Foreigner Notes
Premise
A ship full of humans have to live with aliens that have different emotions than they do; namely they have no "love", but rather a hierarchical, team/herd/loyalty emotion called man'chi.
Qualities
If you like...
- TNG, but you wish the episodes were hella slow
- Sanderson's time spent in character thoughts, but you wish it was only one character and even slower
- Austin's social drama, but you wish there were more politics, more aliens, more tea, and sometimes guns
...you will love this series.
Arc 1: It's Called "Foreigner" For a Reason
| book | summary |
|---|---|
| 1 - Part 1 | Prequel novella: Phoenix, on a mission to build a new space station, becomes inexplicably lost in deep space. The crew struggles to survive and stops in orbit of the Atevi homeworld |
| 1 - Part 2 | Prequel novella: First contact between humans and Atevi |
| 1 - In Between | Humans and Atevi live together, but due to misunderstandings about their fundamental emotional makeup the War of the Landing occurs. The Atevi win and the office of the paidhi is established to handle 1) relations between the species and 2) the slow, non-disruptive handover of human technology |
| 1 - Main | Bren goes to the ancient estate of Malguri, Grandma tries to figure out Bren's loyalties, Bren learns about Atevi, and spoileroh shit The Ship came back |
| 2 | spoilerTabini is romantically entangled with Damiri of the Atageini, a semi-rival clan to his. Opponents shoot up her apartments and destroy the antique porcelain lilies. Jase and Yolanda land from the ship, three paidhi now. |
| 3 | spoilerJase lies for the whole book to get Yolanda back from the island, also unknown aliens destroyed the second station so Phoenix ran back here |
Arc 2: Don't Worry, Bren's Going Wherever the Action Is
| book | summary |
|---|---|
| 4 | spoilerBren goes up to the partially restored space station unannounced, Captain Tamun sees the upheaval and stages a coup, dies, and Jase becomes Forth Captain. |
| 5 | spoilerCaptain Ramirez dies, Bren and Grandma leave on The Ship for the second station, Yolanda is the new paidhi, Grandma poisons Captain Sabin. Cajeiri, Tabini and Damiri's son, joins in the care of Grandma. |
| 6 | spoilerBren, Grandma, Captain Jase, and Captain Sabin arrive at the second station, aka Reunion. They meet the Kyoh, rescue a captive Kyoh the Pilot's guild was keeping, dethrone the pilot's guild, and evacuate the station. |
spoiler: motive notes
- Captain Ramirez motives: created Jase and Yolanda as intermediaries so he could seek out and contact unknown aliens and thus gain leverage against the Pilot's Guild- Captain Tamun motives: humans only, fuck aliens
- Pilots Guild motives: humans only, fuck aliens
- Captain Sabin motives in appointing Tamun: mitigate Ramirez, oh shit Tamun's nuts
Arc 3: Drama Back Home
| book | summary |
|---|---|
| 7 | "Where are my parents, nadi?"spoilerPhoenix returns to political upheaval. Tabini-aiji has been dethroned by Murini of the Kadagidi. Bren and Grandma go to Uncle Tatiseigi for help. Chapter 9, dinner with Uncle, rocks. Tabini and Damiri meet them there. In Bren's absence his mother died and Barb married Toby. |
| 8 | spoilerAllies to Tabini-aiji rally to him in Taiben (Uncle's estate) demonstrating their man'chi. Banichi and crew blow up would-be Assassins Guild usurpers. Tabini and allies storm the capitol via bus, train, car, and plane. Murini flees in advance. Bren is vindicated by report of his actions in space and his seeming evident man'chi to Tabini. |
| 9 | The first time (aside from the book 1 novellas) that we get a narrative perspective other than Bren's.spoilerCajeiri has stronger feelings for his ship-board human "friends" than for his Taibeni bodyguards |