http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2022/12/review-of-emergence-by-cj-cherryh.html ( )

First the truly terrible cover bares no relation to the story. Bren has inexplicably aged decades despite story continuing directly on from the last. Bren's who arc of nearly 20 book can't have taken more than 10 years at the very outside, and it started in his 20s. Secondly of course there's no crowd anywhere in the plot let alone one pushing at Bren. Even the title has changed format from the rest of the series which had always been descriptors of people.

That said it's no better or worse than the rest of the series. Bren is still in the Island awaiting the children's landing. Cajeri is at his Uncle's grand house assessing the fate of the neighbouring clan. Bren fusses a bit, had tea and chats to the islanders. Cajeri has tea and does as his security suggest.

A little more action than the preivous title as a few people try to make their disapproval noted, but it scarcely ruffles the lord s involved. Enjoyable politics, great culture and characters but not dramatic. ( )

We're back in the politics, or rather, we never left. That's not a bad thing in this series because the Atevi and the humans are just ripe with the social craziness. To think we (as in Atevi and Humans) are held up as a standard of getting along and making rational decisions and compromises is just too funny.

What I think is best about this book, in particular, is how Cajeiri and his mother finally bond in a trial-by-fire way. It really picks up big time from the previous novel's events, but more than that, I'm getting a great sense of major alliances finally pulling together in a really big way.

It helps that we get a lot of great action and suspense, but it's Cajeiri who shines here. He's really growing up. Big time. :) Adult responsibility and everything. Great-Uncle is turning him into a man. Um. Alien. Whatever. :)

Mospheira is another thing. The island of humanity is kinda crazy right now thanks to a certain documentary depicting the living conditions on the space station and when that and the refugee issue really comes to a head, it really boils over. Reunioners and ancient hate is a big deal. As always, Cherryh knows how to make great world-building like a perfect mirror for us.

And also, as always, Cherryh knows how to turn communication and politics into a really fun and fast popcorn fiction. That's even when the actual tale is intellectual, thoughtful, and measured. I don't know how she does it. Or perhaps I do.

It's the characters. Beautiful and exciting characters can turn ANYTHING into something grand.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! ( )

To read more of my reviews, check out my blog at keikii Eats Books!

Quote:

Multiple sets of golden eyes lit up in anticipation. Fried fish, in the style of Mospheiran street vendors, was his aishid’s favorite of the new flavors they’d discovered on the island.

Review:
Emergence picks up immediately after Convergence ends, and neatly finishes all the outstanding problems. I'm not certain where we're going from here, to be honest.

Emergence still splits the time fairly evenly between Cajeiri and Bren. And Cajeiri's story is actually more interesting than Bren's for the first time in the entire series. Bren is just in Mospheira, setting up the Reunioners coming down to earth and setting up getting Cajeiri's friends into a special program to become the next paidhi, to replace Bren. There are zero surprises. It is actually just a succession of meeting after meeting and approving plans. Bern is just placing pieces on the chess board.

However Cajeiri is neck deep in politics. At the core of it, Cajeiri is learning how to become aiji, on how to someday replace his father. He has some danger swirling around him, but most of it he can handle on his own. Which is remarkable for a nine year old boy. He is also in charge, just like Bren typically is. For at least part of the book, he is running the household, he is making the decisions, he is the one the aishid are relaying the information to, the information his uncle typically would be the one to get. And Cajeiri is the one to figure out how to react to the information if he feels it is necessary. It's so good. I love it.

But even more than that, Emergence is a further stabilizing of the mainland politics. With Cajeiri in charge, at least in part. Which is scary but amazing. Cajeiri's mother's house, the Ajuri, has been in some deep shit lately. They were the ones that instigated the attempted coup against Tabini, and now they're trying to pick up the pieces. That piece being a young Ajuri who isn't a lord, yet is determined to try and become one by appealing to Cajeiri himself. I love this series.

Unfortunately, even more than previous books in the series, I had a hard time really enjoying the book completely. This book and the previous book just felt so much like the same story split in two that it was hard to really separate the two. And it felt a bit forced. Yet still I loved it.

Also I'm incensed because I'm now currently out of Foreigner novels to read until the next one comes out, months from now! (I read this in October.) ( )

there's a change in tone in this 19th book of the Foreigner series: it's drawing together the threads of its own history, and the changes inside its main characters over time. as a result it's introspective rather than impelled by events, still at its core rather than frantic, and the effect is elegaic. some big things happen, some of them hidden in plain sight: Cajieri at fortunate nine becomes mature, and puts aside childish things in favour of the intricacies of statecraft, and his mother emerges from obscurity at last to take a political stand of her own - and to forgive him. the politics changes utterly as Cajieri gathers in his own associations, including the three human children descending from Above into Mospheira and we begin to see the shape his own eventual rule will take. and his oh-so Conservative Uncle even becomes a larger than life hero as chaos threatens to descend on the Provinces and he rises to the occasion. so the book itself is a more complex structure than it first appears, as past, present, and future collide. ( )