Foreigner

Foreigner Sequence 1, Book 1

By: C. J. Cherryh

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

The first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

©1994 C.J. Cherryh (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Great narration, great story.

Old book, I consider to be classics. C. J. Cherryh is a master,creates a universe of political intrigues placed on an alien planet.
Bipolar world in a state of cold war AKA cold peace for 200 years.
The world of mathematically irrational beings(atevi), who use numeroogy in every moment of their life, even language is not just spoken, but calculated for the propper form.
And all of political comunication are made through just one man "paidhi" translator the only human who is allowed to leave human reservation and converse with atevi.
Great narration it's worth listening!!!!

SciFi classic brought to life by great narrator

Being a long time fan of CJ Cherryh's classic Foreigner series, I was hesitant to listen to the audiobook. The whole series revolves around the idea of language and interpretation between humans and the alien atevi. To add a narrator to that mix seemed a recipe for failure. But I was totally and completely wrong. Daniel Thomas May does an amazing job giving voice to lonely Bren who is thrown into increasingly perilous situations for reasons he does not understand in the alien culture of the atevi. The atevi characters are given strong, distinct voices that have the hint of otherness to them. I have been reading this series for so long it is hard to know where to begin to make a synopsis so I will leave that to other reviewers. What I can tell you is that if you are already a fan of the books, the audiobook is wonderful and the narrator pulls off the Bren's humaneness and the atevi alienness equally well. If you have never read the books, start with this title so you can get immersed through a great narrator into one of the best sci-fi series out there.

Hard to get through.

The narrator does his best Shatner impression for the first several chapters and it was absolutely maddening. Sadly, after the first few chapter the book becomes pretty stale. There's awkwardness/turmoil that arises between characters because of their race differences and that same turmoil is just repeated over and over.

Second time - even better

I have listened to every book in the series. I love this story and thought I would revisit for a second listen - I like it better the second time around. It's challenging to listen to Bren's thought processes but stick to it - it develops and builds a world and 3 distinct cultures, or more... this world must exist in reality, how could it not?

(Relisten only earns higher praise!)

Absolutely LOVED it, again! How could anyone sane NOT?!? Keeping it to relisten to all ANOTHER time!

Best alien/human series ever.

I have read every book in the series through the years. Now I'll listen to them as well. Definitely start at the beginning. Not the best of the books; the series gets much richer and better, but necessary back story.

Interesting premise on intergalactic adventures

Story started slow but then had trouble putting the book down! Excellent writing and narration

Boring

Overly long and repetitive, too cerebral with no pay off. A germ of a good idea but the main character was hardly Buck Rodgers
Whiney & filled with self doubt & apologies...not a good pirtaganist

One of the best SciFi series ever

The title says it all. This is truly one of the greatest SciFi series ever written. If you are interested in SciFi on any level...start here.

Glad I stuck with it

I almost stopped reading this, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It starts off as a Sci first space adventure, but this is only setting up the real story. The real story is more of a drama about essentially a diplomat on an alien world, with a lot of internal monologs. This tends to really bog down the story at times, but after finishing the book I can see why the author did that. It helped to build the character, and really set the atmosphere and stage upon which the main character, and those he represents and negotiates with, quite well. This story is really more about relationships and drama than it is action or ships. And as I've hinted at, it really picks up at the end. So in many ways, the stage has been set, and I am intrigued as to where the story and characters go from here.