Destroyer (Foreigner, #7) By C.J. Cherryh

It has been two years since the starship Phoenix left Alpha Station on a rescue mission where over four thousand human spacers were under attack by a hostile alien race. Now, exhausted from their journey, the crew of the Phoenix yearns for home. But when the ship makes the jump into atevi space, they learn the worst: that supplies to the station have been cut off; that civil war has broken out on the atevi mainland; that the powerful Western Association has been overthrown; and that Tabini-aiji, Bren Cameron's primary supporter and Ilisidi's grandson and ally, is missing and may be dead.

With no one left to lead the Western Association, Ilisidi and  Bren know that the survival of their allies lies in their hands. And with the atevi world at war, the only safe landing strip lies on the human colony at Mospheira. Although there are many dangers inherent in bringing a powerful atevi leader such as Ilisidi onto human lands, Bren realizes they have no other choice. But even if they safely survive their landing, will Bren and Ilisidi together prove strong enough to muster the remaining shards of the Western Association and regain control of their planet?

The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Destroyer is the 7th Foreigner novel. It is also the 1st book in the third subtrilogy. Destroyer (Foreigner, #7)

This book marks the start of the third sub-trilogy of the series and a very welcome return back to the Atevi Homeworld.

Now while I did enjoy the spacetravel and the intrigue with the new aliens and the mess with the other space-station, I really love the fact that we're returning to where my love of the series began.

We left with the world practically unified under Tabini, but when Bren returns to the system only to find that supplies from the world aren't getting to the space station and the main continent is in turmoil and Tabini is presumed dead, grandmother Ilisidi and Tabini's young son and Bren go harrowing off to find support in the mainland or at least some word as to Tabini's fate.

The Atevi can't lose space! Not like this! No!!!

This one is full of politics and poor Bren still trying to figure out the deep fundamental differences between the Atevi and the Human mindsets, becoming a mystery much greater than that and a full-out action novel later, still.

God, I love this series. It really has everything. Characters we're deeply invested in, absolutely gorgeous worldbuilding, and truly fantastic stories that are both very grounded and intricate.

This series is still going strong 10 books after this, too!!! :) I can't wait to get to them!
0756403332 Woohoooo! Where do I begin?!



Did some sketches too :3

Finished book 9, so it's time to do a review for the whole third sequence (books 7 through 9). No spoilers, promise!

Story

We've spent two years in a spaceship where Atevi and Humans have been peacefully coexisting with each other...imagine that. And noone was better at adapting than the young heir of the aiji - Cajeiri, who manages to get himself and his new human associates in all sorts of mischief. Meanwhile, Bren and pretty much all the grown ups from both races are looking forward to finally arriving at the space station, orbiting the Atevi world, and having a proper cup of coffee and sugar candies.

So imagine their surprise, when the moment they exit the jump, the station's crew is quick to inform them that the whole world below is in a total chaos, with rebels overthrowing the government and with Tabini rumored to be murdered. The station's crew and the humans from Mospheira are refusing to acknowledge the usurper, Murini, at a great risk for their own safety, and their only hope is the 8 year old Cajeiri, and his strong-willed and dangerous great grand-mother - Ilisidi.

The race is on! Cajeiri HAS to reach the capital and file an official complain with the assassin's guild to take care of the rebels, while Bren has to deliver his official report to the general public which will, hopefully, justify all of Tabini's actions and ensure his safety (if he's still alive). But first of all, they have to land on the planet without their shuttle being blown to smithereens.



General opinion

Assassins vs. assassins! These three books were absolutely thrilling and action-packed, giving us more information on how the assassin's guild and the atevi government operates - more battles, more schemes, more traps, more narrow escapes and more politics! The 7th book is a race against time and... the second weakest after book 1... (I'll explain later). The 8th book is better, although it still dragged a little bit, but the ending was totally worth it! And book 9 was awesome and refreshing.

As you can see, I have really high expectations when it comes to my favorite series, so despite absolutely enjoying every minute of listening to the audiobooks (which were EPIC! Best narrator choice EVER!), I'm not afraid to admit that none of the new books were able to match the pure awesomeness of book 6!

