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Just finished reading C. J. Cherryh's Conspirator
And posted this on the dawbooks community
I so love the fact that Bren-paidhi is back on his world again. I understood the need for the shake-up through the human ship coming back, so that we had initial problems in the first trilogy and the balance that existed had some way to change and a reason for new experiences for him, but the necessary time taken to explore the ship story and the journey into space was ... well... from the plot like a lot of other science fiction stories.
The reaction of the characters of course was excellent and putting in viewpoints of aliens who had never been in space themselves and brought their own society and customs along and had to live much closer to humans than ever before (since the War of Landing) was good. But I really didn't need another alien race (who obviously will turn up at some point, hmmm).
The last book had been a week in real time, I think this one is as well, but now that we are back on their world, Cherryh really has time to go into the internal machinations of the different interest groups and Bren as our viewpoint character gets a more detailed introduction into that. I love the fact that he has grown up through his experiences to have come to terms with the compromises he has been forced to make for the good of the ashiditat and his fellow humands on the island AND with his guilt feelings over his neglect of family connections.
He really has a good reason to be important to the whole world (and all the atevi seem to have realised it by now, judging from the assassination attempts) and to sacrifice for that. He's built up a trust with the people in his sphere of influence (from the Assassin's Guild to the eastern politics in the shape of Ilisidi), proving his worth and being entrusted with Cajeiri (I had to gulp a bit when we got his viewpoint the first time in the last book, but it works because it doesn't overwhelm Bren and he's much more of an amalgam of human and atevi influences as the future of the lordship of the atevi).
This time out I loved her picking up the thread of the dispossessed atevi who had to leave the island after the War of Landing and had never been adequately compensated or represented in the atevi society since then (she even calls it "aboriginal" and that is what it reminded me of).
The new faces introduced here are not too many and not major characters on a par with Bren & Co. but with the option to become more important later on. I hope she'll be able to use all of the new trilogy on the atevi concerns again (with possibly the third book having the new aliens coming for a visit at the end).
I would wish for more Tabini in the books, he's sort of the eminence grise and the lynch pin for all the politics so far but we never had that much time with him and Bren together...
In conclusion, a very strong entry in the series, on a par with the first three books.
I so love the fact that Bren-paidhi is back on his world again. I understood the need for the shake-up through the human ship coming back, so that we had initial problems in the first trilogy and the balance that existed had some way to change and a reason for new experiences for him, but the necessary time taken to explore the ship story and the journey into space was ... well... from the plot like a lot of other science fiction stories.
The reaction of the characters of course was excellent and putting in viewpoints of aliens who had never been in space themselves and brought their own society and customs along and had to live much closer to humans than ever before (since the War of Landing) was good. But I really didn't need another alien race (who obviously will turn up at some point, hmmm).
The last book had been a week in real time, I think this one is as well, but now that we are back on their world, Cherryh really has time to go into the internal machinations of the different interest groups and Bren as our viewpoint character gets a more detailed introduction into that. I love the fact that he has grown up through his experiences to have come to terms with the compromises he has been forced to make for the good of the ashiditat and his fellow humands on the island AND with his guilt feelings over his neglect of family connections.
He really has a good reason to be important to the whole world (and all the atevi seem to have realised it by now, judging from the assassination attempts) and to sacrifice for that. He's built up a trust with the people in his sphere of influence (from the Assassin's Guild to the eastern politics in the shape of Ilisidi), proving his worth and being entrusted with Cajeiri (I had to gulp a bit when we got his viewpoint the first time in the last book, but it works because it doesn't overwhelm Bren and he's much more of an amalgam of human and atevi influences as the future of the lordship of the atevi).
This time out I loved her picking up the thread of the dispossessed atevi who had to leave the island after the War of Landing and had never been adequately compensated or represented in the atevi society since then (she even calls it "aboriginal" and that is what it reminded me of).
The new faces introduced here are not too many and not major characters on a par with Bren & Co. but with the option to become more important later on. I hope she'll be able to use all of the new trilogy on the atevi concerns again (with possibly the third book having the new aliens coming for a visit at the end).
I would wish for more Tabini in the books, he's sort of the eminence grise and the lynch pin for all the politics so far but we never had that much time with him and Bren together...
In conclusion, a very strong entry in the series, on a par with the first three books.