Deliverer

Reviewer: Katherine Ray

Author: C.J. Cherryh

Published: 2007

Reviewed: 2007-05-22

Publisher: Daw Books


"Deliverer" is the ninth book in the "Foreigner" series, the next book
after "Pretender" which was reviewed by Jake Beal. Things are
settling down again after the events of "Destroyer" (Book 7) and
"Pretender" (Book 8), and Cherryh is winding up and doing some
fore-shadowing of the problems to be tackled in Book 10 (and 11 and
12) whenever it comes out. Hopefully soon.

That said, Deliverer is nowhere near being "just" a transition book.
It's now one of my favorites in the series, along with book 3 and 6.
(Hmm, looks like a pattern there, doesn't it?) One thing Cherryh does
in this book that I especially like is that she switches viewpoint.
The previous eight books are all third person limited from the point
of view of Bren Cameron, the only human living on the atevi mainland.
This one adds narration from the point of view of Cajeiri, the young
son of the leader of the atevi. While I like hearing things from
Bren's viewpoint, I also very much enjoyed hearing what Cajeiri thinks
of Bren.

People who have made it all the way through the series to the point
where they are ready to read this book will find it no disappointment.
There's the usual politicking, the requisite end-of-the-book fight
scene, and Bren persists in really, really liking people who just
don't have the biology to like him back. They feel something else.
It works.