Between the reputation of the author, the influence over contemporary sci-fi, and the vocal support of some readers in my online circles, C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner has been on my TBR for quite a while. But a couple book club friends offered to jump in for a buddy read, and I was finally able to pull it off. 

Foreigner takes place on an alien planet on which a band of humans stranded in space have attempted to settle. After an initial period of conflict, humanity has retreated to an island settlement, which remains under their control in exchange for the sharing of advanced technology with the indigenous species. While this book opens a long series, the first entry focuses on a particular threat to the human ambassador, who finds himself facing assassination attempts from unknown quarters and struggling to tell which of his guards he can actually trust. 

Foreigner is notorious for taking a long time to get to main action, with a pair of historical narratives that function essentially as prologues taking up around 15% of the page count. But contrary to expectations, I didn’t struggle with the introduction at all—in fact, I would’ve happily read an entire book centered on the first contact plot in the second prologue. 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I don’t have any structural complaints here. I have been assured that the lead takes a more active role in future books, but in Foreigner, he’s very often reduced to introspection and vocal laments about his lack of information. There are plots afoot, but he doesn’t have anything approaching the context necessary to piece them together. And so he complains, tries not to get assassinated, and waits for the relevant information to come his way. 

Given a protagonist trying to keep his head above water in an unfamiliar culture, it’s understandable that the story could take that kind of form. But to make it compelling to the reader, there must be some sort of hook to catch and maintain their attention. For some, the assassination attempt may do the trick, and it seems as though series fans develop the kind of attachment for the main cast that will serve similarly well. But, for me at least, that character connection didn’t appear in book one, and musing about who would want to assassinate you doesn’t keep me invested for several hundred pages. And so when the big action-packed climax finally comes, it feels more perfunctory than hard-hitting. 

While my assessment of the structure of Foreigner is mostly critical, there remain enough bright spots for it to be intriguing as a series-starter, even if it’s underwhelming as a novel. There are seeds of dispute over technology and infrastructure that could set up plenty of future clashes between human and alien, and the lead finishes the opening book with plenty of uncertainty about the emotional life of his alien hosts, with one secondary character in particular possessing potential to become absolutely fascinating. Furthermore, there’s a burgeoning intra-human conflict that feels bound to take center stage in future installments. It’s enough to tempt me to give the second book a try, even after not especially enjoying the first. 

On the whole, a passive lead and poor pacing make Foreigner a slog for long stretches, but a handful of excellent scenes and some fascinating seeds of future conflict make it intriguing as a series-starter even when it falls short as a standalone novel. 

Recommended if you like: fish-out-of-water leads mostly in the dark.

Can I use it for Bingo? It’s a Book in Parts featuring a Stranger in a Strange Land.

Overall rating: 11 of Tar Vol’s 20. Three stars on Goodreads.