At least for me. (some of my GR friends would disagree ;)

Pros and Cons

As I mentioned above, book 7 was a step down after book 6 for me. The weird thing is, it reminded me a lot of book 1, almost like a mirror, but with a major difference - we see Bren going through similar experiences and challenges as the ones he faced in the first installment, but NOW we see how much he has changed. Bren is far more familiar with the Atevi around him, they have mutual respect for eachother, he is pretty proficient at riding macheti, and is far more useful in battles. It was interesting to see his character development and I loved it! If only there was more happening around the middle... the story dragged a lot, nothing happened except their team moving from one place to another, hiding and sneaking around, trying not to be caught. The politics here weren't that entertaining either (compared to books 8 and 9). When the final act started my brain was half asleep, so even the mandatory plot twist failed to impress me as much.

In contrast, book 8 was a definite improvement. Again, there were some plot similarities with its predecessor, but it was more exciting and the ending was brilliant! I honestly didn't believe Bren will be able to pull it off, but his report was genius and it made perfect sense!

Book 9 was actually the best of the trio - with one huge addition - a new POV was added next to Bren's and the choice of the character was perfect! Overall, book 9 was far more engaging and my favorite of the three! Although, you could skip this book if you want to, as it barely does anything to progress the whole story, but it was still captivating and exciting!



Improvements?
In my review of book 1, I complained about the general stupidity of the human race and the lack of likable female humans. I'm happy to say that the humans were definitely behaving far better and their actions, although not many, totally took me by surprise.
On the other hand, the women are absolutely awful as ever. XD I have a feeling that Bren has some serious issues when it comes to women and we always see them through his eyes as being incompetent, selfish and out there to ruin his life.

Conclusion

The Foreigner series has so many elements that I normally try to stay away from (slow-pacing is a major one), but, for some reason, I'm having a blast reading this series and I'm dreading the day I catch up with all the books that have come out so far.
I love these books! I love the audiobook narrator! I love the stunning covers! I know, it's not a series I can guarantee everyone would love, but how I wish I could bully people into reading them >:3


416 After a successful rescue mission Phoenix has returned to the atevi system, but things at home haven't gone well. Tabini-aiji is in exile and the governing aishidi’tat has collapsed. Shuttles to the station have stopped, as has nearly all communication.

This is very much an establishing book placing Bren, Ilisidi and Cajeiri back into a now-dysfunctional atevi society and very quickly making waves. In the school of a picture painting a thousand words, the cover art by Michael Whelan of this one is brilliant. We see Bren as the focus, a powerful figure in atevi politics in his own right and no longer timid, openly holding a gun. Jago has his back as always and behind them both we see Ilisidi, quietly regal and clearly projecting that Bren is her agent of choice as well as her support of him.

This is a more mature Bren wading into atevi politics and its fun to see. 9780756403331 3.75* Re-read
7th book - beginning of third trilogy

After the events of the previous instalment in space, this book very much felt like a return to the very beginning of the series, mirroring even Foreigner on a lot of points. Bren however is a very different person, even though he still worries all the time, and it was fascinating to follow him on yet another threatening situation. And what a royal mess!!!

The usual characters shine as always. Do I even have to mention Ilisidi? Cajeiri is proving very entertaining and full of potential. I do wonder what kind of person he is becoming. both on a personal and political stance. Me thinks sparks are going to materialise... C.J. Cherryh It seems that Bren Cameron is destined to find himself in the saddle, on a fearsome mecheita, in the company of the Dowager, grandmother to the ruler of the aetevi, Tabini. (It always seems to me that riding these animals must be rather like riding a huge, mean draught horse.) Bren & co have returned from a two year space mission, only to find the aetevi home world in chaos. The government is overthrown and Tabini and his consort are missing. Cajierei, Tabini's son, had also been on the space voyage, so their guards must protect an elderly woman, a boy of eight years, and a foreign human, who all owe their loyalty and man'chi to Tabini. They land the space shuttle on the human-occupied continent and it is Bren's brother, Toby, who ferries them across the strait to aetevi territory.

As usual, Bren is thinking and overthinking the situation. He is extraordinarily prone to blaming himself for circumstances well beyond his control. But plenty of time on a mecheita gives a body time to work through things, when one isn't absolutely exhausted or dodging gunfire. Bren still hasn't learned that he can't control what other beings will do (including his brother), but by book's end he has limited himself to deciding only his own actions.

Cajieri has become a very mature eight-year-old, and has developed his own network of man'chi as soon as he hit the aetevi continent. Another of Bren's worries dealt withâ€"so much time spent with humans hasn't crippled the youngster's aetevi instincts.

