one. It's a sequel to Foreigner and it's about a planet that humans landed on when their ship got off course that was already populated by natives who are hardwired very differently. This fact did not become apparent to the humans until they crossed boundaries they didn't realize were there and a terrible war broke out. The humans now live on an island and send a diplomat to live w/ the aliens to translate both ways and assist w/ treaty negotiations. It's told from this diplomat's perspective. Only some humans went down to the planet and at some point the ship abandoned them. The two books cover a crisis that occurs that threatens the stability of the basic treaty.
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P. J. Egging
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good indeed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2015
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A fabulous series , a real treasure.
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H C Burn
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2017
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Excellent
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schwups
5.0 out of 5 stars Nicht so actionreich wie der 1. Teil
Reviewed in Germany on December 20, 2005
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Dies ist der zweite Teil der Foreigner-Serie und man sollte Foreigner lesen, bevor man dieses Buch liest.
Die Handlung geht genau da weiter, wo sie bei Foreigner aufhört. Bren wird, nachdem er schnell auf Mospheira medizinisch versorgt wurde, sofort wieder zurück aufs Festland gebracht, um seine Arbeit wieder aufzunehmen. Hier trifft er auf allerlei Probleme, die aber eher politisch und kulturell sind. Zum einen befindet sich auch seine konservativ eingestelle Rivalin Hanks auf dem Festland. Diese hat schon eine ganze Menge dumme Sachen angestellt und benimt sich auch sonst ziemlich daneben. Außerdem gibt es auch bei den Atevi einige Probleme. Dazu kommt, dass Bren mit dem an die Station angedockten Schiff kommunizieren muss.
Action-Fans wird dieses Buch wahrscheinlich nicht so sehr gefallen, da es größtenteils um politische Verwicklungen und Intrigen geht. Außerdem analysiert Bren sehr viel über die Atevi und man'chi... Erst gegen Ende des Buches passiert etwas mehr. Ich fand das Buch wahnsinnig spannend. Durch die vielen politischen Positionen wird sehr starke Spannung erzeugt. Wem die Atevi schon im ersten Band gefallen haben, dem wird auch dieses Buch gefallen.
Ich empfehle übrigens, dass sie sich den 3. Band gleich mitkaufen, denn auch bei diesem Buch endet die Handlung ziemlich abrupt, so dass man sich fragt, wie es weitergeht...
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Sabine Korsukewitz
5.0 out of 5 stars Multikulti im Weltraum
Reviewed in Germany on September 26, 2015
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Gut durchdachte Geschichte über Kolonisten, die weitab vom Schuss auf einem besiedelten Planeten landen. Dort müssen sie sich mit Einheimischen verstehen lernen, die auf einem anderen technischen Level stehen als sie selbst und die eine ganz andere Kultur haben.
Begriffe wie Liebe und Freundschaft kennen sie nicht, dafür ist es legal, seine Feinde ermordenm zu lassen, wenn dies voirher angekündigt wird.
Der Held: Ein Diplomat. Spannend, relevant, intelligent.
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Robirda
5.0 out of 5 stars More to think about in just a few pages
Reviewed in Canada on February 14, 2020
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....than most writers manage to pack into a whole book. Really makes you think about where we each actually fit in the world, and what we are doing to make it a better place...
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