Not so foreign

I have a weirdly clear memory of browsing paperback science fiction novels on a library rack when I was in my teens in the mid-1980s and being intrigued by the covers of the C.J. Cherryh novels. I planned to borrow them. I “planned” to read every science-fiction novel ever written. But Cherryh’s work slipped through the cracks for decades! In 2021, I finally read one: Foreigner, the first of a stupendous twenty-one novels (so far) set in the Foreigner universe. Snarky synopsis…

A diplomat learns the hard way not to project his human feelings and values onto humanoid aliens, but it’s a seriously understandable mistake, because HOLY CARP are those aliens ever a lot like us! Just darker, taller, better at everything, and way more dignified. But, hoo boy, they really do not “trust” or “like” like we do, hoo boy. So alien! The end.

This was a book I respected more than enjoyed: the protagonist was in an extremely uncomfortable and unclear situation for most of the book… and so that’s how I felt for most of the book. Did not hate it, but not sure I want to read another twenty.