Cherryh explores the struggle to modernize a very conservative civilization, with kerfuffle being inevitable. But change is also relentlessly approaching. Aetevi and humans are going to have to deal with the kyo, the third alien species, whom the Dowager and Bren negotiated with in the last book. And the kyo have suggested that there is yet another alien species out there to be contacted and make peaceful treaties with. Not to mention the relations between at least two aetevi factions and three or more human groups. Politics is Cherryh's forte, along with constructing believable and truly alien societies. I am looking forward to the next book, Pretender, this fall.

Book Number 457 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
416

Destroyer constitutes a new 'mini trilogy' in the long running Foreigner series. The starship Pheonix returns from its adventures in the previous trilogy and finds a true mess at home. The atevi, the aliens on the planet partially colonized by humanity, are in a state of civil war. Tabini, the leader of the atevi alliance that favored rapid technological changes, and was behind the push to get the space station up and running, is missing, and a rival leader proclaims himself the new 'king' (for lack of a better word). the various factions of the atevi start taking sides, led by the more techophobe divisions. The young son of Tabini, along with the formidable dowager Ilisidi and Bren, immediately upon their return decide they most go planet side to either find Tabini or make a claim for the 'throne' itself.

This really felt like a 'place holder' in the series, and Cherryh spends way too much time going over events that occurred in the previous volumes; this may help someone who starts the series here, but most people reading this probably read the previous volumes, and it gets annoying pretty quickly. As usual, _lots_ of political intrigue among the atevi, who are governed by something like clans in a myriad of associations and alliances. The best part of this, and the series, concerns how Cherryh develops the aliens and their thought processes; truly sociological science fiction at its finest. Also, as typical in this series, it starts off relatively slowly, and gradually builds up for a frenetic ending. Bran's endless worrying started to get to me a bit, and not much was resolved, hence the place holder feeling. Not the best of the series, but still pretty good. 3.0 stars. 0756403332 4+

Every now and then Cherryh manages to coincidentally remind me that the aliens are not like us no matter how much they seem to be. Now, understand that she does manage to TELL you that quite a lot, but sometimes she stops telling you and lets you forget and then lets you get hit in the face with it within the course of the story. I like that. I got a lot of that with this entry.

It took six books for me to stop calling it first world building and then court intrigue. Today I'd call this story strongly character driven court intrigue in space. It takes a long time to develop, but it's quite good once it does. 9780756403331 I usually complain that Foreigner books tend to start slow, but this one? This one started with a fucking bang. And what's more, continued in this vein for the most part (Bren still gets in his multi-page anxiety spirals but that's to be expected I guess). High on action, high on intrigue, it was perhaps the best-paced one so far. Plus, it contains both everyone's favourite granny and her cranky old man ex 😁 English The first book of the third sub-trilogy. Bren and his posse return home after two years in space. Things are not as they were. To their shock they find out that the Western Association has been overthrown and Tabini is missing and may be dead. I was quite apprehensive, when I took a peek at the book blurb.

I liked the plot, but there was way too much internal monologue and humming and hawing for my taste. Bren just went on and on and on... I zoned out of the audiobook narration quite a few times. By the time we got around to the frenetic grand finale, I barely cared anymore. This felt like a „middle book“.

Nonetheless, I will definitely continue. Because I really, really want to know where Cherryh takes it all in the end. Only 15 more books to go at current count. English

Welcome home, Bren Cameron. Welcome home, on the day all the mistakes suddenly made a difference...

To my immense relief, we are back planetside! In the two years since Phoenix left--carrying not only Bren, but the aiji-dowager and Tabini's son--things on the mainland have collapsed. Everything is going wrong and it is glorious.

If Bren Cameron has one glaring weakness, it's his hubris. His belief that he personally is instrumental to and responsible for the peace, and that if things go wrong, it's his fault. In fairness, his job description says it's his fault if things go wrong, but the reader knows there's plenty of other moving parts at play. Still, he's an easy target. Outsider. Very public. Very foreign (though not so foreign as the ship).

This is very fast-paced for Cherryh. There's plenty of introspection to be had, of course. Bren finally gets some clear resolution in his personal affairs, for instance, even as he's working through guilt over the rest of it. Cajeiri is growing up very quickly as well, giving the readers their first clear insights into atevi youth among other atevi. But mostly it's a lot of traveling and subterfuge and high-stakes maneuvering. After the frankly stagnant space-and-ship environment of the last three books, I'm thrilled.

5 stars, and looking forward to the next book. 416