Foreigner

Foreigner Sequence 1, Book 1

By: C. J. Cherryh

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

©1994 C.J. Cherryh (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

An intellectual treat

The main character does a lot of internal thinking and rethinking as he tries to understand the characters around him — it’s incremental and sometimes repetitive, just like in real life. I find this to be one of the most enjoyable and unusual aspects of this book BUT it requires more patience and mental effort than a typical mystery/action/world building novel. So much of the plot hinges on culturally influenced word meanings—if nerdy explorations like that don’t thrill you, this bookwill be just a pretty good read. But if you do like such things … if you happened to be an anthropology major lol … it is freaking awesome. I have listened to it three times. Still love it.

Also in defense of the narrator: his diction is superb, and that’s really important for the languages in the book. Speed him up to 1.1 speed of the precision strikes you as tooooo careful.

Absolutely classic sci-fi

The Foreigner series (Sequence 1) is a truly wonderful and absorbing trilogy that should appeal to sci-fi fans and "non-sci-fi-fans" alike. It's a simple premise of "humans meet aliens", but it's so much more about the political intrigue, social dynamics and linguistic "tar-pits" that you could ALMOST forget you're reading about another species on another planet. In fact, in parts of the first book, you could ALMOST imagine we're talking about Native Americans in the Far West during the expansionist days of the early USA.

The writing is brilliant. I read Sequence 1 (yes, in the old days of paperback books - lol) and then LISTENED to Sequence 2, falling in love with the series all over again. I am now LISTENING to Sequence 1 again and limit my comments here to Sequence 1. The trilogy is carefully and beautifully thought out. The alien culture and language are described in fair detail, and the relations between the characters are even more interesting to me now, having Listened to Sequence 2: the bonds of trust aren't yet in place, the cross-cultural and cross-linguistic understandings are much more rudimentary. This author knew where she was going and where she was starting from. Keeping a story line and its context solid across so many books is quite a feat. And as if the books didn't fit into several genres already, you could also take them as a mystery series because there are riddles to unravel and several false leads before you get there: EVERYONE is suspect at one point or another.

Last comment: Daniel Thomas May has a VERY pleasant reading voice to listen to and he reads over the alien words and names fluidly and with no hesitation. I can EASILY listen to these books for many, many hours at a time.

180+ hours! I am reviewing All The Books

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I have recommended this series and will again. I am on book # 11 out of 15.
I get aggravated with the author at the beginning of each book and then she ropes me in and I HAVE to get the next one. C.J. Cherryh is a fabulous story teller, and the narrator is a marvel. Great voices for the characters. He's as amazing as the stories.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably the Dowager and her great grandson, Cajeiri. I loved hearing Cajeiri learn how to think and reason politically. It was a wonderful example of how people maneuver through the minefields of politics. I've always HATED politics, and now I'm rethinking that. I'm not kidding.

Which character – as performed by Daniel Thomas May – was your favorite?

All of them. Especially the Dowager.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Atevi ... they are hardwired to handle emotions very differently than humans. Can the PeaceMaker adjust to the strange ways and bring the alien races together?

Any additional comments?

C.J. Cherryh writes the most engaging action sequences of anyone I've ever read. And she does it consistently. Very impressive. The only series I have ever enjoyed more was Dune.
And possibly the Tales Of The Otori series by Lian Hearn.

Loved it

loved it. I read it first nearly on it first release them on 10th and just shared it on Audible with my sons. She makes you think and it's so relevant to so many humam issues.

Slow but well written

The detail and emotion in this story is very well written it's just a little slower paced than what I am used to reading/ listening to.

inner turmoil dominates.

the story is a good one the problem is he spends too much time on the inner turmoil of the main character

the worst reader ever actually ruined the story

Would you try another book from C. J. Cherryh and/or Daniel Thomas May?

daniel t may is the worst reader i have heard. its like hes not paying attention to the story himself.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

ruined it

Any additional comments?

needs to be redone

Excellent

I absolutely enjoy the world Cherryh is building. It’s full and rich and uniquely fascinating. Having both cultural and character development…relationships,intrigue, and twists. Wonderful narration pulls everything off the page and into reality.

such a good author such a good story

I remember reading this book when it first came out she was such a great author and it was such a good story I think at the time I read up to the first five or six books I can't remember it's hard to believe there's over 20 in the series now and listening to it on the audio is like a whole new way of hearing the story it's like theater again and it was really well done I appreciate the performance done by the narrator. I look to the next book.

Great job.

I loved this audible performance of Foreigner. This is one of my favorite Sci-fi series.